As curator Padmini Ray Murray tells us, “Technology has always been essential to and is entwined with what it means to be human.” But sometimes, as was the case in the pandemic, an over dependence on technology and the corporate companies behind them, becomes dangerous. It is this idea that drove the Smarter Digital Realities art project, curated by Padmini, and initiated by Sandbox Collective and Goethe-Institut.
Nine artists present their artworks on the topic of Bengaluru and its relationship with technology — Amulya B, Teresa Braggs, Devika Sundar, Namita Aakriti, Sumanto Mondal, Varun Kurtkoti, Kruthika, Tejas AP and Talin Subbaraya. “Technology played a huge role in the experience of the pandemic: from working from home and parties on Zoom, to leveraging the power of social media for relief work — it was impossible to ignore how it shaped pandemic life,” Padmini says. The works, while under the umbrella of this theme, explore many different vistas. Teresa’s work is a sonic exploration of the city’s nightlife. Namita’s project is a crowdsourced VR mosaic of Bengaluru’s skies. Sumanto, using mapping, shows us how the system is biased towards the privileged.
Varun’s project, This Film is Like Tea, is a collaboration with Shanmugam, a pourakarmika and union leader. “It is a story-making project, in which a group of pourakarmikas come together to produce a fictional account of their lives,” he explains. The project started with an idea that Shanmugam had. He believed that documentaries about caste and occupational hazards never work, because only a few watch them. If the story was like a commercial film, Shanmugan felt it would work better. “In the main story that we are co-writing, a pourakarmika with aspirations of becoming an advocate, finds ways to fulfil his dream by learning legalities from the Internet,” Varun adds.
Devika’s project is an ode to the roles balconies played in the pandemic. She explains further, “Interpreting and gathering a digital archive of information (scrounged from Whatsapp chat archives, shared voice memos and Instagram), I explore the balcony as a shared site of experience.” On the other hand, Talin’s work is told through the medium of dance. He explores what it means to be a queer man in the city, and the role that apps play in it. “My project is called An Alarippu (The blooming of a flower). It is an ode to the city, for making space for me,” he sums up.
Entry free. March 19 & 20.
At Bangalore International Centre, Domlur
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