deepak from maraa's article

Mystifying theatre 

Theatre has come to mean different things.

Often, at a workshop with children, when I ask them why a theatre workshop and what it can do for them, they say things like “because I can act then” or  “to learn to be on stage, and to play characters”, “to sing, dance, act”

ACT seems the buzzword, but do stop yourself short before smirking at these responses. A lot of theatre practitioners and folk engaged in performance arts themselves look at theatre this way.

Hence, I thought it was this distinction that would make it clearer: drama Vs theatre- to indicate the difference. When one says drama, it’s the role centric, character and emotion driven storytelling race where, jazzier is better, melodrama counts and the actor with his “mono-logged performance” is striving for stardom at the cost of anything. 

And theatre would be? 

Gosh, now this is the tough bit isn’t it? What is theatre?

Some of us nuts, influenced by other nuts who defined theatre as something that “differently enables” the participant (as opposed to performer) went on to be excited, adopt a view and function through an approach. I know I just said differently enabled and I think that this elaborating will take up most of the space, and I know you are already cursing my dilly dallying.

Quickly throwing around some terms first…

Now

Self

Relate

Play

Expression 

Yeah, it’s about the NOW state. Similar to the esoteric fellas yelling, “Live in the NOW” or the physics chaps saying, “In the linear time continuum the Now is what is pleasantly and presently real”

Kindly don’t mind my aggrandizing and paraphrasing- I wanted to be free of the clutches of those anal academicians who always ask for reference, thinking the practice is good methodology to ensure objectivity. J 

The Now state.

Yes.

A force to contend with as most of us really don’t know how this could feel, outside of the mind existence we feed ourselves. This discipline asks for a full involvement of “the you” here and now, that if you don’t, you miss it!  

And if you do, you would be… well… watched! 

Then of course, it’s the cascade. Once u are in THE NOW, you would look at the self that you are and get familiar with it, then you would look at other selves around you and relate, this would lead to playful dance and that would be expression.

And all of this is theatre.  
 

Let me just let you know that you don’t need to take all of the above seriously. You can laugh at it. It is allowed. The nuts that we are, (all kinds, almonds, walnuts, cashews) we do this all the time, we laugh. In fact, one of us even does the laughter club move…a hip-jig and a hehehaha. Play grows with this.

Laugh 
 

I am done being a jerk (post the grand pause). I will spell it out now and also challenge you to a…

to a…

experience.   

To spell it politically, theatre is about stating your position, a sort of “GIS-ing” of yourself, culturally and personally. In which case, you don’t need to mouth some one else’s lines and emotions. (I mean, you could! J) 

In which case you don’t need aptitude of a certain kind or attitude and altitude of a certain sort… those of lineage, education or privilege, of inner circles and cliques, of those who will take us there… 

There! If you did that and stood strong, you have gotten the political. 

I am often accused of making things dense and I accept I do, which is where the second thing comes in, the invitation to experience, with the “challenge” aspect being, “ try participate!” Duh 

An artists collective (we call ourselves theatre jammers), your idea of art and performance and a whole month in October 09 to use the city as you like, in collaboration with some nuts who talk and think nutty. Pick all sorts, our artist identities and the ones we know and think of as artists- they’re all fuzzy, and you’ll be allowed any. Pick a space that you like, can be any space, really, and choose to express.  

You will find a glimpse of the NOW if you did it for 3, 5, or 7 or 108 days, I promise.

J 
 

Deepak Srinivasan

Age of Play : Content so far...

ARTICLES

Age of play (article)- Divs, aaju, deboo

Age of play (fiction)- Rajasee

Patrick on the age of play

Randomisation- Sindhu

Theatre Transcending Trauma- Evan

NDTV puppet interview- urmi and alannah

Commercials- Sneha

ILLUSTRATED

how to break a human heart- divs

CCD etc.- alannah

VELA

crosswords recommends

evan updated

Download the original attachment

Theatre Transcending Trans-generational Trauma 

      Why do certain families have the same problems generation after generation? Why do neighboring communities war with each other generation after generation?  The effects of trauma inflicted on entire communities can echo for generations. How can performing arts break the cycle?

      I want to facilitate the transformation of traumatic cultural legacies into healing community-based theatre. Through a group dramatic process based in embodiment and animated interaction, participants can rescript their personal and collective narratives of inherited trauma. Our bodies hold the energy of trauma we experience in our lifetime and the inherited trauma of our ancestors.

      Healing can’t start until the hurting is stopped. Under the surface of hatred and ethnic conflict is deep grief and collective pain, often-ancient pain, but how can that be accessed in hostile environments? 

Theatre and Cultural Conflict

      When I was in graduate school at I was fortunate to have Armond Volkas as a professor. Armond’s work as a Drama Therapist is focused around using Playback Theatre to work therapeutically with people from both sides of historical conflicts. He calls this work Healing the Wounds of History.

      Armond Volkas' Healing the Wounds of History has a progression of process for working through historical trauma with people. From Roland Miller and Armand Volkas article published in 2007:

• Bring together conflicting groups, breaking taboo against speaking to each other.
• Humanizing each other through sharing stories.
• Owning and examining the perpetrator in all of us.
• Deep grieving of collective pain.
• Create performance in remembrance.
• Transforming cultural legacies into acts of creation/service.

 

In my anti-oppression work as an arts activist I came across the work of Arnold Mindell. Arnold Mindell works with large diverse groups facilitating interactive dialogue about social issues related to power and oppression, like racism, sexism, etc. He calls the approach he’s developed Wordwork.

      In the Worldwork approach to working with Transgenerational Trauma in cultural conflicts the primary focus is on humanizing each other through sharing stories. Arnold Mindell wrote:

       A prime cause of conflict is the imbalance of power, worldworkers' first step in facilitating conflict is to look, listen and try to empathize and feel the feelings of power and oppression on each side of a conflict. (p. 61) 

      Volkas' third step "Owning and examining the perpetrator in all of us" and Mindell's "feel the feelings of power and oppression on each side of the conflict" both have a similar aim. This is a stage where many people are resistant to such a process. It's easier to claim ways in which we have been violated than it is to account for ways which we have violated others. Once we can account for our own abuses of others we can more authentically heal the divides in society.

      Are you ready to go there with me? I’ll be back December.

Written by Evan Hastings

http://www.evanhastings.com 

References

Mindell, Arnold: SITTING IN THE FIRE, Large Group Transformation Using Conflict and Diversity. Lao Tse Press. Portland, Oregon, 1995. 

Miller, R. & Volkas, A., "Healing the Wounds of History", from Interactive and Improvisational Drama: Varieties of Applied Theatre and Performance. iUniverse, Lincoln, NE, 2007. 

Websites

http://www.livingartscenter.org/HealingTheWoundsOfHistory/index.html 

http://www.worldwork.org/ 

http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/ 

Evans article

Theatre Transcending Trans-generational Trauma 

      Why do certain families have the same problems generation after generation? Why do neighboring communities war with each other generation after generation?  The effects of trauma inflicted on entire communities can echo for generations. How can performing arts break the cycle?

      I want to facilitate the transformation of traumatic cultural legacies into healing community-based theatre. Through a group dramatic process based in embodiment and animated interaction, participants can rescript their personal and collective narratives of inherited trauma. Our bodies hold the energy of trauma we experience in our lifetime and the inherited trauma of our ancestors.

      Healing can’t start until the hurting is stopped. Under the surface of hatred and ethnic conflict is deep grief and collective pain, often-ancient pain, but how can that be accessed in hostile environments? 

Theatre and Cultural Conflict

      Practitioners such as Armond Volkas and Arnold Mindell have put forth models for working together with people from both sides of an ethnic conflict.

      Armond Volkas' Healing the Wounds of History has a progression of process for working through historical trauma with people. From Roland Miller and Armand Volkas article published in 2007:

• Bring together conflicting groups, breaking taboo against speaking to each other.
• Humanizing each other through sharing stories.
• Owning and examining the perpetrator in all of us.
• Deep grieving of collective pain.
• Create performance in remembrance.
• Transforming cultural legacies into acts of creation/service.

 

      In the Worldwork approach to working with Transgenerational Trauma in cultural conflicts the primary focus is on humanizing each other through sharing stories. Arnold Mindell wrote:

       A prime cause of conflict is the imbalance of power, worldworkers' first step in facilitating conflict is to look, listen and try to empathize and feel the feelings of power and oppression on each side of a conflict. (p. 61) 

      Volkas' third step "Owning and examining the perpetrator in all of us" and Mindell's "feel the feelings of power and oppression on each side of the conflict" both have a similar aim. This is a stage where many people are resistant to such a process. It's easier to claim ways in which we have been violated than it is to account for ways which we have violated others. Once we can account for our own abuses of others we can more authentically heal the divides in society.

      Are you ready to go there with me? I’ll be back December.

Dramatic Tools

for Conflict Transformation 

Evan Hastings 

Double- Someone who mirrors the protagonists body language and makes statements in the first person (as if the protagonist) based on the feelings that arise in their body. Think of it as someone offering inner thoughts.

I'm doubling someone who is talking about how confident they are in the face of their conflict. While speaking loud the person is fiddling with the zipper on their hoodie. As the double I say "I'm nervous" 

Role Reversal- When two people trade roles within an enactment. Often useful when parties in conflict are having trouble listening to or empathizing with the other(s). Also useful to have the protagonist answer their own questions.

Protagonist asks "Mom why does it have to be like that?". Then I would ask the protagonist to switch roles with Mom and answer their own question, then switch back into their primary role. 

Pause- To stop a scene and have everyone hold the body posture of the paused moment.  Helpful when you identify a destructive behavioral pattern cycle is just beginning. In a pause you may employ any of the other interventions.

 

Fast Forward/ Rewind- Go back in time or ahead to the future. Every conflict has a history and every resolution has it's consequences. Fast-forward for pre-viewing outcomes or possible consequences. Rewind for showing context and history.

Rewind is especially useful when the conflict appears to start with a violent altercation, through a rewind you may find that the conflict actually had roots in the lunch line yesterday. 

Soliloquy- A poetic monologue. Can be used during a pause to make inner thoughts public and deepen understanding of where each other are coming from.

"Pause, Cindy can you give a Soliloquy" I said. "I'm trying to get him to listen right now, I'm so frustrated, I just wanna hit him and he keeps on giggling, nothings funny"  Cindy stated, she appeared more centered in herself when I said " Thank you Cindy, are you ready to resume the scene? Ready, Go!" 

Multiple Endings- Replay the scene with different endings. Identify a pivotal moment in the scene while it's enacted the first time through. Once it ends, invite a rewind back to that pivotal point and invite the characters to replay it in a different way. If the participants can't think of any other endings then pose "what if" questions.

Written by Evan Hastings

Deterministic Randomness - The Oxymoron and its Inevitability.

Google results, word verifications on blogger, stumble upon.. the list is endless. Computers were designed to perform specific functions. They weren't given the organic ability to be random. Sure, they tell us that our ipod shuffles play songs at random, but what is a 'random' sequence to a computer? 

If we just stop to think for a second, we'll realize that computers depend on programs to function. and what is a program? a pre-determined code. Now, how does one remain random when the programmer has already told us how to go about it? Computers use what is called a 'seed' or an initial value, a random number that is the starting point for the series. This random number could be the time or the number of keystrokes till that point of determination. They could even be based on things like the degeneration of atoms or statistical data gathered from internet sources. Point is, the initial values cannot be predicted. But once you know the initial state of the code, you can pretty much know every number that comes after it because it follows a particular set of instructions to generate randomness.

So much for a true slot-machine experience. The machine may look like it's rolling manually and stopping because of physical forces. But the truth is that the interface is controlled by a program that generates 'random' sets of results. That's why the Gaming Commission in Nevada is so strict. If no one checked the algorithms, we might never be able to beat casinos. Same with card games online. 

And what about apple's celebrated shuffle function? There have been conspiracy theories that say that record labels can sneakily get apple to make the algorithm function in such a way that the shuffle plays their songs more than others. This is probably untrue but not altogether impossible.

Snehas article on advertising

Advertising these days is mass produced individuality. It crafts a unique personality and put it for sale. It’s in your hair as a unique neon glow hair gel or below the belt as an underwear that makes you desirable. It’s spreading its tentacles in every direction with a promise of a makeover. And this involves being omnipresent, slyly slipping in where the end customer hardly expects it. Cross over between media, collaboration of different platforms dictate the world of advertising. 

It started out with the Industrial Revolution, where the mass production of goods necessitated the differentiation between different products. Then it moved on to layered messages where the product fulfilled more than a tangible need. Then the age of subliminal advertising shocked more than sold.

Then the cynical customer weary of being manipulated demanded honesty. Credibility became the buzz word. And this is being achieved in ways other than simply roping in a popular face as Brand Ambassador. Advertising is diversifying from mainstream mass media like television, radio, and print to outdoors, PR, below the line (BTL) in order to create more believable touch points for the brand.

“Experience it before you buy it” : you not only have the devil telling you buying an Onida is ‘neighbour’s envy owner’s pride’ but you can experience that by going to your nearest showroom ,where the entire living room setting sells you not just the 42” inches LCD screen  but a lifestyle.

Credibility is also achieved by not doing the obvious evil. Joining hands with a cause gives the buyer a feel good factor of not just spending on an item but contributing to the greater good.  (recyclable packaging, higher costs justified by a donation of a percentage to a needy institution etc.)

For the over cautious, advertisements are cloaked as advertorials, where the trusted editor of the monthly magazine vouches for the wonders of Pond’s Age miracle for a small price.

It is taking intense effort to grab eyeballs of the buyer and it has to be repeated in different ways in order to be retained while making the purchase decision. A TVC is backed up by a radio jingle, a brand concept is strengthened by a cultural festival, a company’s vision  manifests itself in a charitable organisation. If you need to be remembered as a campaign, then you need to have all your fingers in different pies.

It’s in then end a business of making you feel good about spending money. Earlier it was just a champi for your head, now it’s a unique ayurvedic treatment custom made for each body part.

fiction first draft: age of play

She was named after my mother. Three years old and pleasantly shy – she had her confident brown eyes.

Her mother’s hand rested gently on her light curls as she stood timidly by the door. “Do you remember your grandfather, Riya?” Pratima said, softly.

She cocked her head to one side, her ear brushing against her lacy collar. She hadn’t seen me for a year and a half.

I hesitated for a second, and then stretched my arms wide. And the girl ran into them, laughing, as if she’d known me for years.

Pratima smiled quietly and disappeared beyond my doorway.

“Do you like it here, Riya?” I asked. “Up in the mountains?”

“Yes, Dadu.” Her voice was young – and her words clear and distinct – unusual for her age.

“You don’t feel lonely? I know you don’t really have anyone to play with here.”

“No,” she said, bright eyes traveling quickly to look into my own, a little perplexed. “It isn’t lonely. There’s the rose garden – ”

And then, in the same distinct clear voice, she said – “And there’s always Adi. He plays with me. So do Ashok and the other Riya.”

I blinked. Breathing fast, I looked at her innocent eyes. Was she playing with me?

“What names did you say?” I asked, gripping her arms tighter than I should have.

She looked away, a little frightened. “Ashok, Riya and… and.. Adi.”

I slumped back onto my pillow. Ashok was my father’s name, Riya – my mother. They’d died years before Riya was born. And Adi was my son. Pratima’s older brother who’d left us at the age of four and a month.

“You… played with them?“

Little Riya laughed. “The other Riya told me stories about the stars. Adi, Ashok and I played pretend.”

“How do they look?” I asked, weakly.

Riya turned towards the window and a smile spread across her face. “Adi’s calling me to play now.”

She bent over and kissed my cheek. Then, in a whirl of white lace, she skipped out of the room.

I turned slowly to look at the window. Sunlight poured through the empty archway, lighting up my little lonely room.

______________

My wife died that year. Always shut up in my little room overlooking her rose garden and the hill slopes beyond, I waited. Pratima came to visit in summer. We’d talk now and then over the telephone – and there’d be a few letters. But the post was slow here and Pratima never had much to say. Riya was growing older – she didn’t like lace anymore.

A year since I’d seen them last, Pratima and Riya stood at my door, looking uncertainly at me. Riya’s eyes were different now – older. Stronger.

I sat up, just as before, and held out my arms welcomingly to her. And just as before, she smiled – perhaps a little quieter this time – and rushed into them.

Pratima left quietly.

I waited till she was gone and leaned forward excitedly. I had been waiting so long.

“Riya – do you see them now? Ashok, Riya and little Adi?”

The girl flinched – and drew back sharply.

“And Dida? Do you see Dida?” I asked, eagerly.

Riya’s eyes grew puzzled, and … afraid. “Dadu, what are you saying?”

I searched in vain for that gaiety in her eyes – the confident friendly assurance that I’d seen before.

She drew back slowly from my bed. “Who are all those people?” she whispered.

And then, even softer, she said – “Dida died last year, Dadu! Don’t you remember? How can she be here?”

I stared at her – my arms going limp – my eyes clouding over. “You…don’t see them?”

She looked at the door wildly. “Ma’s calling me, Dadu. I have to go.”

And she backed away towards the doorway, keeping her fearful gaze on me. Then she was gone.

My wife tightened her grip on my hand from her stand by the side of my bed as I watched the girl leave. And little Adi just stood at the foot of my bed and smiled mischievously at me.

the End of the World - 1st draft

“Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”
- Charles M. Schulz

The end of the world is upon us.
As we stare over yet another mug of half-burnt coffee and lethargically yawn into the beginning of yet another day of our miserable humdrum lives, the cataclysmic play of cosmic forces makes its way towards our pathetic little world. Come 2012, and by asteroid – or solar storm – or genetically mutated h1n1 – the apocalypse will be here.
The end of the world is upon us.
Of course, it’s been upon us before.
The world presumably ended for the first recorded time in 2800 BC. An Assyrian tablet, found thousands of years later, predicted, “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common.”
Retribution, it seems, is why the end of the world keeps cropping up. Retribution – and a strange half-interpretation of dates and numbers.
21st December 2012 is one such date arrived at by calculating from ancient calendars. It has a whole chronology of similar dates preceding it, many of which use religiously significant numbers (like 666, the Number of the Beast) to their advantage.
In 1666 the English clergy, in a nation suffering from the outbreak of plague, predicted the end of the world. When the Great Fire spread across London that year, many believed that the day of reckoning had arrived.
The year 2000, one-third of which integrally gives 666, boasted of dozens of predictions all to itself.
The turn of millennia, of course, is a special attack-point for such predictions. The year 1000 AD also had the entire Christian world waiting for the world to end.
This strange fascination for dates does not, however, extend to all end-of-the-world predictions. Neither do most of these predictions specify exactly how the world will end.
These speculations are left to chance, and sometimes, science, and more often, science fiction.
Nuclear holocaust, the Third World War, alien invasion, astronomical impact, pandemic disease, ecological disaster and cybernetic revolt are perhaps the most recurring themes in apocalyptic fiction and prediction.
Religious themes spill out over fiction and prediction alike. Among Biblical Judgment Days, a few stories create their own versions of the apocalypse, like Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘The Nine Billion Names of God’ where a supercomputer generates all of God’s nine billion names to bring an end to the reason for the Universe’s existence – and hence an end of the world – significant in its modernistic confluence of religious and scientific apocalypse.
In this particular story, as in many others, the exact nature of the apocalypse is a direct reflection of the nature of the kind of Universe the plot is set in – a Universe which exists for a single purpose – to list down all the names of God.
Science and its various models of the Universe also set down similar apocalyptic ends.
The Universe that might have begun with a Big Bang might well expand to a thermal death, where all the heat in the Universe has equally distributed itself throughout the Universe and there is no scope for any flow of energy.
The Oscillating Universe might be a never-ending cycle of Big Bangs and Big Crunches, an alternating morbid cycle of endless beginnings and endings.
And closer to home, the world which we know about – the Earth – will eventually die as its life source –the sun – becomes a Red Giant and swallows up its nearest planets.
From ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust.
About 5 billion years before this happens, however, we are now awaiting 2012: the next big End of the World.

watch

http://watch.usnowfilm.com/

1st drafts up!

hello all

please post your 1st drafts tonight. No time to lose.

love 

al editaur

I, Threat

I speak from the depths of a heart. My voice resonates underneath the layers of filth that condition the mind. Beneath the covers, the heart and the mind know as well as the brain, that I conquer.

What I say suffers the risk of seeming egoistical, but then, I believe that the ego primarily functions under my judgment.

It amuses and saddens. That existence depends so intrinsically on my presence. That colonies and generations of self-generated species would fail to recognize that it is I who keeps them going. What is survival of the fittest, but a manifestation of my capabilities?

A mirror of fear.

Ah, you speak of fear now. Fear is my unidentical twin.

Born of the same mother of survival, we complement one another. Without each other, we are as good as non-existent.

Together, the linguistic boundaries of the world have epitomized us as a force manifested only by some sort of ‘dark’, manipulative souls that inhabit the earth. In reference to a popular dictionary that claims my definition ‘An expression of intention to punish, hurt or harm a person, thing or thought likely to bring harm or danger’, I ask-

Do I necessarily mean danger?

I am just. I might be cloaked under the connotation of a negative, but does that undermine what I do; how necessary I am, as a psychological tactic to ensure that an action results in an end? Isn’t a ‘goal’ just a ‘positively-attributed’ different manifestation of my same self? Do I not lend my services to every feeling you encounter? Attachment? Love? Guilt?

It is highly and deeply amusing

Check this out..

Here check this out,

Carousel is an 'art' magazine that I personally like in terms of content, style,tone, approach,....

and they also have a list of interesting links to other magazines , and other cool stuffs that may be worth taking a look at - here:

http://www.carouselmagazine.ca/frame_index.html

I know its very stylized , but well.. i like the style , and so might you!... :P ...... anyway there's tons of ideas here... so check!

Threat

It is, seemingly, forever beyond.

*I'm in a quaint sort of mood right now. If this doesn't make sense, it probably doesn't*

It's not a secret if it's not in the dark. Trees carry secrets, you know. If you looked high enough up into the darkest of their leaves, green as the sky where the stars hang like fruits, you would know that trees carry secrets. Because trees are ancient. Their barks, like long silvery beards, are full of stories of all things passed. Why do you think we eat their fruits? Unknowingly, we hope that one of their seeds will sing something to us, white with heat, just before we swallow it into the folds of our stomachs.

But then again, there are those who care not for secrets. Who thaw, axe to wood, having known the pain that bones may feel. Who grit their teeth to the growl of engines and of their own insatiable hungers and silence the speechless for you and I who speak of romance and secrets. It's not a secret if it's not in the dark. Once it is out into the open, you cannot ignore it. The trees know it and so do we, there is in this world two kinds of people - the ones who do what they can to live well and the ones who do what they can so others can live well.

They bend down and look at us sadly, they do. Mumble when the wind permits them, in a kind of song that is deep with sighs. Because they know that they are people too. We are bound by the same fate. And the neither of us haven't any way to thank the Sun.

Threat

“Queen to f6,” the cold voice vibrated across the airtight chamber, and the white walls seem to reverberate with the sudden break in the stifling silence.

If the severe-looking high-backed chair against the far corner of the room had been of less renowned origins, it would have creaked horribly under the sudden jerky shift it now had to bear.

The heavy white shape dragged grindingly across the frozen marble. Its movement was deliberate, prolonged.

The emotions were mirrored on a face across the room, with its back against the near corner. Impossibly thin lips drew back slowly – sadistically – into a half-smile.

The pair of glassy brown eyes opposite shot a half-glance at the smile and looked again at the last three black soldiers, standing tall – but fragile – between them.

The Knight, strapped to the back of a stone horse – a massive brute of a creature, its monstrous head towering high above the delicate human figure crouched behind it.

The Queen. An impassive beautiful face streaked with long-dried tears of kohl. Long white arms bound together excruciatingly.

And the lone Pawn, a head shorter than the rest, pale and thin and drawn.

It was towards the last that the brown eyes now shifted, not daring to look at the desperate pleading gesture in the tense tiny shoulders, the silent whimper in the frightened eyes.

A manic laugh echoed from across the room.

“Come on, come on, we both know answering immediate threats is not getting you anywhere.”

The brown eyes flicked away from the centre of the room to the steady blue ones facing him.

And held their gaze.

The laughter died away slowly. Something changed in the room.

“They told me he was your favourite… they said you never give him up…” The voice sounded nothing at all like it had a moment ago. The cool confidence that had carried it across the room had faded away, as had the mocking half-smile.

“Pawn to d2.” This voice was steady, emotionless.

“But – I thought he was your son –”

The pause stretched threateningly into the following silence.

“King to d2…” The blue eyes lowered, and shut slowly.

“Like you said – answering immediate threats would never get me anywhere.” The wrinkles around the brown eyes creased in a quiet smile as the white king took the pawn.

“But you’d never threaten that pawn if you were playing white – that’s what they told me...”

“You forced me to play black. Play the pieces I’d designed specially for the loosing side. The human faces etched in eternal torment. It’s true I don’t usually take that pawn. He does rather look like my son. I’ve never had to sacrifice him before.”

“I thought I’d threaten your Title…by forcing you to play the losing side of your own chess set…by threatening your favourite piece… ”

“But he isn’t my son, you see. Just like you’ve never really been a threat to my Title. He’s only a chess piece made of stone.

“Queen to e2. Checkmate. ”

And the man with the glassy brown eyes stretched his hand across the table between them, picked up the frozen little statue of the tall brave queen with her frozen stone tears, and took the white king.

Display Threat Wisely

If the next time during a ‘conversation’ with a bully or mugger you feel threatened and obviously extremely infuriated, use this concept known as ‘threat display’.

It is a way of displaying behavior which will intimidate a potential enemy or threat. This kind of an act entails you to exaggerate your aggressive potential to a level known to those beings who live to take revenge in its extreme form – for example, refer to the likes of Syler of Heroes, Beast Boy of Teen Titans, or even Wolverine.

The position:
• Stand in an elevated position so you feel superior or maybe even taller you’re your rival. Just make sure you’re not one of them twinkle-toed people and trip over.
• The facial expression is a must. You need to grit all 32 teeth and show it off, in a snarling kind of way. Your expression would come off easy if you get yourself even more agitated you’re your opponent; so you should exaggerate the reason behind this mental state to its craziest bad-ass level.
• Remember how Tarzan would always pound on his chest and expand it before grabbing a vine and commuting his way through the jungle? You will need to do the same, minus the swinging bit. The crazy shouting is optional though.
• The last move you need to make to crack this behavior is the arms-raise. Make a fist with your hands and raise them at the height of your chest. You need to make sure that the veins of your arms start popping sometime soon. It adds like an after-effect.

With all these steps you’re bound to scare off the enemy tentatively. They’d also call you weird and walk away because they’ve had their share of fun for the day; after all they’re still bullies, and you, still the victim.

The new Milk: Threat

blah de blah.

here goes.

__________________

Yellow, has always been my favourite colour.

It was a yellow sky, and I was seeing stars in front of my eyes. It wasn’t because I had hit my head particularly hard or anything. It was the pattern glinting off her scarf. She tilted it so the pattern of stars caught the sunlight and reflected brilliantly. Right into my eyes. I groaned as I tried to hit the scarf away from me. She just laughed delightedly. It was a giggle of mirth. Pure delight at a new game.

“Sadistic bitch”, I muttered.

I groaned again, this time from the attempt to get up. I just couldn’t. I guess I had hit my head pretty hard. But instead of helping me up she just jumped around with that glorious threaded scarf. It was a thing of beauty. Just like her. It was what the night sky would look like if it was lit up by the colours of the sun. Yellow like a submarine from a Beatles song, it was lighter than a flame dancing in the breadth of a whisper. It seemed to be singing as it flitted to fit elegantly around her neck.

A neck I felt like strangling right now.

She smiled at the slowly turning orange sky as she collapsed down beside me. I refused to look at her. She gently punched my arm. I refused to respond. Then she did the most unfair thing of all.

She started to tickle me.

I rolled away laughing. The moment had broken. We were both laughing. Or was this the moment now?

We stopped laughing for a rare moment of silence as the sky painted over the last of its yellow shades to make a canvas of black interrupted only by the stars reaffirming the lateness of the hour.

We both held our breaths simultaneously. She was the first to let it out. She was always the first to let it go. I remembered briefly how I had come to be lying on the ground in the first place. It had been a long way up the tree. And an even longer way down, as I was aided by her words on the way up, and aided by gravity on the way down.

She got to her feet and pulled me to mine. She always did that. Help me get into trouble and then out of it. She would never lead, but she would coax me to move.

How I fell for it every time is still a mystery to me.

But mysteries are always fascinating aren’t they. The heroes of mystery stories always move stealthily like cats. And she moved like a cat too. And it was curiosity that killed her.

She urged me to explore the shining bit of star on the road. The star that was a glint of a shadow. The shine of the oncoming car was just so much brighter. I couldn’t move. I just couldn’t move. Until something very fast, swathed in something very yellow pushed me out of the way as the sound of screeching tires filled my consciousness, and she silently slipped out of hers.

The threat of losing a moment with someone is eclipsed by the threat of losing someone in a moment.

Yes. Yellow is my favourite colour, because it reminds me of her. Still laughing, as the threads of yellow flit like a flame dancing in the breadth of her whisper.

__________________________

lalala

samvida

CUTLET CONTENT:

REMEMBER: What do people want to read about? What can be visual?

1. Currency: anatomy of currency, semiotics, what the currency has come to symbolize- dollar- power, synonymous with money, official.
2. Budget: a student budget
3. Album and individual- artists intention
4. Randomisation- algorithm
5. Shuffle shame info graphic
6. Design Perspective: Facebook, Orkut; Wordpess ,Blogspot
7. How to: Visual Illustrated
8. Data Mining
9. Avy/Arvind/ Victor( Indian/ west)
10. CCC vs. CCD- formal student body probably won’t work, lack of transparency, economics of CCD, Geetu’s example, Srishti’s supposed ideologies, corporate within the college walls
11. Flu- biology of viruses, human as virus parasites- ref: urmila, matrix.
12. Policy v/s Individual action: environment Gabe V/s Rustam (same set of questions)
13. Future Sci-fi:
14. Commercials: of all kinds, how they work? OR supermarkets... flash/mini
15. Breaks: artificial breaks and traps
16. How to break down a film: How to actively watch, engage in a film- Mike
17. Sci fi story (Avy’s course)
18. How to sell yourself? Very Imp.

Srishti Project/ Course Based:

1. Guerrilla marketing strategies: with examples (workshop at DY)
2. Good discussions on design and art in Arvind's course. Huda has something on green design and architecture... and we're also building an archive of good reads... so that’s something that can be made public...
3. Yashas' course: Indian multimedia artists and the general course that Indian art is taking... new media art and its relevance and changing role of the artist.

Art & Design Related:

1. Theatre/ film sets stark + disappointing differences of standards in India v/s abroad - we could probably talk to deb's dad. not like an interview though OR In Bangalore, Arshya
2. DY overview
3. What design movement are we in? Arvind class, who would you want on the panel; future visualisation for India
4. One minute city short films which is going to the shangai syposium.. smriti, mike , ayesha, Nicolas and some srishti students participated: potentials and drawbacks. Facultys experience in being involved?
5. Russle tv, ars electronica
6. Alternative education; Bharath’s mum, Rustam’s mum, Arzu and Evan, Sahi wife, Yohans mum, Srishti curriculum
7. Internship comparison/spectrum
8. photography tips from a photographer (Umeed/Ishaan’s father or uncle) make more specific; technicalities; according to theme; value of a photograph; PHOTOGRAPHY Competition(avy)

Activity Related:

1. DIY from Alumni: suren
2. T shirt competition

Are you content?

scribble away

the word is 'threat'

write 500 words about'threat'. take it any where, do whatever you like with it.

post it on the blog on wednesday.

Read the the extract we've xeroxed from 'The Norton Reader' avy told us about. Its being circulated; pick it of someone and read it.

We meet soon! 

Tata

Theme and topic Brainstorm

Hello everyone,

we are going to have a theme and topic brainstorm at 7:00pm tomorrow in sfs. Don't know which house yet. the word will reach you tomorrow.

c you all then.

heres to a killer start!

cheers

Links

http://delicious.com/cutlet

Compilation of interesting links..

possible topics for the next issue

These are some of the ideas that we have thought of ..

Please add to it

Cutlet content 

Srishti Project/ Course Based:

• guerrilla art + marketing (little gestures) 
  bits and pieces of it all over college, put it in perspective explaining what it’s all about in the real world
• A little write up on sci-fi and showcase a good one.
• As mentioned earlier- puppetry/ puppet making/ can be linked to what Evan writes- the giant puppets that foundies and we made..
• This whole lens project, what they are aiming at- can be linked to sustainable building/ even the eco sanitation project. (But I guess that's already overdone/covered with the oh shit etc.)
• good discussions on design and art in Arvind's course. Huda has something on green design and architecture... and we're also building an archive of good reads... so that’s something that can be made public...
• Yashas' course: Indian multimedia artists and the general course that Indian art is taking... new media art and its relevance and changing role of the artist.
• IGEM

 
 

Srishti related/ Srishti issues:

• srishti politics: and the serious lack of it, no student body, how does one set up a student body in a private institution
• Petition against use of plastic and CCD!  
  Leading to the larger issue of Srishti 'ethics' & hypocrisy as well.
• Srishti is becoming heavy on the project based learning, starting from the 2nd years to our batch.
• Mapping: we can look at when all Srishti or students from our college have been featured in the new papers or have got media coverage.As of now I can think of the Say I am march, the flash mobbing, moon vehicle, Suren's project, grad show...

 
 

Art & Design Related:

• theatre/ film sets stark + disappointing differences of standards in India v/s abroad - we could probably talk to deb's dad. not like an interview though.
• A note on design yatra? Would be useful for juniors. On forums like this in India since DY seems to be such a big and a rare thing
• Direct entries, especially from liberal arts and history of arts background, their perspective of art vs design or advertising from them. Could be controversial
• Evan (the puppeteer) is now at Harvard with Arzu (the mural do-er) doing something with Project Zero. They aim to "understand and better learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels." 
  (http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/ResearchArts.htm)
• one minute city short films which is going to the shangai syposium.. smriti, mike , ayesha, nicolas and some srishti students participated
• http://www.samimuseum.fi/english/kalenteri/en_nayttelytiedotteet/en_nayttelytiedotteet_2009/en_leukuII_tiedote280509.html 
  issue of disappearance of local material culture. 
  Article in context to this project and more stuff that people are doing in this area.
• new music with visual mix downs that seem to be gaining popularity - BLOT, manjunots
• http://winterhouse.com/institute/index.html 
  winterhouse launched a project on design for social change. theyve come up with some practical pointers. 
  

 

Interview:

• interview with ndtv puppet man whos also a musician( anyone who has a really strange career)
• photography tips from a photographer (umeed/ishaan’s father or uncle)

 
 

Activity related:

• a DIY from surens co. Thunk
• T shirt design competition
• collection of links/ projects that help u showcase your work.. like all this urban sketchers/ illo friday types but also at a larger scale.. and individual projects of people which are open to participation – though not work opportunities.
• for vela: a design vocab crossword 
  faculty recommends- where to go? what to eat?
• Jam hut, Bangalore
• learn a textile technique
• people from different design colleges visually log a day at campus

 

 

the url

http://www.crimethinc.com/

Crime thinc.

hello all! start the posting.. and we'll meet soon

check it out its an anarchist collective ; they publish zines and vandalize public prop. Hee Hee..

Greetings, dissident.

History is not something that happens to people—it is the activity of people. In every moment, in every decision and gesture, we make our culture, our life stories, our world, whether we take responsibility for this ourselves or ascribe this power to executives, politicians, pop stars, economic systems, or deities.

In a society which glorifies their power and our passivity, all thought which challenges this passivity is thoughtcrime. Crimethink is the transgression without which freedom and self-determination are impossible—it is the skeleton key that unlocks the prisons of our age.

CrimethInc. is the black market where we trade in this precious contraband. Here, the secret worlds of shoplifters, rioters, dropouts, deserters, adulterers, vandals, daydreamers—that is to say, of all of us, in those moments when, wanting more, we indulge in little revolts—converge to form gateways to new worlds where theft, cheating, warfare, boredom, and so on are simply obsolete.

This webpage is one of many manifestations of the underground network through which we work to realize these daydreams, to take the reins of our lives and make our history rather than using the same energy to insist we are being made by it. If you have illicit ideas and intentions of your own to share, you're invited to join us here.

check!

check out the site for wodehouse quotes. Even if you aren't very fond of him, his style of humor is good to keep in mind if you are attempting to write funny. Refresh the page to get new quotes. http://www.drones.com/pgw.cgi

Mr. Mobius' Mole - Draft Three

Last Monday I met Mr. Mobius again. He looked quite like his old self. His mole had shifted back to the left side of his face. And his squint was back in his left eye instead of his right – which is where it had been the whole of last year.

He shook hands with me, a little disorientedly. “I’ve been using the other one for a whole year,” he said, after mistaking my left for my right.

“That’s not the only thing you’ve been doing that’s strange – ”

Mr. Mobius looked around quickly and then smiled innocently at me.

“Sharp, aren’t you? Was it the mole you noticed? Or the sudden bouts of ambidexterity?”

“Both. Well, specially the mole. You’ve – you’ve changed. Twice in the last year.”

“Not changed, child. Just laterally inverted. Like what happens to you in a mirror.”

All sorts of strange ideas floated around my head.

“You’ve been through a mirror?”

“No,” he said. “Through is difficult. Around – that’s an easier trick. I’ve been around.”

“Around a mirror?”

“Just around the Universe.”

I stared.

“How?”

“In my Expansion Capsule. It uses a plane of relativity where there’s no such thing as the distance around the Universe.”

“So this spaceship – your Expansion Capsule thingy that bends space to nullify distances – ”

“It doesn’t bend space, child. Gravity does that. It just spaces out your molecules so you can become comparable to the size of the Universe (which has a pretty spaced out molecular structure) and then slide across the gravity curves.”

“…bends space to nullify distances, it – it inverts you?”

“No. It’s just space that does that. The Universe twists before it loops back in on itself. So every time you travel around it – you come back laterally inverted. (And upside down too – but that’s easily corrected in an upside down world.) Your mirror image comes back instead of you. It’s like traveling around a Mobius Strip.”

“Seems to me that you’re the one who twists everytime you travel out there. Not the Universe.”

“That’s it. I’m the man who likes to twist around the farthest reaches of the last collapsible dimension and come back to tell the tale.”

“Also twisting himself a little bit in the process.”

Mr. Mobius smiled his strange lopsided smile. 

“You look older today, child," he said. "You’ve had a long year, too, haven’t you?”

okay hi everyone
i need a lil bit f help coordinating ur stuff!
problem being some articles have been saved under diff names when posted and the draft number aint mentioned..would it be possible for all of u to mail me your drafts and finals TITLED first draft/second draft/final/semifinal...you get the drift!
sanya.rai.gupta@gmail.com

and also - i have articles from karno/neha/tanvee/sam/anisa/aarshi.
sindhu, urmi, tejas 9and im srry if im missing names!) i need ur drafts!!

thnks!

Journo!
You guys are supposed to the 'college writers' Please be proactive and take part in the active discussion on the 'Conversations' Page on the logblog.
www.thesrishtilogblog.wordpress.com/onversations/
http://thesrishtilogblog.wordpress.com/onversations/fine-art-in-a-design-school/#comment-106

Thank you!

When you really gotta go- Final

There’s wind in your hair, a tune making its way to your ears and the bright sunny idea of a destination taking a front seat in your head. Now, what could a better journey be? , wonders that little devil of an optimistic traveller inside you. A couple of sessions of your ‘chai-thanda’ later, you have no option but the ebbing woes of your pressurised bladder do the talking!As driver, toddler, wife or general passenger, we’ve all faced the vagaries of a journey gradually turning into a desperate search of a decent toilet.
Portapotties are a wide range of portable toilets which epitomise the adage desperate times call for desperate measures. These are essentially pieces of ingenious user-friendly design, open to the user at the minimal cost of a slight change in social perspective.
When nature calls in a car:
Kaneko Sangyo Co, a toy manufacturer in Japan has designed a Do-It-Yourself version of a toilet that consists of cardboard toilet bowl and a water-absorbent sheet inside. The toilet comes with a curtain large enough to conceal users and a plastic bag to collect waste, and can fit inside a suitcase.
Why should men be the only ones?
Design has exemplified excretory feminism to the core.P-Mate (authorised by Portable Sanitation Association International) has designed disposable, sanitary, single use (finely waxed)cardboard urine directors that allow women to urinate standing. Designed to fit the female form, they work on the simple mechanism that the urethra empties urine from the bladder into the cupped area.Resulting in a higher level of comfort, P-Mates have even proved beneficial to orthopaedic patients and younger girls who cannot perch over the toilet. Having negated any direct contact,the risk of contracting communicable diseases from public loos has been reduced drastically.
However, portapotties and other forms of user friendly portable excretory designs have faced major flak from society. The embarrassment and hilarity that they might cause, not only to the users but also to the people sharing the same environment contribute majorly to this view against portapotties.So, till these simple yet marvellous pieces of design gain the requisite social acceptance, a very very happy journey to you.
Neha Bhat

The final one

hey y'all

first of all my sincerest apologies for being so out of action, i have terrible work timings and so can never meet you guys.

all final articles need to be given in to art by thursday 

so you guys need to post your finals on the blog by 5 thurs latest

muah

goodnight and goodluck

When you really gotta go- Draft 2

There’s wind in your hair, a tune making its way to your ears and the bright sunny idea of a destination taking a front seat in your head. Now, what could a better journey be? , wonders that little devil of an optimistic traveller inside you. A couple of sessions of your ‘chai-thanda’ later, you have no option but the ebbing woes of your pressurised bladder do the talking!
As driver, toddler, wife or general passenger, we’ve all faced the vagaries of a journey gradually turning into a desperate search of a decent toilet.
Portapotties are a wide range of portable toilets which epitomise the adage desperate times call for desperate measures. These are essentially pieces of ingenious user-friendly design, open to the user at the minimal cost of a slight change in social perspective.
When nature calls in a car:
Kaneko Sangyo Co, a toy manufacturer in Japan has designed a Do-It-Yourself version of a toilet that consists of cardboard toilet bowl and a water-absorbent sheet inside. The toilet comes with a curtain large enough to conceal users and a plastic bag to collect waste, and can fit inside a suitcase.
Why should men be the only ones?
Design has exemplified excretory feminism to the core.
P-Mate (authorised by Portable Sanitation Association International) has designed disposable, sanitary, single use (finely waxed)cardboard urine directors that allow women to urinate standing. Designed to fit the female form, they work on the simple mechanism that the urethra empties urine from the bladder into the cupped area.
Resulting in a higher level of comfort, P-Mates have even proved beneficial to orthopaedic patients and and younger girls who cannot perch over the toilet. Having negated any direct contact,the risk of contracting communicable diseases from public loos has been reduced drastically.
However, portapotties and other forms of user friendly portable excretory designs have faced major flak from society. The embarrassment and hilarity that they might cause, not only to the users but also to the people sharing the same environment contribute majorly to this view against portapotties.
So, till these simple yet marvellous pieces of design gain the requisite social acceptance, a very very happy journey to you.
Neha Bhat

Anisa needs help. please give your comments!

still havent figured out how to link them, any suggestions?

Name : Amu

Age : 7

Place : On the train to Chattisgarh

“Excuse me, I am very fond of foreigners. Can I please have your autograph?

Joanna Griffin : Sure, Can I have your autograph as well? Thank you so much.

Alan Manley: Huh? What?

One of us on the floor, some of the others balancing on the edge of the seat and Alan with his bag on his head simply because there was no space anywhere else to put it. A woman on the train asked me why Joanna didn’t wear any bangles as part of being the ‘ladki jaat’ or simply a ‘girl’. We were also asked why we took a train in the first place, since we were travelling with “jo yahaan se nahin hain” or “not from here”. Our journey obviously not being interesting enough, we came across Amu.

Name : Shikari

Age: 28

Place : Chattisgarh

“Every year they come and ask for your vote, how come you never ask for other basic necessities, electricity, water facilities?”

“We want our rights back, our land first, then we talk about electricity, cars, bikes, whatever.” He snapped; and then apologised saying he couldn’t help being angry. Twenty eight, and head of the Baigha tribe, we met Shikari.

The Baighas have lived in the forests of Chattisgarh for the past fifteen years. Known for jadi booti and jantar mantar ka gyan or the knowledge of roots and herbs and black magic, the forest is their home. But they have been forced to move, ever since the Forests right act was passed.

Name : Agro bai

Age: 27

Place : Chattisgarh

“I asked him to marry me but he didn’t want to, so I sprinkled haldi (turmeric) on him and now he is my husband!”

As part of the culture in Chattisgarh, women are greatly respected. When a marriage is arranged, if the girl disagrees, then it all comes to a standstill. However, there is also a ritual of sprinkling turmeric and water, almost a way of ‘marking’ your spouse. After the turmeric is sprinkled, the villagers physically pick the girl or boy up and then they are married. And that is how Agro bai got married.

Beyond Dance - 3rd draft.

Beyond Dance
Think beyond just dance, think movement.
The word “dance” in recent times has acquired a lot of baggage. Apparently, not everybody can dance, driving double left-footed people to the very edge of the twinkle-toed social circle.
Time for rebellion I say! “Fight the music,” some say or as I see it, just let it be.
To aid uss in our rebellion is Capoeira an excellent example of movement beyond dance, born among slaves for the very purpose. It is an awe inspiring martial art - cum – dance – cum – game, of debatably Brazilian or African descent. It fuses elements of all the above, to generate something absolutely ingenious. Some believe (of all things) it was influenced by a feminine puberty right from Southern Angola called N’golo.

To avoid detection, moves like Ginga, or swaying were included by the slaves.
This is a strictly no contact martial art, making it a lot less aggressive, its all about cunning.
You need to be stretchable, if you ever manage to watch a performance, for it is nothing short, you will notice that the stretching and throwing of your body is one of your best assets in capoeira.
Its played in a circle or Roda making it seem more like a game using instruments like drums bells and the Berimabus, a one stringed instrument made it seem more like a dance.
Check online for tutorials for it, you can come across some pretty cool videos , but don't let them make you forget to warm up.
Closer to home, is another dance cum martial art, Kalaripayatu, a martial art from Kerala. It was born in ancient India, inspired by the movemnets of animals and was closely related to worship of warrior Goddesses like Durga and Kali. In fact when the art was banned under the British , it was continued all hush- up in temples.A form of devotion - once again, more movement than dance.
So, stretch to some Capoeira or writhe to some Kalariyapayatu in any case break free of the barriers of your body induced by shame and,
“Come do the loco-motion with me. “