newsletter/2010-03-15.raw

<div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Pad.ma
Newsletter I<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://pad.ma/newsletter" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/newsletter</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">
</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Pad.ma’s monthly newsletter contains information
about new contributions to the archive (videos and writing), featured videos
lists, announcements, Pad.ma projects and events, etc. This month, we bring you
eight new video collections (55 new videos), a public call for Pad.ma
fellowships, some highlights from the archive, and a new and updated ‘How to
use Pad.ma’ guide. <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">For Pad.ma, this is the beginning of a new phase of
content development<b>. </b>It is also in
anticipation of a new software framework and interface (expected in summer
2010), which will make working with Pad.ma easier and more rewarding.
Meanwhile, we welcome your contributions (video, text or thoughts) to this
growing public collection of material. <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Pad.ma is </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">an
interpretative web-based video archive, which works primarily with footage and
not finished films. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Pad.ma creates access to material which is easily
lost in editing processes, in the filmmaking economy, and in changes of <span>scale</span> brought about by digital technology. Unlike Youtube, the
focus here is on annotation, cross-linking, downloading and the reuse of video
material for pedagogy, research and reference. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">For more, see <a href="http://pad.ma/about" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/about</a>. <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">






<br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;&gt;&gt;
What’s new &lt;&lt;&lt; <br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt; <b>Theatre Jam <br>
</b></span>













<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">In
October 2009, Maraa, a media collective from Bangalore, did a 31-day marathon
of performances in public spaces, in an effort to reclaim them for artistic
expression. Theatre workshops, photography exhibitions and poetry readings took
place in parks, markets and cafés. An on-going series that begins to document
Maraa’s interventions in the city. </span>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/find?l=L1i" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/find?l=L1i</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Politics of Change<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Annemie Maes, an artist and researcher from Brussels,
started the Politics of Change project when she visited Barefoot College,
Tilonia, Rajasthan, in 2008. Maes was struck by the similarity between the
bottom-up approach of the solar engineering programme for rural Rajasthani
women and her own artistic practice at Okno, an organisation that works on
collective technological research projects. Maes has uploaded to Pad.ma her
film <i>Mahila</i>, video questionnaires from PoC workshops, and interviews with
Rajasthani and African solar engineers, and friends and colleagues from
Brussels.<br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/find?l=L1e" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/find?l=L1e</a><span>      <br></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><span></span></span></p>








<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
People’s Panchayats against Homophobia<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Action Plus, a network of 14 organisations working on
HIV/AIDS in India, organised People’s Panchayats on stigma and homophobia in
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Delhi in early 2009.<span> </span>Forefronted were the voices of
survivors and resistors from sexual minority communities. Point of View,
Mumbai, documented these panchayats: depositions, testimonies, audience
responses, and the jury’s ‘verdict’ at the end. A large and growing collection
of voices. <br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/find?l=L1j" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/find?l=L1j</a><span>     <br></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><span></span></span></p>








<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Lectures from CSCS, Bangalore <br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Lectures from the ‘Culture and Democracy’ course at the
Centre for the Study of Society and Culture (CSCS), Bangalore. These lectures
were recorded in 2007 and invited speakers included Ashish Rajadhyaksha, M.
Madhava Prasad, S. V. Srinivas, Sitharamam Kakarala and Vivek Dhareshwar.
Welcome to the online, annotation-friendly classroom. Stay logged in for future
classes. <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Currently published: <br>
M. Madhava Prasad’s ‘Enthusiasm and Indian Politics: Problems in the Analysis
of Aural Culture’<br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/Vedx0jjp/info" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/Vedx0jjp/info</a><br>
Ashish Rajadhyaksha’s ‘Cinematic Governance’ <br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/Ve2iazfj/info" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/Ve2iazfj/info</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Motornama Roshanara<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Rides through the industrial district around Roshanara Road,
Delhi. Tours on cycle rickshaws with rickshaw wallahs as narrators and guides.
Narratives of automation, pollution, labour and the closure of famed repair
industries. All this across a landscape characterised by lost middle-class confidence, new
migrants, old machines, bodily risk and emerging eco-politics in the city of
Delhi.<span>  </span>A project by Shaina Anand
and Ashok Sukumaran, as part of 48deg. C, Delhi, 2009. <br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/Vhmchrdp/info" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/Vhmchrdp/info</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Al Jaar Qabla al Daar (The Neighbour before the house)<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">A series of video probes into the landscape of East
Jerusalem. Shot with a security camera, these videos attempt to overflow the instrumental
aspects of surveillance imaging.<span>
</span>Looking from one’s home, obsessively or longingly, becomes a way of
narrating over the architecture of a city in conflict. A continuing project by
CAMP. This is footage from one location in Jerusalem. More from other neighbourhoods coming soon.<br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/Vs7c6mni" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/Vs7c6mni</a><span>    <br></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><span></span></span></p>








<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Wharfage<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Wharfage is another on-going CAMP project, which, in 2009,
looked closely at Sharjah port from where a large number of wooden boats or
dhows leave for Somalia. This movement of goods and sailors maps out a
landscape of new and used objects, labour, Asian and African migration and
oversized dhows now being built in Gujarat. <span>Hakimuddin
Liliyawala</span> spent time on Sharjah creek, documenting the loading and
unloading of the dhows, and wrote over these images. Nida Ghouse and
Radhamohini Prasad did a follow-up visit to Jam Salaya, to meet sailor friends
they had made in Sharjah. <br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/find?l=L1d" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/find?l=L1d</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt; Pad.ma Meta<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">On February 16, 2009, Pad.ma was launched as a public
website. We had a day-long event in which people who have been engaging with
Pad.ma, made presentations about their use of the archive. Presenters included
Sanjay Kak, Agaaz, Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, Ayisha Abraham, Sadanand
Menon, and Priya Sen, among others. This collection has videos of these
presentations and documentation of other Pad.ma events. <a href="http://pad.ma/find?l=L1m" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/find?l=L1m</a> <br>
For a report on the Pad.ma 2009 event, see: <a href="http://camputer.org/event.php?this=padma09&amp;tab=optBtn2" target="_blank">http://camputer.org/event.php?this=padma09&amp;tab=optBtn2</a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></p>






<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> <span></span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;&gt;&gt;
Pad.ma Highlight &lt;&lt;&lt;</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Pad.ma’s commitment to
making video footage publicly available has motivated us to recirculate
material under fair use. Contributors have uploaded clips from Hindi films to
Pad.ma and more importantly, annotated them critically. This has created a
innovative space for film studies on the web, where ideas and timelines can
come together. Some examples: <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Queering Bollywood</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"> <br>
A selection of some coded queer moments in seemingly mainstream and
heteronormative Indian films. A collection of queer readings of such moments.
And a database of video clips, film titles and articles on queer
representations in cinema. This video selection, put together by Namita
Malhotra, has clips from films like <i>Sholay</i>,
<i>Sadak</i>, <i>Utsav</i>, <i>Silsila</i> and <i>Mera Naam Joker</i>.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">User
contributions to this database are invited. Write to <a href="mailto:pad.ma@pad.ma" target="_blank">pad.ma@pad.ma</a> <br><a href="http://pad.ma/find?l=L10" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/find?l=L10</a>  <span><br></span></span></p>





<p class="MsoNormal">
<br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><span></span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Cinematic Cities and Citizenship<br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Cinema constructs national consciousness: citizens and
denizens, centres and margins. Cinema archives the urban: planners and
gangsters, ambivalent modernities and urban villages. And cinema opens a virtual
window to the world. All for eight rupees – at least it did till some time ago.
A virtual tour of the city and the citizen in cinema with Lawrence Liang. <br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/find?l=L1h" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/find?l=L1h</a><span>     </span><span><br></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"><span></span></span></p>








<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">&gt; <b>The sex worker in Bollywood</b></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">These clips
from films like <i>Amar Prem</i>, <i>Umrao Jaan</i> and <i>Mandi</i> as well as the more recent <i>Julie</i>, <i>Chameli</i> and <i>Sadak</i>, explore the popular concern with
and presence of the sex worker in many Hindi film genres (commercial, art
house, historical and B-grade). The depictions traverse a range of
characters, including gharwalis and pimps to name a few.<br>
<a href="http://pad.ma/find?l=L1q" target="_blank">http://pad.ma/find?l=L1q</a></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><br></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;&gt;&gt;
Announcements &lt;&lt;&lt;</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Fellowships</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Pad.ma invites applications
for fellowships from individuals and organisations interested in <br>  
<span></span><span></span><span></span>&gt;
contributing footage from a film or research project<br>
<span> </span><span>  </span>&gt;
annotating and researching material already in Pad.ma<br>
<span>   </span>&gt;
experimenting with new ways of interpreting and using videos in the archive<br>
Fellows will be offered honorariums and interested persons can write to <a href="mailto:pad.ma@pad.ma" target="_blank">pad.ma@pad.ma</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>








<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Pad.ma @ Home Works , Beirut</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Pad.ma will conduct a two week workshop and day-long colloquium </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">at </span><span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Home Works V </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">in Beirut,
Lebanon, from April 12-25, 2010. Titled ‘Don’t Wait for the Archive: Archiving
practices and futures of the image’, this workshop/colloquium seeks to discuss
the archive as neither a fixed concept nor as unbounded potential, but as a
concrete set of negotiations, costs, transactions, tools and imaginations that constitute
it. A key question will be: Is there something, in the density of our contemporary
experiences in Bombay, Bangalore, Beirut or on the internet, that can lead to a
shared theory of the archive, which goes beyond its dominant canons? For more, see
<a href="http://www.ashkalalwan.org/" target="_blank">http://www.ashkalalwan.org/</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">&gt;
Technical Tips for Pad.ma <br>
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">Feeling daunted by the Pad.ma interface? Can’t figure out
how to browse, search, upload or download videos, transcribe or annotate? Or
why you just can’t open Pad.ma in Internet Explorer? Fret not. The up-to-date
‘How to Use Pad.ma’ guide is here: <a href="http://wiki.pad.ma/wiki/HowTo" target="_blank">http://wiki.pad.ma/wiki/HowTo</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">
</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">This newsletter was compiled by Pad.ma’s Content
Coordinator, Subuhi Jiwani, with the support of Zinnia Ambaripadwala, Pad.ma&#39;s Technical
Coordinator. Send your feedback and comments to <a href="mailto:subuhi@pad.ma" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">subuhi@pad.ma</span></a>
or <a href="mailto:pad.ma@pad.ma" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">pad.ma@pad.ma</span></a> <br></span></p>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Times;"> <br></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">The Pad.ma project was initiated in 2008 by Oil21 from
Berlin, the Alternative Law Forum from Bangalore, Majlis, Point of View and
Chitrakarkhana/CAMP, Mumbai.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Times;"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-GB">To receive the Pad.ma newsletter, send a mail to <a href="mailto:padma-announce-subscribe@pad.ma" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">padma-announce-subscribe@pad.ma</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Times;"></span></p>








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