[Reader-list] immersion emergence

[Jeebesh Bagchi]

Dear All,

It is always interesting to see how the diverse practices that all of  
us inhabit find a public form. Recently Ravi Agarwal has come out  
with a book that makes this attempt.

Ravi has been walking along the banks of Jamuna river in the mornings  
for last 4 years. He does this with a camera. He takes photographs  
and enters into conversations with people he meets along the way. On  
returning from the river, he moves into his world of work - thinking  
about toxics and the environment. Here he gets into a realm of  
knowledge production and advocacy. In his work, questions around   
"doing science publicly",  "questions of standards", "legal regimes  
around environment" preoccupy him and his colleagues. After work he  
returns home and makes notes on post-its and in a diary. These notes  
are from quotes (from conversations and his readings), questions,  
clippings from newspaper reports, thumbnails of photographs.  
Sometimes he sequences his notes using post-its, at other times, he  
reorganises earlier sequences or clusters.

I meet him sometimes in the evenings for long conversations over  
dinner. Rhetorically he asked one day, "Do you know how to access the  
river that runs through your city?"
Interesting question. Never really asked myself.

His book,  "immersion emergence", brings this question alive. In it  
he makes us think the river, but brings himself into the discussion  
in a very intriguing way. He has collated his post-its and diary  
entries, tried to write the sense of bewilderment and loss at the  
present violence along the river, brought into consideration images  
that capture a journey and a disruption, and produced a series of  
haunting self-portraits.

This book opens up a space to think the "note-book" as an engaging  
form and has ability to weave in the diverse worlds that we all  
inhabit, with its contradictions, confusions and care.

warmly
jeebesh

--------------------------------------

immersion emergence
Size 9.5 x 9.5 ", 52 pages, 40 colour photographs.
4 colour offset
Designed by Annirudh Sengupta and Salil Chaturvedi, Splash  
Communications
Printed October 2006
ISBN No: 81- 7525 - 751 - 2
Published by Ravi Agarwal
Priced: Indian Rs 300 plus postage
International USD 25 plus postage

for orders contact <ravig64 at gmail.com>

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