[Reader-list] Pad.ma Newsletter 2

Wed May 26 21:55:44 IST 2010

*Pad.ma Newsletter 2*

http://pad.ma/newsletter

In April, Pad.ma conducted a two-week workshop in Beirut titled 'Don't Wait
for the Archive: Archiving Practices and Futures of the Image'. This
workshop, more a time for production than an "event", had two threads: one
was inviting people to contribute materials to Pad.ma <http://pad.ma/>, and
the second was a conceptual stream that worked through general questions
around the archive, with readings from an Archive
Reader<http://files.pad.ma/beirut/Archive_Reader/>we had put together.

Beirut has a vibrant and colourful recent history around the archive. This
includes the tradition of films and publications by the The Atlas
Group<http://www.theatlasgroup.org/> /Walid
Raad, Akram Zataari, independent archive-institutions such as the Arab Image
Foundation <http://www.fai.org.lb/home.aspx>, the Arab Images
Foundation<http://arabimages.com/>,
 UMAM <http://www.umam-dr.org/> and numerous others, and a competitive
economic and cultural currency of the archive within the region. In this
context, Pad.ma offered new tools and provocations, suggesting another type
of archival space. In turn Beirut, as Pad.ma's first serious international
engagement, threw us new challenges and broadened the scope of our
engagement with the archive.

We would like to thank here the many participants of the workshop whose
materials are in Pad.ma, and those who contributed to the workshop through
texts, interventions, films, and conversations. Thanks also to Ashkal
Alwan<http://www.ashkalalwan.org/>,
the HomeWorks V team, and the Bohen Foundation and to everyone who hosted us
at Sanayeh house, with special thanks to Mansour Aziz and Ghassan Maasri.

In this newsletter, we present materials produced during the Beirut workshop
as well as the text '10 Theses on the Archive'. The theses are a set of
propositions made by us towards the future of the archive, presented at a
colloquium at Home Works V, after the workshop.

Also in this newsletter is a large collection of videos by the India Theatre
Forum, which documents presentations and discussions about the diversity of
Indian theatre at the 'Not the Drama Seminar' (2008). Two new video sets
concern the law, human rights and post-26/11 legislation. There is video
documentation from 'To See is To Change', a two-day event in which a
‘parallax view’ of the ‘40 years of German Video Art’ collection is
presented by  artists, curators and critics in Mumbai. Other contributions
include footage from Shaina Anand's Khirkeeyaan project, which
'short-circuits' local media networks, and footage from Steal This Film II,
a key film on intellectual property.

As always, we welcome your contributions (video, text or thoughts) to this
growing, and now, international collection of materials.

Send us your feedback at pad.ma at pad.ma.

*<<TEXT>> *

*10 Theses on the Archive:*

1. Don’t wait for the archive

2. Archives are not reducible to the particular forms that they take

3. The direction of archiving will be outward, not inward

4. The archive is not a scene of redemption

5. The archive deals not only with the remnant but also with the reserve

6. Historians have merely interpreted the archive. The point however is to
feel it.

7. The image is not just the visible, the text is not just the sayable

8. The past of the exhibition threatens the future of the archive

9. Archives are governed by the laws of Intellectual Propriety as opposed to
Property

10. Time is not outside of the archive: it is in it

Full text at http://pad.ma/texts/10_Theses_on_the_Archive.html

by Ashok Sukumaran, Lawrence Liang and Sebastian Lütgert

*<<VIDEO>>*

Pad.ma user guide: http://wiki.pad.ma/wiki/HowTo

(A link with /info, will take you to the info page of the video. Click on
the thumbnail preview or the “Editor” button to view the video timeline and
player.)

*Cinemayat*

Video footage from Aita el Cha'b, a town in South Lebanon that was heavily
damaged in the 2006 war, has been annotated, transcribed and translated by
Nadine Bekdache, Abir Saksouk, Mariam Balhas and others from the Cinemayat
collective. Some of this material is about the time that Nadine and Abir
spent in the camp, living and working there and their involvement in local
politics and social life. A glimpse into 48 hours in Aita el Cha'b can be
found here (*http://pad.ma/Vt3ssyix/info*). There is also extensive
documentation of several municipality meetings including one on the
reconstruction of the historic core (http://pad.ma/Vgorpc3e/info). The vivid
and almost distorted images captured on a VHS tape made before 2006, also
gives an idea of Aita el Cha’b before the war broke out (
http://pad.ma/Vi31n1mi
<http://goog_445096337/>/info<http://pad.ma/Vi31n1mi/info>).
Much of this material is currently only available in Arabic. The Cinemayat
group is continuing to publish their archives, which include videos relating
to post-war reconstruction in Aita and Siddiqine, as well as material from
Nahr el Bared, a camp that was laid siege by the Lebanese army in 2007.

*Askhal Alwan : The Home Works Collection*

This collection begins with lectures by Adonis, Samia Mehrez and Abbas
Baydoun from Home Works I and II.

Adonis is one of the principal figures of poetry in Lebanon and the Arab
world. He co-founded and edited *Sh'ir*, and later *Muwaqaf,* both
progressive journals of poetry and politics, and has numerous published
collections of poetry and writings. This lecture was a controversial moment
in the history of modern Beirut. It explores the meaning of the word city in
its modern usage and asks what it means to live in one.
http://pad.ma/Vgd76grd/info

Samia Mehrez teaches Arabic Literature at the American University in Cairo.
In her lecture/paper she presents a critical reading of the Egyptian TV
series 'Hajj Metwalli's Family' that was shown on a number of Arab local and
satellite channels during the month of Ramadan (from November until
December) 2001. http://pad.ma/Vhqz2pn8/info

Abbas Baydoun is a poet, and writes literary and art criticism. He edits the
cultural supplement of the daily *Al-Safir* in Beirut. In his lecture,
Baydoun talks about transitions from modernity to post-modernity, their
difficulties and post-modernity's leap which disconnects it from cultural
memory. http://pad.ma/Vgdhcue4/info

*98 Weeks Magazines project*

In her video on marginalia, Mirene Arsanios captures on video the ephemeral
scribbles of words and thoughts, and underlined sentences in magazines such
as *Muwaqaf *and* Al-Hilal.* http://pad.ma/Vfrbgdjr/info
<http://pad.ma/Vfrbgdjr/info>.
These magazines are part of an ongoing research collection at 98
weeks.<http://98weeks.blogspot.com/>

*We Began By Measuring Distance*

Video artist Basma Al Sharif shares on Pad.ma her short film *We Began by
Measuring Distance* and the archive of found footage that she sourced and
used in the film. The footage is from the artist's personal archives shot in
a Chicago aquarium and other places, news agency footage, and footage from
the Operation Cast Lead attacks on Gaza in 2008-09. For the film, see:
http://pad.ma/Vu1jb3fm/info For the footage: http://pad.ma/Vg82jtyz
<http://pad.ma/Vg82jtyz>

*House is Black (Khaneh Siah Ast)*

*House is Black* is a landmark essay film by Forugh Farrokhzad, one of
Iran’s most venerated modern poets, a woman who died young and whose writing
had a profound impact on Iranian culture. Omar Dewachi takes us through this
film, which he uses often in his own teaching to talk about trauma and modes
of experiencing and expressing it. http://pad.ma/Vsbonbvz/info

*Shadi Ibrahim on his practice of photography*.

Shadi Ibrahim is one of the photographers who runs a photo-studio in Burj
al-Shamali camp. In the course of Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh's 9-year project in
the camp, she interviewed him on his photographic practice and what his
images meant in the social life of the camp. The interview generates a set
of complicated questions around identity, religion, gender and
representation. Through the interview, she also has an opportunity to
reflect on her own relation to images and the social relations they
engender, over a long time.
http://pad.ma/Vuh7chty/info/<http://pad.ma/Vuh7chty>

* *

*Yes*

A one-sided love story set in the popular Hamra street in Beirut. Back in
2004, Hamra street was becoming like an abandoned walkway after the closure
of several cafes, especially the infamous Modca Cafe.
http://pad.ma/Vg8imjcd/info

* *

*India Theatre Forum*

Organised fifty years after the original Drama Seminar in 1957, the Not the
Drama Seminar brought together theatre practitioners, researchers and
critics from all across the country to Ninasam in March 2008. The seminar
meditated on the nature of theatre in India today and attempted to
understand 'Indian Theatre' in all its diversity. The idea for the India
Theatre Forum, a networked support and exchange platform for theatre, was
seeded at this key gathering. This collection of 33 videos documents the
presentations, conversations, heated debates and Q&As.
http://www.pad.ma/find?l=L1z <http://pad.ma/find?l=L1z>

*Steal This Footage*

*Steal This Film II* tries to bring new people into the leagues of those now
prepared to think 'after intellectual property', and think creatively about
the future of distribution, production and creativity. It is a film that has
no single author. It makers encourage its theft, downloading, distribution
and screening, and have made available the entire film and footage on their
website and Pirate Bay for download, in HDV format. Some interviews from the
film can be seen here: http://pad.ma/find?l=L1v

*Khirkeeyaan*

The seven episodes of this artwork from 2006 were born out of seven sets of
installations of security cameras and cableTV wiring in Khirkee Extension,
Delhi during a residency by Shaina Anand at Khoj.  "The surprising thing was
not that such communication was possible, but that this combination of
surveillance equipment, household televisions and neighbours produced such
an easy fit, such a ludic inversion of its technical and social
context. Khirkee Extension is fractured by all sorts of lines: caste,
religion, money, new and old settlers from different regions.  Khirkeeyan’s
traversal of this terrain, its conversations, enter directly into a space
produced by the non-overlap of land-based politics, and communication
networks."  http://pad.ma/find?l=L1t

*Human Rights: Strategic Responses*

'Human Rights Priorities in Contemporary India: Strategic Responses', a
consultation organised by the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, attempted a
critical understanding of the state of human rights in India. Invited
speakers included Utsa Patanaik, Veena Gowda, Mihir Desai and Sumathi, among
others. Day one of the conference can be seen here:http://pad.ma/find?l=L1u

*To See is to Change*

Over two days in November 2008, ten artists, critics and enthusiasts
presented a reworking of the 40 Years of German Video Art, a collection
being circulated by the Goethe Institute. These respondents brought to the
archive their own preoccupations, and suggested that this "package" is not a
sealed entity, and that it can be re-produced as a history of encounter and
entanglement between geographies, schools of thought, technologies, and art
forms. The presentations and discussions can be found here:
http://pad.ma/find?l=L1x

*People's Panchayats Against Stigma and Homophobia*

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. 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. Twenty new videos
have been added to this vast and growing collection:
http://pad.ma/find?l=L1j

*Terrorised by Legislation?*

A few months after the November 2009 terror strikes in Mumbai, concerned
people came together to question the state's draconian anti-terror laws.
Lawyer and human rights activist Vrinda Grover and filmmaker Saeed Mirza
presented their opinions at a discussion chaired by Mihir Desai.
http://pad.ma/Vsme1x9e/info

Meanwhile, the deputy mayor of London, a US Dept. of Homeland Security
advisor, a former member of NATO Security, and several counter-terrorism
experts (including a former NSG commando), media persons like Gerson DaCunha
and Barkha Dutt, and people from the business community and security
industry, met in the quickly renovated chambers of the Regal Room in The
Trident to discuss terrorism, surveillance, National ID Cards, higher
spending on security and tighter centralisation of information gathering
networks. http://pad.ma/find?l=Lt  We welcome further annotations on these
videos.

*<PAD.MA <http://pad.ma/> FELLOWSHIPS>*

Pad.ma recently offered writing fellowships to Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh,
Simpreet Singh and Taha Mehmood. Ghosh will be writing on the bar dancing
ban, through Pad.ma. Simpreet Singh, will be annotating the Ghar Bachao Ghar
Banao Andolan's video archive. Taha Mehmood will work with video material
from CCTV control rooms in Manchester.

_________________________________

Pad.ma is an interpretative web-based video archive, which works primarily
with footage and not finished films. Pad.ma creates access to material which
is easily lost in editing processes, in the filmmaking economy, and in
changes of scale brought about by digital technology. Unlike Youtube and
similar video sites, the focus here is on annotation, cross-linking,
downloading and the reuse of video material for research, pedagogy and
reference. For more, see http://pad.ma/about.

This newsletter was put together by Subuhi Jiwani. It will henceforth be
bi-monthly. Write to us at pad.ma at pad.ma.
-

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