[Reader-list] Pad.ma Update: Call For Fellowships

[rohitrellan at aol.in]

PAD.MA - is an online    archive of densely text-annotated video material, primarily footage    and not films. The entire collection is searchable and viewable    online, and is free to download for non- commercial use. We see PAD.MA as a way of    opening up a set of images, intentions and effects present in video    footage, that conventions of video- making, editing and    spectatorship  have tended to suppress.     
This is our first call for fellowships and we would like to      connect with people from diverse backgrounds and interests, who      like to work creatively on video, film, digital and offline      archives or collections.  We are offering two types of      fellowships.  
    
The first is a call to work with online video, writing        about video and film, and creative combinations of the two.      The second is a call for those interested in research and        writing on early film histories in India.
    
Please distribute these fellowship calls widely.
    
________
    
1. Pad.ma Fellowship for Experiments with Video Archives  
    
Over the last 4 years, through many contributions from groups and      individuals, Pad.ma has built a growing collection of documentary      footage, contemporary art video, cinema, performing and classical      arts, lectures, long interviews and so on. We now want to open the      archive up to collaborations, video contributions from surprising      and disparate sources, experiments in writing about, displaying      and sharing video. 
    
We invite proposals for fellowships with Pad.ma, especially those      interested in working with video and archives in the following      ways
    
-        Writing on existing footage in the archive: Many essays      on Pad.ma are a commentary on a set of videos, or link disparate      videos in collections.  See examples at http://essays.pad.ma
    
-        Contribution of an existing collection of videos to      Pad.ma: The contribution can be of a specific set of videos that      are linked thematically, or sourced from a project such as      documentary films or existing archives. An example of this is      Kolar Gold Fields footage sourced from the film 'After the      Gold'(J.Nair). See https://pad.ma/grid/title/project==Kolar%20Gold%20Fields%20and%20Mines      The project proposal must include transcription and      annotation of videos, where possible extended to a written essay. 
    
-        Software development: Pad.ma is always looking for      programmers - amateurs or professionals - who are interested in      extending the software behind Pad.ma (http://pan.do/ra), or who might      want to use the Pad.ma API (http:/pad.ma/api) to build      interesting applications. 
    
    
-        Pad.ma also invites general scholarship on material from      early film archives, the Internet Archive's moving image library,      and other offline sources. We also encourage research and      exploratory writing on popular and mass cultures online, that      culls from Youtube and other online video platforms. These      materials can be drawn together from diverse sources - an example      in Pad.ma is the collection of the Radia tapes that are recordings      of conversations between power brokers and media houses that were      leaked to the public. The collection can be used for analysis,      investigative journalism, but also as a script for a play or film.      See https://pad.ma/grid/title/list==zi:The%20Radia%20Tap%28e%29s
    
Duration of Fellowship: 6 Months
        Remuneration: 15,000 per month over 6 months, to be      disbursed in 3 installments
    
The fellowship will commence in September, 2012 and will      culminate in a seminar-workshop in February, 2012 for the Pad.ma      fellows. Maximum number of fellows chosen will be 8.
    
Please apply with a statement of your research interest (1 page      or 500 word outline) and plan for the fellowship and a copy of      your CV. You can also send a writing sample and additional links      to videos, images and other files, using host services such as http://hostb.org.      We may require a meeting in Mumbai or Bengaluru before final      decision on the proposals.
    
The fellowship is open for non-Indian participants, but funding      for travel to workshop and other travel, if required, has to be      raised separately. Applicants can be of any educational or      disciplinary background.
    
Last date of submission of proposals: 1st August, 2012
      Date for deciding proposals: 24th August, 2012
      Write to Namita A. Malhotra: n at pad.ma 
    

    
    
2. Pad.ma Research Fellowship in Film Histories
    
While the focus of Pad.ma thus far has primarily been on footage,      we would like to open Pad.ma out to an exploration of film      studies, history and technology. Technology does not merely change      the way films are made or seen, but also the way that it is      studied, and film studies has travelled a long way from the time      that one had to make notes in the dark to the control over the      temporal flow of the film brought by video. Through this      fellowship  we are interested in exploring the possible futures of      film studies when it meets new technologies and the internet which      allows for different ways in which we can categorize, retrieve and      write about the moving image.
    
Celebrating forty years of copyright-free cinema in (1952 being      the current threshold) amidst the hundred years of Indian cinema      this year, we intend to upload pre-1952 films on to Pad.ma  and      open them out to future collaborations with film historians and      scholars. Fellows are encouraged to apply with a statement of      their research interests, the films that they would like to work      with on pad.ma      and the kind of materials around the film that they would bring      into conversation with the film.
    
Duration of Fellowship: 6 Months (with a possible      extension to a year subject to future funding)
        Remuneration: 15,000 per month over 6 months, to be      disbursed in 3 installments
    
Maximum number of fellows chosen will be 4. There will be      additional fellowships administered via Jadavpur University Media      Lab, and the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru      University. 
    
There will be a board of mentors including leading film scholars      who will guide the independent fellows. There will also be a      workshop at the beginning and the end of the fellowship period. 
    
Please apply with a statement of your research interest and plan      for the fellowship, a copy of your CV and one sample piece of      writing. You can also send a writing sample and additional links      to videos, images and other files, using host services such as http://hostb.org.      We may require a meeting in Mumbai or Bengaluru before a final      decision on the proposals.
    
      Last date of submission of proposals: 1st August, 2012
      Date for deciding proposals: 24th August, 2012
      Write to Lawrence Liang: lawrence at altlawforum.org