The Sarai ProgrammeCentre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

a profile

www.sarai.net

sarai an enclosed space in a city

or, beside a highway

where travellers and caravans can find shelter, sustenance and companionship

a tavern - a meeting place - a public house

a destination and a point of departure

www.sarai.net

Sarai-CSDS : Distributed Public Creativity

InterdisciplinaryResearch

Experimental Media PracticeContemporary Art

Architecture for Public Knowledge Generation

Discussion Lists & Web Content

Archive

PresentationsTalks

Screenings

PublicationsExhibitions Workshops

Seminars

Sarai : Activities, Nodes and Processes

Cybermohallacollaboration with ngo

critical pedagogylocality media labs

free & ‘social’ software working class spaces

young peopleinterpreting and imagining

urban experience

Continuing Research

Information SocietySurveillance/Censorship/

Information PoliticsMedia infrastructures

Intellectual PropertyPiracy/Commons/Open Source

Urban EnvironmentsArchitecture/Zoning/Ecology/

Health/Labour

Publics and PracticesCinema/Video/Music/Cable

Viewership/Circulation/DistributionProduction/Re-Production/Piracy

Online Presence : Websites/Lists/Blogs/Online Archive/E BooksEvents : Conferences/Seminars/Workshops/Talks/Screenings

Outreach : University & City Events/Informal MeetingsCollaborations : Local/Regional/International

Distributed Research Network

Publications/Archive

Sarai Readers (English)Sarai.txt (English)

Deewan-e-Sarai (Hindi)Media Nagar (Hindi)

Cybermohalla Publications(Hindi and English)

dvd/vcd/cd/book s/pamphletsdocuments/images/posterspopular cultural materials

LanguageHindi Language Resources

Localization of FLOSS SoftwareHindi Lists and Publications

Translation

Art & Media Projects Sarai Media Lab

Raqs Media CollectiveInstallations/Video

Residencies

Collaborative Writing, Editing, ListeningStory Telling Performances / Radio

Discussion Lists / BlogsBroadsheets / Wall Magazines

“Fearless Speech Needs Fearless Listening”

the Sarai cafe

a hospitable space for discussions after events, performances, screenings

Public Conversations with Visiting Artists

Harun Farocki German Filmmaker & Artist at Sarai

Performance

Inder Salim, Delhi based Performance Artist

Sarai Independent Fellow

Exhibition

Work by Artists, New Media PractitionersSarai Independent Fellos

Interdisciplinary Exchanges

Arundhati Roy, Writer & Jacques Ranciere, Philosopher, with artists and scholars at Sarai

Events at Sarai

ConferencesSeminars

Workshops

Research - Rendition - Transformation

Sarai Media Lab

New Media Art Work (html based project) Produced at the Sarai Media Lab

Contemporary Art ProjectsProduced at the Sarai Media Lab

Temporary Autonomous Sarai

The Wherehouse

Lost New ShoesA Measure of

Anacoustic Reason

The Impostor in the Waiting Room

Sarai Publications

Text

Bioscope: South Asian Screen StudiesA blind peer-reviewed biannual journal that covers South Asian film and media experience

Pirate Modernity, Ravi Sundaram [Routledge, 2009]

The Melodramatic Public, Ravi Vasudevan [Permanent Black, 2010]

The Water Cookbook , by Bhagwati Prasad, as part of the workshop on peri-urban sustainability with IDS, University of Sussex

Cybermohallawork and publications

Text

Collaboration between Sarai and Ankur

Ankur is an NGO working in the field of Alternative, Critical and Non Formal Education

3 Locality Media Labs Located in a Working Class Neighbourhood and in 2 Illegal Settlements

Locality Labs networked with Cybermohalla R&D Lab & the Sarai Media Lab

60 Young Practitioners Meeting Thrice a WeekOldest Locality Lab is 4 Years Old

The CyberMohalla Project

Designing with Architects at the Cybermohalla Lab

Sketches for a Cybermohalla ‘Hub’ Building from the Architecture Workshop

Final Prototype

For a Sarai-Cybermohalla Hub/Studio to be build in Delhi

(Exhibited at Manifesta 7, 2008, Bolzano

City as Studio fellowships in

contemporary artcontexts for high intensity inter-

disciplinary processes different locations in Delhi and at

the Sarai space exhibition, gathering, library,

temporary archive, performances, conversations and debates. artists, filmmakers,

photographers, discursive interlocutors, architects, writers, urbanists, scientists, architects,

social actors and cultural workers, neighbourhood initiatives

Agat Sharma response to the particular modernity of Delhi Metro.

Anirban Gupta-Nigam experiment with the world as installation or museum space

Asim Waqif to look at derelict spaces, those who do not fit into the formal Masterplan of the City.

Dyuti Mittal see the city as though she has never seen it before

Gowhar Yaqoob to evolve a dialogue between the visual and the textual

Pratik Sagar faith as a potential tool for environmental health

Rashmi Munikempanna explore and intervene in the city basing herself within the space of gender

Sajit Mallick fictional character of kachra seth, who roams in the kachra of the city, looking for traces

Tanya Goel locate a space that can be visually identified as empty

Ujjwal Utkarsh short films to capture the oscillation between aloneness and belonging, home and homelessness,

Associate Fellows 2011-2012

Networked Creative Practice(s)

Intensive Face to Face Interaction Over Long PeriodsEmphasis on Process rather than Product

Flexibility & Multiplicity of FormsCollaborations and Conversations

Continuing (Non-Goal Oriented) Research

City as Studio EXB series

text + performance workshops

Sarai Independent FellowshipsResidencies

Research

Practice

Undergraduate & Post Graduate Students

in Universities and Institutes

MPhil and PhD Research ScholarsCollege and University Departments

Independent Researchers and ScholarsWorking Academics

Students

Artists and PerformersCritics and Curators

Free Software & Open Source ProgrammersArchivistsJournalists

ProfessionalsDesigners

WritersActivists

Fans and Enthusiasts

The Contemporary City

Migration

Information and SocietyMedia Histories and Practices

Intellectual Property

Experimental Media Forms

Language Technology, Politics & Culture

Urban EnvironmentLabour

Architecture

Open Source & Free Software

Narratives of Everyday Life

Oral History

Suburbs, Small Towns, Streets, Neighbourhoods

Cinema, TV, Radio, Performance, Music, Print, Internet

Contemporary Art

Infrastructure

Conflict & Violence

Surveillance

Popular Culture

Sexuality

Tactical Media

Cultures of Piracy

EssaysDesign Comics

PhotographyLaw and LegalityTypography

The ‘New’ Economy

Urban Childhood

LeisureSport

Sarai Independent Fellowship Themes

Delhi

Srinagar

Chandigarh

KolkataAhmedabad

Udaipur Allahabad Shillong

Chennai

Madurai

Bangalore

Goa

Mumbai

SARAI

RaipurHyderabad

Vijayawada

Pune

Jaipur

AligarhTezpur

Sarai Independent Fellowships Network82 Student Stipends374 Practice Fellow

Distribution of Independent

Research FellowshipsAligarh

Vijayawada

Udaipur

Goa

Nancy Adajania’s Project

on Digital Manipulation and Popular Photography

Images from Archive of Popular Islamic Devotional Posters

Yousuf Saeed’s Research Project

Shahid Datawala’s Photographic Research

Project on the Ambience of Cinema Spaces

in Delhi

Residencies

How is Sarai seen?

as a space to develop & reflect on different kinds of practice

as an occasion to experiment with new forms and methods

as a means of exposure to inter-disciplinary flowsas support for accessing archival documents, books etc.

as a platform for new publics and creative work as a safe space for free speech and critical discussion

as a means to reflect on protocols of knowledge production

Our Motivations

A recognition of the need to address the crisis that afflicts academia, the media, and creative spaces

due to :

Absence of incentives for creative, experimental and independent forms of knowledge generation, research and creative practice

Absence of structures conducive to inter-disciplinary thinking & work

Absence of a dialogue between discourse and practice

Absence of a public conversation around knowledge and creativity