Mar 19 2022 to Mar 20 2022 11 a.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Bangalore International Centre

Residents from four Asian cities- Bangalore, Dhaka, Mumbai and Pune-came together to reflect on digital change and its impact on urban life. The project titled Smarter Digital Realities initiated by Sandbox Collective in association with the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and curated by Padmini Ray Murray encouraged a range of individuals to reflect on the relationship between technology and the city and how it transforms urban life and how it is lived.

We now present the works by 9 Bangalore residents at Bangalore International Centre.

The works include:

An evocative interactive narrative on ‘belonging’ in the city by Amulya B.

A glitchy Immersive sonic commentary on night-life in Bangalore by Teresa Braggs

A Visual meditation on the role of balconies played during our enforced lockdown by Devika Sundar.

A crowd funded mosaic of Bangalore’s night skies seen through the VR lens by Namita Aakriti.

A mapping of how town planning favors the privileged by Sumanto Mondal

A collaborative project with waste pickers and manual scavengers that depicts the oppression by dominant castes despite Bangalore aspiring to be a modern techno-utopia by Varun Kurtkoti.

A reflection on how the collision of contexts, both on and offline conjure new realities by Kruthika and Tejas AP.

A dance performance that addresses our known and imagined understanding of the city by Talin Subbaraya.

Quote from Padmini Ray Murray

“The creative mind is endlessly inspired by the world in all its variety - but the abrupt impact of the pandemic forced artists and creative practitioners to find novelty and inspiration in the everyday monotony that lockdown enforced. Technology, of course, played a huge role in the experience of the pandemic: from working from home, to birthday parties on Zoom, to leveraging the power of social media for relief work, it was impossible to ignore how it shaped myriad aspects of pandemic life, especially in the metropolitan cities. The residency Smarter Digital Realities, presented by the Sandbox Collective in conjunction with the Goethe Institut, encouraged a range of individuals to reflect on the relationship between technology and the city, how it transforms urban life and how it is lived. The residency was conducted mostly online, with artists in Bombay, Bangalore, Pune and Dhaka, contributing works that emerged from a few weeks of workshops, which brought them together in conversation with each other as well as with visiting speakers, all of whose practice engages with the urban in one form or the other. In the spirit of the residency, the final works were showcased in an online environment (itself created by one of the residents, Anokhi Shah) and a series of online events marked the launch of the exhibition space. However, given that the situation of the pandemic is currently less critical, we thought it would be wonderful to bring these works to a larger audience, in a more traditional exhibition format. The works include an evocative, interactive narrative on belonging in the city (Amulya B), a  glitchy immersive sonic commentary on Benguluru nightlife (Teresa Braggs) a gorgeous visual meditation on the role balconies played during our enforced months indoors (Devika Sundar), and an enchanting crowdsourced mosaic of Bangalore’s night skies seen through the lens of VR (Namita A). Sumanto Mondal, through his careful mapping, and Varun Kurtkoti, through a collaborative project with wastepickers and manual scavengers, both depict how the oppression of non-dominant castes are still an integral part of Bengaluru’s story, despite its aspirations to being a modern techno-utopia. Kruthika and Tejas AP’s collaboration as well as Talin Subbaraya’s dance performance address how the collision of contexts, both on and offline, conjure new realities and understandings of city we both think we know and imagine,”

Venue: Bangalore International Centre, 7,  4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560071

Dates: March 19 & 20, 2022

Time: 11 AM – 7 PM

Entry is free for all.