Thursday, December 27, 2012

New Societies

These days I have suddenly started to take a lot of interest in things in process. Primarily this is in relation to music production and film production. My interest has geared towards, and gearing towards "how" things are made and can be made. In what ways can ideas be realized. I discovered some really interesting projects documented on Youtube and some such places. If any one is interested, one must look at:
  • The Music Project by Tehelka
  • Sneha Khanwalkar's show Sound Tripping
  • Making of various films
  • to some extent Dewarists
  • A Capella Groups
  • Short film and Animation groups
  • Comic and graphic novel artists
  • Writers, poets, painters, artists etc
Technology has enabled every one in large capacities eliminating the need for any partners in the production of a sale-able commodity in today's world. But there is some really cool stuff happening out there which is completely overshadowed by mainstream and popular things that we are overtly masked by. There is a rich repository of music, films, interviews, rough cuts, recordings - a lot of material yet unexplored. If only one had the time to look at the immense amount of energy put into such things, there is so much that one could do.

The digital revolution can inverse the notion of the capitalistic way in which most societies are ordered, because it empowers a seemingly insignificant entity to an unbelievable audience. It allows filtration of choice and gets you an appropriate outreach. Although this process happens subtextually, many of us are not still exposed to so much that may interest us. While this may not always get media covering, I am sure it helps these individuals their survival.

The fast changing ways in which culture mutates and creates "new" identities for peoples are regrouped through the channel of the Internet. Internet thus creates completely new societies, sometimes although virtual, through the thread of "common interest". So get there and reach out to the person/group/activity that you like doing. It's just a matter of typing vague phrases on Google and the gaps will be prompted to you by the Internet itself.

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But I am a bit scared of the universalizing tendencies due to the medium through which such ideas route themselves and proliferate. The English language, the digital media and the computer screen (image) leave out a lot many things that are essential for the receptivity of any kind of art form. Art forms are not only rooted in their visual cultures, the way in which they are primarily mediated and projected. They are often more rooted in their places through their environmental conditions and settings. For example, the seas and storms reflect the Western Classical music forms, the bountifulness of the Bengali countryside reflects in the Rabindrasangeet, the tragedies (the theatre) echo the evolving morals of the European societies, the African masquerades are absolutely ritualistic,  the clothings of various places is a direct response to the climates people grow up in. As all such forms are channeled through the Internet - through medium of image, music and text - much is flattened, much is circulating, mixing and pairing up - not that this hasn't happened in the past. But the time over which such fusion occurs has relatively changed and hence these new formations are very shortlived. It is the time-space relationship that configures the life-span of these forms. We live in a world of moments and momentariness. We like momentary pleasures, momentary joys, momentary gossips, news, events...We consume moments for moments to pass moments. Every moment is a new moment. These moments make up momentum of an event, which to is momentary when considered in historical time.

I conclude remembering Heidegger whose philosophical thoughts summarize that one needs to ground oneself hard on the roads of the countryside to get one's foot print, an impression.

(Hence it is very laborious to define and trace the self.)

Impressions are not momentary, impressions last longer, stay firmer and require some strength and work, only to be revealed by some archaeologist of the future to be able to give meaning to our otherwise fleeting present.