About the Ring of Blue

Towards creating a digital database of local expression

Presently, much of the work executed by the Catapult Arts Caravan emerges from a way to get artists and others to engage with digital technology.  By trying to blend the appeal of the artist to seduce an audience, and introducing an engagement with digital technology at the same time, is what the Caravan performances are all about. The last two seasons have revealed that while the idea works, and introduces a local participation in the creation of public electronic art, the end result is still all to transient for each community. One night of public entertainment in a town, while the caravan and its crew go to the next location like travelling performers of old.

Museum of Memories (Yaadgar-e-Satpura) is a local history project visualized in multiple forms. To begin with, it is visualised as a book, an interactive arts exhibition in various venues across the region, and an online museum.
Public involvement in articulation of local concerns in the Catapult Arts Caravan performances has led to a revival of interest in collecting local memories, histories and testimonies. Activities like village to village data collection, prompting the articulation of local memory, testimony and history, when discussed and debated, become a primary source of information on the different strategies and tactics people use to negotiate contemporary challenges.
Performers and performances of the Catapult Arts Caravan see art, knowledge and technology as inter-related, with a focus on local resources and local capabilities. Use of audio and visual digital technologies have introduced participants to a new kind of storytelling. It has involved creating a audio-video digital collection of information on communities of the region, their ways of life, changing resource availability and so on.
The construction of a social memory open to narrative by people from all segments of society, and acting to spread that memory, are essential to building a democratic society based on respect for the other. By organising such a collection of memories, to evoke social and cultural reflection in a society largely oral and visual in the realm of the imagination, and where literacy is seen as a ‘tool for betterment’, is grounded on some conceptual assumptions:
a. Every life story has its value and should be part of social memory;
b. Listening to others is essential in order to respect them and to act as peers.
c. to encourage people and communities to take responsibility for recording and organizing their own memories.
Support for this activity is forthcoming from various quarters, and is at various stages of fruition. For example, Leftword Books, New Delhi has offered to publish the book, provided we can find the funding to get it done. Similarly, the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Montreal, and the OBORO MediaLab, Montreal are supporting the creation of a template for the travelling interactive exhibition, andthis associated website, to be executed in fall/winter 2006. We are continually looking for resources to carry out this activity in future.

Rural Digital Arts Media Lab
New technologies are transforming the practices of storytelling, teaching, and artistic expression worldwide. New forms of popular art and entertainment, ranging from computer games to digital cinema, are becoming popular. Contemporary Web culture is the traditional folk process working at lightning speed on a global scale. The difference is that our core myths are in danger of belonging to corporations, rather than the folk.
The response to this cannot be by maintaining a narrow focus on ‘access’ , as it will not act as a panacea for the growing inequalities bred by the digitalization of our economy, society and culture. It must incorporate the issues of creative expression, training and content. And besides, the diversity in the movements resisting inequity and marginalisation in India today alert us to the need to take note of technological externalities.
The Arts are uniquely positioned to help shape the dialogue about the digital divide and to create solutions for narrowing the technology gap. The Arts encourage communications proficiency in the digital age. Arts and technology training increases a person's ability to use technology to manipulate images, sound, text and movement to create meaningful content that will engage users. Such exposure also allows artists to express themselves creatively through a variety of media.

In order to formalise and carry out in a regular fashion the activities listed , we would like to set up a Rural Digital Arts Media Lab. Working in tandem with community groups, local educational institutions and formal and informal artist networks, the Media Lab is seen as the future centre of the Catapult Art Caravan activities. We are currently looking for resources to set up the Media Lab.