https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site Possibilities of Porosity Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:51:01 +0000 https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site en https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Front-page Sat, 19 Jan 2019 05:26:04 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Front-page Possibilities of Porosity And before speaking, listening to the stone and the flowers; to older women and wise men; to the queer community; to critical voices in the mainstream; to the whispers and warnings of nature. https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Anita-Dube Sat, 19 Jan 2019 05:26:04 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Anita-Dube Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life Anita Dube&nbsp; 2018/2019 Kochi, Kerala, India [version published online] I remember Guy Debord’s warnings of a world mediated primarily through images—a society of the spectacle—as I write this note. That such a society is fascism’s main ally, we are all discovering in different parts of the world today. ¶ Virtual hyper-connectivity has paradoxically alienated us from the warm solidarities of community—that place of embrace where we can enjoy our intelligence and beauty with others, where we can love—a place where we don’t need the ‘other’ as an enemy to feel connected. ¶ At the heart of my curatorial adventure lies a desire for liberation and comradeship (away from the master and slave model) where the possibilities for a non-alienated life could spill into a ‘politics of friendship.’ Where pleasure and pedagogy could sit together and share a drink, and where we could dance and sing and celebrate a dream together. ¶ In this dream, those pushed to the margins of dominant narratives will speak: not as victims, but as futurisms’ cunning and sentient sentinels. ¶ And before speaking, they will listen, like K P Krishnakumar’s Boy Listening—to the stone and the flowers; to older women and wise men; to the queer community; to critical voices in the mainstream; to the whispers and warnings of nature—before it is too late.&nbsp; ¶ If we desire a better life on this earth—our unique and beautiful planet—we must in all humility start to reject an existence in the service of capital. Through the potential of social action, coming together, we ask and search for questions, critical questions, in the hope of dialogue. [version printed in short guide] I remember Guy Debord’s warnings of a world mediated primarily through images—a society of the spectacle—as I write this note. That such a society is fascim’s main ally, we are all discovering in different parts of the world today. ¶ Virtual hyper connectivity has paradoxically alienated us from the warm solidarities of community; that place of embrace where we can enjoy our intelligence and beauty with others, where we can love; a place where we don’t need the ‘other’ as an enemy to feel connected. ¶ At the heart of my curatorial adventure lies a desire for liberation and comradeship (away from the master and slave model) where the possibilities for a non-alienated life could spill into a ‘politics of friendship.’ Where pleasure and pedagogy could sit together and share a drink, and where we could dance and sing and celebrate a dream together. ¶ Yet, how can one perform a biennale in a location where the biennale itself has become the sole pedagogic window into the art of the world? In a context that is so particular, as Kerala is, what could be a model, that would would allow for self-determination for the audience?&nbsp; ¶ ‘Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life is therefore conceived in two parts: The exhibition, constructed as a symphony of ideas—synchronous as well as diachronous, with affect and matter of factness—as well as a discursive, performative, architectural space called the Pavillion where everyone potentially can be a curator. The Pavillion can be a space where there would be no hierarchies of who could speak and what could be said and in which language; the joy of listening, speaking—agreeing and disagreeing—and working through differences, contradictions and confusions together with visitors; a perfect site for pleasure and pedagogy. The ethics of ceding authority as a curator in this space can result in the ethos of sharing. ¶ Imagine those pushed to the margins of dominant narratives speaking: not as victims, but as futurisms’ cunning and sentient sentinels. And before speaking, listening to the stone and the flowers; to older women and wise men; to the queer community; to critical voices in the mainstream; to the whispers and warnings of nature. ¶ If we desire a better life on this earth—our unique and beautiful planet—we must in all humility start to reject an existence in the service of capital. ‘Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life’ asks and searches for questions in the hope of dialogue. https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Swami-Vivekananda Sat, 19 Jan 2019 05:43:16 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Swami-Vivekananda Why We Disagree Swami VivekanandaParliament of ReligionChicago, IL, USA September 11, 1893 I will tell you a little story. You have heard the eloquent speaker who has just finished say, “Let us cease from abusing each other,” and he was very sorry that there should be always so much variance. ¶ But I think I should tell you a story that would illustrate the cause of this variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of course the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not but, for our story’s sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it with an energy that would do credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek and fat. Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well. ¶ “Where are you from?” ¶ “I am from the sea.” ¶&nbsp;“The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?” and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other. ¶ “My friend,” said the frog of the sea, “how do you compare the sea with your little well?” ¶ Then the frog took another leap and asked, “Is your sea so big?” ¶ “What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!” ¶ “Well, then,” said the frog of the well, “nothing can be bigger than my well. There can be nothing bigger than this. This fellow is a liar, so turn him out.” ¶ That has been the difficulty all the while. ¶ I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christians sit in their little well and think the whole world is their well. The Muslims sit in their little well and think that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose. https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Italo-Calvino Sat, 19 Jan 2019 05:45:32 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Italo-Calvino Invisible CitiesItalo Calvino 1972Last pages of “Hidden Cities”The Great Khan's atlas contains also the maps of the promised lands visited in thought but not yet discovered or founded: New Atlantis, Utopia, the City of the Sun, Oceana, Tamoe, New Harmony, New Lanark, lcaria. Kublai asked Marco: "You, who go about exploring and who see signs, can tell me toward which of these futures the favoring winds are driving us?" ¶ "For these ports I could not draw a route on the map or set a date for the landing. At times all I need is a brief glimpse, an opening in the midst of an incongruous landscape, a glint of lights in the fog, the dialogue of two passersby meeting in the crowd, and I think that, setting out from there, I will put together, piece by piece, the perfect city, made of fragments mixed with the rest, of instants separated by intervals, of signals one sends out, not knowing who receives them. If I tell you that the city toward which my journey tends is discontinuous in space and time, now scattered, now more condensed, you must not believe the search for it can stop. Perhaps while we speak, it is rising, scattered, within the confines of your empire. You can hunt for it, but only in the way I have said. " ¶ Already the Great Khan was leafing through his atlas, over the maps of the cities that menace in nightmares and maledictions: Enoch, Babylon, Yahooland, Butua, Brave New World. ¶ He said: "It is all useless, if the last landing place can only be the infernal city, and it is there that, in ever-narrowing circles, the current is drawing us." ¶ And Polo said: "The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space." https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Navneet-Raman Sat, 19 Jan 2019 05:45:39 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Navneet-Raman Interview Navneet Raman Interviewed by Vittoria Bonifati2015Varanasi At what point did you get interested in art? When I was 12 years old, I started to get interested in photography and this became my entry to the world of art. Can you tell us about Kriti, your gallery, and your vision? The gallery is a place of interaction among people and between people and people to feel comfortable. Anyone is welcome, whether they come in to look at art or to sit in the garden and just take some time for themselves. We would like to establish a literature cafe, where we have interesting talks, film screenings and workshops. It’s not a profit-oriented idea, but it would give the place more atmosphere and invite people to spend more time here. That’s when the real interaction happens. In India there are not too many places like this, especially away from the metros. Furthermore, Kriti means ‘creation,’ the gallery is also thought of as a place where people become more creative, and thus, less aggressive... I’m taking about violence in humanity. For example, if youngsters interact with art they might find another language to help them communicate emotions. I think this makes them ‘softer.’ I try to set an example and hope that it has a replica effect, from the gallery, to the neighborhood, maybe the city of Varanasi and who knows... so many people from all over the world come to visit Banaras, they might take this back to their countries, as well. ¶ Having said this, I have specific parameters for the gallery’s programme. I will show the finest art that I can bring to Banaras. I look at art as such, and not as Indian Art, German Art, American Art and so forth. https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Ray-and-Charles-Eames Thu, 07 Feb 2019 16:58:08 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Ray-and-Charles-Eames The India Report Published in Aprirl 1958 At the invitation of the Government of India Introductory note: The Government of India asked for recommendations on a program of training in design that would serve as an aid to the small industries; and that would resist the present rapid deterioration in design and quality of consumer goods. ¶ Charles Eames, American industrial designerr, and his wife and colleague Ray Eames visited India for three months at the invitation of the Government, with the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation, to explore problems of design and to make recommendations forr a training prrogrram. The Eames toured throughout India, making a careful study of the many centers of design, handicrafts, and general manufacture. They talked with many persons, official and non-official, in the field of small and large industry, in design and architecture, and in education. As a result of their study and discussion, the following report emerged. <img width="2584" height="2506" width_o="2584" height_o="2506" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d488c7f601c2c71d68cc05cc3cf89c33c86cfb4509c62bd12423dab8f5a49595/IMG_3043.jpg" data-mid="34856766" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d488c7f601c2c71d68cc05cc3cf89c33c86cfb4509c62bd12423dab8f5a49595/IMG_3043.jpg" />photographs of lotas taken in India by Charles and Ray Eames. Of all the objects we have seen and admired during our visit to India, the lota, that simple vessel of everyday use, stands out as perhaps the greatest, the most beautiful. The village women have a process, which, with the use of tamarind and ash, each day turns this brass into gold. ¶ But how would one go about designing a lota? First one would have to shut out all preconceived ideas on the subject and then begin to consider factor after factor: - The optimum amount of liquid to be fetched, carried, poured, and stored in a&nbsp; prescribed set of circumstances. - The size and strength and gender of the hands (if hands) that would &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; manipulate it. - The way it is to be transported—head, hip, hand, basket, or cart. - The balance, the center of gravity, when empty, when full, its balance when &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; rotated for pouring. - The fluid dynamics of the problem not only when pouring but when filling &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; and cleaning, and under the complicated motions of head carrying—slow &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; and fast. - Its sculpture as complement to the rhythmic motion of walking or a static &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; post at a well. - The relation of the opening to volume in terms of storage uses—and objects &nbsp; other than liquids. - The size of the opening and inner contour in terms of cleaning. - The texture inside and out in terms of cleaning and feeling. - Heat transfer—can it be grasped if the liquid is hot? - How pleasant does it feel, eyes closed, eyes open? - How pleasant does it sound, when it strikes another vessel, is set on the ground or stone, empty or full—or being poured into? - What is the possible material? - What is its cost in terms of working? - What is its cost in terms of ultimate service? - What kind of an investment does the material provide as product, as salvage? - How will the material affect the contents, etc., etc.? - How will it look as the sun reflects off its surface? - How does it feel to possess it, to sell it, to give it? Of course, no one man could have possibly designed the lota. The number of combinations of factors to be considered gets to be astronomical—no one man designed the lota but many men over many generations. Many individuals represented in their own way through something they may have added or may have removed orr through some quality of which they were particularly aware. ¶ The hope for and the reason for such an institute as we describe is that it will hasten and the production of the ‘lotas’ of our time. By this we mean a hope that an attitude be generated that will appraise and solve the problems of our coming times with the same tremendous service, dignity, and love that the lota served its time. ¶ The simplest problem of environment has a list of aspects that makes the list we have given for the lota small by comparison. That roster of disciplines we have suggested can bring about measurable answers to some measurable aspects of the problem, but in addition they must provide the trainee with a questioning approach and a smell for appropriateness; a concern for quality, which will help him through the immeasurable relationships. ¶ In the face of the inevitable destruction of many cultural values—in the face of the immediate need for the nation to feed and shelter itself—a drive for quality takes on a real meaning. It is not a self-conscious effort to develop an aesthetic—it is a relentless search for quality that must be maintained if this new Republic is to survive. https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Dayanita-Singh Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:28:10 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Dayanita-Singh Box of Shedding Dayanita Singh Spontaneous BooksEdition of 360&nbsp;2018 The last museum I made after MUSEUM BHAVAN was Museum of Shedding. I built it for myself, so that I would be able to live inside it. It compromised of a bed, a desk, two stools, a table, two storage cabinets for prints, a visitors bench and a structure that could display 40 of the 73 images. The structure served as a partition for the curators (sic) home, and the other side was for visitors, during museum hours. I also built 11 boxes that could fit 33 images. These 11 boxes served two purposes: they allowed me to display the image on a wall and allowed me to keep the images in the 11 boxes and two storage cabinets. These boxes fitted inside the museum structure. While all the furniture fit under the bed. My home in two crates. ¶ Following from Museum of Shedding is Box of Shedding, which is the third publication of Spontaneous Books, Delhi. ¶ With Spontaneous Books, I am able to build books and book-objects as and when the Chance to do so arises, as and when material asks to be gathered and as and when the opportunity to disseminate work presents itself. Box of Shedding, (sic) is an unbound book of 30 image cards held together in a wooden structure, it is menat to be hung on a wall or placed as an object on a table. The structure has been built to allow the collector to change the forrnt image as often as they like. The image cards, however, exist as a set of 30 and are not meant to be separated from each other or the box. ¶ Box of Shedding has been published in an edition of 360 and is available only in its exhibition format. It is to be acquired directly off the wall. In this way the exhibition disappears with time and when all the boxes are sold, the edition and exhibition are over. https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Dayanita-Singh-Sunil-Khilnani Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:31:40 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Dayanita-Singh-Sunil-Khilnani The Women’s Ashram Photographs by Dayanita Singh Text by Sunil Khilnani Published in Granta 73, Spring 2001 <img width="640" height="510" width_o="640" height_o="510" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/954ffbcd8a0dc5c465d27367a0c20cd1d9d649cf7c5d0c3ceae67d19bc8648cc/dayanita-5.jpg" data-mid="34858700" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/954ffbcd8a0dc5c465d27367a0c20cd1d9d649cf7c5d0c3ceae67d19bc8648cc/dayanita-5.jpg" />Dayanita Singh, from the series “I am as I am” (1999). Nirmala Chakravarty, a young and beautiful Shakta mystic from East Bengal, known to her followers as Anandamayi, first came to the city of Benares in 1928. A ceaseless traveler, she was to make it a home of sorts (as Shiva’s city, Benares is of special importance to Shaktas, who are followers of Shiva’s female companion, Durga), and gathered a large and devoted following. In the early 1940s, a few years after her husband died, she established in the city an ashram for young girls, a kanyapeeth. It was by no means usual for a woman—still less a widow—to penetrate the maze of this most Hindu city. Ashrams were a monopoly of male gurus, with strict rules of initiation and discipleship, and residents were nearly always male. Anandamayi’s kanyapeeth was—and remains—probably unique in India. ¶ The ashram, a massive abutment of stone walls, white stucco courtyards, rooms, canopies and terraces, with sweeping views across the city and river, was built high above the Ganges just beyond Asi Ghat, where the river begins its long, slow bend northwards. The land was given to Anandamayi by the Maharaja of Benares—he and his sister became devotees—and the big stone steps that lead down from the ashram to the river was named Anandamayi Ghat. In this most clamorous of cities, busy with the traffic of migrant souls and the display of every aspect of life and death, the ashram became a very private, secluded world. ¶ Anandamayi died in 1982. Over the course of her long life, she counted devotees among the poorest as well as among India’s elites. One of her most famous followers was Kamala Nehru—wife of agnostic Jawaharlal Nehru, and mother of Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi herself, from time to time, would turn to Anandamayi for talismans and spiritual relief: indeed, when Mrs Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister for the first time in 1966, she made it a point to wear a rudrakshamala—a necklace of special wooden beads—given to her by Anandamayi. ¶ The ashram Anandamayi founded has survived her death. Today it houses around forty girls, many of them sent there by their parents in Bengal, and half a dozen senior disciples who instruct and teach them. The girls, who know Anandamayi as Ma, can enter the ashram from the age of six; when they reach eighteen they are free to decide whether to remain there and renounce the world or return to it—as most in fact do. The days begin early, at 4 a.m., with Arati ceremonies—the lighting of oil lamps and singing (the singing carries on throughout the day; that, and the laughter of the girls, as is a regular sound), and some formal lessons—in recent years they have started to learn English. The girls attend to everything themselves; cleaning, laundry, cooking (good Bengali vegetarian food without passion-stimulating onions or garlic, all cooked on coal fires). There is no radio, television or newspapers and the girls rarely leave the ashram. One occasion when they do is an annual journey by boat to the Maharaja’s palace in Ramnagar. But every day, from their terraces, they can watch the world: burning pyres, marriage ceremonies, children playing, the sunrise across the river. Only from a boat on the river can you sometimes see their hands waving, small and excited, from the terrace. ¶ Outsiders do come to the ashram—but they are confined to the public courtyard and are not given access to the interior where the girls live, learn and play. Until now, the only photographs taken at the ashram have been of its public areas—most notably by that great observer of Benares, Richard Lannoy. Looking at the photographs taken by him, fifty years ago, and those taken by Dayanita Singh in 1998, the constancy of the girls is remarkable: the same cropped hair, bright eyes, a scampish grace. https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Anandamayi-Ma Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:51:01 +0000 Possibilities of Porosity https://possibilitiesofporosity.cargo.site/Anandamayi-Ma The Bengali ‘Joy-Permeated Mother’Anandayami Ma explaining her background to Paramhansa Yogananda in his book, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) “Father, there is little to tell." She spread her graceful hands in a deprecatory gesture. "My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body. Before I came on this earth, Father, I was the same. As a little girl, I was the same. I grew into womanhood, but still I was the same. When the family in which I had been born made arrangements to have this body married, I was the same... And, Father, in front of you now, I am the same. Ever afterward, though the dance of creation change around me in the hall of eternity, I shall be the same." * Anandamayi Ma in Ananda Varta Quarterly“As you love your own body, so regard everyone as equal to your own body. When the Supreme Experience supervenes, everyone's service is revealed as one's own service. Call it a bird, an insect, an animal or a man, call it by any name you please, one serves one's own Self in every one of them.”