Andreas Broeckmann on Fri, 2 Feb 2001 14:19:30 +0200


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Syndicate: Inauguration of Sarai: The New Media Initiative, Delhi


From: "Ravi Sundaram" <ravis@sarai.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 5:15 PM
Subject: Press release

PRESS RELEASE

23 February 2001: Inauguration of  Sarai: The New Media Initiative,
Delhi  - in partnership with the Society for Old and New Media (de Waag)
Amsterdam

Sarai is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies,
Delhi, one of India's best known research institutes.

Sarai will open its doors to the public on 23 February 2001 with a festive
three-day programme of presentations, informal workshops, screenings,
lectures and panel discussions on old & new media and urban culture. The
event will feature encounters and dialogue between media practitioners,
scholars and activists, from India and abroad, around the theme of "The
Public Domain".

The focus of the Sarai's activities will be on innovative research and
cultural practice across old and new media forms . At its well-equipped
location in Delhi, Sarai offers an environment for innovative encounters
between media practitioners, software programmers, theorists, social
activists and the public.Sarai's primary aim is to engage with the
creativity of the broad and diverse spectrum of media practitioners from
non-elite backgrounds and address contmeporary popular urban culture. Sarai
also aims to establish a new media network in South Asia with strong global
links. Projects will be initiated on media history, urban culture and
politics, new media theory, Internet and software culture, documentary
film, digital art and critical cultural practice.

Sarai emerged from a unique form of collaboration between media theorists &
practitioners.The initiators of the Sarai Programme are : Ravi Sundaram &
Ravi Vasudevan, fellows of the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies, and Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula & Shuddhabrata Sengupta of the
Raqs Media Collective.

The Society for Old and New Media (de Waag) have been partners of the Sarai
initiative from its inception. The Waag and Sarai have jointly formulated a
three year exchange programme, running from 2000- 2002. The mission of this
partnership is to explore and demonstrate new possibilities of
collaboration in a cross-cultural context. Professionals associated with
the Waag Society and Sarai participated in workshops designed to help set
up the technical infrastructure at Sarai in the run up to the opening. In
the coming two years a series of Sarai-Waag workshops and other joint
excercises will be held (both in India and in the Netherlands).These
encounters will focus on the sharing of knowledge and develop collaborative
projects in new technologies, the media, and internet culture.

Topical articles and reports concerning the Sarai-Waag collaborative
initiative will be made available online in the Sarai-Waag  Journal. Users
of the Journal will be able to input their comments and discuss them with
the writers and each other in this online magazine.The Journal will be
available from 23 February onwards on the websites of the Waag and Sarai.

The two partners aim to strengthen the relationship between the new media
cultures of South Asia and Europe. With the opening of Sarai and the start
of the exchange programme, an important step forward is being taken in the
forging of a new network for knowledge sharing, cross cultural
communication and empowerment.

Sarai is made possible with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Daniel Langlois Foundation (Canada), the Centre for the Study
of Developing Societies (India) and the HIVOS Cultural Foundation
(NL-India).

More information can be obtained on www.sarai.net and www.waag.org.


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