Cultural cyborg Meenakshi is the protagonist of Elsewhere in India. photo credit: special arrangement
The cyborg, Meenakshi, is out of work. Once Dancer finds herself in the dystopian landscape of 2079 where all culture is in danger of being lost. She yearns for familiarity, holding nods to the South Asian heritage, in particular, the South Indian arts that define her. In a silo devoid of culture, she re-examines her role as an artist and joins two others: Murthovic and Thiruda. Remember these names.
The narrative is not straight out of an Indian sci-fi film – rather, it sets the context for a multi-sensory, audio-visual performance by composer Murthovik (MSR Murthy) and visual artist Thiruda (Avinash Kumar) that creates an interactive The film extends to /. art game They envision a world in the future where cyborgs and alternate realities are the norm. This multi-sensory project, though featuring technology that the common man may not yet be familiar with, has inevitable associations with South India. While the soundscape sets a mood of curiosity, drenched in dystopia, yet wrapped in a comforter of familiar Carnatic riffs, the intriguing visuals take help from objects that define South Indian heritage.
A view of the live performance at Magnetic Fields | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
It is a project that will likely go through several phases of development, as more museums, libraries and a rapidly expanding repertoire of technology lead to different expressions. For example, this is an album; a game; performance art; and an educational tool; All at the same time. The duo, who premiered the soundtrack at the recently concluded arts and music festival Magnetic Fields, on Zoom, say they will continue working on it until 2023.
“Meenakshi is a cultural cyborg. In our lore, this refers to the idea that she was part of a line of cyborgs built to teach culture and preserve ideas surrounding dance and music, and to share this with society during the 2050s. Then, a global AI collapse abruptly ends cyborg production. He is one of the few remnants who have this cultural knowledge,” says Avinash. The narrative goes against the popular belief that culture is an infinite pool. “It will be depleted in the future like any other resource. It also reflects on the relationship between technology and culture, and looks at how technology can be reproduced to create subcultures.
Murthovic in action | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Origins elsewhere in India can be partially attributed to Antara, a 3D video game the team worked on, which follows a Bharatanatyam dancer (inspired by Bharatanatyam exponent Jayalakshmi Easwar) and her son. . It talks about aeronautics through puzzles. “We realized there’s a thirst to go back to our origins in the electronic dance music scene. And we’re exploring these ideas on heritage, and science fiction set in the past – what if we took this story forward 150 years into the future?” Increase it,” says Avinash. The questions were many: What would happen to the central character of the dancer in that time? What would happen in a post-apocalyptic India where heritage and culture may be a rare phenomenon, where society may not have enough resources or expertise? Might be possible?
“We wanted to see how we could communicate dance and music in a video game environment. But this time, we wanted to see it as an audio-visual performance,” says Avinash. The turning point, making up for most of Pandemic, was when he received the India/UK Together, A Season of Culture grant from the British Council, which enabled him to record over 40 musicians, such as some from South India Dilruba Saroja and Dharani (Gana Singer) from the parts.
Hyderabad-based electronic musician Murthy says, “It was a great opportunity to travel and work with musicians on a grassroots level. They were not established musicians, relying on stage shows, weddings and funerals. It was the first time for us to work with traditional musicians and folk songs of this magnitude. Initially, he was not sure whether, compositionally, the music was going to be funk, hip hop, disco, or folk-oriented. “It is a mix of different worlds but folk music is at the centre. Our sarod players are from Kolkata, while our dubki and iktara players are from Shantiniketan.
The same ethos is followed in the visuals as well, says Avinash. “It’s a respectful nod to all the heritage we have. We’re working hard to live up to that.” To this end, some of the traditional objects that appear in the gameplay are also digital sculptures of real objects in museums such as DakshinaChitra in Chennai. “We worked on 3D scanning and 3D modeling of about 50 of their items Chariot, furniture, home architecture and decorative boxes,” says Avinash. The British National Library, the British Film Institute and the Victoria and Albert Museum are all contributors to archival research.
One of the digital human avatars in the story | photo credit: special arrangement
The duo is now preparing for the live show starting with a performance at the International Science Festival in Hyderabad later this week. They are also set to perform at the Adelaide Fringe in February, followed by shows in the UK until April.
Elsewhere in India, India Science Festival 2023 will be screened in Hyderabad on January 21 at 6.30 pm. ISF 2023 is scheduled to be held at Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet.