S N School Archives - And then...

Taking Wing

10561790_10152201109211053_3239163086169552431_n There is a brilliant art show in town at the Salar Jung Museum, a group show by the outgoing MFA students of our University. Paintings, sculpture, prints, installations- its all there in great variety and the exploration of different techniques and themes is amazing!

As the pictures in this post attest, there are artists finding their sophisticated expressions through a variety of media, and scattered across the gallery one can see installations made of matchsticks, lace, umbrellas, scupltures constructed out of wood, scrap… literally anything that could be used. The range is, to put it mildly, spectacular.

How strong the breeze, How precious the flight– the title of the show is taken from the feminist poet Andrea Gibson’s The Moon is a Kite. The fragment brings to mind a wonderful image, of the fledgling artists finding their wings and taking strength from the training here- the breeze- to launch themselves into the wide open world- the flight. And as the dreams in one of the installations, the dreamcatcher on the right, swirl around in the gallery, the choice of title seems very appropriate…

But more, there is actually a double bonus at the Salar Jung- the adjacent gallery is home to another UoH linked show, by our honorary alumnus K. G. Subramanyam, the legendary artist who so graciously accepted an honorary doctorate from our University last year. Titled “New Works”, the scale and scope of the paintings on display belie the artist’s 90 years- Mani-da, as he is more popularly known has admirable discipline, and the phenomenal ability to work in concentration. The few images of the paintings on display give an idea of what feasts await the visitor.

We are very fortunate to have such great persons associated with the University, and are very happy that the students’ show was inaugurated by him. One could not have asked for a stronger breeze to lift them up and propel them into the uncertainties of the everyday world and the vicissitudes of life beyond studenthood.

The show is on until the 16th of August for all to view and enjoy. By going out and showing our work in a public space, the University affirms, yet again, that we are not just of the city, we are a University for the city of Hyderabad…

Bend it like Zohra

At recent meetings of the Academic and Executive Councils of the University, we had decided to confer the degree of Doctor of Arts (honoris causa) on Zohra Segal, doyenne of Indian theatre and cinema. Since she wrote to say she was unable to travel to Hyderabad, this was to have been presented to her daughter at our convocation on October 1 this year (see the correspondence below), but now will be given posthumously.

I had written to her daughter, the Odissi dancer Kiran Segal on 25 June:

Dear Ms Sehgal [sic], I am very pleased to convey the information that the University of Hyderabad wishes to confer the degree of Doctor of Arts (honoris causa) upon your mother, Mrs Zohra Sehgal. We would be most honoured if she would accept this degree at the next convocation which will be on October 1, 2014.

The Departments of Theatre Arts in the Sarojini Naidu School would also like it if she would kindly agree to give a distinguished lecture at the University around that time and interact with the faculty and students.

We do hope that she will agree to be with us in October and I look forward to hearing from you. With regards, etc.

to which I got the very gracious response on 30 June:

zohrasegal Dear Mr. Ramaswamy,

Thank you very much for the honour that your University is bestowing upon me! I am now 102 years old and therefore unable to travel anywhere. I hope you understand.

I still remember my visits to Hyderabad in days gone by & I must say that in each visit I had a lovely & delightful audience. In the past whenever I had visited Hyderabad, the ‘culture’ & ‘sensitivity’ of the Urdu language prevailed but, unfortunately it is rapidly fading!

As a suggestion and if it suits you, my daughter Padmashri Kiran Segal could come & receive the Degree and read out some excerpts from my ‘time spent in theatre’.

With best wishes, Padmavibhushan Smt. Zohra Segal

A suggestion that we are very happy to accept, and we look forward to having Kiran Segal with us at the next convocation.

There is a touch of sadness that she is no longer with us, but in her 102 years, she did so much in so many spheres. As a member of the Uday Shankar Troupe, then the IPTA, and of course the various movies that she acted in, including Bend it like Beckham. The demure photograph on the left dates from her time as a dancer, while the more characteristic one above is more recent, and wonderfully conveys the sense of mischief she brought to many of her acting roles.

Either way, she was a great ambassador for Indian theatre, and we at the UoH salute her several contributions to the performing arts!

Scenes from a collaboration

An exciting and ongoing partnership project between our Department of Theatre Arts in the S N School of Arts & Communication and the Wimbledon College of Arts at the University of the Arts, London is on Scenography in a digital age: a comparative study of the impact of new media on contemporary Indian and British performance practice.

Bringing together nine people, four from their side and five from ours, this project is a great opportunity for all of us, particularly the two students involved. The project leader from the Indian side is Professor B. Anandhakrishnan, Dean of the SN School who says the prime objective of the project is to develop a trans-national, inter-disciplinary discourse that will enhance understanding of contemporary performance culture in India and the UK. And, incidentally, a cross-fertilization of ideas: the image above is of the props from a scenography workshop at the UoH, done on the campus by one of the Wimbledon college students.

This partnership will investigate the impact of ‘new media’ on performance in India and the UK. It brings together two recognize centers of excellence to create a cross cultural research platform at the interface of fine art and theatre. In the UK, lines between these two approaches to performance have already been breached as new technologies blur the boundaries between established traditions. Increasingly in India, plays and fine art installations use video and digital projections that merge the theatrical and the experiential under the umbrella of performance. This project seeks to conceptualise and understand how these new mise-en-scenes are affecting traditional ways of making and viewing performance in our respective nations.

Rustom Bharucha (in his book Theatre and the World, 1993) argued at the end of the twentieth century, ‘[at] this point in time, one can say that technology has not yet co-opted the ‘visionary’ possibilities of seeing assumed by our spectators…’ . Does this still hold true at the beginning of the twenty first century?

Describing the viewing habits of European and American audiences, Arnold Aronson (in The Power of Space in Virtual World in Performance Design) says, “The increasing ubiquity of the World Wide Web and its particular visual aesthetic is what most spectators associate with performative imagery’’.

Using the ‘scenographic’ as a frame of reference, a broad term that encompasses all the elements that contribute to the composition of performance, this joint research will compare how digitalisation and electronic media have been absorbed into our respective performance cultures and begin to develop a set of criteria with which to analyse and respond to these changes. By sharing perspectives on this new materiality of performance, this partnership will contribute to a better understanding of the way each culture views the other and, in the long term, build capacity in our institutions through the development of joint masters and new PhD programmes.

The project is for 18 months and during this period there will be four seminars and a series of practice sessions focussing on digital arts and scenography. Two events will be organised by both the institutions. The first is going on now, from the 9th to 16th September 2013 at Wimbledon. Two of our students will be staying back at Wimbledon to work with colleagues there.

Great opportunities here, thanks to the UKIERI– this project is one of the select ones funded by them as a Thematic Partnership. And congratulations to the SN School on being Wimbledon champions!

Mee Kosam: UoH Podcasts

In an effort to take some instruction out of the classroom- both for the teacher and the taught- Vasuki Belavadi of the SN School’s Department of Communication has set up our new Podcast site, uohpodcast.in.

The About Us page says: UOH PODCASTS features audio and video content from University of Hyderabad, India’s premier central university. It provides you with access to audios/videos of excellent public lectures by eminent personalities, interviews, comments by experts on various issues & tutorials. Some podcasts featured on this website are also from Bol Hyderabad 90.4 FM, the university’s campus radio station. Content on this site is being updated regularly. All content on this website is free for download.

These podcasts can be listened/ watched either online or downloaded to your computer/ mobiles/ mp3 / video players. You can also listen to them on iTunes.

One one page there is listed, as of now, a set of interviews with some recent eminent visitors- Robert Kanigel, Leela Samson, and David Shulman and Radhika Hegde, but this is just a representative fraction of the really exciting speakers we have had in the last few months… Clearly we need more.

In addition, there is a set of 5 minute long lessons, Spoken Telugu. Put together by Vasuki along with Pawan Kumar Pammi of the Telugu Department and a group of enthusiastic RJ’s at BOL FM, these bit sized instructional programs are an engaging way to learn the language. So far I have managed to learn to count along with Dipu and Ashwathi. Their charming promo for “Your Daily cup of Telugu” made me listen, not once, but at least padi times- Feel left out amongst your Telugu friends? Want to learn spoken Telugu? This series of podcasts will be a fun, intuitive way of learning spoken Telugu. The best podcasts on the internet to learn the language as it’s really spoken. Authentic.

Clearly this is site we’d like to build up, other lectures, other languages, anything you’d like to learn or just listen to… In the end, this is really for you- the University community, and more generally, for everyone, so please write in to the podcast team, at admin@uohpodcasts.in and let them know what you would like to hear.

Also check out Vasuki’s Blog to learn how to make a podcast! Apart from a zillion other things in communicating. Great byline, Learn to Learn!

How cool is that!

Launching Bol Hyderabad 90.4 FM today was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done since joining the University. While we are not the first University campus to have its own Radio Station, it hardly matters- we finally have one! Although confined to Gachibowli- our radius is just about 15 km- we also have live streaming, so you can hear us anywhere in the world. Check the website for programme details.
Bol Hyderabad aims to be non-discriminatory, democratic and independent. It will produce a wide variety of programmes on information and entertainment, in at least four languages: English, Telugu, Hindi and Urdu. The station will also remain sensitive to the impact of its programming within the university community as a whole, as well as the communities residing around it.
Ideas for what we can do are very welcome. They will be vetted by the station’s Radio Advisory Council, of course, but we really need people to come up with suggestions of what we can do. Write in, in response to this post, or contact the station directly.
Meanwhile, do tune in. There’s going to be a lot of very cool things on air!

Ratna Sadasyata

Shortly after I took over the Vice Chancellorship last month our respected and eminent colleague Nataraja Ramakrishna passed away. One of my earliest and sad tasks on behalf of the University community was to lay a wreath at his feet then…
Dr Nataraja Ramakrishna was one of the founding members of our University’s Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication. As the first appointed Professor of the Dance Department of the School, he methodically structured the entire dance curriculum and developed a pedagogic practice for teaching dance at the post-graduate level. Through the introduction of the doctoral programme in dance in 1991, he helped systematize the study of dance and brought in new research perspectives. As many as 9 PhDs were completed under his supervision. His association with the Department continued into his final years.
There was cause to celebrate his career once again last Friday. Padmasree Bharatakalaprapoorna Dr. Nataraj Ramakrishna was posthumously conferred the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (referred to as the Akademi Ratna Sadasyata), along with noted vocalist Girija Devi, dhrupad maestro Rahimuddin Dagar, and mridangam exponent T. K. Murthy.

Guru Nataraj Ramakrishna was an eminent dancer, guru, scholar, and musicologist propagating classical dance in Andhra Pradesh for the last 50 years. He was the architect of Andhra Natyam, a dance form he recreated and made popular. He also reconstructed the “Perini Sivatandavam”, the militant male dance tradition of the tenth Century AD (Kakatiya Period). He revived “Navajanardanam” a great prabanda dance tradition that was being performed in Kunti Madhava Temple at Pitapuram in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh for the last 400 years.
He choreographed and staged “Sri Venkateswara Kalyanam”, “Kumara Sambhavam”, “Megha Sandesam” and won the Swarna Kalasam at Ujjain for the production of “Kumara Sambhavam”. He wrote over 40 books on Dance, six of which won him awards from the Government of India. His outstanding books are “Dakshinathyula Natyakala Charitra” and “Andhras and the Art of Dance,” a treatise covering a period of 2000 years.
The University of Hyderabad, in recognition of his seminal contribution to dance, conferred an honorary doctorate on him and has instituted the annual Nataraj Ramakrishna Lecture on Art and Culture in the year 2009. Recently, the University became the privileged custodian of many of his worldly possessions, including his Padma award and other honours.
I would like to thank Professor Vinod Pavarala, Dean of the S N School, for most of the above write-up.