Category Archives: Art

Brief Introduction to Tabla and Ghatam – Indian Percussion Instruments

Posted on by
2

Last year at Civic Centre of Carmel in Barcelona and earlier at KulturMusik, Centro aragonés de Etnomusicología (Aragonese Centre of Ethnomusicology) I had been invited to give a talk on Indian Music and evolution of film music as a genre. Several participants asked for a separate presentation on Indian musical instruments. Today, accidently I found this interesting video on Shakira’s Youtube Channel, where two percussionists of Indian origin are talking about Tabla and Ghatam. Hope you like it!

Football and Music : Brazilian Melodies, Péle Singing

Posted on by
2

Here in Barcelona this friday Clint Eastwood’s movie ‘Invictus’ is getting released. The movie is based on John Carling’s book, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation. The book covers Nelson Mandela’s actions during Rugby World Cup, 1995 in South Africa. This made me think about similar other instances where Sports have inspired Arts. While I was looking at several examples, I stumbled upon this very interesting radio programme from ‘RadionNacional de España – 3″, (Channel 3 of Spanish National Radio). Given below is the link to the MP3 of these songs. It has some very interesting and very melodious musical pieces from Brazil. And on Minute 54 (it’s more than an hour long) you can hear the legendary footballer Pele sing a song with the most marvellous brazilian singer of all times, Elis Regina.

Songs of Football – click here to listen online or download. (Courtsey : RNE 3. Program – Cuando los elefantes sueñan con la música)

Invisible Man – Creatively Creative

Posted on by
1

Artist Liu Bolin ....'invisible' in front of a cannon. Source: Daily Mail, UK.

Sometime ago through an article on MR, I ended up discovering the incredible artwork by Chinese artist Liu Bolin. His series, titled “Hiding in the city” has become very popular across blogosphere. Look at the picture on the top. The amazing thing about his art is that he doesn’t use any special trick or technology. All he does is to paint himself. He says that the objective of his art is to convey how our surroundings affect us. His art studio in Beijing was shut down by the authorities in 2005. That’s what inspired the title of the first series of photographs, ‘Hiding in the city’.

In general, artists are considered to be creative. Painting a nice landscape or taking an interesting photograph, itself is a creative activity. But what do we call an artist like Liu Bolin? Artists like him, create a new trend, discover a new expression and redefine the boundaries of art. There are some who do a routine thing creatively. But there are a few like Liu who do a creative thing creatively.

Liu Bolin "invisible" in front of a graffiti....source: Daily Mail, UK

Creative Barcodes….

Posted on by
Reply

Creative Barcodes

Design Barcodes from D-Barcode

In a fastcompany article, I read this fascinating story about well-designed barcodes. Since 2005, D-barcode has been creating amazing design barcodes for its customers. This is an excellent example of creativity. Creativity not just lies in bringing out a novel product but also lies in expressing the same thought in aesthetically a more pleasing way. Barcode is probably one of the most ‘un-cool’ elements in any product. But D-Barcode has converted this very mundane element into an excellent example of ‘Expression Creativity’. The concept of Expression Creativity, originally proposed by Dr. Pradip Khandwalla deals with expressing an existing idea or object in a novel and creative manner. You can check their creative barcode galleries here and here.

Anthropology Song

Posted on by
1

Dai Cooper, who is currently pursuing her Masters in Anthropology at University of Toronto, Canada uploaded an ‘Anthropology Song’ earlier this month. In less than a month’s time, the song has received some 20,000 hits and it has been widely discussed across academic blogosphere. It wouldn’t suprise me if the song is soon used in introductory sessions of Anthropology courses too. ¡Quite Creative!

Can You Dance your Research?

Posted on by
Reply

Dance or a Scientific Theory?

Dance or a Scientific Theory?

I recently came across this very interesting contest organized by Gonzo labs, and I sincerely regret not having participated in it. But well, I have a year more to do my best.

I found the idea of the contest and the performance of the contestants extremely creative. The idea was scientific researchers in any discipline, were supposed to choreography based on their research and perform it. They all were supposed to upload their videos on youtube and wait for results. The results are very interesting and extremely creative. In one of my earlier posts I had talked about the idea of “Expressive Creativity”, as explained by Dr. Pradip Khandwalla in his books. Expressing complicated scientific research through choreography and dance, indeed is a great example of “Expressive Creativity”. In his book, “Lifelong Creativity”, Dr. Khandwalla cites, work done by Francis Hare, where he posits that “…aesthetic behaviour is triggered by perceived complexity.” (P. 105)

Obviously, nothing can be more complex than a research project on role of Vitamin D in beta-cell function. However,  Sue Lynn Lau, was creative enough to translate this complex research project into a nice choreography. He in fact, is the winner of the AAAS Dance contest. More vidoes you can watch here.

References:

Khandwalla, Pradip N., 2003, Lifelong Creativity: An Unending Quest, McGraw-Hill Publishing India.

Hare, Francis. G., 1973, “Experimental Aesthetics : The Expressive and Responsive Artist”, Educational Trends, Vol.8 (1-4), 1973, pp. 49-59.

Bookmark and Share

Artist & Objectivity : A Case of Oliver Stone’s ‘W.’

Posted on by
1
Josh Brolin playing George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's 'W.'

Josh Brolin playing George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's 'W.'

Art & Objectivity, kind of, don’t go together always. The eternal contrast between science and art claims that science tries to understand the reality, as it is, while art tries to present reality in form of a subjective interpretation by an artist. Can art be objective? If yes, to what extent?

I thought of this, when I read Oliver Stone‘s own take on his recent movie “W.” on Slate. I couldn’t appreciate all the details that he discusses in the article since, I haven’t watched the movie, as it hasn’t been released in Spain yet, and I really don’t know if it will be released soon. But I found his own take on his function and responsibility as a dramatist, quite interesting. Here he explains what is he supposed to do as a Dramatist and that’s why his movie W, is the way it is. It provides some good insight about how a creator thinks!

Following are some quotes from the article…

“….Our purpose was a dramatization. As you know, these quotes and speeches are strung over years and numerous meetings…… As dramatists we simplify and condense,…….. Drama requires a concrete representation of the abstract “

“…As Dramatist we are shaping the pattern that we see repeating itself in the W.’s presidency. “

Very interesting. Quotes, speeches, body language, mannerisms etc, was studied over years, patterns were identified and the character was created. It’s possible for a biopic that some events, some conversations  are included purely for the sake of narrative. That’s where the movie maker needs to present the abstract, but in a simplified way. “W”, despite being a biopic, is very different from any recent movie in the same genre in one respect, i.e. it depicts important events in life of a sitting president. It’s a huge risk. An overcritical or over-dramatized version could written off as a sheer Gag than a serious movie. Probably it’s this risk that makes Stone say the following…

“But as a dramtist, I consider it professional to remove my feelings, to allow the audience to live through him and see as human”

This is what made me think. What does an artist really do? Is it possible for an artist to remove personal feelings from his/her work? Would an artist ever want to remove his/her feelings from the work? I know, Oliver Stone is a skilled artist. He surely has his own style and he leaves his mark on every movie he does, and this movie would be no exception. It was this thought of bringing this element of objectiveness that he attempts to bring to art, which is interesting and makes me curious. To what extend does he succeed in this? I haven’t seen the movie, but I think he has succeeded in it. Because intelligent reviewers have somehow noticed that.

James Rocchi on Cinematical says, “…..you could argue that what it lacks is a point of view…..”; While Patrick Goldstein in LA times blog says ” …“W.” feels flat and strangely passionless, as if it were directed by someone who makes documentaries…”, While Manohla Dargis in New York Times praises the movie in every way but still puts a remark that, “…because he (Oliver Stone) seems keen to weigh in as more evenhanded than usual…”.

Why so? Maybe they all wanted a scathingly critical depiction of man whose tenure as President has created more problem for the world than any other leader in our memory of recent past. Probably they all knew that Oliver Stone is one of the most eloquent critique of George W. Bush and his policies and they were expecting his movie to reflect his feelings rather than an empathatic account of his life.

What does Oliver Stone himself think of his ‘W.’? In the same article, he says, “.…But our film offers, ironically to me, a strange compassion for W, who is so hard to like…“! Maybe, that’s what the critics didn’t expect! But still an interesting experiment in objectivity by a talented artist!

Bookmark and Share

Creation & Life

Posted on by
1

In February, 2006 I visited an exhibition of works of two famous directors of parallel cinema, Victor Erice from Spain and Abbas Kiarostami from Iran. Over there, I saw a couple of very interesting pieces of art by Victor Erice, which I wish to talk about here.
Victor Erice, some years ago, made a documentary on Antonio Lopez, a renowned painter of Madrid. Lopez has drawn some excellent landscapes. Victor, while making the film, visited the same sites that Antonio López had captured on canvas. Victor captured the same landscapes in his camera and gave his viewers an opportunity to contrast and compare how different pieces of art emit different emotions, using the same premise. More than that, he had created two beautiful artworks from this experiment.

First was called Apuentes or just notes. Here he first showed the landscape and than the motion picture with the soundtrack for the same place. Written notes (in Spanish – Apuentes) were being flashed on the screen, and through them he explained the difference between the painter’s vision and the reality. This was a wonderful experience. In a very brief and beautiful manner he showed, how an artist reinterprets reality with his own choice of colours and shades, without doing any injustice with the reality. As you can see, I am struggling with a huge verbal handicap in explaining and describing this experience.

If in the first artwork I am failing in my attempt to describe the experience, in the second one I don’t think I can make an attempt at all. Let me just describe the entire process and leave perception and imagination to you. Look at the image at the top-left. Now imagine that you are in front of a large white screen. In the middle of the screen there is a dark square, and unlike rest of the screen no lights are thrown on it. Gradually, lights illuminate the white screen and a soundtrack starts. The square in the middle is still in dark, while rest of the screen has been illuminated with a yellow shade, same as that of broad daylight. The soundtrack is that of a noisy traffic. Coupled with the soundtrack, illuminated screen creates an impression of a big road busy with traffic during peak hours of the day. Puzzled but amused you start liking the sound and light. Then gradually lights fade, soundtrack also regresses and lights concentrate on the square in the middle, which emerges to be a canvas; the one given above. In the end, there is total focus on the canvas, no lights elsewhere, no sounds, and on the canvas you see the picture. Believe me, at this point, despite pin-drop silence, you can hear the traffic noise, you can feel the dazzling daylight and you can relate it perfectly to what you are seeing on the screen. And you realize that the director just walked you through the process of the creation of that landscape. Noise – heat – commotion – inspiration – and finally…..an ‘Ontological Silence’.

At that time, I found it to be a metaphor for life. From all the chaos and noise, you try to pick up the best shades, best colours and bring them on the canvas of moments. When the picture is complete, you see no mess, no chaos, and no confusion: but only silence, peace and beauty!