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Abhinay Khoparzi
Abhinay Khoparzi is good friends with technology, new and old, hard and soft, and loves putting together
old components for new uses. He is also a cinematographer, editor and music composer with an agile hand
for percussion. His recent hindi feature film, Kshay, is currently touring festivals around the world,
having won Best Director at SAIFF, New York. He played multiple roles on its production while leading the
cinematography and post-production.
In the past, he has been a technology reviewer and continues to be so at a personal level, hence remaining
updated on quick solutions for innovative needs. He is currently developing a new software and technology
platform for a first generation art-music product. He is one of the founders of 3rd Thought Entertainment
and 3rd Community.
Akshat Nauriyal
Akshat Nauriyal is self confessed internet junkie living in the digital age. He is a musician,
filmmaker, and web entrepreneur.
As a filmmaker, he has always been intrigued by stories that lie embedded within real life.
He is the founder of Now Delhi.tv, which is an internet based documentary series which takes you
deeper into the Indian Underground. It features short stories of emerging Indian subcultures like
Graffiti, Performance / Digital Art and Independent Music.
As a musician, he is the founding member of the band Another Vertigo Rush, who are regarded as one
of the first post-progressive rock bands of the country. The band introduced the experimental sounds
to India, which won several awards and acclaim both locally and internationally. Currently he plays
with Electro rock band Teddy Boy Kill, as an attempt to reinterpret electronic music with live drums.
As he grows, and sees more of the world, he hopes to explore different synergies between the audio
and visual mediums.
Blessed to be born in this time of the internet revolution, he believes in its infinite potential,
especially for creators, and is capable of having stupendously long conversations about it over
some coffee.
also see: http://www.myspace.com/anothervertigorush | http://www.soundcloud.com/teddyboykill
Ansuman Biswas
Ansuman Biswas was born in Calcutta and trained in the UK. He now has an international practice encompassing
music, film, live art, installation, writing and theatre. With skills in a number of different fields, he
has developed a dynamic practice which traverses, translates and transposes across various kinds of borders.
An example of this border-crossing is his mapping of Vedic and Buddhist thought to modern debates in
science and philosophy, which then find expression in film or performance.
Over the last few years his work has included directing Shakespeare in America, translating Tagore’s poetry
from the Bengali, designing underwater sculptures in the Red Sea, living with wandering minstrels in India,
being employed as an ornamental hermit in the English countryside, touring with Björk, spending three days
blindfolded in an unknown place, travelling with shamans in the Gobi Desert, playing with Oasis, collaborating
with neuroscientists in Arizona, living for a week with absolutely nothing but what spectators chose to give
him, co-ordinating grassroots activists in Soweto, being sealed in a box for ten days with no food or light,
making a musical in a maximum security prison, re-designing Maidstone High Street, being a soloist with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra, bathing strangers, running seminars on democracy for monks in a Burmese
monastery, being locked in a Gothic Tower alone for forty days and nights, and even flying on a real magic
carpet in Star City, Moscow.
Ansuman has shown visual and time-based art at Tate Modern, The South London Gallery, The Whitechapel
Gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, India International Centre, New Delhi, Yerba Buena
Centre, San Francisco, and many other galleries and museums around the world. He has worked as a composer at
the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House and London’s West End.
Ansuman is a trustee of Arts Catalyst, the science-art agency. He has been part of a pioneering study group
on Cultural Utilisation of the International Space Station, for the European Space Agency, and he has had
a leading role in developing new models of interdisciplinary collaboration as artist-in-residence with
Hewlett-Packard at HP labs in Bangalore. He has also been artist-in-residence at the National Institute
of Medical Research (London), at the Headlands Centre (San Francisco)
, at Portsmouth Cathedral, at the Guangdong Modern Dance Company (China),
at The National Review of Live Art (Glasgow), and at NICA (Networking
Initiatives in Culture and the Arts) Burma.
Anthony Gongora
Anthony Gongora is an interdisciplinary artist who is compelled by driving curiosity and imagination
to create. His ongoing quest to fully explore and understand life has been expressed through his fingertips
on computer keyboards, canvases and clay, and also through the soles of his feet dancing on stages that
traverse the globe. Gongora is an accomplished choreographer, performer, visual artist and educator,
currently teaching at The University of the District of Columbia as an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary
Art in the school of Mass Media Visual & Performing Arts and also at the George Washington University
Department of Theatre and Dance. He has received several awards for his choreography, which has been
performed in venues such as Joyce SoHo, NYC; Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago; St. Mark’s Church,
DanspaceProject, NYC and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Performance experience includes dancing
with the companies of Troika Ranch (NYC), Mordine & Company Dance Theatre (Chicago), Maida Withers Dance
Construction Company (DC), Jan Erkert & Dancers (Urbana) and Bob Eisen Dance (Chicago). Anthony has just
recently completed editing two dance film shorts, TZVETA I and Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk (see
URL below). And, you can see more of Anthony’s creative work via the website linked to his name above.ss
also see: http://www.maidadance.com/Films.html
Aparna Panshikar
Aparna Panshikar was born into a family deeply involved with the performing arts, and had an early introduction
to Indian Classical music from her mother, Meera Panshikar, a disciple of Padmavibhushan Kishori Amonkar and
Pandit Bhaskarbua Joshi. Her own individual singing style has been well received, and often awarded, by
audiences as well as connoisseurs in innumerable concerts around India and several other countries, with a
repertoire ranged from pure-classical to semi-classical forms and also experimentation in combining North and
South Indian Classical music, as well as several collaborations with international electroacousticians, most
notable including Lawrence Casserly, with whom she has performed in several countries since 2006.
Album releases so far include: HMV – 3 titles released as 'HMV presents A Voice for the New Millennium', 2000;
Inreco Records released a ‘jugalbandi’ (fusion) with Aparna singing the Indian Classical style and Sudha
Raghunathan singing the Carnatic Classical style of music, under the title 'UNITY' in 2000; Mook Sound, South
Korea published a fusion between Indian music composed and sung by her, and Korean music played by leading
exponents from that country, under the title 'Winds from Ayuta', in 2002. This won the 'Critics Best New
Release Award' in South Korea for 2002; Mook Sound went on to release another title 'Diamond Sutra' and
'Punyapur ki Sarita' in 2003; Deep Emotions (Silk Road Communications ) released
'Shivoham' – a collection of verses by Adi Shankaracharya sung by Aparna, accompanied with sarod and
keyboard, 2004.
In addition to her albums and her work with Lawrence Casserley, she has also successfully worked with Greg
Turner – an American musician based in South Korea playing Indonesian gamelan, with whom she first exchanged
ideas, followed up with basic music pieces and finally created a song, without ever meeting each other.
She has also worked virtually with Kai Turnbull, of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, but Kai
eventually came down to India and recorded classical pieces directly from her, modified to suit western rhythm
patterns as used in pop music. When she travelled to France for a promotional tour of her album 'Shivoham',
she worked with the composer and singer Rudolfe Burger to create an experiment that resulted in a small
concert for music lovers and connoisseurs. She has participated in and led various seminars and discourses
in recent years and is presently taken up with establishing her dream 'Bandish ~ The School of Music', as an
umbrella institution for supporting learning, research and propagation of Indian music all over the world, and
also as a convergence point for musicians of all description.
also see: www.khayalgroove.com
Archan Nair
Archan Nair is a self developed visual artist, illustrator and Art Director, specializing in mixed media,
illustration, and digital art.
Archan is inspired by various phases and forms of life to create highly intricate works that connect the
various dimensions of our existence.
Formerly a fashion major and entrepreneur, Archan started painting in 2006 at the age of 24 and made the
shift to independent artist in 2007. Since then he has embarked on an exhilarating and inspirational
journey, collaborating with various companies and individuals around the world such as Canon, Nike, Tiger
Beer, Sony, etc. He has been featured in various publications including Computer Arts, Digital Arts,
Advanced Photoshop, GQ, Bak, Vanity Fair, and has achieved recognition from music artists like Kanye West.
Archan's passion and love for the creative process and expressing himself has opened a whole new journey,
where he is exploring the beautiful essence of life.
Arun Mehta
Arun Mehta is President of the Bidirectional Access Promotion Society where he provides training in
software development for the cloud to computer students, with whose help he developed Skid
(skid.org.in) a free platform on which one can customize solutions to learning problems of
children with cognitive disabilities. With Aparna Panshikar, he has also recently started training
in classical singing for non-verbal persons with autism. And, together with Anmol Anand, he co-developed
PocketSMS, the first in Bapsi's Vibration series of communication solutions for persons who are both deaf
and blind.
Ashhar Farooqui
Ashhar Farooqui aka Toymob, singer/songwriter/producer/traveler/photographer has been performing and
learning music for little over a decade. His work ranges from playing with bands, commercial ventures,
studying and practicing Indian Classical music, to research work in the folk music of India. Since 2008,
he has also been actively involved in photography, expressing through the means of Time lapse and video.
Ashhar started writing original music with the band Envision in 1997. The music soon changed from Rock to
Electronic, by 2000. Envision finished 2001 with 'Patterns and Moodswings', an electro acoustic album
produced by Samrat B. The time between that and 2007 was spend in tutelage under Sh.Manjeet Singh in Bhartiya
Kala Kendra, learning Classical Vocals, and building a career in music production.
In 2007, Ashhar formed Teddy Boy Kill, an electro dance music band, with Samrat B. The years since have been
about extensively traveling with Teddy Boy Kill around the country and abroad. Through all of this, a felt need
to better understand indigenous music triggered the desire for starting a self-funded project on folk music of
India, upon which he now writes a blog, http://www.wordpress.com/folkdiaries, based upon his travels for this work.
Bettina Wenzel
Bettina Wenzel has been developing intermedia-performances (voice/video/objects) and
vocal compositions since 2000. Recent examples include the "inside out" performances
(dance/voice/inflatable objects/video) presented in Kochi/Trivandrum (India),
&QOT;aufblasbarer Gesang IV" performance (voice/inflatable object/live-video), at
the 10th Anniversary of mex, Dortmund during the Festival "open systems". Examples of vocal compositions
are: "Kolophon" (voice /4 CD-players) at Sprachmusik Musiksprache, Kunstwerk
Deutz, Cologne, "Illusion insoluble" (voice/tape) KGNM Musikfest, Cologne,
"Ä & U" (voice/tape) at BrückenMusik, Deutzer Brücke, Cologne.
As an improviser and performer, she has worked in Vienna, Prague, Paris, Trondheim, New York, San Antonio, Los
Angeles, Bern, London, Mumbai, Delhi, Trivandrum, Kochi a.o.
From 1992 to 2000 she attended voice-training (Alfred Wolfsohn-technique) at the Centre
Artistique Roy Hart (Malérargues/France) with D. Rossignol, Jonathan Hart-Makwaia, Ian
Magilton, Noah Pikes a.o.
Currently, Bettina works as a vocal artist / composer in Cologne, Germany. In 2009, she lived and worked for
six month in Mumbai as artist in residence of Kunststiftung NRW and Goetheinstitut Mumbai. She presented her
performances at NCPA Mumbai in August 2009, working together with the singer Aparna Panshikar and the filmmaker
Shrikant Agawane. In 2010, she presented her performance program "walls&waves" at Goethe Institut
Kolkata, India.
At CeC 2012, Bettina Wenzel will perform "fast enough", an encounter with the Kerala
(India) based slap-bassist Jayen Varma. After all, as both say they are the fastest musicians of their
respective genres, what would be more natural than for them to meet for a "duel-duo" which follows
it´s own rules.
Curtis Bahn
Curtis Bahn is an improvisor, composer and researcher involved in relationships of body, gesture, technology
and sound. He has a musical background including a PhD in music composition from Princeton University, decades
of experience as a jazz bass player in New York City, and, study as a formal disciple of acclaimed sitarist,
Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan. He has designed numerous computer/sensor systems to transform the gesture of the body
into sound and media, and teaches this to musicians and artists as professor of music at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, in Troy, New York.
Curtis performs internationally with his computer-extended sitar and dilruba (a small string
instrument like an Indian ‘cello'); performs with the Cal Arts "Machine Orchestra", a mixed
ensemble of humans and robots; has worked with dancers and musicians including Pauline Oliveros, the Merce
Cunningham Trisha Brown Dance Companies, and; has performed in venues ranging from small clubs and festivals
to Lincoln Center, DIA Beacon, and the India International Centre in Delhi. He will visit CeC this year while
on a sabbatical fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council to study sitar and collaborate with artists in India.
also see: http://www.karmetik.com/artists/music/tmo
Darcy Gladwin
Darcy Gladwin has spent a lot of years experimenting with digital and analogue forms, searching for the uncanny,
the honest, and the sublime. Using music, photography and film, he enjoys playing with senses of time and perception
wih the goal of breaking down established conceptions.
David R. Burns
David R. Burns takes an interdisciplinary approach to creating digital media art by combining 3D computer
modeling and animation, digital video, sound design, and physical computing to push the boundaries of
artistic expression. His creative work explores visual music, memory, and the relationships between
technology, culture, and society. David holds a MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of
Design in New York City. As an associate professor, David developed Southern Illinois University’s first
digital media arts and animation specialization. He teaches 3D computer modeling, animation, and digital
media arts theory and practice.
David's creative work is internationally exhibited at galleries, museums, film festivals, and conferences.
Most notably, his digital media arts and animation work has been screened at the National Film Theater in
London, the National Media Museum in England, the Red Stick International Animation Festival in Baton
Rouge, the Chelsea Art Museum in New York City, the Athens Video Art Festival in Greece, Currents in New
Mexico, the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) in Russia, and most recently
at La Normandie et le Monde at the Musée des impressionnismes in France. David’s research has been
presented and published at numerous international conferences including the International Symposium on
Electronic Art (ISEA) and the Electronic Visualisation and the Arts
(EVA). David is also co-authoring a chapter in Fraggle Rock to Farscape: Essays on the Worlds of
Jim Henson forthcoming from McFarland in 2012.
Dhanya Pilo
Dhanya Pilo works as a film maker, designer and a visual artist from her studio in Bombay, the teeming hub
of India’s artistic and film community. She creates original visual sequences, projections, site specific
installations and even beta tests VJ software before they are launched in the market. The tools she uses
sometimes are more elaborate than the musicians, thats just how much she is willing to push to give that gig
a unique flavor. Filmmaker, Editor, Visual Jockey, Art director, painter, Lighting designer, Sailor… all
rolled into one package.
a.k.a Vj DeCOY is a visual jockey who uses her film making and photographic skills to create images of India
that are evocative, personal and compelling to not just electro music, but even punk, rock, metal, acoustic…..
also see ~ www.myspace.com/dhanyapilo | www.vimeo.com/dhanyapilo | www.youtube.com/dhanyapilo | www.thewallproject.com
Dmitry Morozov ::vtol::
Dmitry Morozov is a Moscow based media-artist, musician and engineer of strange-sounding mechanisms,
operating under the prject-name ::vtol::. Starting in the mid-00s, Dmitry actively began using DIY and
circuit-bent instruments for his own music projects, as well as making instruments for other musicians
and media artists at the same time. He is the first serial music and video synthesizer producer in all of
post-soviet territories, after the collapse of USSR. Besides making music and instruments, Dmitry
creates interactive audiovisual art-installations and advocates circuit-bending and DIY electronics in
Russia by means of lectures and workshops. As an artist and a musician he has participated in many
festivals in Russia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, China,
Hong Kong and Israel.
Eugenia Gortchakova
Eugenia Gortchakova, an artist and curator, was born in Russia and lives in Germany. Her credo: Life
is to discover who am I, and from there to try to improve myself, which means to change the circumstances
in which I am.
Whereas painting is a kind of meditation for her, that brings into consciousness the existential importance
and value of time, the occupation with theories of communication and new media (Bachtin, Jaspers,
Levinas, Flusser, Zielinski) has directed her attention to social and global aspects of informational age
and new media. Here conceptions of time in connection with duality, communicative, dinamic nature of identity -
"I for me" and "the other for me" (Bachtin) - play an important role.
In 1991, she moved from Soviet Russia to the West, which helped to see her roots from a distance. Lately she
began to realise projects in noneuropean cultures (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Tunisia) to
make this distance clearer. The use of new media was also a kind of a trip. Interdisciplinary themes are realised
in videos (see vimeo.com/13427539), in her own latest projects and in curatorial works.
Eugenia has been awarded numerous prizes of international biennials and festivals and also various global cultural
grants (inclduing ifa-Institute for Foreign Connections, Culture Department of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Germany, who bring her to India for CeC 2012);she has participated in international
projects, symposiums and festivals, and; numerous Video festivals in Russia. She had solo exhibitions in museums
and exhibition halls in Germany, Hungary, Russia, Poland, France, Austria; Canada... Among her curatorial projects
were "Translations from Russian" M’ARS Center, Moskau, "ANIGMA" Novosibirsk/2006; "
Crossroads. Nomadic knowledge and art strategies" Bishkek Art Center/2008; "Genius loci" Novosibirsk
Art Museum/2009; "REVERSE" Omsk Wrubel Art Museum, 2011 Sculpture and Object XVI, Bratislava, Galerie Z,
/2010,2011
Freeman Murray
Freeman Murray runs Jaaga.in a creative hackerspace in Bangalore India, which explores new ideas in technology,
art, education, architecture, and entrepreneurship.
Hemant Sreekumar
Hemant Sk has been dreaming since three decades and got involved with noise since 1986 when he started tripping on
televison + radio static. He has no useful music skills and is a computer music native. After loosing patience
with the metaphorical realm in which all DAW's function, he is gaining increasing joy in embroidering coded
computational processes to create sonic situations.
He was trained in 'art history' at the Baroda art college and in 'digital media' at HfK Bremen. He has worked in
the past as a programme-coordinator at 'Khoj Workshop', New Delhi - organizing art projects for 4 years. More
recently he has worked as a researcher at 'Compart', Bremen doing documentation of early computer generated/algorithmic
art from the 1960's under Frieder Nake. At present he is based in New Delhi and works as Data Visualization
consultant for Weiden+Kennedy.
His present compositions deal with notions of measurement, digital decay, data sonification and stochastic emergence.
Jason Levine
Jason Levine is a Montreal-based performance artist, musician, and creative coder. He is quickly becoming known
for creating otherworldly performance-installations using the latest technologies to augment his voice and body.
Jason taught himself to program computers at age 7 and performed with the I MUSICI orchestra at age 9. From then
on, his passion was split between technology and performance. Fascinated by the voice, he began experimenting with
beatboxing and throatsinging. Too avant-garde for traditional music school, he attended the Institute for Living
Voice in Marseilles, France in 2003, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2007, and Antwerp, Belgium in 2010. During his
time at the Institute, he studied under renowned contemporary vocalists such as David Moss, Joan La Barbara, Tran
Quang Hai, and Jaap Blonk. In 2006, Jason completed a Bachelor in Computer Science with a specialization in Music
Technology from Concordia University. That same year he was given the Award for Outstanding Vocal Percussion by the
International Collegiate Championship Acapella and went on to beatbox at Lincoln Centre in New York City with the
acapella group Effusion.
Jason began his new media performance career in 2001 with his live looping group entitled Tabula Rasa. In 2004,
he came in contact with the graphical programming environment Max/MSP, and pandora’s box was opened. Jason began
constructing his own instruments out of sensors, creating gesture-controlled surround sound diffusion systems,
and working with interactive lighting. In 2008, he began working in the worlds of circus and dance as a musical
performer with his unique voice and innovative inventions. Finally, Jason began working with what would become
his primary medium: interactive video. In November 2010, the Kinect was released and a brand new pandora’s box
was opened....
Jayen Varma
Jayen Varma is an Indian electric bass player. He is known for developing tabla and mridangam style finger
technique on bass guitar to play slap bass. The style developed by him is widely known as Indian slap bass,
which won him fans around the globe and accolades from some of the great names in bass guitar like Jeff Berlin,
Bootsy Collins,Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten etc. He belongs to the State of Kerala in India. As per the
validation in 2008 by The Registry of Official World Records (Record Holders Republic)
US&UK, he is the fastest in percussive bass playing. He performs with the band Khayal Groove led by Indian
classical vocalist Aparna Panshiklar
Kornelia Hoffman
Kornelia Hoffmann (*1964, lives in Bremen) is an artist and multimedia designer. Her artistic research and art
works explore the concept of living and habitation / housing. How do we organize living, which forms of
representation do we use in this context and how do we incorporate existing architectural structures, are
questions which underlie her artistic practice. A comprehensive research of the social and cultural surrounding
reflected in residential areas and the living environment are crucial for her attempt. By applying methods of
interlacing and compaction, she creates images of constructed space in diverse emotional states, visualizing
density, mass, overlay, opacity, and loss.
Since 2010, Hoffmann also uses amateur video production created by a mobile device as well as the spoken word
as mediums. "Origin", her first filmic work, is an example of this attempt. Here too, the initial
footage originates from everyday life and newly assembled.
"Out of mistrust towards the firmly established, I investigate the housing and living environment of people
in my collages, objects, spacial images and photographs. I am especially interested in the social and cultural
sphere reflected in these areas, the systems of ordering (symbolic systems?) deriving thereof and the nonverbal
communication of things - texts, the discarded and rejected, banal objects, ordinary items and materials.
Photographs and findings are the initial elements of my work which I combine to collage series and installations."
Lionel Dentan
Lionel Dentan started off playing the guitar, including studies at the Lausanne Classical Conservatory, and
then learned jazz and oriental music. He studied Turkish Saaz with Mousto Mustafa and is now training in sitar
in the style of the Imdadkhani Gharana. However, he is primarily an electronic composer and live performer,
playing synthesizers, laptops, saaz, rebab and sitar, in radical explorations of different genres of music
ranged from Hindustani classical through to Middle Eastern styles, via abstract electronic and ambient sounds;
intuitively and innovatively carrying his music wherever his mind takes him. From Tabriz to Kyoto, via Baroda
and a stop in Buffalo, his influences are as complex as his personality, emerging eventually as highly
individualized sounds and genres that he describes variously as, 'Schizophmusik, Glitchcore, Ambient,
Classicoabstract, Experimental Electro, and Lyricalnoisedeath ….'
Lionel is perhaps best known today as lead member of the band Da-Saz; a collective reborn in 1999 with Suchet
Malhotra, and now based in Delhi. The collective has come a long way over the years, with a variety of ethnic
and hybrid styles of projects and music, that all together aim to set out a platform for new styles of urban
music and traditional forms, through installations, jams, live performances and albums, including the recent
CD 'Sound Reasons' that they helped release in collaboration with Ish S., and Sarai. With 4 main projects,
Da-saz is a platform for contemporary ideas and generative thinking, articulating historical timeframes that
are immediately relevant to the present, whilst also presenting a unique perspective upon modernity.
As a pawn in the decadent oasis of a technological society based upon consumption, that too often forgets the
soul and our earth, Lionel’s work with Da-saz looks to express the need to be responsible for future
generations, through music, dance, creative expression, or any art form,.. as a prayer to the universe that
is both inside and outside all of us.
also see: http://vimeo.com/user7741082
Lukas Ligeti
To be summarized a bit
Lukas Ligeti is a composer and drummer; originally from Austria, he has lived in the U.S., mostly in New York City,
for about 15 years now, and is currently dividing time between New York and Johannesburg, South Africa. He is
trained as a composer in the Western classical concert music tradition, and as a jazz drummer, but from the beginning,
his main interest has been in creating new musical languages and forms of expression. His music ranges from the
through-composed to the free-improvised, via many points in between, and he also composes for contemporary music groups,
orchestras, and soloists; writes for, and performs with, musicians of a jazz background, and; collaborates with
traditional musicians, especially in Africa.
Based on traditional court music of the Kingdom of Buganda, in today’s Uganda, he developed a new, polymetric drumset
playing technique, and many of his compositions are likewise based on interlocking techniques originating in Africa
and on the psychoacoustic effects these musics often feature. His music is also greatly influenced by the experimentalist
attitude found in New York’s "Downtown" music scene, and the tradition of American "maverick"
individualist/nonconformist artists. Yet, while he seeks to be conceptually innovative, he also want his music to be a
visceral and emotionally powerful experience, full of grooves and melodies; elements that seem taboo to many avant-garde
artists. But, he doesn’t see why music shouldn’t be challenging and touching at the same time.
"I have been lucky to work with some great musicians and ensembles. I have been commissioned by Bang On A Can,
the Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and many other outstanding new music groups, and have performed as a drummer
with excellent improvisors such as John Zorn, Henry Kaiser, Eugene Chadboure, John Tchicai, Michael Manring, Gary
Lucas, and Marilyn Crispell. I have also collaborated with choreographers, such as Karole Armitage, and created music
for TV and installations. My music has been released on various CDs, including two dedicated to my compositions on the
Tzadik label. I have received numerous grants and awards, most notably the Alpert Award, one of the most prestigious
prizes for artists in the U.S.
"Another important element of my work is intercultural collaboration. My first trip to Africa to work with
traditional musicians was a commission from the Goethe Institut, and brought me to the Ivory Coast in 1994. There, I
founded an experimental ensemble, Beta Foly, with musicians from all over West Africa, touring a lot over the following
years. I have also collaborated with traditional musicians in Egypt, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Lesotho, among other places,
and have taught at universities in Ghana and South Africa. I am co-leader of the band Burkina Electric, based in Burkina
Faso, where we work on a combination of West African traditional music and electronics. This group has done much touring
in America and Europe during the past few years and we continue to do so.
"Apart from drums, I perform on the marimba lumina, an electronic percussion instrument designed by the legendary
engineer Don Buchla. My music for this instrument combines African and Western marimba playing styles but also
examines how electronics can change percussion technique and how a mixer can be played as a musical instrument.
Using my polymetric playing technique, I create extremely long rhythmic cycles, sometimes lasting thousands of beats;
it is a motion-based, choreographic way of playing, and the music does not have a clear beat but rather many possible
beats, allowing the listener to switch rhythmic allegiances as if looking at a sculpture from different sides. I play
the lumina as a soloist and in groups such as Burkina Electric, but I also composed a concerto for the lumina and
symphony orchestra, commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, which I premiered in New York at Carnegie Hall.
My sounds are mainly samples made during my travels, but also synthesizers; the structures are complex and the music
is a mixture of composed and improvised elements – but it is never random. Like my life, my music does not represent
a clear cultural heritage, but rather a multitude of influences and locations, coming together in coherent unity."
Maida Withers
Maida Withers is the founder and artistic director of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, a Professor in
the Department of Theatre and Dance at The George Washington University, Washington, DC, and Co-Founder of Where
Where IS Productions!
Maida, a powerful and commanding performer, is known for her daring in movement and innovation as a choreographer.
She has created a significant body of work for Maida Withers Dance Construction Company; over 100 dances of
breadth and vision, involving a process of experimentation and collaboration. Every three to five years, Maida
initiates and produces a large-scale work resulting from on-site research and investigation. Current projects
involve international travel and collaboration with artists, scientists, and technologists. Maida has an
on-going interest in the use of technology, multimedia and new media, mixing imagination and daring with a keen
sense of formal structure and beauty. Works reflect her activism for art and other important social and political
issues through thought-provoking non-linear narratives, often laced with wit and humor. Site specific performances
and dance improvisation have been significant aspects of Maida's creative work. Improvisation is important in
the development of the works as well as an art creating spontaneous choreography during performance. She has
toured extensively internationally engaging in various projects in places such as Guatemala, France, The
Netherlands, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Brazil, Finland, Croatia, Venezuela, Mexico, Poland, Germany, and
others. Maida is the founder and co-curator of the D.C. International Improvisation Festival now in its 14th
successful season. Maida, with collaborators, has created an astonishing collection of dance films (documentaries
and shorts), through the course of a career that began in the late 1960’s. Inspired by the likes of Anna Halprin
and John Cage, she soon took her own style, influenced by Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Alwin Nikolais, and
Mary Wigman, from Germany. She was part of what has become known as the modern dance revolution that created
post-modernism in dance in America.
Maria Victoria Muñoz
Maria Victoria Muñoz Castillo is a versatile artist from Colombia, who works across a varied array of media; she does
performance, photography, video and video installation.
Maria Victoria keeps on questioning and reflecting on the notions of appearance and identity. She is deeply interested
on how individuals and society are constantly judging people based on how they look or what they wear. She usually
gets in the shoes of the other by assuming another identity and dressing like a Buddhist monk, a soldier, a priest
or a business man; making a reflection about difference.
also see: http://youtu.be/56uHnJoOWi0 & http://www.mvicky.com
Nishant Pagare
Nishant Pagare is a Post Graduate in Advertising and Marketing from Xaviers Institute of Communications, Mumbai.
After a brief fling with Advertising as a visualiser, he shifted to a more satisfying tryst with the production
of wildlife documentaries and learning the ropes of non-fiction programming by hands on experience in the field.
He is largely associated with the production of non-fiction television programming and audio visual communication
for international broadcast as well as for corporate clients. Nishant also handles acquisition & distribution of
content for Syncline FilmStore, a 6 year old film distribution initiative specializing in online distribution of
documentary films on and about India's vast cultural diversity. Besides his designing and TV programming work,
Nishant also serves as a Trustee for The Academy of Electronic Arts (The AeA).
Parvati Tampi
Parvati Tampi is a journalist and communications consultant living in Delhi, India. Apart from being a writer, a
poet, a social activist and an amateur actor, one of her passions is dancing. She has studied Kathak and some
other forms of dancing. CeC 2012 gave her a rare opportunity to show these skills off during a choreographed
performance. According to her &Creativity comes in soo many different forms. We all have it in us. I only wish
there were more such occasions which give us a chance to reveal our abilities to ourselves and the world.&
Petra Rehwald
Petra Rehwald already started to make music at the tender age of 3 years. At that time she learned to play the first
pieces of music from her grandfather, who was a musician himself. From the age of 6 years she began with her
instrumental education (flute, piano, guitar). At the age of 8 she was trained in classical ballet. Since the age of
10 she´s playing Hackbrett (hammer dulcimer), a traditional instrument in her area.
The sound of this instrument fascinated her from the beginning, and since then it became her constant companion. Over
the years as an autodidact she developed her very own unique style. At the same time she started to perform as a
soloist, in choruses, orchestras and music ensembles. 1979 – 1982 she studied science of education with music as her
major subject.
The eighties were characterized by performances in the alternative scene in Germany (peace-, anti-nuclear
- and ecological movement …). Later, she performed throughout Europe with various musicians and ensembles
from all over the world.
Since the ninetees she went on numerous musical journeys to India. In between, Petra was teaching music to children
groups in her home. There was a lot of experimentation, sound-research and improvisation. The children built sound
objects and new instruments. 'Complete' pieces of music as well as musical plays were developed together, composed
and performed.
At the end of the nineties, she started working with different percussionists, mainly with own compositions and the
unique sound of her Hackbrett, that´s inspired by Petra´s frequent travels to foreign cultures.
About 2000 she set to work with the composer and sound-artist Werner Gruber at major performances with experimental
music. Amongst others: 'Elastic Dreams' (Max-Planck- Forum, Munich); 'Impulse Response'
(Festival Experimenteller Musik, Markgrafentheater Erlangen); 'Klangreliefs & More'
(Management Centrum, Schloss Lautrach).
At present she´s assisting the sound-artist Werner Gruber at the conceptual design of a sound-art exhibition. And,
since some time, Petra is also working regularly with international musicians on different music projects and
recordings in Delhi and Barcelona (Lionel Dentan, Fakhroddin Ghaffari, Eeish Less, Pedro Collares,
Stefano Pompillo…).
also see: www.soundcloud.com/liopetra
Ritika Singh
Rosalind Malik
My name is Payal Rosalind Malik
I live in New Delhi
I draw, paint and like to sing
The most i remember of my younger days was me drawing/painting
I loved to draw expressions
I loved to paint my surroundings
The one and only that gave me happiness without asking
Time went by...
I grew up and with that my experiences..
To an extent where i lost myself
Today I look back and wonder..
Was that really me??
Yes it was..
How sure, how determined I was once upon a time
I thought
How could I let my love go so far away from me...
Could I not bring it back?
And today while I sit and write my introduction to you
I know what I have to do
Go on be me child again
Be me once all over again
Become the love i knew
Being me is who
Shankar Barua
Shankar Barua has been many things in life before coming around to his present preoccupations as Managing Trustee
of The AeA, in which role he is also Curator of CeC 2012. These include adventure-travel writer & photographer,
asst. editor and designer of magazines, illustrator, publisher, pack-shot photographer, well-digger &
drought-relief worker, book-author, columnist, artist, musician, tea-taster, corporate consultant, advertising
copywriter, public speaker, photography workshop leader, public relations professional, TV anchorperson,
product prototyper, film-maker, and so on and on and on.
Whereas he continues to be some of these things still, his primary goals presently have to do with promoting
and empowering creative experimentation & innovation in countries such as India, on the back of the burgeoning
evolution and spread of technology.
Sharath Chandra
Sharathchandra R is a Research Associate in the Cognitive Neuroscience Centre at the National Institute
of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, with research interests in
embodied cognition, virtual reality and multimodal perception. He graduated with a Masters in Artificial
Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh (within the Institute of Perception, Action
and Behaviour) in 2008, specializing in human-computer interaction.
Being a licensed amateur radio broadcaster (VU3HPA), he is a proponent of the free use of
airwaves for relief work, education and transmission art, has been a development related radio journalist for PANOS
UK (@Nepal), trainer for community radio NGOs (VOICES-UNDP) and speaker
at the International HAM-Radio Convention (Port Blair, 2006).
As an experimental media artist, he is involved in multimodal interactive art installations. His recent video art
'Neon Fauna' (at the 'Sound and Lights' exhibition of Jaaga.in in collaboration with the Goethe
Institute @Bangalore) explored 'generalized symmetry' between Nature and Artificial Reality using regenerative
sound. He is interested in micro-perceptions and cellular interactions, and is currently in the process of filming
for Project Green in collaboration with Nomad Films.
Shazeb Shaikh
Shazeb S. is the Founder of Conjure Arts and Media, an upcoming integrated arts business based out of Mumbai and
New York. With Conjure, Shazeb aims to put together an artist community with a wide focus across art forms, media
and genres to promote the works of established and upcoming global artists and their collaborations to produce
releases and exhibitions in film, music, writings, social projects, visual and installation art. In its first year
(2010), Conjure produced a feature length film in India (Kshay) and a medium length film
(Stealing Suburbia) in New York, besides looking forward to unleash its first global
integrated arts exhibition with the launch of a large format coffee table book titled Dispersed Diaries, which
brings together poetry, art, music and videos. With this financially-backed artist collective and arthouse
(Conjure), the motive is to create a new channel to market art internationally with a
sound business-end created by some of India’s top business strategy and management consultants. Shazeb is partnering
this new regrouping of artists and hopes to bring on multiple unique artists in different media while maintaining
the purity and essence of creativity.
In the past, Shazeb S. has established 3rd Thought Entertainment, an integrated-arthouse with a global artist
collective of 32 artists from 14 countries. Shazeb is a multidisciplinary artist himself, with a body of work
in art (traditional and digital), music (IDM), and writings
(classical poetry, epic poetry, prose) and films. Shazeb is also a core member of The
Wall Project, a Mumbai-based social arts project that has gained mass involvement from citizens and governing
bodies of Mumbai city.
In the coming years, Shazeb S. is focusing on completing a poem with the conventions of an epic that he began
writing over 3 years ago and which he wishes to spend the rest of time with evolving the original text into
a graphic novella, an opera pairing an orchestra with experimental soundscapes, and finally a film set in
the largest dream that forms the crux of the story – the creation of a real kingdom as imagined in the poem.
He will continue exploring first-generation innovations in the meanwhile linked with sensory alteration via
sensory therapy with initial application with music therapy that he studied after he finished graduation with
English Literature.
Shazeb is also Core Co-curator of CeC 2011-2012, and a Trustee of The Academy of Electronic Arts.
Also see: www.conjurearts.com
Sheela Raj
Coming full circle.. I grew up in Delhi many moons ago and left as a teenager to pursue a dream, of modern
dance. London/New York/Paris: "been there done that". dancing with London Contemporary Dance Theater,
Twyla Tharp and Dancers, Merce Cunningham, my own company "Le Cercle", based in Paris, then solo work
and much research.. Theater with Peter Brook, Bob Wilson. East West center "Chakra", in the South of
France: Return to roots, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra: Pandit Durga Lal, Pandit Vinaya Chandra Maudgalya,
Fahimuddin Dagar: multiple blessings, and then Yoga, the "glue" binding all together.
Steve Hilmy
Steve Hilmy was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of a Scot and an Egyptian. His early training was as
a violinist, later switching to composition after moving to the USA in 1979. Amongst his composition teachers
were William Albright at the University of Michigan, and Jean Eichelberger Ivey and Chen Yi at the Peabody
Conservatory of the John Hopkins University. Steve has been on the faculty of The George Washington
University Music Department since 1992 where he is the Director of the Electronic Music Studio. He has received
grants and awards from such organizations as Meet the Composer, the Southeastern Composers League, ASCAP,
BMI, the Peabody Conservatory, and The Virginia Center for Creative Arts, including first prize in the Philip
Slates Memorial Composition Contest for "Icarus Falling" (piano and electronics, 1989); the Gustav Klemm Prize
for Composition at the Peabody Conservatory in 1991; and 2nd place prize in the Prix dÕete II composition
competition at the Peabody Conservatory for ÒUsÓ (tenor saxophone and electronics, 1999.). Steve has performed
with Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company since 2005. His compositions have been performed in
Russia, Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, Croatia, and in the USA. Steve recently composed music for three award dance
video shorts, TZVETA I, TZVETA II and Collision Course a.k.a. Pillow Talk currently being shown on film
festival circuit.
also see: http://zeromoon.com/artists/steve-hilmy-daniel-barbiero/ & http://www.maidadance.com/Films.html
Tritha Sinha
Tritha Sinha has been training in North Indian classical music since the age of five,
and is currently a student of Santanu Bandyopadhyay from the Bishnupur
gharana. She then embarked on a career as a Bollywood singer, touring India
and Nepal. She is currently focusing on writing her own original music.
Her spellbinding voice has connected with numerous music lovers from all over
the world. Brought up in the culturally intense city of Kolkata, Tritha is one of
the most promising musicians in her country, equally at home with her Indian
Classical music as with Bjork and Janis Joplin, Abida Parveen and Aretha
Franklin. As a composer and interpreter she has forged her own unique,
inclusive sound and has already gained some critical and popular acclaim for her
songs, several of which were used by the Magnum Agency, France, for their
movies on "Women changing India".
Also see: www.myspace.com/tritha & www.facebook.com/trithamusic
Udit Duseja
Udit Duseja is a film sound designer based in London / Mumbai. He has worked on a broad range of projects
from hit bollywood movies to independent British features, shorts, documentaries etc. He is currently working
on projects with Sound Disposition, London. Their recent work includes Lipstikka (Berlinale,
tiff. Jerusalem Film Festival), Inshallah Football (Chicago International Film Festival)
, Shadow Dancer (premiering this year at the Sundance Film Festival). He is
deeply interested in exploring the experimental territory between sound, image and space, twisting the
conventional ways to create interactivity and new relationships. Udit graduated with a Masters in Sound Design
at The University of Edinburgh.
Also see: www.sounddisposition.com & www.imdb.com/name/nm3740200/
Verena Clemencic-Jones
Verena Clemencic-Jones established the Redkite music therapy program at Sydney Children’s Hospital, New South
Wales, Australia. She uses both vocal and instrumental improvisation with paediatric haematology/oncology patients
and their families.
Initially, Verena completed a degree in contemporary music at Southern Cross University, majoring in vocal studies.
She also has a Graduate Diploma of Music Therapy (University of Technology), and a Masters
in Early Childhood (Macquarie University).
Verena was a member of Australian-Bulgarian women’s choir Martenitsa for seven years and performed at the Sydney
Olympic Games in 2000. She has also studied vocal improvisation/experimentation with Linda Wise
(Pantheatre), and the late Melanie Shanahan (Arramaieda, Akasa).
Inspired by living in Kathmandu, Nepal during 2008/9, Verena recorded 'Om Mani Padme Hum' with renowned Austrian
music producer, Manfred Schweng. This CD combines traditional Buddhist chants with vocal improvisations,
accompanied by Tibetan singing bowls.
Verena is currently learning Hindustani classical vocal music with Aparna Panshikar. She has visited India many
times and was inspired to find a singing teacher after reading Namita Devidayal’s book, The Music Room.
Vicki McConville
Australian Artist Vicki McConville presents films, digital images , soundtracks and diorama ‘museums’. She is
a PhD (Research) candidate at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Her presentation at CeC follows residencies
in Venice and New Delhi where she has been investigating The Essence of Containment: Traversing the Terrain of
Trade (or, ‘how the container changed the world!’).
Vicki McConville has exhibited in Australia, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia and the USA. In 2000 her new
media project 'The Private Eye' toured the UK as part of the Australian Centenary of Federation 'Heads Up' Festival.
Her work is in prominent public collections and private collections throughout Australia, USA, UK, France, Italy
and Germany.
Vicki has worked in traditional printmaking, digital print media, installation, video, film, radio, voice and
performance. Her 2005 project Memento Mori: Art Archives and Archetypes received positive appraisal from visual art
critics and audiences alike. She has been the principal Artist in Residence and Artistic Director on many large-scale
arts projects in Australia, Secretary for the Print Council of Australia (PCA), a Juror for the International Digital
Art Award (IDAA), and a Director on the Board of the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA), the peak
organisation representing Australian Visual Artists.
Vicki's recent short films can be viewed at: http://vimeo.com/user9710767
Vinny Bhagat
Vinny Bhagat aka Shivnakaun is a sound-artist and musician researching in the field of computational electro
acoustic music and audio-visual art and technology. His work explores digital sound generative and synthesis
methods, physical interaction and models for performance and composition. He is deeply interested in spontaneous
art / music performances, distributed online performances and the connection between sound and moving image in
a live performance context.
Born in New Delhi – India , Vinny studied Music Technology and Electronic Music at The Elder Conservatorium Of Music.
also see: http://www.myspace.com/vinnybhagat
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