Sonic art is getting a dogged audience in Delhi and beyond

Londonbased artist Poulomi Desai has lived under the tyranny of the sitar mdash the sociopolitical symbol of BritishAsianness ever since Ravi Shankar crossed paths with the Beatles She was a punk worshipper of the alternative since she started her multidisciplinary work in art in 1980s London specifically performance art mdash through theatre music and noise Feeling like a perpetual outsider to the expectations placed on her as an artiste of her particular racial identity and deeply bored with the sterotyping she decided to pervert and subvert the sitarClockwise from left Sonic artists Chintan Kalra sitting back IMFL Lionel Denton sitting front Da Saz Hemant Sreekumar Poulumi Desai and Simon Underwood Conspirators of Pleasure and Vinny Bhagat Shivnakaun were among those who played at Makers Asylum on March 21 PicAbhishekh SharmaToday I see the sitar as an object that can make many sounds other than the ones children learn when they are taught to play it says DesaiShe soldered an electronic circuit into a forgotten broken sitar harvested from a British Asian attic no doubt to create boombastic noises played with no attention to traditional note progressionsArtiste Vinny BhagatShe and her coartist Simon Underwood in Conspirators of Pleasure gave several speak and learn toys for children the same treatment This electronic tinkering is termed circuitbending ie customising circuits within low voltage and batteryrun devices such as toys digital synthesisers discarded and found objects to create new sound generators The sound thus generated is called sonic artParikramas exbandmember now Delhibased music producer Chintan Kalra who performs as IMFL says his interest in sonic art meant he could take sound production and design to a performative level mdash get an audiences attention to tools which are not traditionally seen as musical instruments to facilitate artistic expressionThough events that give a platform to this aural art are still rare the crowds are increasing says Sreekumar A larger audience turns up for each occasion More people stick around till the end of each show The Internet too makes a lot of older works accessible to the youth mdash and more kids are trying stuff at home than ever beforeWill noise travelFor the past decade Delhibased Shankar Barua has been the curator of Carnival of eCreativity or CeC pronounced sec where the e might stand for electronic or experimental art visual or sound The annual festivals 2015 edition was organised in Shillong Meghalaya The venue for this years edition is yet to be decidedHe resists making open calls for participation at CeC I know that we can easily get more applications than we can realistically assess fairlyand most would tend to be specific types of professionals who respond to open calls whereas there are many excellent types of professionals who never do so he saidThe only real reason the noncommercial sound art experimentation scene remains underground here in India he says is because we are an innovationdeficient civilisation where true innovators are few and far between with almost no empowerment for themBut this may be changingThe geeky toyshopBased in Hauz Rani Delhi Makers Asylum is a partcentral government funded techie studio workshop and coworking space which stocks a generous inventory of useful things power tools desktops 3D printers laser cutters free wifi It welcomes hobbyists hackers artists and entrepreneurs alike to DIY their ideas to actualisation mdash the making of things with ones hands mdash to foster a culture of innovationOn March 21 it was the venue for Disquiet an event that drew Delhi crowds to the crazies mdash Baruas name for the aural geeks he patronises mdash including Ruhail Kaizer who performed as Sister Franco German Lionel Denton Da Saz who moved to India 17 years ago to learn the sitar Hemant Sreekumar an ad professional Londonbased Conspirators of Pleasure IMFL and Vinny Bhagat as Shivnakaun who runs a full fledged artists studio capable of airing performance live online The conference hall was crammed with 200 people which came as a happy surprise to the audio geeks not accustomed to such attentionCreativity and vision are in no short supply but institutional support is failing to keep up aside from Khoj a Delhibased artists association and Pro Helvetia who continue to patronise at a genuine sustained institutional levelBut there is reason to be optimistic as new performers emerge from their adolescence or garages to play before audiences at sometimes swish and other times underground addresses and festivals in Delhi and beyond The leeway and spontaneity it provides through ease of use like all other technologyassisted arts means its a matter of time before the scene becomes sustainableSo listen up