What Do You Need to Setup An Indie Gaming Community?
Pather Panchali (Song of the Road)
Satyajit Ray’s monumental Pather Panchali deals with an impoverished family in rural Bengal. Maybe monumental isn’t the right word for this humble movie and yet, it is apt because of the film’s intense depiction of human emotions and its towering position in Indian cinema.
This is Satyajit Ray’s first film and the first in a trilogy depicting Apu’s coming of age and a family’s fateful descent into misfortune while the father works in the city. Adapted from Bibhutibhushan Banerji’s novel of the same name, it reproduces many of the episodes from the book. However, it commands pacing, cinematography, and performance which make it a distinguishable work in its own right and a prime example of India’s transcendental take on Italian Neorealist cinema (c. 1944–1952), which was based on serious concerns and social realism.
The director has a keen eye for establishing natural pacing devices—from gathering storms to flitting mosquitoes—accompanied by Ravi Shankar’s sitar music. In a celebrated scene, the mother is unable to communicate to the father that their daughter Durga died from a cold; the mother’s cries are replaced by wailing sitar notes. The shot remains helplessly ‘immobilised’ as the anguished father rises out of the camera’s view, then returns helplessly to it.
The film’s pacing alternates between quiet, domestic chores and vibrant, exterior episodes in which Apu and Durga behave as children do. Much like the source novel and the Mangal-Kāvya poems in Bengali literature (made up of episodic poems called panchali), it is the periodic nature of rural life which drives the film forward. Although it differs from commercial western narratives, with their linear cause-effect plots and clear resolution, the film made its way to western audiences winning the Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival (among many others).
Of note is the film’s excellent black and white cinematography, which brings out the bright blaze of India’s heat and the silvery tones of the monsoon habitat to crystalline, elemental palpability. The recent Blu-ray release eliminates the ‘ghosting’ effect and muddy transfers of previous VHS or DVD releases.
Finally, one cannot imagine Pather Panchali without the actress Chunibala Devi, who plays the aged widowed aunt. The moment she comes to realise that she is no longer wanted in the household, convinces me that the medium close-up was invented for this moment in film history.
When I met Satyajit Ray’s son in Calcutta, he gifted me with an original poster of the film. A Bollywood producer present in the same room leapt up for it. That poster made it through the monsoon (unlike Durga) and Pather Panchali continues to win hearts across the world. It is in this spirit that this review was written—with the hope that a work from a different time and so close to the human spirit, could become something personal for the readers of THINK.
Charting space and time
From Google Maps to Pokémon GO, without maps the world would not function. But how did we start developing them? Ritienne Gauci and Dr William Zammit take a look at historical maps to discover fascinating quirks about the Maltese Islands. So how were map errors inherited? And what is the connection between religion and maps?
Science, art, academia: Star Trek
The Star Trek academic symposium will be held at the Faculty of ICT, University of Malta, on 15 and 16 July 2016. This event will be a platform for both academics from various disciplines as well as Star Trek fans to meet and explore the intersection between the humanities and the sciences. There will be inspirational presentations from national and international speakers, with the programme tailored to attract a wide audience. Contributors will be encouraged to explore contemporary issues in medicine, science, and technology as well as philosophical, psychological, and sociological issues connected with the science fiction entertainment franchise Star Trek.
A similar symposium was held in 2014 and which proved to be a worldwide first that successfully drew participation from many international scholars including American philosopher Jason Eberl, UK-based neonatologist and ethicist Neena Modi.
As a result of its success, this second event that marks the 50th anniversary from the launch of Star Trek: The Original Series is being organised. The event will be held under the auspices of the Humanities, Medicine and Sciences Programme (HUMS), a University of Malta programme set up to explore and encourage the interfaces between the humanities, medicine, and sciences. The Science Fiction Symposium will appeal to scientists and fans of science fiction alike..
For more information, visit the website.
Transform everything
Digital technology opens up new possibilities for the visual arts. It allows artists to go beyond the traditional constraints of art. Sculpture is a centuries-old tradition reliant on the relationship between the artefact, and its material and space around it. In the past, sculpture was confined to being a physical act; it produced three-dimensional tangible objects that had little to do with the digital world.
But this is just one side, if you would forgive the pun, to sculpture. Sculpture can be viewed as a mental process. It is the act of remediating things, or rather reassigning meaning to objects. Marcel Duchamp’s infamous sculpture ‘Fountain’ (1917) is perhaps a perfect example of this. Meaning is a social and cultural construct created through interactions by people with the objects and their environment. Since meaning is fabricated by society, then it stands to reason how the same objects have held multiple interpretations through time.
Matthew Galea (supervised by Dr Vince Briffa) explored these social and cultural constructs to create novel artworks. To do so, he employed skills from different disciplines including drawing, painting, sculpture, music, and the other performing arts. But instead of expressing them individually he fused them into one art form. The various art forms could be experienced collectively, for example, as a musical instrument, or a painting, or even through movement.
The multidisciplinary approach also allowed Galea to investigate chemistry and physics as ways of generating content and engaging with the artefact. Galea produced an art installation that made use of the night sky, which itself has held multiple interpretations by humankind throughout time. The artwork transformed movement into audio and visual content.
Thanks to his research, Galea helped show how hyperdisciplinary artefacts that fuse various art forms are possible through digital technology. Computers can transform data into an image, audio, or text. Software can transform anything. Digital technology can enhance artworks’ interactivity with the audience, making visitors part of the artwork.
To see the project’s outcome visit the website.
This research was performed as part of a Master of Fine Art in Digital Art which Matthew Galea completed at the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences (MaKS), University of Malta. It is partially funded by Master it! scheme. This scholarship is part-financed by the European Union—European Social Fund (ESF) under Operational Programme II—Cohesion Policy 2007–2013, ‘Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life’.
Art for research’s sake
Performing artists support medical research through the University of Malta’s Research, Innovation and Development Trust
Modern European sculpture
French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) is the progenitor of modern sculpture. He rebelled against idealised forms in order to express the inner truths of humanity in his artworks. His successors went on to challenge his work, continuing to explore the aesthetic revolution he had started. Key examples include Henry Moore (1898–1986), Alberto Giacometti and the largely undiscovered Swiss sculptor Hans Josephsohn (1920–2012).
These artists were studied alongside Maltese sculptor Josef Kalleya (1898–1998) at the conference entitled ‘Peripheral Alternatives to Rodin in Modern European Sculpture’ (December, 2015). The international speakers created significant links between works by renowned sculptors and Kalleya, who has been poorly understood by his contemporaries and is unknown outside Malta. Kalleya developed unique methods of creating photomontages alongside the innovative use of a knife to create powerful visceral incisions as a means of moulding his sculptures. He managed to create a new aesthetic.
The conference brought scholars from all over Europe to discuss these and other European sculptors. The scholars debated topics from the mutation of the human form to an artist’s sense of heritage. The event focused on pioneering sculptors who went beyond their current socio-political context. It also helped place Malta’s own Kalleya deservedly on the international map.
The conference and exhibition were organised by the Department of History of Art, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta. The events were convened by Dr Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci and curated by Nikki Petroni. Other participants included Dr Sophie Biass-Fabiani (Musée Rodin, Paris), Dr Jon Wood (Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds), Barbara Vujanović (Atelijer Meštrović, Zagreb), Dr Julia Kelly (Loughborough University), and Ulrich Meinherz (Kesselhaus Josephsohn, St Gallen).
Knight of Cups
Film review by Dr Philip M. Magri
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Continue readingSensory Apparatus
‘What does it really mean to sense something?’ That was the fundamental question Dr Libby Heaney (quantum physicist and artist) asked herself when she started working on Sensory Apparatus, currently on display at Blitz in Valletta. For almost a year she worked together with Bonamy Devas (artist and photographer) and Anna Ridler (designer working with information and data). For Libby sensing means the collection of data. Science tries to measure everything and is now through so-called ‘big data’ attempting to quantify subjective things, like happiness levels or the perfect online dating match.
Sensory Apparatus visualises the constant surveillance our data is under. In the first room a web of elastic black and white fibres represents a network of light and data. The experience of traversing the space and interacting with the structure is like simultaneously being sensed and sensing the internet. ‘Like the internet, you are missing out if you cannot make it past the first room’, Libby suggests.
The second room has circuit boards and speakers mounted to the walls. People curious enough will trigger a proximity sensor and a computerised voice starts talking. ‘Name. Country. Age. Address.’ What sounds like nonsense at first, quickly develops into the auditive representation of an algorithm. Passing consecutive speakers continuously reveals its different layers. These algorithms are complex programmes, designed to collect the footprints people leave while online. The information is used by marketers to direct and personalise adverts. ‘We wanted to reveal the technology. The actual objects represent the discussion we are trying to make.’
The last room is pitch black. Only when approaching the middle of the room a projector lights up, projecting advertisements directly onto people’s bodies. The commercial pieces, gathered from across Malta, follow every movement, change constantly and are reflected from the room’s glossy walls. At the exhibition opening, once people noticed they were being used as a billboard, they quickly moved away. ‘People change and behave differently in there’, Libby says, making it obvious how advertisements influence us online.
As a quantum physicist this change in behaviour reminded Libby of the Quantum Zeno effect, a phenomenon where an unstable particle will not decay while it is being observed. For Libby the concept of surveillance and the philosophy behind it led her to Sensory Apparatus. French philosopher Michel Foucault came up with the idea of panopticism, that inspired the exhibition. Panopticism is a social theory extending the panopticon, a prison designed to allow one person to observe all prisoners. Inmates would know they are possibly being observed, but could never be sure. This ultimately changes their behaviour. Sensory Apparatus’ first steps can be relived in the educational room near the artworks. The artists’ personal notes, inspiring articles, and other materials are laid out for everyone to explore.
The free exhibition opens every Tuesday–Thursday from 10am–3pm and Friday–Saturday from 3–7pm at Blitz, 68 St Lucia Street, Valletta, until April 6. For more information see thisisblitz.com
Sensory Apparatus is supported by Arts Council Malta / Malta Arts Fund.