Last August, ICHIM 2004, a congress on digital culture and heritage
was held in Berlin. Digital artists, architects, researchers,
computer scientists and designers displayed their work on the
subject of presenting art and culture using digital technology.
One of the most interesting presentations came from the Sacred
World Foundation from New Delhi, India. The use of hands in traditional
art and craft in India, as well as the symbolism of Indian culture
and Mahatma Gandhi's central ideas and values are the subjects
of the latest works of the The Gandhi Multimedia Museum foundation.
The museum demonstrates an impressive extent of research and also
respect of Indian tradition and thought. Tradition is meaning
and simultaneously art, symbolism. The Sacred World Foundation
gives us a new approach on how to present tradition and art using
the newest forms of technology. Artfacts.Net interviewed Ranjit
Makkuni, director of Sacred World Foundation.
Q: What inspired you to create this foundation?
A: The aim was to develop bridges between two kinds of consciousnesses;
between a consciousness based on ego and technology and a consciousness
free of ego and tied to tradition.
Q: Why is this foundation perceived as
a laboratory?
A: Because we are researching for something.....
Q: Who are the current collaborators?
Who decides which theme will be explored?
A: We are tied to a network of 200 scholars and artists and also
have connections with HP labs in Ivrea, in Milan (Italy), glassmakers
in Murano (Italy), craftsmen in Oaxaca (Mexico), Bali (Indonesia),
Thailand and Myanmar. A vision statement focusing on sacred arts
documentation, the reversal of the digital divide, new musical
instruments and cleaning up India, has been made. This is the
vision that I created.....
Q: Are you planning to work on themes
from the ancient cultures of other developing countries, such
as Mexico, Guatemala, Egypt and Peru, for example?
A: We are interested in the world's goddess traditions, and are
currently looking at musical instruments from Burma to Indonesia.
We are also looking at the understanding of the value of compassion
throughout Asia.
The Gandhi exhibition focuses on the use of the
hands. Does the laboratory work also on the use of other parts
of the body or the whole body for an understanding of interaction
with technology?
The use of hands was an important discovery in the evolution of
the human.
Most mammals have hands, but only human hands are able to create
from nature; to create fire, architecture, computers and music…
I think the mind reflecting on itself is a crucial tool that differentiates
humans... and I believe that hands and the mind are a whole.
Q: What are the next projects?
A: Magic Strings, it shows the different use of the lute from
Burma across to Indonesia.
Q: Art and technology rooted in traditional
thought. How do you understand this relationship?
A: Traditional thought shows the man/nature symbiosis, as well
as the yearning to question the meaning of existence. In western
culture, people have decided that the body is a computer and have
devised various strategies to accommodate and validate this. However,
when you explore other ways of experiencing consciousness in which
physical reality is not the ultimate reality, we arrive at different
notions of consciousness... and from this to different relationships
with nature, with communities, and so on.....
The Gods created the world but kept for themselves the secret
of the creation and their address.
Sacred World Foundation uses technology to preserve and express
communal identity. 'In the context of developing nations, the
laboratory is pursuing a model of development in which the introduction
of techno-culture in developing countries will not wipe out traditional
communities, but instead preserve tradition, reintegrating skills
and traditional aesthetics in the design of new tools. Such culturally-rooted
technology and design will enhance the accessibility of computing
technology to a greater number of people', it states.
Sacred World Foundation won the Prix Ars Electronica Center in
Linz (Austria) in 2002 and other important design prizes in New
York in 2002 and 1998.
For more information about the foundation projects
and recent research venues, visit the webpage:http://www.sacredworld.com/ |
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