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programme relates to exploring artistic manifestations, emanating from primary
sense-perceptions. Most likely man's first awareness of the world around came through his
primeval sense of sight and ability to hear. Quite obviously, it is these two senses
that have stimulated artistic expressions, visual and aural, in the prehistoric past as
also contemporary cultures.
The twin programmes of Adi Drsya
(primeval sight) and Adi Sravya (primeval sound) have
initiated several projects in the visual and performing arts with a view to explore the
primacy of sight and sound in artistic expression. A major programme of the Centre
is the creation of the twin galleries of Adi Drsya and Adi Sravya. Rock art research
contributed greatly for establishing of the Adi Drsya gallery.
Exposition of primary sense of sound (ear) music and musical instruments will form the Adi
Sravya gallery. Both the galleries will provide the viewer and researcher a basis
for entering and experiencing the living arts of Indian and of other cultures, without
fixing the past to the present in an evolutionary framework. Several types of
studies have been initiated by the Centre to trace the long continuities in the Indian
arts.
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| ADI DRISHYA
Field
Based Projects
Rock art forms the crucial content of this programme. It might in
all probability be the oldest legacy of mankind. The paintings and engravings preserved in
caves and rock shelters capture man’s experience of life and also art itself. The
study of rock art is rapidly catching the attention of the scholars of the world over. It
has great relevance in the context of re-definitions required for study of all arts.
The Centre has laid the foundation of this programme through documentation, research and,
to an extent, re-creation of this most ancient and primary manifestations of man’s
creative urges. Rock art is a relatively young discipline, hence various avenues of growth
are being explored and its research is being carried out in a universal context. It calls
for new methods and perspectives by which this primordial art can be understood. The
Centre’s work begins with Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Central Himalaya.
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- A major field study of Jhiri rock art was launched in
collaboration with Professor Michael Lorblanchet, within the Indo-French CEP. Two sessions
of fieldwork have been done during 1993 and 1996. Water-colour recordings and two trial
excavations have also been done.
- A workshop on “Development and Application of Expert
System” was organized in 1991 by a subject specialist of rock art and a knowledge
engineer.
- A global conference on Rock art was held in 1993, where
eminent scholars from 16 countries had gathered, -- the first of its kind in Asia.
- An exhibition, Mriga (Deer: Early Images), was designed in
1993 in collaboration with Dr. Angelo Fossati, an Italian specialist in rock art.
- A meeting of experts on Conservation, Preservation and
Management of Rock art was held in 1996.
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ROCK ART |
Rock Art forms the crucial component of the Adi Drsya
programme. It might in all probability be the oldest legacy of mankind. The
paintings and engravings preserved in caves and rock shelters capture and record man's
experience of life and also art itself. The study of rock art is rapidly catching
the attention of scholars of the world over. It has great relevance in the context
of re-difinitions required for study of all arts. The Centre has attempted to lay
the foundations of this project through documentation, research and, to an, extent,
recreation of this most ancient and primary manifestations of man's creative urges.
As rock art is a relatively young discipline, various avenues of growth are being explored
and its research is being carried out in a universal context.
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| ADI SRAVYA Field Based
Projects
Sound and silence have profound significance. The intricate sound
systems of plants, animals and birds, the structural sound systems constituting diverse
musical traditions, and the ancient systems of information come face to face with the
philosophic interpretation of sound in Indian tradition. Soundscape or acoustic ecology is
the concern of the modern scholars, both in its aspect of rural cohesive communities as
also the dwellers of megacities. Sound as symbol and sonic design is yet another field of
exploration.
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- Pilot studies have been carried out on the music of small
societies; the Santhal conception of human and animal sound has been studied in depth.
- Soundscape of the Santhal village, “Honeywind: Sounds
from a Santhal Village India” has been produced in collaboration with Peter Pannke
and the Pro Musica Viva Foundation, Germany.
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| The proposed galleries of Adi Drishya and Adi
Shravya will provide the viewer and researcher a basis for entering and experiencing the
living arts of India and other cultures, without fixing the past to the present in an
evolutionary framework. There will also be other events (presentation) and display to
complement the two galleries to give an insight into processes, and not merely the
end-product. Ethnographic materials for both the galleries are being collected. |
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