Constructing Personal Archives 2022
Over the last three years since the pandemic, we have been able to work with almost 50 different personal and/or community archiving projects through our homegrown initiative, Constructing Personal Archives, and its different outcomes. In 2022, we continued similar efforts to enable participants from across borders to come together to participate in different workshops, co-create archiving projects, and engage in related conversations.
Our collective interest is to subvert the purpose of archival histories and dialogues around the creative interpretation of cultural narratives has constantly pushed us to think more critically about the relevance of personal archiving projects to different audiences across Indian and South Asian society. We have thus been exploring spaces for curatorial engagements, from a cubist art gallery in New Delhi to a metro station in Bangalore; from online incubation programs to onsite research and capacity building; or continuously exploring various forms of language and communication strategies to reach the masses.
In the public showcase of CPA 2022, “Namma Harate Jagalige Banni” we are keen on discussing the possible relationships between the different kinds of personal archiving projects with the wide range of public whom we may meet on the streets. The presenters and audiences are encouraged to bring their interpretation of the “streets” to the showcase; whether it is the sonic experience of Bangali heard in Kolkata homes versus the regional centers of Dhaka; the experiences of celebrating a festival between Baroda to Bangalore; the ways in which one searches for lost legacy in family archives or community histories; or from shopping for literature in the markets of Ulhasnagar to reviving the forgotten atrocities of the conservancy lanes, and more. Also, bring along your friends from the neighborhood.
The continuing participants of the second edition of Constructing Personal Archives 2022 (CPA 2022), spanning from Sep 2022 to Feb 2023, bring to us a slice of this spectrum of approaches.
Join us on 6th and 7th May 2023, from 12pm to 8pm.
Public Programming
Saturday, 6th May 2023 | Exhibition is open from 12pm to 8pm IST
11.30am - 1.00pm: Sindhi Readings with Soni Wadhwa
11.30am - 1.00pm: Critical Making and Political Ecology with Tonisha Guin
02.30pm - 4.00pm: 'When the Folks Sing' by Shwetal Bhatt
02.30pm - 4.00pm: Transfer of Memory, a workshop with Aparna Raman
05.00pm - 6.00pm - Keynote Speech by Urvashi Bhutalia, Zubaan Books
06.00pm - 8.00pm - “Archives as socio-political identities” with Zannatun, Srinidhi, Tonisha, and Soni
Sunday, 7th May 2023 | Exhibition is open from 12pm to 8pm IST
11.30am - 1.00pm: Knitting Narratives with Kaustav Chatterjee
11.30am - 1.00pm: Book Reading with Githa B
02.30pm - 4.00pm: Treasure Hunt with Srinidhi Prahlad
02.30pm - 4.00pm: 'Read the Time' with Zannatun Nahar
05.00pm - 6.00pm - Keynote Speech by Dr. Aparna Vaidik, Ashoka University
06.00pm - 8.00pm - “Reimagining Kinship Through Archives” with Kaustav, Aparna, Githa, and Shwetal
Introducing CPA 2022
In this year's edition of Constructing Personal Archives, we are bringing to you a series of shorter workshops with varying durations, formats, and requirements. Outcomes of the projects may differ, as we go along the journey over the next six months. Some projects might turn into exhibitions, some might take a digital art form, and some might be a publication. We are thus keeping it optional if all participants want to continue for a few months or all six.
*For better outcomes for your projects, we will recommend a long-term engagement.
To begin, the first workshop (Sept'22) in this series was focused on proposal building and developing intentions for different kinds of archiving projects. We talked about where and how to start, and what to keep in mind for outlining the processes and the preparations for the next few months of archive-building exercises.
Invited speakers Mehwish Abid and Richa Hushing will introduce us to interesting and contrasting processes of approaching archival projects, setting an intent, and seeing it through over the years of working with different kinds of collaborations.
Second, in the series (Oct'22) of workshops, the one-and-a-half-day exposition will be dedicated to the collection, documentation, and recreation of archival materials. In collaboration with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore and Heritage Beku, we invite you to start looking for archival materials, in personal collections, community narratives, resource centers or in the memory of the people.
Bangalore-based community members from previous initiatives of Constructing Personal Archives, Dipti Desai, Radhika Hegde, and Rukmini Swaminathan had set the context with their extensive work on personal histories and a variety of experiences to share. In the subsequent session, we looked at the extensive research and documentation work carried out by INTACH Kashmir and Art Deco Mumbai, presented by Sameer Hamdani and Suhasini Krishnan respectively.
This engaging day came to a perfect ending, with Suresh Jayaram joining us for an informal chat about his various art projects which engage with archival practices and explore new possibilities of documentation and dissemination of Bangalore’s diverse histories.
We are now moving into more focused exercises on developing a tree structure/ record management and the use of catalogs for interpreting narratives in the third workshop (Nov'22) of the series. Though there is a sense of continuity, we encourage new and old participants to come together in each engagement.
We are thrilled that both Saman Quraishi and Soumya Bhave have accepted the invitation to engage with us hands-on with their experiences and inquiries. The first day of the workshop will be dedicated to individual exercises for framing the archival projects in perspective. Followed by dialogue around interpreting narratives on the second day, with the intention to understand the relevance of cataloging.
*Eventually, Deepti Anand and Sanghamitra Sen from Past Perfect Heritage took over the session scheduled by Soumya Bhave due to a medical emergency.
We are now moving into more focused exercises on developing a tree structure/ record management and the use of catalogs for interpreting narratives in the third workshop (Nov'22) of the series. Though there is a sense of continuity, we encourage new and old participants to come together in each engagement.
In the fifth workshop, we engaged with some digital tools and platforms and develop your archival project into a web-based experience. On the first day, we worked hands-on with Arko and Ram to understand the possibilities of Lekha and Papad respectively. On day two, we had guest presenters, Shamsher and Shristi speaking to us about their projects and processes of visualizing digital archives.
We have a wide range of young practitioners from across different contexts and disciplines, who will share their well-meaning projects or initiatives. These practices have been deeply rooted in ideas of making history and heritage accessible, but also engaging or even fun in creative ways.
BackStory
"The search must go on, pandemic or not!"
Over the last two years, so many of us have got together to construct personal archiving programs across the country and even beyond the borders. Some of you spontaneously came on board for shorter workshops while quite a few of you wrote proposals for the longer incubation program. The finale videos and the publication from CPA 2020 are still fetching audiences and readers of all kinds.
But we were most thrilled when your trust in us went all the way in curating a physical exhibition in New Delhi. Amidst those diverse conversations, somewhere we found ourselves making a promise: that we will continue constructing personal archives together!
Constructing Personal Archives can only have many beginnings, not an end.
So, if you are interested in working with your family heirlooms, or collecting community narratives and aspire to make your personal history be seen and heard, write to us.
