Embedded Files
OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
This project turned out to be something similar to a “eureka moment” for me. In my statement of purpose submitted for proposing my candidature for this project: Digital Media and Technology, I mentioned how I had always known I wanted to work with stories. Understanding our interaction with stories that we consume and tell I later discovered was defined as narrativization. As I made my way through the multidisciplinary terrain of this course, this interest metamorphosed into an academic and creative interest in personal archiving: a branch of archival sciences that stands at the intersection of ideas of memory, remembering, personal histories, modes of preservation, and narrativization amongst others. I felt this was an interesting site where technology meets culture, and though I digressed into researching incidental afterlives later, this was the starting point of my curiosities. I was looking to address how technology and memorialization produce different ways of constructing our digital versions of ourselves and others. As we moved further with readings prescribed in this course and classroom discussion, the questions I began with got diversified, ultimately taking me to the inquiries I explored in my research paper: Accidental Deaths and Incidental Afterlives.
In research, there is that one moment when you land on the exact theoretical framework that explains your inquiry or the data that supports your argument, the “aha!” moment, that not only makes all the hard work worth it but motivates you to push through. This project, both in its subject matter and experimental nature proved to be that eureka moment for me. We started with broadening our understanding of culture, technology and the relationship they share and spread out into different tangents in exploring how this relationship is exemplified. It was the first time I had given a thought to the symbiotic relationship of culture and technology had helped me place a general wonderment (why do we record everything? Even fatalities?) under the lens of a thorough academic inquiry. Understanding culture and technology is in the process of co-construction, the role body plays in a techno-cultural context, embodiment, engagement and interaction with technology, how are narratives constituted in a techno-cultural setting, virtual spaces, moderation and governance, and the avenues digital humanities opens for research, equipped me with the base required to conduct an independent research project. Not just that, the autonomy and agency the course structure ensured helped me gain a fulfilling experience of research. Research is a lengthy and difficult process. The more one is able to commit oneself to it, the more rewarding it is. Since there is no generalized way of committing oneself to one's work, it’s a unique process for everyone. I am glad our course was able to respect each student’s uniqueness and allowed us to put it to best use.
I can confidently say that I was at liberty to pursue my interests and walk out of this semester with a deeper understanding of the chosen area of work, research outputs that I am proud of and clarity about my academic interests and strengths. For the first time in my academic life, I don’t feel lost about the way forward. Something that comes with having the choice to experiment, take risks and have your institution back you with all the support you need.
FINAL PROJECT
FINAL PROJECT
Virilio speaks of the potentiality of accidents that arise out of the mere existence of technology (James 115). In the event of an accidental death, where this potentiality is actualized, why do we stand and watch? “Bystander Effect” raises questions of voyeurism, spectatorship, and human interaction with death. Embodied with technology (mobile phones), not only are we the spectators but also the preservers of the event. The question is why, and what happens to these digital counterparts of the accident and death? In this paper, I use Baudrillard’s hyper-reality, Virilio’s accelerated modernity, and Ihde’s postphenomenology to theorise the spectatorship of accidental deaths and the production of real-time digital counterparts. Further, I build on Krastenbaum’s “Death Systems'' and Sumiala’s work on mediatised rituals to understand the creation of digital afterlives and conclude with an observational study of the incidental afterlives of raw accident footage as spectacles of body horror.
Keywords: Digital afterlife, Accident snuff, Technology, Voyeurism and spectatorship, Mediatised rituals
This paper has been submitted to the sage journal "New Media and Society" and is under review. Confirmation of submission.
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
COURSEWORK
COURSEWORK
ASSIGNMENTS
ASSIGNMENTS
PROGRESS DOCUMENTATION
PROGRESS DOCUMENTATION
The following set of sheets and journal were maintained throughout the semester to document the progress and work done.
Handwritten notes.pdf
Early in the semester, we looked at Afrah Shafique’s Enter Sultana’s Reality, an interactive website designed to illustrate Shafique’s research on the relationship between women and books in India. The Alice in Wonderland-style adventure invites the viewer into the history of and the discourses around women and books. I was highly impressed with the creative avatar Shafique has managed to give to her research. Around the same time, we were also in discussions about the public component of our project and how we could come up with more engaging ways to produce academic output. Initially, our ideas brimmed with possibilities only “normal” times could all. A new year had begun, and briefly, like everyone we thought the pandemic was a thing of 2020. However, adapting to changing reality has been the highlight of this academic year. In the face of that, two of my classmates: Vansheeka and Sachin, and I conceptualised a podcast to exercise our creativity and produce an engaging public component. We wanted to link the podcast to our individual research and thus tried to find a common link between our work. All three of us were engaging with digital cultures in one form or the other and that's how the podcast came to be themed on understanding the relationship between culture and technology through digital cultures. Having decided on the connecting link, we proceeded to work on the structure of the podcast, scripting and recording. The podcast track. intro and outro music as well as the website were designed to express the techno-cultural mood of the podcast so as to immerse the listener into the world of digital cultures.
The welcome message on the website as well as our intro track says: "With the spread of digital technologies, emerge cultures we all are a part of in one way or the other. To know how; think about how the host's voice reaches you through whatever device you are on. Podcasts wouldn’t have been possible without these cultures. EXPLORING DIGITAL CULTURES, a podcast created by the students of Masters in English and Cultural Studies, a multidisciplinary course offered at Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore. With each episode dedicated to understanding a specific digital culture, here, we look at the relationship between culture and technology and how this relation is exemplified in the digital world. In this short series, we cover cultures of death, memorialization and afterlife in digital spaces, the gendered cultures of social media in the South-Asian context and capturing the music of a city.". This captures the essence of the public component and precisely conveys what the listener should expect from it.
My personal contribution to the project was in the form of episode 2 [Death and Media-Verse] and episode 3 [How Do You Wish To Be Remembered?] along with the conceptualization of the podcast which was done with an aim to turn our research in a creative and accessible output, designing complimentary cover art, promotional content and the website. One can access all the episodes on the podcast website, Spotify and other platforms.
CREATIVE OUTPUT
CREATIVE OUTPUT
The creative output produced in the semester revolved around building a good literary portfolio for better professional opportunities in future and experimenting with the themes encountered through academic exposure by exploring them creatively.
Writing Portfolio
Writing Portfolio
To be better prepared for placements, particularly creative fields, I compiled my writing samples into a short portfolio.
PORTFOLIO_Prakhar_Patidar.pdf.pdfARTWORK: PASTICHE PERSONALITY
"The pastiche personality is a social chameleon, constantly borrowing bits and pieces of identity from whatever sources are available and constructing them as useful or desirable in a given situation". This digital artwork is a representation of the multiplicity of selves that is created in a techno-cultural society. We exists in fragmented selves owing to the fact that we exist in a fragmented post-postmodern world.
TECHNOLOGY AND PERCEPTION
This is a small experiment with different genres of music played with same visuals to illustrate how our perception can be easily altered and depends on more that what your eyes can see and brain can understand.
EXTRA CURRICULAR
EXTRA CURRICULAR
Student Coordinator - VACHANA 2021
Student Coordinator - VACHANA 2021
Vachana is the annual postgraduate seminar organised by the students of English Studies and Cultural Studies at CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore. The concept and the name, Vachana, takes inspiration from the progressive tradition of the 12th C Kannada poet-saints Akka Mahadevi and Basavanna, continuing on the path of reappropriating the meaning of the word, bringing it closer to its original rejection of turgid social norms and oppressive customs. Extending this impetus to the academic realm, through this seminar we hope to revisit ideas, histories and theoretical frameworks via close scrutiny and debate, but also, as a fearless engagement, that may perhaps be the need of our times.
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