Surajit Sarkar

Researcher in Residence OBORO (2006)

Ring of Blue

From September to November 2006, Delhi artist Surajit Sarkar became the first artist to participate in the research and experimentation residency at OBORO's New Media Lab. He is a founding member of the Catapult Arts Caravan – a travelling socio-political performance group of artists and community workers.

Initiated in June 2004, the Catapult Arts Caravan has catalysed public participation in civic debate in India by developing audio-visual performances to articulate local issues. Presented in public spaces, these travelling shows are developed with local community workers and provide an open space for improvisation and debates with the local audience. The Caravan is an effort to create a sustainable space within which a community can represent itself to itself and to others, and provoke discussion.

Sarkar's residency project, Ring of Blue, drew from the audio and video material gathered during the Catapult Arts Caravan performances and sought to create a low-cost digital technology template for a travelling digital exhibition. The aim of the residency was to bring together digital Internet streaming technologies, performance arts and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping techniques so that Sarkar could learn the skills and techniques needed to create an interactive oral history and testimony map.

The residency program (Research and Experimentation Residency in Montreal for Professional Artists from Emerging Countries or Regions) is jointly offered by the Daniel Langlois Foundation and OBORO, a centre dedicated to production and presentation of art, contemporary practices and new media.