Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society. Each year, a college engaged in the teaching of media art and media culture is invited to showcase its work at the festival. Srishti School of Art Design and Technology was the guest institution at Ars Electronica 2005 and the venue for the exhibition was the Kunstuniversitat University of Art), Linz, Austria.

The exhibition was titled “ TANA-BANA–Designing Substantive Freedoms,” which can be translated as “warp and weft” and is meant to evoke the ideal of the “integration of communities or societies. The Tana Bana exhibition was extensive and occupied three floors of the Kunstuniversitat (University of Art)in Linz.

The show was curated by Geetha Narayanan, Director- Srishti. The details of the show are below:

Concept and lead designer: Ashok Sukumaran
Design Team: Arvind Lodaya, John Mathew, Rajesh Narasimha
Graphic Design: Kumkum Nadig, Sarita Sundar
Exhibition Management: Meena Vari, Tara Rajagopal

The works at the Exhibition were organised under three themes:

Theme 1: Constructive Dissatisfaction: Dissemination
of Learning and Knowledge

Theme 2: Creative Discontent: Mapping Perceptions and
Problems; Past and Present

Theme 3: The Spirit of Freedom: Journeys

The works included:
Journeys with Kabir:Works-in-Progress – Shabnam Virmani, Tara Kini, Rumah Rasaque
Journeys with Kabir: The Studio Lab
Where is Ulat Bansi? – Amaranta Nehru
The Train - Arvind Lodaya, Tara Kini, Shabnam Virmani, Ashok Sukumaran
Radio Kabir – Patience Rustomji
Well Basically, This is About Thomas Jacob – Anup Mathew Thomas
Hinges On - Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel with Srishti Students
The Lowlands Project - Vaibhav Bhawsar
Blank Noise Project - Jasmeen Patheja
Synchronisations - Umang Bhattacharya, Divya Vishwanathan, Nishita Kavadia, Michael Coburn

Srishti also contributed to the launch of the Ars Electronica show with a New Media performance on September 1, 2005 titled "Anahat Naad - Unstruck Sound" in the Linz Plaza. The performance used different versions of a Kabir song to emphasise the freedom to share, copy and sing. The performance employed micro fm transmission.

Credits: Ashok Sukumaran, Shaina Anand, Vickram Crishna, Geetha Narayanan, Tara Kini, Michael Joseph

Performed by Srishti community: Tara Kini, Shabnam Virmani, Sankarshan Kini, Udayraj Karpoor, Ampat Varghese, Raghavendra Rao.