Moon Vehicle began in 2008 at the time of the launch of India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. It was a cultural response to the scientific mission to the Moon and created an ongoing series of forums, events and workshops through which a shared dialogue emerged about the Moon, technologies, science and creativity.
Satellite Stories is an ongoing series of work about satellite networks that began around 2003. This work attempts to make tangible the distant and invisible architectures of orbiting satellites through oral descriptions and re-enactments. Here there are stories of lost spacecraft and the struggles of Equatorial countries to assert their rights to space technology.
Breaking the Surface is a series of work made before 2003. It is about the way helicopters and submarines hover between pragmatic functionalism and sublime mythologies. Here there are stories of a hunt for submarines and the insect-like patrols of urban helicopters
Convened by Joanna Griffin and Muthatha Ramanathan, February 18th-19th at The Pavilion, Cabral Yard, Fort Kochi as part of the Programme of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale http://kochimuzirisbiennale.org/creative-encounters/ with Institutional Partners CEPT University, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology and Transtecnology Research and additional funding from Goethe Zentrum Trivandrum.
The purpose was to provide a platform for new scholarship investigating how arts/science encounters might be unpacked in the context of India's distinctive histories.
Nineteen presenters from five countries gave presentations. Summaries and photos are available on the symposium Facebook page. Below from right to left: Dinaz Kalwachwala and Joanna Griffin in conversation 'Grounding Space technology' discussing collaboration in the 1970s between National Institute of Design and the Indian Space Research Organisation in and around Ahmedabad; Group photo of participants outside the Pavilion and Panel Discussion (Nick Chrisman, Sharath Chandra Ram, Agi Haines, Archit Guha, Jacqui Knight, Hannah Drayson)
