On Friday February 26th, our physics class had the wonderful opportunity to see the Raqs (Rarely Asked Questions) Media Collective, comprised of members Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, present their public lecture-performance on time. For me, their lecture-performance was unlike most presentations I've seen, and I was so impressed with their beautiful writing and unique visual presentation. While there wasn't much technical math or science, I wrote down a few quotes that struck me or I thought captured a special moment of their presentation and showed the depth of curiosity, reflectiveness, and beauty in their ideas.
In their own words for what Raqs stands for and creates, "The Raqs Media Collective enjoys playing a plurality of roles, often appearing as artists, occasionally as curators, sometimes as philosophical agent provocateurs. They make contemporary art, have made films, curated exhibitions, edited books, staged events, collaborated with architects, computer programmers, writers and theatre directors and have founded processes that have left deep impacts on contemporary culture in India. Raqs (pron. rux) follows its self declared imperative of 'kinetic contemplation' to produce a trajectory that is restless in terms of the forms and methods that it deploys even as it achieves a consistency of speculative procedures". More information on Raqs Media Collective, their works, exhibitions, curations, and also calendar for future events can be found at http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/works.aspx
Quotes...
"The heart is the first clock that counts the bodies time".
"I have changed my nationalities more than I have changed shoes-and I like changing shoes".
"The city fell asleep dreaming that an elephant came to entertain".
"Why do cities forget rivers? Because once currency begins to flow, the city forgets how thirsty it is".
"Do I know if I can have another life if I don't exhaust the limits of this one"?
"Perhaps ordinary men and women will be extraordinarily beautiful".
"These forms of life, not the rain, will determine the future and the future is where we are headed".
(The photos I've included are not from their presentation on Friday but from past works and exhibtions)