About Us
The design intervention
2019 marked the centenary of a manifesto, “Declaration of the Independence of the Mind,” written by Romain Rolland post World War I, and signed by some of the luminaries of that time, like Einstein, Tagore, Bertrand Russell and many others, as a response to the demolition of intellectual life and freedom of the mind and the corruption of souls. Drawing upon the relevance of this declaration, which believes in the spirit of art as a force, a ‘form of truth’, one that ‘fortifies our mutual dignity’ and causes ‘constructive chaos’, THE MUSICAL MANIFESTO project, conceptualised, designed and facilitated by me, re-created a new declaration of the independence of the mind; a six-track, multi-lingual musical manifesto of our times.
In the year 2020, it feels like the word “freedom” needs to be re-interpreted, with the forced removal or disappearance of most of the so-called “freedom” we all took for granted, in a world which is driven by the fear and the aftermath of the pandemic. For most people our minds seem to be the only free entities, in the web of many prisons that are either created or exposed by Covid-19. When movement is restricted, our minds, despite being trapped in our bodies, are our only escape, when there are so many inescapable closed boundaries and borders. Some of us, both teachers and students, felt there has never been a more relevant time to take another look at our manifesto and the provocations that led to the design of it. Dualities and juxtapositions still remaining at the core, we wanted to toy around with the notions of “Freedom” and the paradoxes of dualities and binaries. Eventually we planned to create a new musical manifesto in about a year’s time using multiple media and material, curating the rich lived narratives that would come out of the many provocative and soul-stirring sessions we would facilitate in the next few months. Through a series of evolving, reflective, critical, dialogic, lyrical and hopefully healing sessions, activities (which included deep listening, sharing, storytelling, singing, journaling, art-making, photography, cooking, laughing etc.) both online and offline conversations, at a collective and individual level, we would use art as a way to come together as a community, discuss the ever-relevance of the “independence of mind” and remake a “Manifesto of our Times”. Our multi-lingual and multi-modal discussions and explorations would involve people from all over the world through material, medium and metaphors in a safe inclusive space.
We started this new edition of the Musical Manifesto project in 2020 May in collaboration with The Archival City, a trans-local initiative as its research partner and D.epicentre, as its implementation partner, both collectives which have been co-founded by me, on the 159th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, who interestingly was also one of the signatories of the 1919 manifesto. Our first two sessions, according to the response from the participants, seemed to almost be therapeutic and left us all deep in thought. Creating a safe, inclusive and fearless space online and generating the kind of exciting and yet calming energy, felt by many, was made possible with everyone’s presence and effort. The participants stayed back and kept coming back to the next sessions. Each episode was designed with new formats of immersion, engagement, conversation, interaction and reflection. The people were diverse : age ranging from 18 to 65, different gender, from different countries: from India to Singapore, Pakistan to Nigeria, Germany to the UK, different backgrounds: students, homemakers, educators, cultural managers, artists, designers, entrepreneurs, Directors of cultural organisations, musicians, photographers and many more, and who have had different kinds of Pandemic impact in their lives.
In all these sessions or episodes, we as a team also play a pivotal role by designing triggers through various media which we also share. We analyse previous sessions to find patterns, locate relationships, see connections and emerging themes. We do not fix the themes in advance but let them emerge through participative processes of deep dive. The narratives, perspectives, inquiries , emotions, intuition, experiences, engagements, learnings eventually are supposed to be inter-woven through trans-local, crowdsourced, creatively collaborated and curated, new whole ‘Manifesto’ of our times by a facilitated process of sense-making, synthesis interspersing material, media and metaphor in this act of co-creation. Structures of conversations, contemplatations, communication , connections , co-sensing and co-creations are designed that can continue in this bi-monthly gatherings for a year. Some of those are: POTLUCK : a structure which enables people to bring any ‘food for thought’ and share with the others, LYRICAL LETTER –EXCHANGE: a structure that enables dialogue, MAPANDEMIC: a structure that enables mapping spaces and places during the Pandemic, STAR GAZING: a structure that instils in the spirit of awe-wonder-discover-big picture; COMPANDEMIC: a structure that helps in finding directions through individual and collective navigation through compasses; LAB-RARY: a structure combining Library and laboratory where tinkering and reading happen together with many lenses, wearing many hats: HARVEST: a structure enabling nourishment together; TRAVEL-LOGUES: a structure that believes in journaling the journey, combining travel and dialogues; TIME-TRAVEL: a structure that helps in transcending time and making sense of the wonder that is time; MAKING PRESENCE: Sense making-co-sensing; TAPESTRY: people stitching ideas and insights together, VERSE in PLURI-VERSE : PLURI-VERSE-CITY : UN-TEXT or TALE TAILORS : Stitching narratives together. There are many more structures designed like these, each one allowing a different way of learning and thinking.
Some of the questions that we explore are as follows:
Can people ponder over their own experiences, approaches, insights around design principles which can help in crafting possibilities which are not linear, non-creative reaction to shifts that are happening? Can contextual understanding be woven into the design of a virtual experience, where a sense of belonging can be fostered through a process of co-evolving mutuality and distributed wisdom? Can there be authenticity and generosity in sharing of despair, resilience, possibilities, positionalities or dilemmas around the paradoxes of our times, especially among a group of diverse people who are complete strangers, coming from many walks of life, who continue to come together through a virtual gathering? In times of digital fatigue is it possible to offer and receive presence and co-sense one’s way through exchange of vulnerabilities and loving kindness? Can there be a deep immersion, critical dialogue, empathetic discourses and heart-felt , yet difficult and uncomfortable conversations that can lead to framing of a collective inquiry-led exploration, using orality as an act of mediation, around what makes life not only worthy of survival but worthy of living through creative expressions?
We believe, The Musical Manifesto is truly a design-led collaborative reflection and re-imagination of what the world needs during and after the Covid-19 Emergency- a set of inquiries, inspirations and understanding that work to improve the health and well-being of communities and individuals, bring in a cultural of regeneration, as gathered from individuals’ experiences through community exchange of emotions and intuition, interpretation and imagination. It takes the pause much required, to go inward together, over weekends where otherwise people would go outside. It is that point where one feels gratitude for having this priceless gift we all have: Life!
Core Design and Production Team:
Gayathri Menon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayathrigmenon/
Kunika Bajaj
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunika-bajaj-3188051b0/
Niladri Mukherjee
https://www.linkedin.com/in/niladri-mukherjee-844134166
Design, Concept and Creative Direction:
Sudebi Thakurata
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudebi/