War of Worlds, Wall of Words

Our first Musical Potluck and our first two-day Lyrical Letter-Exchange were, as expressed by many, almost therapeutic and have 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, would have certainly not been possible without all of your presence and effort.

While we cook up our next heart-warming, soul-stirring evening with yet some more food for our soul, we request you to keep your time on the 7th June (Sunday) from 6 PM to 8 PM (India) free, to be a part of what could be our play on, “The Wall of Words within the War of Worlds”.

For your reference, we would hopefully achieve an interesting shared glossary/dictionary of words/phrases in different languages, which explores our current socio-economic, cultural, geopolitical, emotional, psychological, spiritual or other states. You can read this for a reference (not to imitate nor to be intimidated but to be inspired by) to understand what could emerge from this evening:

https://forge.medium.com/a-glossary-for-the-strangeness-of-pandemic-life-938e5a259a2e

We would request each one of you, as you think about how to express certain ideas around our pandemic lives, that you also talk to a few people and ask them about their pandemic lives and the strangeness and uniqueness of it. Let the imagination and articulation of vocabulary know no bounds as you bring some of these ideas to our next session to add to this dictionary by contributing to a wall of words. We encourage you to get as creative as you wish to, as critical and experimental as you want to and as multi-lingual as you can.

“Space and place are basic components of the lived world; we take them for granted. When we think about them, however, they may assume unexpected meanings and raise questions we have not thought to ask.” Yi-Fu Tuan

Our next session explores yet another unique format, of creating a shared dictionary, exploring “Space and Place”, which was one of the themes that emerged from our Lyrical Exchange.

In Tuan’s words, “Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to one and long for the other.” It is the interplay of meaning with the interweaving of words that act as our inspiration to design this episode in the search of shared meaning through the jamming with words (multi-lingual of course). Our next few sessions would be to explore the theme of “Space and Place” through various activities and formats of engagement as we embark upon this journey with this Creative and Collective Cooking of Concepts. This is in alignment with Tuan’s idea of experience to bring in different experiential perspectives of our fellow travellers of the Musical Manifesto Project.

“Experience is a cover-all term for the various modes through which a person knows and constructs reality. These modes range from the more direct and passive senses of smell, taste, and touch, to active visual perception and the indirect mode of symbolization.”

We can’t wait to see you all again on the 7th, to listen to and archive your inter-play of words. In order to explain certain ideas through the new vocabulary you create, we would encourage that you could also use other media (like drawings or photographs) to illustrate your points along with the text.

Core Design and Production Team:
Gayathri Menon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayathrigmenon/
Niladri Mukherjee
https://www.linkedin.com/in/niladri-mukherjee-844134166
Aditi Singh
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditi-singh-5809b8189/
Kunika Bajaj
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunika-bajaj-3188051b0/

Design, Concept and Creative Direction:
Sudebi Thakurata
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudebi/