THE 103rd EDITION OF THE fd ZONE PART VIII Tyranny of distance / Tyranny of proximity screening & presentation by Ateya Khorakiwala Tyranny of distance / Tyranny of proximity Ateya Khorakiwala This talk accompanies three newsreels from the 1960s that document and narrate road building in the northern borders of India. Roads are never simply roads. Road infrastructure functions through dissemblance, concealed in the materiality of the road, is another function, one that is not so obvious, a claim to territory, a strategic alliance, a normalizing function. Consequently, the road operates as a site of many simultaneous meanings. The material connectivity provided by the road alters the geography and politics of the places it connects, bringing with it the spoils of modernity, not the least of which is the camera itself. In this talk today I will look at how these three films on road building in Bhutan, Leh, and on borders construct a narrative of a concrete modernity using motifs of technology and nature to discuss what happens when the tyranny of distance is replaced by the tyranny of proximity. Ateya Khorakiwala was in conversation with George Jose after her presentation and the screenings of the films. Ateya Khorakiwala is a PhD candidate at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where she is researching her dissertation entitled, The Well Fed Subject: Modern Architecture in the Quantitative State. Her work looks at how the fixation on creating stable food-supply systems in India in the 50s and 60s led to a biopolitical revolution to augment food production; she studies the infrastructure and architecture that allowed the system to proliferate. She holds a BArch from KRVIA, Mumbai, and an MSc in Architecture Studies from the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art program at MIT. George Jose is a Joint PhD candidate at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Kings College London studying popular resistance to the city in the periphery of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. PROGRAMME: Road to Leh Dir. Gopal Dutt 11mins Synopsis: This film looks at the construction of the road to Leh in the context of the Pakistani assault on the border. Infrastructure becomes the target where connectivity brings with it consumption, security, national identity, and modernity. Bhutan Road Dir. Shanti Varma 11 mins Synopsis: This film looks at the construction of a road connecting India to Bhutan. The footage of construction work is intercut with a semi-fictional story of Bhutanese villager Panjo who both constructs the road and is transformed by it. Border Roads Dir. PB Pendharkar 10 mins Synopsis: This film documents the difficulty and importance of building roads in the mountainous border regions of India, using the trope of man versus nature to foreground the civilizing function of the road. Himalayan Lifeline Dir: Shanti Varma 1966,11 min Date and time: 2nd August 2014, 4 pm Venue: RR II Theater 6th floor Phase II Building Films Division Pedder Road Mumbai All screenings at The FD Zone are free and open to all. Entry is on first come first served basis. regards, THE fd ZONE team
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 05:27:02 +0000
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