wELCOMe

Bangalore Space & Culture Symposium 2007

SEPTEMBER 29

9.30 A.M.-10.30 A.M.

Dr K Kasturirangan

Bangalore affords the possibility of a multi-thematic approach.

An intersection of space science, arts from a cultural perspective.

NIAS is in a unique position. Created from the vision of JRD Tata - an institution that provides a forum for exchange of ideas and experiences of the intelligentsia both from the public and private sector. An inspirational source and environment.

Themes

Social Sciences

Humanities

Natural Sciences

We look at interconnections in a holistic manner.

SPACE PROGRAM

The social aspects dominate. Cultural aspects matter too. The SITE experiment for rural population covering 2400 villages, one of the earliest experiments in the sociological sector where the space program helps the developmental process.

TRIBAL PENETRATION

Tribals have a legacy and way of life. The underdevelopment that we see is something they are not really aware of and our messages must not distort their cultural, social patterns.

How to produce video programmes dealing with their issues - drinking, watershed development, etc? Choose tribals to become the messengers and they were photogenic. India has the dimension of using space for touching lives, development and sociological change.

SPACE SCIENCE

A long astronomical tradition in India. Our mythology is filled with many aspects of space. Ancients for instance tried to calculate the age of the universe. Yugas, Mahayuga, Manvantaras, Kalpas.

The calculation traces an age of 15 billions of years. This concept of the universe coming into being and its collapse is an ancient one.

We see a scientific rationale in trying to study such concepts. And from these comes cultural patterns too.

Such tremendous diversity has always inspired artists - the galaxies, the universe. Imaginations that come from looking at the sky.

Yusuff Arackal’s mural for ISRO. Forged from a variety of source, especially the erstwhile Soviet Union. What things look like is left to artists.

Reference to Kalidasa. Meghasandesha - the swan that flies over the Himalayas. Years later, our remote sensing satellite flew over the Himalayas. A tremendous co-relation between artists and science.

ROB LA FRESNAIS - ARTS CATALYST, LONDON

How the symposium emerged.

Marco Pehljan spoke of a lichen-like network ranging from meetings in Roger Malina’s mother’s house and to when I came into touch with this community of people involved in art-science, cultures. Srishti also came into this complicated lichen-like structure. This is about organisations that work in a non-bureaucratic way and about doing things. Spreading out to further networks.

India’s mission is along with China and Brazil and other space agencies to give a new impetus that does not allow for monoliths - NASA, ESA.

ROGER MALINA - LEONARDO

I first came in 1986 to Bangalore. I am part of a cycle and Bangalore is part of that cycle for me.

My inflammatory statement - how art and culture can influence science. How can the arts change the sciences?

Dickens is not one of my favorite authors but we can see the benefits of science in Bangalore and its contribution to international science and technology. But we are aware that we have built on this planet an unsustainable civilisation. The seeds of failure are within science itself. So the discussion with artists and the cultural community is an urgent question that pertains to the future - also pertaining to the children of the future, even in the tribal communities of India.

Leonardo - 40 years. Created by artists and scientists who were traumatised by the second world war. We are traumatised in our own world by endemic wars, genocides, etc and we have to do our part to create a saner world.

An exciting time with artists who are scientifically and technologically literate and who can work across different modes of knowledge.

Important to find useful connections. Not all connections are useful.

There are soft collaborations that are easy and built around having coffee.

There are also hard collaborations and that is what we are seeking to build.