It’s time to listen.
In Vol 2, we ask you for quietude. For closeness. For sounds and voices that reside in you and refuse to leave; tunes you wake up to, melodies that visit your dreams. For childhood, and school jingles, recitations, awkward performances for aunts and uncles; for laughter, the sound of a wicket falling, the cheer of a goal.
We ask you to pull out a Q-tip, and begin the journey of cleaning up auditory clutter, to make way for a new palette—the patter of rain, the sound of whisking coffee, the chimes of birds, the joy of a dog's bark, the clickety-clack of your slippers on a bare floor.
So come, eavesdrop with us, as we discover that music is as much within, as amidst us.
Learn
Improvising History: Archival Negotiations and Memory in The Music Stopped, But We Were Still Dancing
Arnav Adhikari
*The Music Stopped, But We Were Still Dancing : Goan Musicians in the Early Jazz & Hot Dance Era is an exhibition that was curated by Prashant Panjiar with texts by Naresh Fernandes, for Serendipity Arts Festival 2017. This essay (extract below) was first published in Vol. 1 of Projects/Processes, a series of publications focusing on research and writing from Serendipity Arts Festival.
In a striking moment of Susheel Kurien’s 2012 documentary Finding Carlton, in which the filmmaker travels into the deep and quickly evaporating history of the little-known Indian jazz age between the 1920s and ’60s, he finds himself in New York, speaking to Christine Correa, a jazz singer and the daughter of the prolific saxophonist and bandleader, Mickey Correa. Christine is seen singing beside the piano with her collaborator Frank Carlberg....
Watching Christine talk about her father’s rigorous practice routines or the way he held his instrument in front of the mirror is like observing memory assemble and reconfigure itself in real-time, moulding to fit a sometimes imagined past in the reality of the present, as Christine poignantly rues the absence of any recordings of Mickey’s band, consigning it to photographic and oral history. And then it happens. The scene cuts to Christine seated on a couch, mouth ajar and eyes wide open in an almost paralytic wonder, as the soft, muffled sounds of a swaying horn section hang loosely in the air. “This is it ... that’s my dad ... this is his sound” she says, almost to herself, in an ecstatic moment of recognition. It’s as if her vivid memories of Mickey’s music have been willed into reality after decades; a sound that survived only through the written word or the frozen frame, finally comes to life in front of her. This brief moment from Finding Carlton punctuates a wall tracing Mickey Correa’s colourful life and career in Prashant Panjiar’s curatorial project, The Music Stopped, But We Were StillDancing, on view at the 2017 edition of Serendipity Arts Festival, an annual multidisciplinary event held in December along the Mandovi River in the Goan capital of Panaji. Panjiar’s curation, like Kurien’s film to some extent, traces the deeply rooted history of jazz in the early decades of the 20th century, with a particular focus on the Goan musicians who helped shape the essence of its sound, politics, dispersion, and ultimately, its evolution
Play of Senses | Listen
Siddhant Shah, Access for ALL
Did you know that there is a hierarchy of our senses? According to a research at the University of York, it is accepted (though not universally) that our senses intuitively set themselves to a particular order. Sense of sight is the most important for humans as we perceive nearly 80% of the information visually. What happens when you shut them off completely? You start focusing on already active senses but with acute attention and process information or memory. But the interesting bit is that as we are ALL different and hence the same constraint of EXPERIENCE leads to varied results. Do you want to try and test it out?
Serendipity Recommends | Music
A list of songs lovingly compiled by the SAF family for our universe of friends, supporters, and art-lovers. These are the songs that console us, revive us, and hold us through everything in life. We hope you enjoy listening to some of these!
Projects/Processes
The Projects/Processes series commissions research essays, longform writing, and in-depth criticism that explore the ideas and processes behind select curatorial projects at Serendipity Arts Festival. Get a copy of the 2018 series, published by Harper Design by clicking on the links below.
Missed the Serendipity Arts Festival last year? Catch some highlights here!
We're excited for the return of Dharti this summer! Calling all artists, critics, and art programmers — Open Call for Dharti 2020!
Missed Volume 1 of our newsletter? Catch up now with the link below!
Reflect
Serendipity Soundscapes
Serendipity Soundscapes is a unique initiative by Serendipity Arts Festival. Our music curators are invited to bring together the unique sounds of the subcontinent in an extraordinary evening. Serendipity Soundscapes celebrates unfettered musical exchange. Drawing on diverse musical ideas, techniques, styles and songwriting both from India and from other parts of the world, this specially curated and composed compilation of songs is unorthodox and hybrid in its approach.
We are excited to be sharing the first track from the Serendipity Soundscapes 2019 collection, titled Dil ki Baatein: Affairs of the Heart in Song, curated by Aneesh Pradhan and sung by Shubha Mudgal. The selection of Hindi poems set to tune specially for Dil ki Baatein hopes to bring to the listener a variety of expressions of love that have found place in poetry. The song, "Piyaa" is sure to fill your evenings with a soulful energy as Shubhaji's powerful voice chimes in.
Over the next few weeks, watch out for more tracks from the Serendipity Soundscapes on the Serendipity YouTube and Soundcloud pages, where we will be sharing tracks not only from Dil ki Baatein: Affairs of the Heart in Song but also from The Maverick Playlist for Serendipity Soundscapes 2018.
Museum of Sounds in my Head
Curated by Sneha Khanwalker
The idea behind this project titled Museum of Sounds in my Head curated by Sneha Khanwalkar was to bring to reality sounds that may have appeared in our imagination or a lucid dream—unreal, unearthly, haunting, strange, disturbing and otherwise unheard. The aim was to bring the core of sounds and its science to the fore through the use of technology. Watch the behind the scenes process of putting together the Museum of Sounds in my Head to relive the experience.
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Create at Home
You can still submit your one second videos! Click the link below:
Create
The Riser
India has a vibrant and diverse independent music scene, comprising a community of young and talented musicians. Serendipity Arts Foundation is pleased to present The Riser – a platform for gifted independent acts to share their music with a community of music lovers and enthusiasts. In Vol. 2 of SAF Newsletters, we speak to Corridors and The Jass B’stards about their philosophy, process and perspective on music, in times of distancing and beyond. Click below to read Keith Peter, Programming Associate at Serendipity and a passionate drummer, discuss music with the artists!
Serendipity Grants Program
A core mandate of Serendipity Arts Foundation is the support of emergent practices and ideas in the field of visual, performing, and performance arts through grants that facilitate diverse creative actions spanning research and art criticism, conceptualisation and development of new works, and facilitating ongoing projects within the arts. To know more about the 2020 slate of grants, click on the link below, or visit www.serendipityartsfoundation.org
Create At Home | Volume 2
"It was very early in the morning, the streets clean and deserted, I was walking to the station."
Franz Kafka, "Give It Up!" – a flash fiction of 130 words
What are the voices around and within you? As days bleed into nights, what stories are simmering, rising to the surface of your mind? All voices, all genres are welcome: fiction, non-fiction, personal essay; first person, third person, and even the rare second person; stream of consciousness, poetry in verse, or embracing formlessness.
The catch: All you have is 500 words. Which stories will you choose to tell?
Send your stories to: newsletter.saf2020@gmail.com