I have personally been a part of the
electronic trance music culture in Goa. As a photographer and artist I have
attempted to document this with a series of portraits of Goa Trance DJ’s like
the iconic Goa Gil. You can read about this project http://alexfernandesphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/culture-is-not-your-friend-its.html .
This is why I want to talk about the
future of art and music as imagined by Jeet Kei Leung and several smaller communities of intelligent
and diverse, people from all over the world. (Please see video). Such community events involving
electronic music and art are happening all over the world including my home in
Goa, India, from where electronic Goa trance originated. The Glastonbury festival, Burning
man in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada are prime examples
of events where art, music, technology, mysticism and spirituality come
together.
Showing posts with label Goa Trance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goa Trance. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Lens-ing IT curated by Johny ML..
April 29th 2011, Ashna Gallery, New Delhi.
Artist Ranbir Kaleka.
Prof Vinay Lal delivering his paper.
In the audience sculptor Radhakrishnan who lives in Goa
Alex Fernandes Portraits in the audience
Amitav Das looking at the Goan Musicians and Tiatriste Display
Johny ML(Curator), the eminent photographer Ram Rahman, Ashna Singh, (curator Ashna Gallery and our gracious hostess), Abul Azad's ( Who instantly became a friend), Manisha Baswani ( fantastic portraits of Indian artist), Anoop Mathews, the celebrated Mr Sunil Gupta, Dr John Mathews (NID, Ahmedabad),Alex Fernandes Portraits (Goa), Eminent Historian Prof Vinay Lal (Delhi Unviersity/ University of California) delivered a brilliant paper on Poetics and Politics of Gandhi images.
LENS-ING IT: About This Curatorial Intervention
The concept of the show, ‘Lens-ing It’ evolved over a period of time, while as a curator of paintings, sculptures, videos, installations and site specific art forms I found the use of photography in most of these art forms so pronounced that one could not have wished away such presence and prominence. However, the treating of photography as one of the aides or tools for doing something else posed an interesting problematic before me and it was during the same period I noticed how so many galleries in India and elsewhere started taking an added interest in photography, photomontages, photo collages and digital works based on photography. This was an exceptionally new movement as far as Indian art scenario was concerned and I found, to my shock that in all these attempts the photography artists (lens based artists) getting a secondary treatment.
As we know that there have been concerted efforts from different parts of India to promote contemporary photography, still contemporary photography is subjected to a confused viewing as a variety of genres of photography impact upon people differently on a daily basis. Generally, even in the academic circles, photography is divided into different categories as per the fields to/in which the medium is put to use; for example we have news photography, fine art photography, industrial photography, fashion photography and so on. Though for the sake of classification such distinctions could be allowed, it would be interesting to see photography as a holistic medium which could carry a multitude of socio-cultural and politico-aesthetical dynamics. Right from political propaganda to gender positioning and from family albums to documentations, when put to use, photography plays a very pivotal role of cultural encoding.
This is the reason why, I chose to call this show, ‘Lens-ing It’. This is a show of eight artists who use photography as photography; they are lens based artists and often use their photographic prints as their final product. All aesthetical considerations and problems that otherwise faced and solved by any other visual artist too are dealt by these photography artists with an equal verve as expected of this medium and the context in which this medium is used. The politics, social positioning and the gender preferences of the photographers play a very strong role in the formulation of frames and the images. As far as my understanding goes, lens based artists are not those people who are ‘good at machines’. They are artists with a purpose and perspective. While they adopt strategies in framing their images, perhaps more than a studio based artist, they face challenges of a different sort. Between the momentary-ness of the image or the posed finality of the tableaux and the photography artist, there lies a series of spaces that have to be negotiated within the span of a click by the artist. Perhaps, for a studio based artist, he or she gets more time to deal with it.
I do not intend to push these artists into the realm of something called ‘pure photography’ because the word ‘pure’ or ‘purity’ could cause a different ideological reading. Hence, when I call these artists ‘lens based artists’ what I intend to say is this that they are artists who do not use their photography for creating another form of art. For these artists, photography and the photographic prints in themselves are complete forms (though opened ended often) which are liable to be analyzed contextually, using any tool or methodology, further as the images survive the time.
In this project, my curatorial intervention was to gather a ‘series’ from each photography artist. By a ‘series’ what I mean is a set of photographs taken in one go or over a period time in which the photography artist continue to be led by one particular aspect of his visual, ideological and aesthetical searches. Perhaps, this focus of the artist could be in a way an extension of his/her philosophy and aesthetics as reflected in their oeuvres. But by the curatorial focus, this one particular ‘series’ becomes a point of departure as well as arrival, which could supply a clue or a key to extensively analyze the works of the photography artist in question. Interestingly, all these photography artists in this show have been consistently following certain ideological as well as aesthetical aspect of photography throughout their creative career so far.
Ram Rahman, as one of the most active photography artists in India, has invested his energies in not only documenting and portraying the ideological and gender politics of his choice but also has employed his vision and camera for capturing the rare moments of intellectual rebellion in and around Delhi, where he resides half of the year, and elsewhere. The series that I have chosen together with the artist for this show is not done in one go. Taken over a period of two decades, in this ‘imagined’ series (by the curator) one could see people, identifiable by their contributions and stance in public life. There are politicians like our present prime minister, artists and activists and so on in these pictures. Reading within and without the context of the photograph and the frozen time exemplified in the pictures, despite their disparities in theme, one could see the aesthetics and politics of the artist conjoining them in one string as if these portrayals of the intelligentsia of Delhi were in fact exposing the chapters of an unpublished novel still waiting to be written down by the author.
Sunil Gupta, the veteran amongst the international contemporary photography artists is famous for his pictures of gender politics. As an individual who has declared his gender preferences long back, Sunil Gupta has been working towards establishing the aesthetics of difference through his photography that predominantly feature the man to man relationships both in the urban and rural scenarios. Also Sunil makes meanderings to his ancestral spaces and attempts to find the linkages between his present self and the selves that had formed him ages back. In the present series, Sunil surprises the viewers by presenting a series of works in which he captures the images of a friendly lesbian couple both in their public and private domains. Interestingly, the possible gaze of a male is subverted to establish the camaraderie between the subjects with alternative gender preferences. Sunil takes particular care to frame them in the most natural way, never giving a chance for the viewerly vulgarization of the context. With this series, Sunil seeks an extension of his gender politics and gives it more of an inclusive nature.
Alex Fernandes, born and brought up in a Mumbai neighborhood where Goans are settled, once relocated to Goa a few years back after his sojourn in different countries in the Middle East and also after relocating himself as a photography artist after a decade long career in the field of advertisement, devotes his time to create ‘series’ of ‘types’ of people who in the popular imagination represent Goa. The artist de-constructs the ‘stereotypes’ created by the popular movies and other popular narratives about Goans and in its place, establishes a series of ‘archetypes’ of people who in reality constitute the ‘racial character’ of a society. For the artist, racial character is not a term of insult on the contrary he, going by the Jungian ideas frames them as characters that determine the cultural make up of a society. Alex Fernandes is deeply political when he chooses these archetypal characters from the local theatre performers called Tiatriste and in imparting them with iconic status in the simulated studio portraits. In another series, keeping his aesthetics of studio portraits, he continues with idea of finding the archetypal Goan through the portrayal of the musicians in Goa.
Abul Kalam Azad, whom I call the master of the Mattanchery School of contemporary photography revels in documenting the immediate surroundings with a deeply rooted ideological positioning on politics and gender, and also he uses his creative forces to capture things that could subtly evoke autobiographical linkages between the artist and the images. In the present series in ‘Lens-ing It’ Azad presents a set of photographs generally titled ‘My Anger and Other Stories’. The random objects lying scattered on the floors and tables of his Mattanchery studio become the points of attention for the artist and by calling them as the embodies objects of his anger and the related emotions in his life, Azad personifies them in a different way and in a Barthesian sense, these sepia toned pictures become cultural codes of a person’s (artist’s) life. Abul Azad employs direct photography as his method. The angle from which the objects are captured shows how the artist holds these objects together in his life however scattered they are as if they were the sustaining narratives of his public and private life as an artist as well as an individual.
Vivek Vilasini’s ‘Between One Shore and Several Others’ is one of the highly acclaimed series produced by the artist during the last ten years of his career. In this series, he painstakingly documents the people who have names that do not have anything to do with their location, personality or profession. Some of them are named Stalin, some are Ho Chi Minh and Soviet Breeze. Vivek recaptures the socio-political and cultural contexts in which these people came to have these names. The living people with ‘un-localized’ names achieve semi-iconic status in these works, ironically emphasizing the contradictions that they embody not only within their contexts but also in an exposed global scenario. While giving them a sort of iconicity, with the iconic names as their claim to fame, Vivek also traces the cultural roots that could have imbibed the energies for their parents who named them after these well known personalities. This tracing amounts to the tracing of the journey of a population that has made its political moves entirely over an intellectual sphere depending on the translated literature and study classes. In Vivek’s series one could witness the micro scene of politico-cultural virtual migrations across the globe even within the erstwhile days of protected economies.
Deepak John Mathew has two series of works in ‘Lens-ing It’ show. Done over a period of time, the first series has images from his home interiors and the second one has images from an anthropological and historical museum. Seen simultaneously, they resonate with the same ideology, tendency and meaning. They preserve memories in certain ways but through various associations they also preserve the relationship between the extremes of love and violence. The domestic atmosphere devoid of its members but with the symbols and objects that they have left behind reminds one of the museum displays now detached from their original contexts. At the same time the museum displays with the mental associations that a viewer could make in their presence remind one of a domestic atmosphere where history is played out in its various microcosmic forms. Home is a place where the predatory tendencies of human beings are contained in a larger way and the museums are the places where the predatory prowess of human beings is flaunted in their most opulent ways. Deepak John plays between the subtle ironic relationship between the museum and domestic spaces.
Anup Mathew Thomas looks at the ways in which colonialism has taken various manifestations in our contemporary personal and social lives. There are memories and myths that help the human beings to form an ‘idea’ about their own lives. These memories could be those of colonialism working in personal lives both as history and an ideological notion. The images that Anup presents here have this history as a soft reminder of achievement and loss and at the same time how the notion of the same history works in an ideological level in our contemporary lives. These works, though not intended to be a series by the artist, once seen from this perspective could achieve the qualities of a ‘series’ that vivifies the artistic philosophy and aesthetics. Anup Mathew Thomas has been capturing the subtleties of life with all its paraphernalia and ironies in his works for almost a decade. And in some of his works he underlines ‘difference’ (between the notions of original and copy, ideology and presence, memory and manifestations of it) by playing them down to nil (almost to the point of merging the differences) and in the present series of works too, Anup does not comment on the things, instead he plays down the ‘difference’ between the ‘real’ and the ‘imagined’ as clearly seen in the works like Bar Hotel Arcadia, House on the Roadside and so on.
Manisha Gera Baswani’s series is all about her journey through the lives of the artists and art activists within the context of their work places. In these photographs, Manisha carefully collapses the idea of a secured private into the realm of a discursive public by capturing the most unguarded moments from their lives. The artist makes a silent intrusion in order to chronicle the lives and times of the cultural makers but at the same time by choosing her silent locations the artist speaks of her idea of looking at artists making and presenting art both with in the public and private spheres. Manisha has been working this project for the last twelve years, initially focusing on a couple of artists whom she considers her ‘Masters’ and later looking at more artists who would allow her to click them while they worked. One of the most interesting aspects of this series is that the subject-object polarization is considerably erased through the nullification of a strong subjective gaze on the body of the ‘objects’. Here the protagonists in each picture appear as if they were just an integral part of the whole setting and cannot be wrested apart for highlighting their presence.
Photography has always been there in the field of fine arts but the tendency is to treat it as something lesser to other forms of art. Today, in the globalized scenario, photographs have become the message carriers of change. Photographs speak to the people directly and the photography artists have become all the more aware of their worth as meaning makers. For me photographing is a political act.
JOHNY ML, Curator
The concept of the show, ‘Lens-ing It’ evolved over a period of time, while as a curator of paintings, sculptures, videos, installations and site specific art forms I found the use of photography in most of these art forms so pronounced that one could not have wished away such presence and prominence. However, the treating of photography as one of the aides or tools for doing something else posed an interesting problematic before me and it was during the same period I noticed how so many galleries in India and elsewhere started taking an added interest in photography, photomontages, photo collages and digital works based on photography. This was an exceptionally new movement as far as Indian art scenario was concerned and I found, to my shock that in all these attempts the photography artists (lens based artists) getting a secondary treatment.
As we know that there have been concerted efforts from different parts of India to promote contemporary photography, still contemporary photography is subjected to a confused viewing as a variety of genres of photography impact upon people differently on a daily basis. Generally, even in the academic circles, photography is divided into different categories as per the fields to/in which the medium is put to use; for example we have news photography, fine art photography, industrial photography, fashion photography and so on. Though for the sake of classification such distinctions could be allowed, it would be interesting to see photography as a holistic medium which could carry a multitude of socio-cultural and politico-aesthetical dynamics. Right from political propaganda to gender positioning and from family albums to documentations, when put to use, photography plays a very pivotal role of cultural encoding.
This is the reason why, I chose to call this show, ‘Lens-ing It’. This is a show of eight artists who use photography as photography; they are lens based artists and often use their photographic prints as their final product. All aesthetical considerations and problems that otherwise faced and solved by any other visual artist too are dealt by these photography artists with an equal verve as expected of this medium and the context in which this medium is used. The politics, social positioning and the gender preferences of the photographers play a very strong role in the formulation of frames and the images. As far as my understanding goes, lens based artists are not those people who are ‘good at machines’. They are artists with a purpose and perspective. While they adopt strategies in framing their images, perhaps more than a studio based artist, they face challenges of a different sort. Between the momentary-ness of the image or the posed finality of the tableaux and the photography artist, there lies a series of spaces that have to be negotiated within the span of a click by the artist. Perhaps, for a studio based artist, he or she gets more time to deal with it.
I do not intend to push these artists into the realm of something called ‘pure photography’ because the word ‘pure’ or ‘purity’ could cause a different ideological reading. Hence, when I call these artists ‘lens based artists’ what I intend to say is this that they are artists who do not use their photography for creating another form of art. For these artists, photography and the photographic prints in themselves are complete forms (though opened ended often) which are liable to be analyzed contextually, using any tool or methodology, further as the images survive the time.
In this project, my curatorial intervention was to gather a ‘series’ from each photography artist. By a ‘series’ what I mean is a set of photographs taken in one go or over a period time in which the photography artist continue to be led by one particular aspect of his visual, ideological and aesthetical searches. Perhaps, this focus of the artist could be in a way an extension of his/her philosophy and aesthetics as reflected in their oeuvres. But by the curatorial focus, this one particular ‘series’ becomes a point of departure as well as arrival, which could supply a clue or a key to extensively analyze the works of the photography artist in question. Interestingly, all these photography artists in this show have been consistently following certain ideological as well as aesthetical aspect of photography throughout their creative career so far.
Ram Rahman, as one of the most active photography artists in India, has invested his energies in not only documenting and portraying the ideological and gender politics of his choice but also has employed his vision and camera for capturing the rare moments of intellectual rebellion in and around Delhi, where he resides half of the year, and elsewhere. The series that I have chosen together with the artist for this show is not done in one go. Taken over a period of two decades, in this ‘imagined’ series (by the curator) one could see people, identifiable by their contributions and stance in public life. There are politicians like our present prime minister, artists and activists and so on in these pictures. Reading within and without the context of the photograph and the frozen time exemplified in the pictures, despite their disparities in theme, one could see the aesthetics and politics of the artist conjoining them in one string as if these portrayals of the intelligentsia of Delhi were in fact exposing the chapters of an unpublished novel still waiting to be written down by the author.
Sunil Gupta, the veteran amongst the international contemporary photography artists is famous for his pictures of gender politics. As an individual who has declared his gender preferences long back, Sunil Gupta has been working towards establishing the aesthetics of difference through his photography that predominantly feature the man to man relationships both in the urban and rural scenarios. Also Sunil makes meanderings to his ancestral spaces and attempts to find the linkages between his present self and the selves that had formed him ages back. In the present series, Sunil surprises the viewers by presenting a series of works in which he captures the images of a friendly lesbian couple both in their public and private domains. Interestingly, the possible gaze of a male is subverted to establish the camaraderie between the subjects with alternative gender preferences. Sunil takes particular care to frame them in the most natural way, never giving a chance for the viewerly vulgarization of the context. With this series, Sunil seeks an extension of his gender politics and gives it more of an inclusive nature.
Alex Fernandes, born and brought up in a Mumbai neighborhood where Goans are settled, once relocated to Goa a few years back after his sojourn in different countries in the Middle East and also after relocating himself as a photography artist after a decade long career in the field of advertisement, devotes his time to create ‘series’ of ‘types’ of people who in the popular imagination represent Goa. The artist de-constructs the ‘stereotypes’ created by the popular movies and other popular narratives about Goans and in its place, establishes a series of ‘archetypes’ of people who in reality constitute the ‘racial character’ of a society. For the artist, racial character is not a term of insult on the contrary he, going by the Jungian ideas frames them as characters that determine the cultural make up of a society. Alex Fernandes is deeply political when he chooses these archetypal characters from the local theatre performers called Tiatriste and in imparting them with iconic status in the simulated studio portraits. In another series, keeping his aesthetics of studio portraits, he continues with idea of finding the archetypal Goan through the portrayal of the musicians in Goa.
Abul Kalam Azad, whom I call the master of the Mattanchery School of contemporary photography revels in documenting the immediate surroundings with a deeply rooted ideological positioning on politics and gender, and also he uses his creative forces to capture things that could subtly evoke autobiographical linkages between the artist and the images. In the present series in ‘Lens-ing It’ Azad presents a set of photographs generally titled ‘My Anger and Other Stories’. The random objects lying scattered on the floors and tables of his Mattanchery studio become the points of attention for the artist and by calling them as the embodies objects of his anger and the related emotions in his life, Azad personifies them in a different way and in a Barthesian sense, these sepia toned pictures become cultural codes of a person’s (artist’s) life. Abul Azad employs direct photography as his method. The angle from which the objects are captured shows how the artist holds these objects together in his life however scattered they are as if they were the sustaining narratives of his public and private life as an artist as well as an individual.
Vivek Vilasini’s ‘Between One Shore and Several Others’ is one of the highly acclaimed series produced by the artist during the last ten years of his career. In this series, he painstakingly documents the people who have names that do not have anything to do with their location, personality or profession. Some of them are named Stalin, some are Ho Chi Minh and Soviet Breeze. Vivek recaptures the socio-political and cultural contexts in which these people came to have these names. The living people with ‘un-localized’ names achieve semi-iconic status in these works, ironically emphasizing the contradictions that they embody not only within their contexts but also in an exposed global scenario. While giving them a sort of iconicity, with the iconic names as their claim to fame, Vivek also traces the cultural roots that could have imbibed the energies for their parents who named them after these well known personalities. This tracing amounts to the tracing of the journey of a population that has made its political moves entirely over an intellectual sphere depending on the translated literature and study classes. In Vivek’s series one could witness the micro scene of politico-cultural virtual migrations across the globe even within the erstwhile days of protected economies.
Deepak John Mathew has two series of works in ‘Lens-ing It’ show. Done over a period of time, the first series has images from his home interiors and the second one has images from an anthropological and historical museum. Seen simultaneously, they resonate with the same ideology, tendency and meaning. They preserve memories in certain ways but through various associations they also preserve the relationship between the extremes of love and violence. The domestic atmosphere devoid of its members but with the symbols and objects that they have left behind reminds one of the museum displays now detached from their original contexts. At the same time the museum displays with the mental associations that a viewer could make in their presence remind one of a domestic atmosphere where history is played out in its various microcosmic forms. Home is a place where the predatory tendencies of human beings are contained in a larger way and the museums are the places where the predatory prowess of human beings is flaunted in their most opulent ways. Deepak John plays between the subtle ironic relationship between the museum and domestic spaces.
Anup Mathew Thomas looks at the ways in which colonialism has taken various manifestations in our contemporary personal and social lives. There are memories and myths that help the human beings to form an ‘idea’ about their own lives. These memories could be those of colonialism working in personal lives both as history and an ideological notion. The images that Anup presents here have this history as a soft reminder of achievement and loss and at the same time how the notion of the same history works in an ideological level in our contemporary lives. These works, though not intended to be a series by the artist, once seen from this perspective could achieve the qualities of a ‘series’ that vivifies the artistic philosophy and aesthetics. Anup Mathew Thomas has been capturing the subtleties of life with all its paraphernalia and ironies in his works for almost a decade. And in some of his works he underlines ‘difference’ (between the notions of original and copy, ideology and presence, memory and manifestations of it) by playing them down to nil (almost to the point of merging the differences) and in the present series of works too, Anup does not comment on the things, instead he plays down the ‘difference’ between the ‘real’ and the ‘imagined’ as clearly seen in the works like Bar Hotel Arcadia, House on the Roadside and so on.
Manisha Gera Baswani’s series is all about her journey through the lives of the artists and art activists within the context of their work places. In these photographs, Manisha carefully collapses the idea of a secured private into the realm of a discursive public by capturing the most unguarded moments from their lives. The artist makes a silent intrusion in order to chronicle the lives and times of the cultural makers but at the same time by choosing her silent locations the artist speaks of her idea of looking at artists making and presenting art both with in the public and private spheres. Manisha has been working this project for the last twelve years, initially focusing on a couple of artists whom she considers her ‘Masters’ and later looking at more artists who would allow her to click them while they worked. One of the most interesting aspects of this series is that the subject-object polarization is considerably erased through the nullification of a strong subjective gaze on the body of the ‘objects’. Here the protagonists in each picture appear as if they were just an integral part of the whole setting and cannot be wrested apart for highlighting their presence.
Photography has always been there in the field of fine arts but the tendency is to treat it as something lesser to other forms of art. Today, in the globalized scenario, photographs have become the message carriers of change. Photographs speak to the people directly and the photography artists have become all the more aware of their worth as meaning makers. For me photographing is a political act.
JOHNY ML, Curator
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Alternative Goa Carnival @ Arambol Beach by Hippies
See : http://modernwish.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/alternative-goa-carnival-arambol-beach-by-hippies/
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Jungle Goa on Trance music.
The difference between man and anything else on this planet is just because we use tools and nobody else uses tools. We know that the first tool, the stone, was broken in a way to be sharp enough to use for animal skins or whatever, for the need of the moment. We started with that, but you see very well that now nobody is making this tool anymore because we don’t need it anymore, we have improved. Now we use metals, we have other tools – the internet is a tool. It’s a tool of the now, its one tool of the now; I could also use it as television. Its in the music, you see, now with techno, the sound itself really got a boost, its incredible how much sound is there, we never had this possibility before, how you can manipulate each sound and do things. Now the music does not belong to, I don’t know how many instruments – tools. It’s the same word, its just tools for the sound. Some people don’t like the idea because they are still stuck, they want to always listen to the same thing (Laughs) and okay, it’s no problem. Me, I like to listen to what was nice from before also, but it’s past. I see it like this, I can say this – this is past, I accept this very well. I like the Egyptian Pyramids so much, but it’s the past, you know. Now, if you imagine that everyone, because now everyone is a king, now everyone should make a pyramid for only to die. I mean, you know, it’s not possible. It was possible for them, they were few. Now all the deserts of this world would be full of pyramids. (Laughs) It’s really interesting when you watch how we are now, its incredible. When we read something from before, if you read some poetry from, I don’t know when, ”Oh, your legs, like the legs of the giraffe….” (Laughter) Ce, now if you say this to some girl she will look at you like you are, really, you know…
The above interview was in 'The GatelessGate Magazine' see:
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/space-time/
The above interview was in 'The GatelessGate Magazine' see:
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/space-time/
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Terence Mckenna on Truth
The planet has a kind of intelligence, that it can actually open a channel of communication with an individual human being. Consider this, one can easily imagine all of us being intimately connected, just as the stars, quantum-bits, and all... the matter are connected to each other.
Are the world wide web and the internet creating some sort of extra layer of an unified global grid, which could be the ultimate technological expression of the underlying sub-conscious will of humanity to embrace Unity. If we are indeed all a single Consciousness, then we are already a unified global brain, we just don’t know it! The Internet may assist in manifesting that hidden Truth step by step.
The message that nature sends is, transform your language through a synergy between opposite forces, a synergy between dance and idea, a synergy between understanding and intuition, and dissolve the boundaries that your culture has sanctioned between you.
See: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=1448766940827&comments
Are the world wide web and the internet creating some sort of extra layer of an unified global grid, which could be the ultimate technological expression of the underlying sub-conscious will of humanity to embrace Unity. If we are indeed all a single Consciousness, then we are already a unified global brain, we just don’t know it! The Internet may assist in manifesting that hidden Truth step by step.
The message that nature sends is, transform your language through a synergy between opposite forces, a synergy between dance and idea, a synergy between understanding and intuition, and dissolve the boundaries that your culture has sanctioned between you.
See: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=1448766940827&comments
Monday, November 1, 2010
The Front 242 project
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For his recent album cover ‘Kali Yuga’, Avatar records, (see http://www.avatar-music.com/artists.shtml) is a fold out poster of the black and white portrait I made of Gil.
Dr Vagator (Francisco Guevara)
Dr Vagator Tatoo
Bojan
D.J. Jonas (Trashlords), Stone Age records.
Giuseppe (Parvati Records)
Goa Gil's Kali Yuga album.
“Culture is not your friend, it's an impediment to understanding what's going on. That's why to my mind the word cult and the word culture have a direct relationship to each other. Culture is a cult and if you feel revulsion at the thought of somebody offering to the great carrot, just notice that your own culture is an extremely repressive cult that leads to all kinds of humiliation and degradation, and automatic and unquestioned and unthinking behaviour.”
- Terence Mckenna , From the lecture: "Into the Valley of Novelty"
Music, like art is sometimes subject to violent misinterpretations and musicians, like artists, can be intellectually complex and controversial.
It has been about three years since I conceptualized this project and made my first attempts to put together a series of portraits of Goa Trance musicians and DJ’s. After many conversations and e-mails, I eventually managed these portraits.
It is not my intent to document everyone who may have been associated with the Goa Trance scene. That would be a rather remote possibility.
Instead, I hope to execute at least six to ten portraits of iconic musicians and Dj’s from the Goa party scene.
Instead, I hope to execute at least six to ten portraits of iconic musicians and Dj’s from the Goa party scene.
I borrowed the title from Front 242, a pioneering Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Front 242 - along with other electronic music groups - were amongst the first electronic groups to be played at Goa beach parties in the early eighties. These early electronic bands were a precursor to Goa trance.
The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although elements of Industrial music and EBM (Electronic body music or industrial dance music) were already being blended with the spiritual culture of India throughout the 1980s, actual Goa trance did not officially appear until the early 1990s.
The music that would eventually be known as Goa trance did not evolve from one single genre, but was inspired by EBM-groups like Front 242,Yellow, T.I.P, Front Line Assembly, Meat Beat Manifesto and acid house music (a sub-genre of house music), techno and psychedelic rock like Ozric Tentacles, Steve Hillage, Simply Red and Ash Ra Tempel. In addition to those, Eastern tribal/ethnic music was also a source of inspiration.
The music that would eventually be known as Goa trance did not evolve from one single genre, but was inspired by EBM-groups like Front 242,Yellow, T.I.P, Front Line Assembly, Meat Beat Manifesto and acid house music (a sub-genre of house music), techno and psychedelic rock like Ozric Tentacles, Steve Hillage, Simply Red and Ash Ra Tempel. In addition to those, Eastern tribal/ethnic music was also a source of inspiration.
Goa Trance developed around the same time that Trance music became popular in Europe.
The introduction of techno and its techniques to Goa led to the Goa Trance style; early pioneers included DJ’s like Laurent, Goa Gil, Fred Disko, and Amsterdam Joey.
Many "parties" (generally similar to raves but with a more mystic flavour, at least in early 1990s) in Goa revolve entirely around this genre of music.
Top DJ's from the UK and other parts of Western Europe used to regularly fly to Goa for special parties, often on the beaches or in rice fields. South Anjuna Beach is traditionally seen as the birthplace and center of the Goan trance scene. In other countries, Goa Trance sets are often played at raves, festivals and parties in conjunction with other styles of trance and techno.
The introduction of techno and its techniques to Goa led to the Goa Trance style; early pioneers included DJ’s like Laurent, Goa Gil, Fred Disko, and Amsterdam Joey.
Many "parties" (generally similar to raves but with a more mystic flavour, at least in early 1990s) in Goa revolve entirely around this genre of music.
Top DJ's from the UK and other parts of Western Europe used to regularly fly to Goa for special parties, often on the beaches or in rice fields. South Anjuna Beach is traditionally seen as the birthplace and center of the Goan trance scene. In other countries, Goa Trance sets are often played at raves, festivals and parties in conjunction with other styles of trance and techno.
Goa Trance was originally referred to as trance dance. The original goal of the music was to assist the dancers in experiencing a collective state of bodily transcendence, similar to that created by the ancient shamans during long periods of drumming in shamanic dancing rituals, through hypnotic pulsing melodies and rhythms.
Goa Trance tracks tend to focus on steadily building energy throughout - using changes in percussion patterns and more intricate and layered synth parts as the music builds a hypnotic and intense feel. To my mind, the Goa parties resemble a ‘tribal shigmo’ with a ‘digital Romoth’ used to induce trance states.
Goa Trance tracks tend to focus on steadily building energy throughout - using changes in percussion patterns and more intricate and layered synth parts as the music builds a hypnotic and intense feel. To my mind, the Goa parties resemble a ‘tribal shigmo’ with a ‘digital Romoth’ used to induce trance states.
The music very often incorporates many audio effects created through experimentation with synthesizers. Another important distinction between European trance and Goa Trance is that, Goa trance features spazzy, spontaneous samples and other psychedelic elements. A well-known sound that originated with Goa Trance and became much more prevalent through its successor, Psychedelic Trance (Psytrance), is the organic "squelchy" sound.
A popular element of Goa Trance is the use of samples, often from science fiction movies. Those samples often contain references to psychedelics, parapsychology, extraterrestrial life, existentialism, OBE’s, dreams, science, spirituality and similar mysterious, occult, or unconventional topics.
Goa Trance DJs' mainly used 'MiniDiscs', 'D.A.T' (Digital Audio Tapes) and CDs. Vinyl was very rare or almost never used.
DAT machines from Sony.
With rapid changes in technology, Laptop computers running professional DJ software like ‘Tracktor’ have been incorporated. Other music technology used in Goa trance includes popular analogue synthesizers such as the Roland TB-303, Roland Juno-60/106, Novation Bass-Station, Korg MS-10, and notably the Roland SH-101. Hardware samplers manufactured by Akai, Yamaha and Ensoniq were also popular for sample storage and manipulation.
With rapid changes in technology, Laptop computers running professional DJ software like ‘Tracktor’ have been incorporated. Other music technology used in Goa trance includes popular analogue synthesizers such as the Roland TB-303, Roland Juno-60/106, Novation Bass-Station, Korg MS-10, and notably the Roland SH-101. Hardware samplers manufactured by Akai, Yamaha and Ensoniq were also popular for sample storage and manipulation.
Goa Trance is closely related to the emergence of Psytrance during the latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s, where the two genres mixed together. In popular culture, the distinction between the two genres often remains largely a matter of opinion (they are considered by some to be synonymous; others say that Psytrance is more "psychedelic/cybernetic" and that Goa Trance is more "organic", and still others maintain that there is a clear difference between the two).
Essentially, Trance music was pop culture's answer to the Goa Trance music scene on the beaches of Goa where the traveler’s music scene has been famous since the time of the Beatles.
Goa Trance enjoyed the greater part of its success from around 1994–1998, and since then has dwindled significantly both in production and consumption, being replaced by its successor, Psychedelic Trance (Psytrance). Many of the original Goa Trance artists are still making music, but refer to their style of music simply as "PSY". T.I.P (The infinity project) Records, Yellow, Flying Rhino Records, Dragonfly Records, Transient Records, were all key players on the beach scene.
Goa Trance enjoyed the greater part of its success from around 1994–1998, and since then has dwindled significantly both in production and consumption, being replaced by its successor, Psychedelic Trance (Psytrance). Many of the original Goa Trance artists are still making music, but refer to their style of music simply as "PSY". T.I.P (The infinity project) Records, Yellow, Flying Rhino Records, Dragonfly Records, Transient Records, were all key players on the beach scene.
For a better understanding of counterculture music, one must examine the philosophy of Industrial music.
Goa Trance and other forms of Trance have their roots in Industrial music, a style of experimental popular music that draws on transgressive themes and is often associated with countercultural angst and anger. While ideologically linked to punk music, industrial music is generally more complex and diverse, both sonically and lyrically. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by Yorkshire band Throbbing Gristle.
Goa Trance and other forms of Trance have their roots in Industrial music, a style of experimental popular music that draws on transgressive themes and is often associated with countercultural angst and anger. While ideologically linked to punk music, industrial music is generally more complex and diverse, both sonically and lyrically. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by Yorkshire band Throbbing Gristle.
Industrial music drew from a broad range of predecessors. The precursors that influenced the development of the genre included acts such as electronic group Kraftwerk, experimental rock acts The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa, psychedelic rock artists such as Jimi Hendrix, composers such as John Cage, and writers such as William S. Burroughs, whose ideas were particularly influential on the scene, particularly his interest in the cut-up technique and noise as a method of disrupting societal control, as well as philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche. Many of the initial industrial musicians preferred to cite artists or thinkers - rather than musicians - as their inspiration.
Alexei Monroe (PhD from the University of Kent, author of many articles on contemporary music, culture, and politics) argues that Kraftwerk were particularly significant in the development of industrial music, as the "first successful artists to incorporate representations of industrial sounds into nonacademic electronic music." Industrial music was created originally by using mechanical and electric machinery, and later advanced synthesizers, samplers and electronic percussion as the technology developed.
The birth of industrial music was a response to "an age [in which] the access and control of information were becoming the primary tools of power."
At its birth, the genre of industrial music was different from any other music, and its use of technology and disturbing lyrics and themes to tear apart preconceptions about the necessary rules of musical form supports the suggestion that industrial music is modernist music. The artists themselves made these goals explicit, even drawing connections to social changes they wished to argue for through their music.
See also sculptor Jungle Goa comment on technology and trance: http://alexfernandesphotography.blogspot.com/2011/02/jungle-goa-on-trance-music.html
The Industrial Records website explains that musicians wanted to re-invent rock music and that their uncensored records were about their relationship with the world. They go on to say that they wanted their music to be an awakening for listeners so that they would begin to think for themselves and question the world around them. Industrial Records intended the term industrial to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation, with previous music being more agricultural.
At its birth, the genre of industrial music was different from any other music, and its use of technology and disturbing lyrics and themes to tear apart preconceptions about the necessary rules of musical form supports the suggestion that industrial music is modernist music. The artists themselves made these goals explicit, even drawing connections to social changes they wished to argue for through their music.
See also sculptor Jungle Goa comment on technology and trance: http://alexfernandesphotography.blogspot.com/2011/02/jungle-goa-on-trance-music.html
The Industrial Records website explains that musicians wanted to re-invent rock music and that their uncensored records were about their relationship with the world. They go on to say that they wanted their music to be an awakening for listeners so that they would begin to think for themselves and question the world around them. Industrial Records intended the term industrial to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation, with previous music being more agricultural.
The first industrial artists experimented with noise and aesthetically controversial topics, musically and visually, such as fascism, serial killers and the occult, the history of uniforms and insignia" and Aliester Crowley’s Magick was present in Throbbing Gristle's work, as well as in other industrial pioneers.
Their production was not limited to music, but included mail art, performance art, installation pieces and other art forms.
Their production was not limited to music, but included mail art, performance art, installation pieces and other art forms.
Early industrial music often featured tape editing, stark percussion and loops distorted to the point where they had degraded to harsh noise.
Vocals were sporadic and electronically treated. Traditional instruments were often played in nontraditional or highly modified ways. Custom-built fuzzboxes for guitars produced a unique timbre.
Vocals were sporadic and electronically treated. Traditional instruments were often played in nontraditional or highly modified ways. Custom-built fuzzboxes for guitars produced a unique timbre.
Documentary about the the people of EMS (Electronic Music Studios) a radical group of avant-garde electronic musicians who utilized technology and experimentation to compose a futuristic electronic sound-scape for the New Britain.Comprising of pioneering electronic musicians Peter Zinovieff and Tristram Cary (famed for his work on the Dr Who series) and genius engineer David Cockerell, EMSs studio was one of the most advanced computer-music facilities in the world. EMSs great legacy is the VCS3, Britains first synthesizer and rival of the American Moog. The VCS3 changed the sounds of some of the most popular artists of this period including Brian Eno, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd.
Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle built speakers, effects units, and synthesizer modules, as well as modifying more conventional rock instrumentation, for Throbbing Gristle. He also invented a device named the "Gristle-izer", played by Peter Christopherson, which comprised a one-octave keyboard and a number of cassette machines triggering various pre-recorded sounds.
The purpose of industrial music initially was to serve as a commentary on modern society by eschewing what artists saw as trite connections to the past. Throbbing Gristle opposed the elements of traditional rock music remaining in the punk rock scene, declaring industrial to be "anti-music."
Early industrial performances often involved taboo-breaking, provocative elements, such as mutilation, sado-masochistic elements and totalitarian imagery or symbolism, as well as forms of audience abuse, such as Throbbing Gristle's aiming high powered lights at the audience. Jon Savage, the Cambridge-educated writer, broadcaster and music journalist, considered some hallmarks of industrial music to be organizational autonomy, shock tactics, and the use of synthesizers and "anti-music." Industrial Records was perhaps even more important an attack on the public consciousness than Throbbing Gristle.
Early industrial performances often involved taboo-breaking, provocative elements, such as mutilation, sado-masochistic elements and totalitarian imagery or symbolism, as well as forms of audience abuse, such as Throbbing Gristle's aiming high powered lights at the audience. Jon Savage, the Cambridge-educated writer, broadcaster and music journalist, considered some hallmarks of industrial music to be organizational autonomy, shock tactics, and the use of synthesizers and "anti-music." Industrial Records was perhaps even more important an attack on the public consciousness than Throbbing Gristle.
New school Goa trance
Recently, there has been an expansion of new Goa trance artists and labels across the globe. Several artists initially started producing Goa trance music and went on to produce Psytrance instead.
Many new Goa fans emerged, and since 2005, the genre has been going through a new cycle of life. Some artists have established their own indie (independent) labels, while others have made a great success in terms of creativity and production. Currently, there are many sub-genres within the psytrance scene, including minimal/progressive Psy, morning Psy, full-on Psy, and dark Psy.
Recently, there has been an expansion of new Goa trance artists and labels across the globe. Several artists initially started producing Goa trance music and went on to produce Psytrance instead.
Many new Goa fans emerged, and since 2005, the genre has been going through a new cycle of life. Some artists have established their own indie (independent) labels, while others have made a great success in terms of creativity and production. Currently, there are many sub-genres within the psytrance scene, including minimal/progressive Psy, morning Psy, full-on Psy, and dark Psy.
The Goa Trance School has its influence in many other countries particularly Israel and Finland. Trance is very popular in Israel, with psychedelic trance producers such as Infected Mushroom, Astrix, and Yahel Sherman achieving worldwide fame. One particular underground genre that branched off from Goa trance that I like is called Suomisaundi (Finnish sound), which originated in Finland. One of its trademark features is a reference to early- to mid-1990s classic Goa trance music, and this genre is often exhibited in Finland's forest party scene. In China, Chinese trance is a subgenre of trance music that originated in 2000. It derives from House, Techno, Psy and Goa Trance.
I hope the Front 242 series goes out to all lovers of Trance music and people wanting to experience or just curious about the global phenomena of Psychedelic-Goa trance. Goa/Psytrance has re-shaped the style and atmosphere of Trance parties worldwide.
A Psytrance party is definitely an unforgettable experience, a party of peace, spirituality, smiles and good music.
A Psytrance party is definitely an unforgettable experience, a party of peace, spirituality, smiles and good music.
Links to interviews with Goa Trance DJ's (GateLessGate Magazine)
Chicago 1200 mics
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/category/1200-mics-chicago/
Chicago 1200 mics
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/category/1200-mics-chicago/
GMS(Growling Mad Scientist) -The Bansi interview
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/category/gms-the-bansi-interview/
Last Hippe Standing Goa Gil interview
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/category/goa-gil/The Phenomenon of Goa Trance- Ma Faiza interview
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/category/dj-ma-faiza-goa-trance/
Also see Ma Faiza website: http://www.mafaiza.com/nodes/home
Trance around the world
At TEDxVancouver 2010 Jeet Kei Leung takes the crowd on a journey through the world and experiences of transformational festivals!
Glastonbury Festival
http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/category/glastonbury-festival/
Boom Festival (Portugal)
http://www.boomfestival.org/boom2010/
http://gatelessgate.wordpress.com/category/boom-festival/
The Burning Man
http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
A Front 242
Front 242 is my special project because it deals withrevolutionaries and as is the case with most revolutionaries
the are usually the underground...
Goa Gil with a calender that was distributed to
people at the beach party in south Anjuna 1974.
Fatima Danielle Picanelli my friend.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
ALEX FERNANDES in conversation with Ranjit Hoskote ( Archetypal Images, Fractal Diversity )
Extract from the book Retrieval Systems, edited by Ranjit Hoskote ((New Delhi: Art Alive, 2009)
Ranjit Hoskote: Alex, let’s go back to the beginning of our project. ‘Retrieval Systems’ evolved from my interest in memory as a condition, a resource, an archive or reserve of impulses, enigmas, images, complexes and patterns that all human beings, and certainly artists, draw upon constantly. What role does memory play in your art?
Alex Fernandes: One’s memory is what creates the ‘race mind’ and ‘racial consciousness’, as Jung puts it. The Goan portraits, particularly of the ‘Tiatristes’, reflect this racial consciousness.
RH: Alex, the trope of a ‘race mind’ sounds strange coming from you, given your publicly stated and marvellously practised openness to diversity. Although Jung never intended it that way, this term can sound dangerously fascist and ethnocentric. Shifts in world politics as well as intellectual history after 1945 have ensured that we now regard anything said to be founded in ‘race’ with wariness and scepticism. Do you think ‘regional’ might be a more valid description than ‘racial’?
AF: Ranjit, my reference to the ‘race mind’ and ‘racial consciousness’ may not be politically correct, as you point out it. I agree that Jung never intended it that way. He realised the reality of psyche and thought the mythic archetype contained in the psyche had autonomy, an agency beyond the individual. He proposed that the archetype had a dual nature – it exists both in the psyche and in the world at large. This is what Jung meant when he introduced the notion of a race mind, and proposed the archetypes of a racial consciousness.
Now, with reference to the ‘archetypal figures’ in the ‘Tiatristes’ portrait series. An ‘archetype’ is something we all experience and know intimately from the inside. Indefinable, an archetype is like a psychological instinct or informational field of influence which patterns our psyche, our experience of the world around us and how we experience ourselves. Archetypes are the image-making factor in the psyche, informing and giving shape to the images in our mind and the dreams of our soul, and as such, they insist on being approached imaginatively.
RH: So you draw on reservoirs or receptacles of memory. What sort of mental or physical archives or iconographies or narratives do you work with?
AF: Somewhere in the Goan psyche, we have archetypal figures of who we were as a race, a culture, and this is where we draw from to express our fantasy. We even recognise fictional characters as entities whose behaviour we might predict, with whom we may sympathise. What makes the character of Ganesha recognisable to worshippers as a god, for instance? Ironically, archetypes are not learned. They are inborn tendencies to experience the world. Strictly speaking, archetypal figures such as the Bhatkar, the Sasumai, the fisherwoman and so on are not archetypes, but archetypal images that have crystallised out of the archetypes. The images are objective, but universal.
My portraits of the ‘Tiatristes’ in their exaggerated stage garb, along with the viewer’s involvement, create a readily identifiable fantasy. This imagery, I believe, comes from a universal memory.
Strangely enough the great Goan cartoonist, Mario de Miranda, in his drawings of Goans has archetypal images of Goans that are almost identical with my ‘Tiatristes’ portraits. The archetypes had synchronically manifested themselves in Tiatre, in Mario’s work, and in my portraits. Such synchronicities are from a universal memory.
RH: Your ‘Tiatristes’ and ‘Goan Musicians’ portrait series encode and preserve a lively account of a specific subculture. Clearly childhood memory and subcultural knowledge play a major role in your imaginative process.
AF: As a second-generation Roman Catholic Goan born in Dhobi Talao, South Bombay, I had spent all of my adult life being disassociated from mainstream Goan culture. I spoke Konkani only with my grandmother, and English was the primary language of conversation at home and elsewhere. The cosmopolitan life in Bombay exposed me to various influences and I was never really a ‘Tiatre’ fan. But living in Dhobi Talao, one would often bump into famous ‘Tiatristes’, since most of them lived in close proximity to Sonapur Church and were a common spectacle after Sunday mass.
Dhobi Talao has been described by many as the “Goan enclave of Bombay” with its ‘kudds’ or clubs for Goan seamen in transit, and for Goan restaurants that served authentic Goan pork and beef dishes, and the joints run by ‘Aunties’ during the Prohibition period. It was a natural hangout for famous Goan musicians like Chris Perry, who lived close by in Dabul, Chic Chocolate, Micky Correa, and others. I remember seeing the great Mario Miranda with his friend the late ‘Busybee’ (Behram Contractor), sipping chai with their snacks at Kayani’s.
Western music in India was pioneered by Goans. My fondest memories of Goan musicians were at the Bistro café at Flora Fountain, where my father would often take us to see performances by jazz quartets made up of Goan trumpeters, double bass players, a pianist and a vocalist. In my later youth, Rang Bhavan near St Xavier’s College was the place to go to for open-air jazz and rock performances.
In the early 1970s in Bombay, I saw the first ‘hippies’ in Colaba near Hotel Stiffles and the surrounding areas. I thought their unconventional lifestyles were “really cool”, so to say. Later, this fad was reflected in the ideologies and lifestyle of my days at Elphinstone College in Bombay.
RH: We make discoveries all the time! So you were my senior at Elphinstone. And you were there in that golden decade when the campus of this elite college was divided between the tripping-out, cloud-head culture people and the class-warfare theoreticians and hunger-striking activists of the far Left?
AF: I loved every moment of those years at Elphinstone, the college canteen being the most frequented place.
RH: It was, for some students, like a Goa beach in the middle of Bombay’s colonial quarter!
AF: Speaking of Goa beaches, it was by no accident that my early ‘unsupervised’ vacations in Goa took me straight to the North Goa beaches and the beach parties. It was like being ‘Alex in Wonderland’! I still remember the trance parties at ‘Disco Valley’ in Vagator in the early 1990s with people like 'Goa Gil' playing his very special Goa psychedelic music. Dreadlocked Goa freaks adorned with tattoos, body piercings and freaky party costumes kicked up huge clouds of red dust whilst dancing to that psychedelic Goa trance music. Most of my work in Goa relies on these memories as a link to the ‘Goan race mind’.
RH: Alex, what a fantastic account! You should write a memoir. But again, you speak of a ‘Goan race mind’ but actually describe and celebrate an incredibly confluential gathering of diverse people of various cultural, religious, social and continental origins, all coming together in a new and redemptive fusion through cultural expression.
AF: ‘Goan psyche’ would be a more appropriate term. I agree, ‘race mind’ definitely implies jackboots, swastikas and Sieg Heils. I am definitely one who celebrates the confluential gatherings of diverse peoples.
RH: In what does the importance of memory reside, in your view? And could there sometimes also be a negative, sinister or debilitating aspect to memory?
AF: Memory is what gives us our character, and our various personalities, however diverse we may be. We inherit this first as genetic information from our parents and ancestors and then by observing traditions, rituals and everyday life patterns. Memory creates close tribal bonds via information that is passed on from one generation to the next generation, along with newly modified patterns of information of that current generation.
Cultural hegemony and intolerance for others would be a negative aspect of the ‘race mind’ or ‘racial consciousness’, if left unchecked. To forget that we are all ultimately connected even though we are diverse would be a negative aspect.
RH: Meaning, it would be negative if we got stuck in a specific ‘ethnic’ or ‘national’ or other kind of exclusivist memory and forgot the larger, more capacious, universal and unifying ‘species memory’?
AF: That is exactly how I see it. You see, we humans evolved in Africa about 150,000 years ago. From there to this point in time we have seen genetic and cultural diversity and the rise and fall of many civilisations. I don’t think evolution as a process will stop with our generation. I honestly think that to get stuck with ‘ethnic’ or ‘national’ memories while missing out on the ‘species memory’ is not very wise.
RH: Does the prospect of the loss of memory, both at the level of the individual mind and that of a civilisational corpus, terrify you? Do you think memory can oscillate between active and latent states, become dormant and be translated, reactivated, retrieved afresh years or centuries later?
AF: The genetic information inside the cell that propagates evolution is never a result of random accidents, or as Darwin suggests, that information came from natural selection rather by an intelligent design. If we go by Darwin’s theory of natural selection (use it or lose it theory), he suggests that organisms lost memory of genetic information as they evolved into different species. The theory of natural selection would reduce the amount of genetic information that is carefully stored in each strand of DNA. It is DNA that determines the nature of the physical being and contains the inherited memory of all generations. As we now know, DNA doesn’t dump information, but merely transforms these instructions into various organisms at an appropriate time by turning on and off various combinations of amino acids based on an intelligent design.
RH: Can you conceive of a world structured on the principle of amnesia?
AF: It would be highly unlikely, as this memory is recorded at a genetic level in the DNA for every generation of every living species. In the unlikely event that such a catastrophe takes place, at the most intimate level you would find a loss of family bonds, and from this would follow the feeling of disassociation from each other as a species.
The beautiful fractal diversity of genes that gives us various traditions and cultures would vanish into a bland world, a world without the love, emotions and thoughts that make us what we are – human.
Also see Tiatriste and Jungian Archetype
Lens-ing It
Ranjit Hoskote: Alex, let’s go back to the beginning of our project. ‘Retrieval Systems’ evolved from my interest in memory as a condition, a resource, an archive or reserve of impulses, enigmas, images, complexes and patterns that all human beings, and certainly artists, draw upon constantly. What role does memory play in your art?
Alex Fernandes: One’s memory is what creates the ‘race mind’ and ‘racial consciousness’, as Jung puts it. The Goan portraits, particularly of the ‘Tiatristes’, reflect this racial consciousness.
RH: Alex, the trope of a ‘race mind’ sounds strange coming from you, given your publicly stated and marvellously practised openness to diversity. Although Jung never intended it that way, this term can sound dangerously fascist and ethnocentric. Shifts in world politics as well as intellectual history after 1945 have ensured that we now regard anything said to be founded in ‘race’ with wariness and scepticism. Do you think ‘regional’ might be a more valid description than ‘racial’?
AF: Ranjit, my reference to the ‘race mind’ and ‘racial consciousness’ may not be politically correct, as you point out it. I agree that Jung never intended it that way. He realised the reality of psyche and thought the mythic archetype contained in the psyche had autonomy, an agency beyond the individual. He proposed that the archetype had a dual nature – it exists both in the psyche and in the world at large. This is what Jung meant when he introduced the notion of a race mind, and proposed the archetypes of a racial consciousness.
Now, with reference to the ‘archetypal figures’ in the ‘Tiatristes’ portrait series. An ‘archetype’ is something we all experience and know intimately from the inside. Indefinable, an archetype is like a psychological instinct or informational field of influence which patterns our psyche, our experience of the world around us and how we experience ourselves. Archetypes are the image-making factor in the psyche, informing and giving shape to the images in our mind and the dreams of our soul, and as such, they insist on being approached imaginatively.
RH: So you draw on reservoirs or receptacles of memory. What sort of mental or physical archives or iconographies or narratives do you work with?
AF: Somewhere in the Goan psyche, we have archetypal figures of who we were as a race, a culture, and this is where we draw from to express our fantasy. We even recognise fictional characters as entities whose behaviour we might predict, with whom we may sympathise. What makes the character of Ganesha recognisable to worshippers as a god, for instance? Ironically, archetypes are not learned. They are inborn tendencies to experience the world. Strictly speaking, archetypal figures such as the Bhatkar, the Sasumai, the fisherwoman and so on are not archetypes, but archetypal images that have crystallised out of the archetypes. The images are objective, but universal.
My portraits of the ‘Tiatristes’ in their exaggerated stage garb, along with the viewer’s involvement, create a readily identifiable fantasy. This imagery, I believe, comes from a universal memory.
Strangely enough the great Goan cartoonist, Mario de Miranda, in his drawings of Goans has archetypal images of Goans that are almost identical with my ‘Tiatristes’ portraits. The archetypes had synchronically manifested themselves in Tiatre, in Mario’s work, and in my portraits. Such synchronicities are from a universal memory.
RH: Your ‘Tiatristes’ and ‘Goan Musicians’ portrait series encode and preserve a lively account of a specific subculture. Clearly childhood memory and subcultural knowledge play a major role in your imaginative process.
AF: As a second-generation Roman Catholic Goan born in Dhobi Talao, South Bombay, I had spent all of my adult life being disassociated from mainstream Goan culture. I spoke Konkani only with my grandmother, and English was the primary language of conversation at home and elsewhere. The cosmopolitan life in Bombay exposed me to various influences and I was never really a ‘Tiatre’ fan. But living in Dhobi Talao, one would often bump into famous ‘Tiatristes’, since most of them lived in close proximity to Sonapur Church and were a common spectacle after Sunday mass.
Dhobi Talao has been described by many as the “Goan enclave of Bombay” with its ‘kudds’ or clubs for Goan seamen in transit, and for Goan restaurants that served authentic Goan pork and beef dishes, and the joints run by ‘Aunties’ during the Prohibition period. It was a natural hangout for famous Goan musicians like Chris Perry, who lived close by in Dabul, Chic Chocolate, Micky Correa, and others. I remember seeing the great Mario Miranda with his friend the late ‘Busybee’ (Behram Contractor), sipping chai with their snacks at Kayani’s.
Western music in India was pioneered by Goans. My fondest memories of Goan musicians were at the Bistro café at Flora Fountain, where my father would often take us to see performances by jazz quartets made up of Goan trumpeters, double bass players, a pianist and a vocalist. In my later youth, Rang Bhavan near St Xavier’s College was the place to go to for open-air jazz and rock performances.
In the early 1970s in Bombay, I saw the first ‘hippies’ in Colaba near Hotel Stiffles and the surrounding areas. I thought their unconventional lifestyles were “really cool”, so to say. Later, this fad was reflected in the ideologies and lifestyle of my days at Elphinstone College in Bombay.
RH: We make discoveries all the time! So you were my senior at Elphinstone. And you were there in that golden decade when the campus of this elite college was divided between the tripping-out, cloud-head culture people and the class-warfare theoreticians and hunger-striking activists of the far Left?
AF: I loved every moment of those years at Elphinstone, the college canteen being the most frequented place.
RH: It was, for some students, like a Goa beach in the middle of Bombay’s colonial quarter!
AF: Speaking of Goa beaches, it was by no accident that my early ‘unsupervised’ vacations in Goa took me straight to the North Goa beaches and the beach parties. It was like being ‘Alex in Wonderland’! I still remember the trance parties at ‘Disco Valley’ in Vagator in the early 1990s with people like 'Goa Gil' playing his very special Goa psychedelic music. Dreadlocked Goa freaks adorned with tattoos, body piercings and freaky party costumes kicked up huge clouds of red dust whilst dancing to that psychedelic Goa trance music. Most of my work in Goa relies on these memories as a link to the ‘Goan race mind’.
RH: Alex, what a fantastic account! You should write a memoir. But again, you speak of a ‘Goan race mind’ but actually describe and celebrate an incredibly confluential gathering of diverse people of various cultural, religious, social and continental origins, all coming together in a new and redemptive fusion through cultural expression.
AF: ‘Goan psyche’ would be a more appropriate term. I agree, ‘race mind’ definitely implies jackboots, swastikas and Sieg Heils. I am definitely one who celebrates the confluential gatherings of diverse peoples.
RH: In what does the importance of memory reside, in your view? And could there sometimes also be a negative, sinister or debilitating aspect to memory?
AF: Memory is what gives us our character, and our various personalities, however diverse we may be. We inherit this first as genetic information from our parents and ancestors and then by observing traditions, rituals and everyday life patterns. Memory creates close tribal bonds via information that is passed on from one generation to the next generation, along with newly modified patterns of information of that current generation.
Cultural hegemony and intolerance for others would be a negative aspect of the ‘race mind’ or ‘racial consciousness’, if left unchecked. To forget that we are all ultimately connected even though we are diverse would be a negative aspect.
RH: Meaning, it would be negative if we got stuck in a specific ‘ethnic’ or ‘national’ or other kind of exclusivist memory and forgot the larger, more capacious, universal and unifying ‘species memory’?
AF: That is exactly how I see it. You see, we humans evolved in Africa about 150,000 years ago. From there to this point in time we have seen genetic and cultural diversity and the rise and fall of many civilisations. I don’t think evolution as a process will stop with our generation. I honestly think that to get stuck with ‘ethnic’ or ‘national’ memories while missing out on the ‘species memory’ is not very wise.
RH: Does the prospect of the loss of memory, both at the level of the individual mind and that of a civilisational corpus, terrify you? Do you think memory can oscillate between active and latent states, become dormant and be translated, reactivated, retrieved afresh years or centuries later?
AF: The genetic information inside the cell that propagates evolution is never a result of random accidents, or as Darwin suggests, that information came from natural selection rather by an intelligent design. If we go by Darwin’s theory of natural selection (use it or lose it theory), he suggests that organisms lost memory of genetic information as they evolved into different species. The theory of natural selection would reduce the amount of genetic information that is carefully stored in each strand of DNA. It is DNA that determines the nature of the physical being and contains the inherited memory of all generations. As we now know, DNA doesn’t dump information, but merely transforms these instructions into various organisms at an appropriate time by turning on and off various combinations of amino acids based on an intelligent design.
RH: Can you conceive of a world structured on the principle of amnesia?
AF: It would be highly unlikely, as this memory is recorded at a genetic level in the DNA for every generation of every living species. In the unlikely event that such a catastrophe takes place, at the most intimate level you would find a loss of family bonds, and from this would follow the feeling of disassociation from each other as a species.
The beautiful fractal diversity of genes that gives us various traditions and cultures would vanish into a bland world, a world without the love, emotions and thoughts that make us what we are – human.
Also see Tiatriste and Jungian Archetype
Lens-ing It
Friday, March 20, 2009
Goa Gil and Ariane
Musician Goa Gil is an icon in Anjuna & Vagator , north Goa. He played rock and roll with the ‘Big dipper band’ & the ‘Anjuna Jam Band’ at the early beach parties in the 70’s (In my B&W portrait of Gil, he holds a calendar from new year’s 1978 party showing the ‘Big dipper band’ in a group photo). Gil had jammed with Goan musicians like his friend the late August Braganza and drummer William D’souza from Mapuca.
The introduction of techno and its techniques to Goa led to what eventually became the Goa Trance style; early pioneers included DJ’s Laurent, Fred Disco, Swiss Rudi, and Goa Gil. Many "parties" (generally similar to raves but with a more mystic flavor, at least in early 1990s) in Goa revolve entirely around this genre of music. In other countries, Goa Trance is also often played at raves, festivals and parties in conjunction with other styles of trance and techno.
Goa parties have a definitive visual aspect - the use of "fluoro" (fluorescent paint) is common on clothing and on decorations such as tapestries. The graphics on these decorations are usually associated with topics such as aliens, Hinduism, other religious (especially eastern) images, mushrooms, shamanistic technology and other psychedelic art. Shrines in front of the DJ stands featuring religious items are also common decorations. Dreadlocked Goa freaks adorned with tattoos, body piercings and freaky party costumes kicked up huge clouds of red dust whilst dancing to psychedelic Goa trance music. Their fashion sense expressed the counterculture that they belonged to.
It was like being ‘Alex in wonderland’, I can still reminisce the trance parties at ‘Disco valley’ in Vagator in the early 90’s with Gil playing his very special Goa psychedelic music.He still continues to play and make music in Goa and all over the world.
After a long wait I finally managed to do the portrait with Gil and Ariane at their house in Anjuna (1st March 2009).
-Alex Fernandes (Goa, 2009) Click to view musicians slide show
(In the photo: Ariane, Dr Albert Hoffman and Gill at a party in Basel next to Dr Hoffmans house. Photo courtesy Goa Gil)
Goa Gil: A Short Biography
Goa Gil is an American-born musician, DJ and ex-party organizer. He is one of the founders of the Goa trance and psytrance movement in electronic dance music.
Gil was born in 1951 and grew up in San Francisco, California. He witnessed the birth of the hippie movement and acid rock, and was involved with ‘The freak collective family Dog’ and the 60’s rock group ‘The Son’s of Champlin’. Feeling that the San Francisco musical scene was falling apart, he left in 1969, going first to Amsterdam and then to India, settling in the hippie Mecca of Goa. On his extensive travels in India he met the ‘Sadhus’ (wandering holy men of India). Gil became himself a Sadhu, Baba Mangalanand, in the order of the Juna Akhara, under the Guru, Mahant Prem Giri Ji Maharaj.
In the mid 70’s, Gil and his friends soon gathered some equipment (at first some of which was rented from August Braganza) and started playing live music all night long on the Goa beaches. During the early 1980s, many Goa hippies were becoming increasingly fascinated with early electronic music groups such as ‘Kraftwerk’ and ‘Front 242’. The mix of outdoor dance parties with Eastern mystical and spiritual overtones came to define the aesthetic of the Goa party movement. For Gil, dance is an active form of meditation and the use of trance music is a way to "redefine the ancient tribal ritual for the 21st century". During the 1990s, the Goa trance movement spread by way of foreign backpackers of various nationalities who attended parties in India. Nowadays, Gil is still based in Goa for several months of the year, and spends the rest of his time travelling and on tour playing at parties all over the world.
Gil’s partner Ariane MacAvoy is herself a child of french goan "hippes". Ariane, who is an excellent djembe player and african dance instructor makes music as “Nimba”. Together Gil and Ariane make music as “The Nommos”.
Goa Gil and Arianes’ CDs are avaliable in India and worldwide on Avatar Records
(http://www.avatar-music.com/artists/artists01.htm)
Visit (http://www.goagil.com) for more information on Gil and Ariane.
The site has a lot of interesting pictures from the 70’s.
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