"The Album Pranaam is the product of a very unique cross-cultural synthesis, in which the Eastern traditions are confronted by Western modernity."

Monsoon Trio consists of saxophone-playing brothers Jonathan & Andrew Kay and bass veena artist Justin Gray. Over the past 9 years, the trio has been studying traditional North Indian classical raga music in Kolkata, India, under their Guru, Pandit Shantanu Bhattacharyya. This innovative journey has lead to Justin designing and co-creating the “Bass Veena”; a modified fretless bass with additional supportive strings, as well as Jonathan’s development of the “Shrutiphone”; a modified non-tempered saxophone.Monsoon Trio's debut album Pranaam  is the first CD to document the collective performance of vocal and instrumental styles of North Indian Classical music on modern western instruments. The term "Pranaam" describes an offering of the highest respect as an act of complete surrender. 

How would you describe the sound of your album Pranaam?

‘Pranaam’ is the jugalbandi presentation of pure North Indian Classical music on western instruments. It is the culmination of Andrew, Justin and my (Jonathan) journey into North Indian Raga music which started 10 years ago when we visited Kolkata and began traditional training together in the Guru-Shishya Parampara with our Guruji, Pandit Shantanu Bhattacharyya. We have performed Raga music together countless times in India and North America and wanted to document this collective journey.

'Pranaam' contains 5 of the grand North Indian Ragas, Bhairav, Shree, Jaijaiwanti, Malkauns and Bhairavi, all accompanied by Subhajyoti Guha on tabla and Shayna Kay on tanpura. Rendering the Ragas on our western instruments was a learning process that greatly challenged us, eventually inspiring innovations and technical developments to our instruments to overcome the difficulties of expressing the subtitles of the Ragas. Under the mentorship of our Guruji, as well as luthier, Les Godfry, and woodwind repair technician, KevinRohm, this lead to the creation of Justin's ‘Bass Veena’ from a fretless bass and the ‘Shrutiphone’ from my tenor and soprano saxophone.

Recorded by Justin at my family cottage in Northern Canada, this was a live recording which allowed us to be interactive and intuitive in the moment, which greatly enhanced the mood and feel of the recording.

What characterizes your music philosophy?

What would the act of giving Pranaam to your Guru sound like if it was a flowing stream of music? To me, a Raga is a musical offering to the Guru, and a prayer to the whole tradition of the Guru consciousness. The Ragas have been passed down from Guru to Shishya since the ancient times until present day and therefore there can be no separation of the Raga from the Guru. The Guru is a channel of the greater Raga consciousness, and their task is to encourage and cultivate the spirit of the Raga consciousness within the Shishya, as to awaken the presence of the inner Guru, which psychically guides the progress of the student until realization.

The lineage of the Gurus have followed this system which has lead generations of disciples to mastery of the elements that make up a Raga; Swara and Laya. As a raga sadhaka, one who is undergoing the spiritual discipline of Raga music, I constantly find myself striving towards the perfection of these elements in any given Raga and Tala, and I have learned to overcome the intimidation or fear of the infinite heights this journey demands. As the quest for Swara and Laya is so sublime and endless how can one even begin to imagine perfecting what is infinite in nature? Embracing this paradox and overcoming its duality is the whole philosophy of the sadhana set before us. As our being becomes in harmony with the life of Raga sadhana, and the Ragas become natural reflections of our life-movements, we begin to experience degrees of identity with the Raga entities, a platform where these apparent paradoxes become superficial appearances of a greater power and the dualities merely two sides of one coin. The power contained in the Ragas stems from the discipline of confronting this paradox, transforming our limitations, and transcending beyond the individual into that of a universal Oneness.

Is your creative composition in blending two traditions a spontaneous process or you conceive this intellectually?

We have given a lot of importance to the cultivation and development of what is originally rooted in our jazz music background and central to our mode of musical interaction; the ‘collective consciousness’. This can be intellectually stimulated but is deeply intuitive in essence. Although not commonly a part of the ‘soloistic’ nature of Indian classical music, where the soloist is part of an intricate hierarchical web which includes other accompanying musicians, our experience of playing creative improvised music together for the past 15 years has shown us the power and importance of connecting to the ‘collective consciousness’.

By carefully maintaining the strict teachings of our Guru and working within the cultural framework and etiquettes of the North Indian Classical music tradition, we have found a unique and inspiring mode of collaboration, wherein the individual surrenders into that of the greater collective, where the psychic connection between the collective and that of the source, the Raga, can more harmoniously blend into one unified movement of integral development. We believe this is the only way to a meaningful Raga collaboration, and was realized in the timeless jugalbandis of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Training under the same Guru source plays an indispensable role in collectively assimilating and creating a deeply harmonious Raga language on any given day. This also supports our experience that the Raga consciousness is rooted in an objective reality which is to be individually realized by the collective members and harmoniously interwoven into one musical entity that in actuality is greater than the sum of its parts.

What is your most favored Raga/composition on this new album?

This album contains the Ragas which have grown closest to us over the years of our sadhana. There can be no comparison in terms of better or worse between Ragas as each offers a unique and personal relationship to the artist or listener that matures and over time. Just as a Mother loves all of her children, the Raga sadhak begins to see how each Raga is special in their own way and embraces the individuality of each Raga in a larger interdependent family.

Where have the ideas behind the compositions come from?

Compositionally, we are blessed that our Guruji, Pandit Shantanu Bhattacharyya, was the musical director of the album and composed and arranged the material specifically for this recording project. He arranged bandish compositions in Jaijaiwanti and Malkauns from his Guru, Pandit Prasun Banerjee, and took one old traditional Dhammar bandish in Bhairavi. The rest of the material was composed by Guruji to suit our collective and individual playing styles. It is these compositions that truly give us the platform to express the Ragas in all their beauty.

What do you want the audience to walk away with after listening to your music?

Ideally, we would like the audience to remain in quiet reflection and contemplation after listening to our music because this is what we feel after hearing a great Raga performance. Although we know we are lifetimes away from mastering this music, we have done our best to render the Ragas on this recording from the bottom of our hearts and tried to fill each moment with aspiration and sincerity. If this is conveyed to the listener then we can feel thankful as artists.

What has been the relationship between East and West in your life and music?

This album is the product of a very unique cross-cultural synthesis, in which the Eastern traditions are confronted by Western modernity. By reaching 'back’ into the vast depths of the Raga music tradition we have experienced the old-world culture in which the Ragas slowly evolve from. By looking ‘forward’, we have innovated new instruments and musical techniques that we humbly hope contribute to another chapter of the ever evolving music of North India.

After being in India for the past 10 years, the relationship between the East and West has been something very different to me then that of the modern culture. In the West, the fad has been to import only partial, superficial Truths and self-fulfilling messages of the Eastern Religions and Gurus, creating the ’New Age’ movement, a multi-billion dollar industry preying on many honest aspirants from the west. The East, in turn has embarked on mimicking the defining ideology of the ‘New World’, the American Dream and Hollywood culture, which has become an unsustainable sickness of materialism, consumerism and commercialism.

On the contrary, we have aimed to take the highest and most universal ideals from both cultures, in which the integrity of each fundamental truth is maintained while also become flexible enough to apply outside of its traditional environment. Personally, my experiences in India have enriched me far beyond my expectations and even helped me to see my own culture in a more holistic and richer light. In order for me to know myself, I had to leave my home and experience the world from another perspective, and traveling is something I recommend to everyone. It challenges you in so many ways to exceed yourself, to redefine your beliefs, to break down preconceptions and judgments of others, to problem solve with another set of tools, language and resources, to open yourself to others in humble and respectful ways which break down the ego of self-centered nature.

Traveling and immersing myself in other traditions of the world has been a huge part of my lives. Personally, it has helped me truly recognize the best aspects from my own culture; discipline, equality, structure, respect for others, respect for nature; things I had once taken for granted, or unconsciously depended on. During my time in India, my perspective on Indian life allowed me to enter into the most potent traits fundamental to Indian culture; the underlying faith of spiritual reality (soul, reincarnation), freedom of religion/worship, compassion, tolerance, contentment.

An integral synthesis of the best aspects offered by both cultures has taken time, patience and faith. A lot of energy has been put into traveling and gaining cultural knowledge and experience, and even more time has been needed to assimilate and digest what this means to me in a integral way. This endless journey is a creative process that aspires to broaden and widen the being into a more holistic and universal understanding of the individual, cosmic and transcendental aspects of our collective reality.

Many maestros have spoken about the declining popularity of classical music and the curious rise of fusion. What do you feel?

The ancient Indian, Chinese and Greek philosophers knew very well of interdependence of music and the state of culture, even to the point of predicting the inevitable downfall of their respective societies once their popular music had begun to degrade to a certain point. Have we reached this ultimatum in the age of Kaliyuga? I certainly hope not!

North Indian Raga music, in the form we know it, is the greatest fusion I know of. Dhrupad is the fusion of 2 cultures at their finest; a confluence of Hindu and Muslim music, instruments, artists and vision. We look at it now as an ancient form, but it was an intense fusion experiment that gave birth to the aesthetic of raga music that exists in North India today. Khyal is a further fusion with a new found Persian innovations and instruments. Therefore, we must remember that music is a reflection of an ever evolving humanity.

Human culture moves in waves, just as a reflection of nature, and a downward slide is none other than the inevitable certainty of the upward rise towards the next crest. We live in a fast paced, dynamic and globalizing world where the internet has empowered the individual to actively participate in the creation of a new global culture which will redefine the way in which we live. I believe this is an important period and I pray we take the time required to make mature and holistic decisions about the state of things to come; it is in our hands to decide.

I believe this decision needs to be founded on a healthy interchange between the wisdom of traditionalism, fundamentalism, and orthodoxy, with that of open, progressive, creative and free-minded ideals that aim not to sever our roots but revitalize the Truths of our forefathers in a new light. By reconciling these two poles, which are usually opposed to each other through corrupted political agenda and ideological generation gaps, as being not separate from each other, but interconnected and more importantly interdependent and necessary for a holistic paradigm shift forward, we can move into a new era of global multiculturalism that rests firmly on the traditional roots of our ancestors, while creatively using these tools to invigorate each moment and inspire our imagination, consciously propelling us collectively forward towards a truly harmonious and peaceful co-existence.  

The Album Pranaam...

If there is one place where you will feel inspired to perform, what will be that place?

In nature; in a jungle, on a mountain, by the seaside. In a place where everything and everyone is receptive to the most subtle messages of music. Nature always listens and responds because nature thrives on receptivity. Many of us humans on the other hand are constantly bombarded by the chattering of the mind and sensations which cloud our deeper receptive abilities, and to those, the inner meaning of music is lost.

What is an ideal life for your music to thrive?

The life of an artist is constantly a search for balance between their ideal environment and their ideal community; rarely are they both in the same place. Personally, I feel that greatest lessons I have learnt as an artist have been from Mother nature. I feel inspired and energized by Her beauty and harmony to no end. This is the home of my creativity.

I also feel the need for community, for collective consciousness. Living an ascetic or hermetic life detached from humanity is an ideal sadhana for some time, but for the artist in me, I need a community to share with, to inspire and be inspired by, to challenge and to be challenged by. I need to feel my art making a positive impact in the evolution of culture.

This balance between the inner creative self- who creates for the sake of individual discovery and self-perfection, and the externalizing self- who creates for the sake of the collective consciousness, becomes a dynamic play that is constantly in flux. Ideally, this artistic search for Truth, dynamically harmonizes the inner search with the outer expression, completing the circle of creation; individual, cosmic, transcendent.  For me, what unites these two energies relies on the practice of spiritual sadhana which is founded on the realization of Oneness in Consciousness so that each action is a movement of spiritual Unity expressed in physical Nature. All actions in life can therefore become a creative and artistic expression of Truth and Beauty.

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The Ancient Indian Roots of the Western Alphabet By Wim Borsboom

Independent researcher Wim (William)  Borsboom grew up in Holland in a typical Roman Catholic environment, but from when he was six years old, he became increasingly interested in Hinduism, Buddhism, monastic life, meditation, eastern archaeology, arts and languages.

After his retirement from a variety of teaching occupations (the Montessori Method, Microsoft software manual writing and instruction, lifestyle guidance and yoga instruction), he returned to what he loved most in early life: eastern religion and culture, archaeology and linguistics, lately he is focusing his research specifically on the Indus Valley Civilization and Sanskrit literature.

Wim Borsboom, February 2016 at Kolkata’s Narendrapur University delivering his lecture 
on the ancient Indian roots of the Western Alphabet

The Earliest Phonemes and the Indian Alphabet

It must have been more that 4000 years ago in India, that the earliest pre-Panini linguists already had discovered that the sounds we make to verbally communicate

•  consonants
•  vowels

can be categorized according to where in the mouth they are articulated: from the throat (larynx) to the front of the mouth (lips) and places in between.

In those early days when communication was not as nuanced as it became later, in addition to the vowel phonemes (A, E, I, O, U), just three types of consonant phonemes were recognized:

• the guttural k sound,
• the dental t sound,
• the labial p sound.

When, over time, communication became more nuanced, also more nuanced sounds were recognized*:

• three nuances of the guttural k phoneme: ka, ga, nga,
• three nuances of the dental t phoneme: ta, da, na,
• three nuances of the labial p phoneme: pa, ba, ma.

When you put those phonemes in a tic-tac-toe like grid it looks like:

ka    ta   pa

ga    da  ba

gna  na  ma

This was one of the earliest, if not the earliest alphabet (Sanskrit 'abugida'). Notice that it adds up to 14 with the five vowels included. This number of 14 shows characters up in early linguistic treatises.

The ancient linguist who discovered this some 4000 years, did not write this down as letters with pen and paper. Of course not! He scratched them with a stick as marks inside a tic-tac-toe grid on the hardened soil in front of him. Whatever shapes he scratched, they were not letters yet, they were figurative scratches - graphemes - that represented voiced human sounds -phonemes.

According to researcher Chaitanya Bhide (Mumbai 2015) the shapes of those graphemes show how the tongue and lips were positioned in relation to teeth and palate, and how the breath flowed when each particular sound was produced.

The use of script to form written words was a much later invention.

The Significance of the Twenty Field Grid

After the previously described nine field grid (which did not include the vowels), a twelve field grid with more nuanced consonant phonemes developed, and in the next phase a twenty field grid was invented, which in addition to 15 consonant phonemes now also included the five vowels.

At this point the following twenty field (5x4) grid was in place. The grid that is shown here contains Devanagari script characters but 4000 years ago they must have been Pre-Ashokan Brahmi ones.

An Early Pre-Panini Sanskrit Alphabet (Abugida) 

For clarity sake I colour coded the columns.

• The vowels column is blue,
• he gutturals column is yellow, 
• The dentals column is green,
• The labials columns is red.

Notice that the columns have the same colour coding as the western alphabet letters shown belowon the blackboard illustration, but notice how the sequence of the columns on the blackboard is different.

It is important to consider that the use of vowel phonemes must have preceded the use of consonants by thousands of years as Primates,  Neanderthalers, Cro-Magnon and early Homo Habilis and Sapiens were already making use of them 'hooting and hollering'. More than 3400 years ago this grid above stood model for the western alphabet, but a near-eastern linguist (probably from what is now Syria) mistakenly mixed the columns up. The labials (red) were placed ahead of the gutturals (yellow) and the dentals (green).

We have to realize that the 26 letter western alphabet string of letters was originally only 20 letters:

• The V and W were originally just the V**(often written or chiselled as a U).
• The X, Y and Q were later Latin and Greek insertions,
• G and H were originally pronounced similarly,
• So were the I and J.

More than 3400 years ago - as detailed in my monograph "Alphabet or Abracadabra? - Reverse Engineering the Western Alphabet?" (available on Amazon and Kindle) the Indianpre-Ashokan Brahmi twenty field abugida grid of phonemes was copied by a Western linguist on his study visit to India, onto four palm-leaves each one holding one column of graphemes which later resulted in (initially) a western grid format*** as shown on the blackboard.

What happened with the four palm-leaves that had the phoneme markings written (graphed) on them, was that the linguist initially lost the palm-leave strip with the vowels and then ordered the remaining strips in the wrong order"

The Western Alphabet string (abecedary) seems to have no order, but when they are fitted in a 20 field grid a certain order becomes clear:

• The first column - the vowels (blue) in their proper order: a e i o u,
• The second column -  all the red letters are labials,
• The third column - all the yellow letters are guttural (the 'c' as in the word 'case'),
• The fourth column - all the green letters are dentals.

Finally, the Western  Alphabet’s Letter Sequence

To find out how that happenedand how a few more errors slipped by - small errors but of historic proportion - read my monograph "Alphabet or Abracadabra? - Reverse Engineering The Western Alphabet?".

The bottom figure (Alphabetic Sequencing) shows the decipherment of the 1400 BCE cuneiform clay tablet from Ugarit (current Syria).

By the time, 3400 years ago, that this alphabet was in use, the abecedary grid was read sequentially row-by-row rather then column-by-column. Hence the current western alphabetic string of characters- errors included. If the columns would not have been mixed up, the western alphabet sequence would have been something like:

A C D B E G L F I K N M O Q R S T P U X Z V

(For certain missing letters, keep in mind that the G and H were at some point similar in pronunciation, so were the I and the J,  of course the W is a double U or double V.)

To order the book on Amazon India

http://www.amazon.in/gp/aw/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?k=Alphabet+or+Abracadabra+

Notes

* I borrowed “reverse engineering” and “pattern analysis” techniques from the fields of engineering, software data error checking and statistics, to work my way back from 52 character Sanskrit alphabets (abugidas) and 26 letter western abecedaries.

**In even earlier stages the O and the V were equivalent.

***Not the later bastardized linear string format.

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"Spicy Tutuboy keeps on questioning pre-conceived ideas of identities, sexualities and gender!"

Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Diniz Sanchez studied dance and choreography in the Superior School of Dance and in Forum Dança. Dancer/performer for several companies in Portugal, France and Belgium, since 1994, he started creating his own work spanning dance, theatre, video and singing. Choreographer and director of Lua Company since its creation in 2004. Diniz has presented pieces in Portugal, Spain and France. Since 2006 he has been developing the character Spicy Tutuboy based on whom he has done several performances on questions of identity. Recently he did a Dance on High Heels workshop at The Sparsh Studio, Buoyant Performing Arts, Kolkata, also a special piece  " Horses & Hussain" along with Pradip Chattopadhyay and Janardan  Ghosh dedicated to  M F Hussian at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata and Horse Tale" at The Old House organised by  the Arshinagar Project.

How does dance, or any form of art connect to the human soul? What kind of influence does it, then have to change the human being? 

I believe that dance, as any Art form connects directly to the human soul. Dance is a very sensitive Art form: it relates to Nature, as human beings started to dance in rituals to honor and represent Mother Nature - the Goddess.

Dance as Art relates to the soul, but it also relates to the body, what makes it a "closest" Art form of human beings. In the West people have grown distant from their bodies (with the Christian idea of the body as a "channel" for sin - which take us away from the "right" path) - a bit as in the monastic currents in India, who professed the asceticism. The sacredness of Dance in India has been a bit taken apart also by the forced prostitution of Temple dancers. 

We are victims of an Era of pseudo-moralistic thinking, that hides itself behind the politics of fear, self-interest and materialistic corruption.

Nowadays East and West come together in a fusion of media, entertainment, popular amusement and cultural artistry. This has its positive and negative points. Originally, a dance was sacred and was an expression of human-body/soul contact/communication with the Gods and with others/community.
Our sacred microcosmic self (soul) [consciously or unconsciously] directly communicating with the macrocosmos. 

When this happens,  it is amazing, and you know you are in front of the most fine Art!
This should be every artist's aim. I do believe that Art's objective is to change the World, and every change has to start with the self. As an artist I hope to contribute with my Art, with my life, to help change the human being and our world into a better place for all of us.

What have been the influences in your personal life that have helped shape you as a dance-theatre personality?

When you are an artist, you are always an artist, I mean: it is not like any job or career, that you do from 9 to 5 and then go and live your life. I understand that everything I do, even in my spare time, like going to the movies, checking Facebook or chatting with friends, will have an influence in my life as an artist, hence in my Art.
This is why I consider that we artists are constantly at work - we never know from where the idea for a new creation might come! I also say that to my students: apply whatever you learn in class to your life - if it is not something that transcends the "class" situation, it is probably not so fundamental.

I was a quite lonesome child, only son of a divorced couple (till age 10, when my brother was born), who played a lot by myself, liked reading and listening to music, and had a special bond with nature... quite a sensitive boy with a lot of imagination, so in some way it was not a surprise when in the last years of school, I was more interested in (performing) art - dance/theatre - than in following an academic career.

My Mother is deaf, and although she speaks and do lip-reading (we never needed to communicate by Sign Language), I realized, years later in my dancing career, that I had chosen Dance as my Art because Dance expresses/communicates through gesture. That is why I am not so interested in "abstract" dance/movement.

Looking back, I realize that one of the things that have influenced me more as a person and as an artist is the fact of people and institutions saying "no", "you cannot do it", "you will not make it". I do not cope with that. I was born in 1974, the year of the Portuguese Revolution (that ended the dictator regime and the colonialism). I call myself "son of the Revolution". So don't tell me "no" - as I am probably going to prove you wrong!

But I am also working on that: on being a less "revolted" person and accepting what is given. And for that the major influence in my life has been India. I came to India first time in 2010, and fell in love with the country, it's Arts and Cultures, its contradictions.... And hope one day make it my home.

How have you been able to blend themes like gender fluidity into your dance performances? Can we actually have gender fluidity and flexibility in a country like India? Why or why not?

I am a gay man. I am a sensitive human being. I am an artist. Bringing themes like identity and gender in my work comes naturally: I guess I have always been working on this, consciously or not.
Recently (2007) with the birth of my performing pseudonym (alter-ego) Spicy Tutuboy, this has been even more visible. And pertinent.

I feel it is a necessity in today's world: in the West, LGBTIQ is mostly "legally accepted or tolerated", but I feel that all of this is so recent that the risk of losing it all is quite present... And then we have situations like in Russia, Africa, Arabic countries, etc., and India, where we are still letting ancient colonial laws tell us how to live our lives in 2016!!! It is just unthinkable!

That is why Spicy Tutuboy keeps on questioning pre-conceived ideas of identities, sexualities and gender!
Yes, I do believe we can have gender fluidity and flexibility in a country like India.

Why? Because: 1- India aims to be a modern country living fully in a contemporary world; 2- India is one of the countries where gender fluidity and flexibility has been part of its history and ancient traditions. Pseudo-traditionalist and fake-conservative politicians, etc., want to convince us of the contrary, erasing our true past and manipulating historical data to follow their materialistic interests. 

These days I am working precisely on these themes, for a new piece "PURUSHA IN A TUTU or deconstructing Vidushaka", and I have been reading a lot, especially books by Indian authors and  one of them is  "Shikhandi and other tales they don't tell you" by Devdutt Pattanaik. It gives you an introduction to some traditional Indian tales that talk about gender fluidity and flexibility in India.

What are your future plans? How do you plan to use your given talents across various platforms?

My future plans? Go one day at a time... Continuing to develop projects, hopefully with the support of Cultural and Artistic Institutions and Foundations, in India, in Portugal and worldwide.
I see myself as a citizen of the World, so my interests are not linked to a specific nationalism - although I was born in Portugal, and I see India as a place I would like to continue working and settle.
Artists are citizens of the world.

I will continue creating shows, performances, and teaching workshops, sharing the little that I know with people who would like to learn from it.

One of the things I realized in my path is that I would like to enrich my Art using whatever platforms are accessible/given to me: so, although I started as a contemporary, versatile dancer (touched many styles and techniques), I then grew interested and studied Theatre, then I approached the Opera world, and my interests are many, as video, photography, writing.... even cooking! Whatever will enable me to convey what I want to express/communicate

How did  Spicy Tutuboy come about?

We live in a moment of zapping ephemeral fame: today, you appear on tv, and everyone knows you, tomorrow you are forgotten; today you are number one in any Top charts, tomorrow you are missing or mister nobody.

Spicy Tutuboy at a certain point was an experiment about virtual fame: I created a page on Facebook and invited everyone who came across him in the streets and performances to become his friend or like him. But I have very much forgotten about this failed experiment, and sometimes weeks go by that I don't put anything new on Spicy Tutuboy's page (meanwhile Facebook also closed his profile).
Fame is not what is interesting: what is important is that when you are "famous" people follow you and listen to what you have to say, so it is a responsible act that you have in your hands - a way to reach out to people and make a difference.

I hope Spicy Tutuboy  will contribute to bring awareness about gender issues and bring people closer to Art and Culture.

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"My advice to all women is to turn their minds to goal- fulfilment and stop using “being a woman” as an excuse for not achieving those goals. "

 Princess Maria Amor speaking at the SACH BHARAT event

Princess Maria Amor Torres, D.D. of the Philippines, is the Founder / President of We Care For Humanity (WCH) and Creator of the G.O.D. Awards. WCH is an internationally recognized organization dealing with global issues and concerns. Abhijit Ganguly spoke to her about the status of women in the corporate world.

 Princess Maria Amor at the SACH BHARAT event

Why are there so few women in corporate leadership?

In my opinion, there are many factors that affect the status and number of women in corporate leadership. There are cultures, which don’t believe in women being in the corporate world. Women are taught to stay at home, to attend to their children, and serve domestic needs. A large number of women across the world remain less educated than men. Corporate companies tend to give higher positions to those who have better educational qualifications and therefore, women lag behind.

Women are perceived as being more emotional and family-oriented. Is the stereotyping of women as not being shrewd or aggressive enough a detriment to their career growth?

I believe that it is both cultural stereotyping and scientific as well. Women are perceived as being more emotional while men express emotion only when the situation warrants it. However, scientists also point out that women are more emotionally intelligent than men. A global study of 55 cultures found that women tend to be more emotional, agreeable, and conscientious than men. These qualities also affect their career growth as I said earlier.

Princess Maria Amor with Her Excellency
 Odeta Nishani, First Lady of Albania.

Many reports have revealed women do not feel they have the opportunity in their current role to sufficiently promote themselves and communicate their ambitions. Does this surprise you?

No, it doesn’t surprise me. But this is beyond gender inequality or discrimination. This is an issue of the mindset. There are actually more success stories coming from women than men around the world.

The former President of Croatia and Yugoslavia,

 H.E. Stjepan Mesic with Princess Dato'Sri 

The Traveling Princess Maria Amor.

Have you encountered any gender-specific challenges or obstacles in your career?

So far in my career as a humanitarian, I have not encountered any major gender challenges. But I always feel there are some doubts in people's mind because I am a woman.

Do you have any advice for female professionals who are in or are looking to work in a management or leadership role?

My advice to all women is to turn their minds to goal- fulfillment and stop using “being a woman” as an excuse for not achieving those goals. Ambition is variable, success is all in the mindset and happiness is universal.

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We will continue to promote international exhibitions, offering opportunities to artists from countries that are under represented in the art world

                                                                 - Grazia Peduzzi

Founded in 2012, Emergent Art Space is a non-profit organisation and online network.that supports young artists from around the world. Emergent Art Space promotes cross-cultural exchange and geographic diversity in the arts. It encourages diversity, values traditions, welcomes the new and experimental. In February 2016 Emergent Art Space, in collaboration with Kolkata artist Samindranath Majumdar, held an international young artists exhibition at the Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Indian Center for Cultural Relations. Grazia Peduzzi, Executive Director at  ‎Emergent Art Space shares her thoughts.

Your organization states that its mission is to contribute to the conversation about the evolving role of art in the contemporary global society. What can you tell me about how the role of art is evolving in today's global society? 

This is a broad and important question, and I can’t pretend to have the answer. We are all witnesses to the changes that are taking place in the contemporary world. We know that, historically, art has played different roles at different times and places. The relationship between art and society has always been dynamic, has changed with changing political, social, and cultural realities. What is new about the contemporary world is that it is interconnected in unprecedented ways. The interconnectedness does not regard only the circulation of material goods and products, but also the circulation of people and ideas, of cultural and artistic products, with enormous potential for growing and expanding exchange and connections.

We live in a globalized, connected world, and the circulation of works of art across borders and cultures, now made possible by technology, elicits exchange, communication and understanding in ways not accessible to previous generations… I do believe that art,moving between different traditions and backgrounds, between the local and the global, and enjoying the enormous freedom of expression and experimentation, can play a huge role in shaping the contemporary global culture. Giving expression to a large variety of human experiences, rooted in different cultural traditions, can be a determining factor in avoiding the pitfall of the homogenization of culture, what the critics of globalization pessimistically see as the dystopian future of our globalized society.

Do you believe that Emergent Art Space offers something unique to that conversation? If so, what is that?

We are offering a platform for young artists, and we hope to represent a large variety of artistic experiences, and to encourage exchange and dialogue across geographical and cultural differences.There are many other platforms, galleries and art institutions which host international artists. What is unique about Emergent Art Space, however, is the idea of addressing a specific demographic group, artists under 30 years of age, often still in school, and doing so internationally. The two qualifiers, ‘young’ and ‘international’ are what characterizes Emergent Art Space as an art organization.

Why does The Emergent Art Space focus primarily on the art of youth and emerging artists? What is the difference between these two categories?

I actually use these two categories interchangeably. In Emergent Art Space, young artists are emerging artists, they all have that potential. We focus on this group because we believe that the younger generation is very well situated to take advantage of what the new technologies and the new forms of exchange and communications are making possible. Young artists can also comfortably move across different and distant artistic traditions, cultural backgrounds, high and low cultural expressions and artifacts. This is strongly apparent in music, for example, but it is happening in the visual arts as well.

How do you choose the participants in your shows and programs? What kind of artists and youth are you hoping to engage? How would you define the perfect candidate for your program? Can you recall any particular young artists or artist groups that you found particularly inspiring and explain why?

Emergent Art Space is very open and inclusive. Artists who upload their works on our website, if they meet the requirements, are easily approved. We are happy to engage artists who are eager to communicate with the larger, global community, but also artists who are engaged with their local communities. In general, we are interested in artists who share our belief in the power of art as a vehicle of communication. Particularly inspiring are young artists who have launched their own initiatives through Emergent Art Space, like EinatMoglad, from Israel, who has promoted collaborative projects among artists from different countries, working together through the internet, or artists who are becoming curators and organizers in their own countries and communities, like GadiRamadhani in Dar es Salam, Tanzania, Alejandro Morales in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, or Ramon Blanco in Spain.

It was also very interesting to realize that we attracted young artists with dual nationalities, dual identities: young artists from Mexico or Puerto Rico, now living in the U.S., or from China, South Korea, Taiwan, Iran, studying in the U.S. It should not have been a surprise, given the themes of our exhibitions: ‘Crossing Borders’, ‘Translations’… Our message of intercultural dialogue resonate very strongly for them.  I also belong to this group of people carrying dual nationalities, or hybrid identities, having grown up in Italy and moved to the U.S. when I was an adult. 

Do you believe that all cultures can easily experience and interpret the art of other cultures? What does your organization do to facilitate understanding between cultures that have radically different traditions? Can you give an example of this?

I do not think that understanding the art of other cultures is easy at all. All works of art are deeply rooted both in the experience of the individual artist and in that artist’s historical and cultural context. References, connotations, symbolic meanings, they can be completely lost to the viewer who has not shared those same experiences, who does not share the same cultural context. Misinterpretations and mistranslations are always going to occur. And yet,I believe that we have all had the experience of being moved by works of art that did not belong to our tradition or culture, whose meanings or references escaped us. The aesthetic understanding is different from the intellectual understanding. Both can be communicated and translated, albeit in different ways. The constant tension between what is translatable and what is not, between what can be communicated and what can only be intuitively apprehended is part of every artist’s experience.

Emergent Art Space’s contribution is in offering a platform that gives exposure to geographical and cultural diversity, to the heterogeneity of contemporary artistic expressions. There is enormous talent and richness in young artists around the world, and it needs to be shown and disseminated. The international exhibitions we have organized have seen young artists from different cultures and backgrounds engage on a common theme. They have created conditions of genuine exchange and insight into experiences different from one’s own.The EASwebsite, which offers the artists the chance to write about their works and their projects, their ideas, experiences and points of view, is also a powerful vehicle of communication.

How did you come to be involved with this organization? To date what has been the most satisfying and or exciting program or event that you have experienced through this organization? 

I founded Emergent Art Space in San Francisco in 2011, with the help and support of several friends and family members. The inspiration came form the years I taught philosophy of art at a  Liberal Arts college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Being in close contact with art students, discussing art with them on a daily basis, seeing their passions and their talents is what inspired me to start an organization devoted to students and young artists.

The organization has grown organically, through the young artists who have become involved. The first exhibition we held in 2013, in San Francisco, was around the theme ‘Crossing Borders’. Among the participants was an artist from Tijuana, Mexico, who was then studying in California. Tijuana is a large city right across the border from California to Mexico, and it suffers all the problems of a location right at the border between two countries at different levels of development. It seemed so appropriate to literally ‘cross the border’ with this exhibition and involving schools and young artists there. We worked for months to make it happen, and it actually turned into a wonderful collaboration between artists from both sides of that border.

Another wonderful event was of course the exhibition we had in Kolkata last February. The challenge in this case was even greater, because India is not as close to California as Mexico is… It took an enormous amount of trust, from both sides, to work together at such a distance, and a lot of work and dedication from the organizer and curator in Kolkata, artist SamindranathMajumdar. The international exhibition at the Tagore Centre exceeded all expectations. It displayed, side by side, impressive works by both international and Kolkata young artists; it was visited and appreciated by a large audience, including art critics, historians, and renown artists. For me, however, the best part was the enthusiasm and participation of all the young artists who worked together to make it happen, and to make it so successful.

What are some future ideas, hopes, dreams that you envision for Emergent Art Space?

Emergent Art Space is a young organization with big dreams, but we want to continue to remain flexible and open, to grow organically, refraining from the top down planning, through the artists who are interested in our mission. We are proud to host the works of so many great artists on our website, and we would like to expand its role in creating connections and dialogue. We will continue to promote international exhibitions, offering opportunities to artists from countries that are under represented in the art world,and to support initiatives that contribute to cross cultural dialogue, wherever they are in the world. 

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"The vision is to balance a world full of negativity by the art"

AWW! A wonderful World! A record label of live art, introspective art. Many artists. Psychedelic art, music, video, jam band, hippie shore. Recently   Laetitia and Paul W Brook  performed at the MOMENTUM - Experimental Arts Festival – Kolkata. MOMENTUM is curated and produced by Range, The Arshinagar Project& Little i, in association with Artvideo. Koeln and in partnership with Makers Loft - Kolkata Maker space.

Tell us about Aww! (A wonderful world!) formation?

AWW! A Wonderful World is a small collective or artist based in Paris, but traveling in the world to encounter another culture and artists. Till now we have been mainly traveling in India. For many reasons, we feel close to Indian culture. 

What was the vision?

The vision is to balance a world full of negativity by the art. In Europe since the beginning of the industrialization, world has been more and more materialistic and we feel there’s a lack of spirituality, everything is so superficial! A Wonderful World wants to re-enchant the world around us via an artistic expression. 

Can you take us through your artistic process?

Our artistic process is to privilege the improvisation and to capture the creative work in process…Our work is based on spontaneity, and we try to capture the magic of the present moment.

What was the most challenging part of your project so far?

To find a way of distribution, to build an audience for a new expression of art is the most challenging part of the project… Nowadays communication work takes a lot of time and is quite conflicting with the artistic process.

How have your travels to India influenced your work?

Energy in India is very special and when we work here, we feel uplifted by this energy. To work with Indian classical musicians is also really inspiring as the tradition shared by them is a treasure of humanity rooted in ancient time where art was still an expression linked to the soul exploration.

  

How has the psychedelic art changed over the years and what characterize it?

The psychedelic art since the 60’s is linked with the consumption of hallucinogens, substances which alter states of consciousness. During the years, there has been an evolution in the music style (today psytranse and rock jam band mostly). Psychedelic visual arts were a counterpart to the psychedelic rock music and is also symbols, colors, shapes used are still quite stereotyped today. India traditional art as many cultures in the world (shamanism) is also linked to psychedelism and to hallucinogens consumption.

What do you believe the future of computer based visual art is?

As computer and video is becoming the most important media of the 21st century, artistic expression follows this tendency.  It's why computer based visual art will be more and more developed in the future and they are plenty of experience to do with it.

If you could give one piece of advice to the independent artists community, what would it be?

The concept of "independent artist," comes from an economical theory who divides mainstream culture and independent artists. These two categories are of no help today. An artist is a creator, an explorer, so he has to be confident in his art, without forgetting  to work the technique, and has to find his own path of expression. But who are we to give advice to anybody about that ?

For more details -

http://www.awonderfulworld.ch
https://soundcloud.com/awonderfulworld
http://www.paulwbrook.com/

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