Upcoming economies such as India can become the new world powers and gain influence in the way we life our lives. How are they dealing with new media and network structures? Indian scientist and new media expert Ravi Sundaram will come to Amsterdam for the first edition of the series SPECS. He will tell us all about new media in India and Asia and he will show us his work for Sarai, a program focused on research, practice and conversation about contemporary media and urban questions.
Sundaram’s latest work focuses on a phenomenon that he calls ‘pirate modernity’, an illicit form of urbanism that draws from media and technological infrastructures of postcolonial cities. In his latest book, Sundaram examines contemporary Delhi from some of these sites: from the disappearing of the cities modernist planning design to new technological urban networks that bypass states and corporations. Pirate Modernity moves between past and present, along with debates in Asia, Africa and Latin America on urbanism, media culture, and everyday life. This pioneering book suggests cities have to be revisited afresh after proliferating media culture. Pirate Modernity boldly draws from urban and cultural theory to open a new agenda for a world after media urbanism.
More about Ravi
Ravi Sundaram has taught in universities in India and the United States and he is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in Delhi. He was also one of the initiators of the Sarai program, in which Waag and the CSDS collaborated. From 2000 to 2003, this programme focused on building links and collaborations between programmers, designers, scholars and theorists from Europe and Asia. The program facilitated jointly developed bodies of knowledge, skills such as interface design, systems design, low tech solutions and research collaborations.
Where?
Nieuwmarkt 4
1012 CR Amsterdam
When?
Monday March 25
20.00 till 22.00 hours
SPECS is supported by Creative Industries Fund NL.