Projects

Every community’s vernacular media is a unique lens into its socio-culture fabric, which the artist collected and shared through the physical form of a phone recharge shop that she set up. A utilitarian urban fixture on Indian streets, such shops often sell top-up coupons while surreptitiously selling pirated digital content (for instance, a movie for Rupees 10) through media transfer over phone memory cards (SD cards) to those without access to uninterrupted internet or the technical know-how to download media. Offering an alternate to the mainstream Bollywood media, the regional media shared at these shops helps cater to the demand and aspirations of rural migrant and lower income communities across Indian cities.

Over time, the shop transformed into a local recording studio modeled on the media production processes of low-budget studios and the people of Khirkee began to be invited to share their artistic talents and stories there. In collaboration with filmmakers Pallavi and Purnima Rao, these interactions and performances were recorded as short videos. Through a creative process of co-production with the participants, mobile phones began to be increasingly used for recording, design and editing with the participants. While the project evolved into a platform for self-expression and fostering conversations between diverse groups, it is simultaneously interested in further sharing the tools of the participatory process developed and developing its afterlife.