Inside a brightly-lit room in a lighting store, painting teacher Zeng Bailiang and his group of volunteers are patiently teaching a group of blind students the basics of Chinese painting.
The students in the classes in Nanning, the provincial capital of China's southern Guangxi province, spend hours practising brushstrokes on a special paper, feeling with their fingers the different wet and dry areas to guide them on their painting.
Eventually they get to the point where they can dip a brush, similar to the ones used for Chinese calligraphy, into black ink and draw things such as mountains or bamboo trees with long strokes. Short strokes can create flowers or birds.
Zeng, 55, is a self-taught artist who has been conducting classes for the blind for the past several decades. He says the classes fuel his passion for art with a sense of satisfaction that comes from helping the students - many of whom were orphans who came to him wanting something new and fun to do.
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Thursday, 20 January 2011
Thursday, 11 February 2010
This week I start a new role as an actor, Professor Arky the affable explorer who discovered a new species of monkeys called 'Marky' in Malaika Islands. It is part of radio shows series for Malaika case study at IISE. Marky was name of Martian from last years Asian talent show, it seems to have stuck a chord with the audience (arky from mars = marky). Prof.Marky's Indian accent is quite popular around here, it does add humour to otherwise serious case study.
You can listen to first show in the series right here or download it from archive.org.
Listen To Malaika Radio Show
Sunday, 10 January 2010
The thunderstorm lasted all night, it was raining all sunday afternoon. The lake water is rising again, I resist the idea of going for a swim. First I need to finish the discussion about cultural diversity. We wrap up at 5:30 pm and its getting dark fast. I decide to head to town for evening of music and cultural at Swathi Sangeethotsavamn instead. The music festival is held every year in the magnificent courtyard of Kuthira Malika palace in Thiruvananthapuram.We spent the evening listening to carnatic vocal concert by Mavelikara P. Subramaniam. Sitting in the courtyard of the ancient palace, listening to the music from stage glittering with oil lamps, the sweet smell of flowers and the cold rain laded wind added magic to the evening.
PS: Reminds me of a musical concert yet another rainy day.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
I lived in Kerala for over an year now. Never had a chance of watching Kalarippayattu, the oldest fighting system in existence. Last evening I visited Thapovan to watch a demostration of Kalari.
Monday, 9 November 2009
Some creative endeavors start in the most unlikely places. For me it was waiting for my turn to bat. With my thick glasses and diminutive size I was the lowest in batting order of our gully cricket team. I would spend most of time perched on the moss covered walls along the boundary line. It wasn't that bad. I turned my creative prowess to covering the walls in chalk graffiti. Primitive cricket scoreboards, insults and expletives addressed to no-one in particular and in the height of my creative fervor I produced a simian that looked like a classmate of mine. The later did landed me in great deal of trouble. The boys mother stormed my house in such fury which is quite uncommon in mid summer. My good-for-nothing uncle number three came to my rescue, for which I am still grateful. I often buy him a bottle sometimes when visit home.
Though my nascent career in mural arts was snipped at bud on that fateful evening. I kept on scribbling through math classes in high school. In college, it helped me pull through dreadful lectures on supply and demand. It seemed my interest to be always in short supply. The only consolation in this unproductive part of my life, I lived life my way. From hazy dorm rooms and to my own digs in the city, Art was everywhere in the chaos of my lodgings. The spatter of ketchup (or was that curry) on the far side of the wall was inspired by Jackson Pollock. And the CD's spread on the floor among the books was straight out of Salvador Dali's 'La persistencia de la memoria'.
Looking back now, I feel a loss of those personal creative spaces and collaborations that started with rolling of a joint. Visiting Protospace filled me with some hope, perhaps all is not lost. Good luck and thank you for having me protospace team!.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
One look at this Wordle word cloud visualization of Bruce Sterling's book The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. I knew it would make a great hacker t-shirt!
Take a quick peek (picture above) how it will look when done.
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Theo and me braved the thunderstorm to attend the opening day of 24th National Convention of SPIC MACAY here in Thiruvananthapuram. The evening started with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma Santoor concert, it brought back so many memories. It was pure delight to hear the maestro play raag megh to the sound of the rain outside. Certainly, it is an experience that I would cherish for a long time to come.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
ShadowMax76 reported on Ubuntu news list that we now have worlds first ubuntu manga comic. "Ubunchu!" tells the story of three school students in a sys-admin club who dive into Ubuntu Linux. Not before a huge fight that features deadly weapons like broomstick and compat disk Shuriken :).
You can download the Japanese Version or the one in English here. And don't forget to read doctormo blog post :).
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
1 April 2009: Yesterday was the second death anniversary of Laurie Baker British-born Indian architect. COSTFORD(Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development) organized this event in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
After blogging about the Suma Josson's documentary I Want My Father Back yesterday. Perhaps I should mention Prayas's interactive installation titled Before I Visit Vidarbha . This sound installation "sonically interprets the farmer suicide cases reported in the English media". Sounds Interesting !!
Read more about this sound installation here in this Before I Visit Vidarbha blog post.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Photos from the National Theatre Festival which is was held from March 1-11, 2009 in Thiruvananthapuram.
Opening Cermony at Tagore Theatre
Jyothish 's Macbeth
Habib Tanvir's Charandas Chor
Friday, 31 October 2008
Discovery's Fight Quest travels to India this week, to learn the 9th Century martial art Kalarippayattu. This art form survives to this day in the south Indian state of Kerala, various variants of this art form can also be found in other south Indian states. It is also known as 'marman' or 'marma kala'. This ancient art form was patronized by Nairs sect and aft quoted as the source of martial arts like kung fu.
This art form has almost mythical status in Indian culture on par with magic, this is reflected in popular Indian cinema. I remember watching a black and white Malayalam film on national television 15 years ago. The film tells the folk tale of a kalarippayattu master. I was instantly stuck by the grace and beauty of this martial art. The 'flexible sword' which is the weapon of choice of the hero is fatal to his foes, it is however the musket bullet that kills him. Just like the hero of the film the art form itself suffered greatly after the colonization of India. It is now in revival and subject this week's Fight Quest episode. Don't miss it!
Sunday, 6 July 2008
I spent sometime on Friday evening exploring Hyderabad Central University campus, I spotted this in a corner of the art department's studio.
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Le Grand Content examines the omnipresent Powerpoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential. Intersections and diagrams are assembled to form a grand 'association-chain-massacre'. which challenges itself to answer all questions of the universe and some more. Of course, it totally fails this assignment, but in its failure it still manages to produce some magical nuance and shades between the great topics death, cable tv, emotions and hamsters.
Go Watch it now
