'The Official Minutes of the Meeting on 24.8.06'.

Minutes of meeting of Amorphous Circle at ‘Ambar’ 24.8.06

by Jyoti Suryavanshi

Main Agenda: To brainstorm ideas and views for a proposed “street show” by the artist members.

• Meeting started around 6.30 pm with few members coming later and joining in.
• Initial discussion saw a debate whether the show was to be done for the common man or for invited, art-knowing audience.
• Venue would be casual – not literally on street but at an open accessible place where both, an invited and a casual passer by, could watch, for eg- Gold Ad labs, Kalyaninagar.
• It should have some shock value or be over the top to attract and hold the interest of casual onlookers
• The aims were varied. Some felt there should be a social cause. Some were for pure artistic expression. One common aim was that the process should make amorphous circle more visible. One other aspect was financial gain whether short or long term. Some felt we should work within the broad parameter of our original goals.
• The time duration should be short maybe 20 to 40 mins.
• It would have a small budget –approx 1 to 1.5 lacs which will be easier to get sponsors.
• Some debatable issues were whether there should be a common thematic story line – whether the various mediums should be interlinked and around a script which could then have various forms of expression.
• The possible themes could be, relationships, gardi(crowding), life and death, roads , traffic, food and drink, dreams, colours, lines and forms, destruction and terrorism, religion, negative and positive emotions, only pure art, money, corruption , hardships, cruelty, domination , war, death , god, guru, spiritual interpretation of rituals, environment etc.
• It should relate to the audience if it has to be remembered.
• A ‘SWOT’ analysis ie Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis should be done vis a vis the show.
• The flavour should be simple , joyous and thought provoking.
• We should call it ‘Anubhav-II’.
• Rough target time for event-December 2006.
• Lots of clarity still needed regarding how to go about it. For who, what and why we are doing this show.
• Everybody requested to post their ideas and comments on a blog for Anubhav created by Aditi.
• Concept notes also to be compiled.
• Can it have controversial , religious and political topics?
• Some people felt that if we do a good creative job any theme with any audience is do-able.
  Others felt we should cater to a more enlightened audience .
• Some people felt our audience is not ready for this kind of exposure –so it hardly matters what we are doing and whether people will relate. But we should do it anyway.
  Excellence in standards has to be maintained from our side.
• The vada pav and chai was welcome relief when discussion got too heated.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

24TH August Meeting - Report

Date: Thursday, 24th August, 2006
Place: Ambar, A'nagar

The meeting was attended by:
Sujata, Gauri, Jyoti, Aditi, Milind and Swati Gokhale,
Kedar Joshi, Revati, Madhavi, Asha and Kamala. (if I am forgetting anyone, I apologise)

The topic of discussion was:
How do we visualise the forthcoming AnubhavII?

Aim:
To showcase a melange of the arts - painting, drama, music, dance, sculpture, etc.- at an informal venue where the public at large is exposed to a shocking display.
The intension is to keep it short, simple, free of cost.
a. Short - so that audiences are not bored;
b. Simple - so that the message is recieved clearly, by all potential viewers without the barriers of age, social awareness, economical background.
c. And Free so that nobody is excluded.

Method:
The performance needs to be shocking, maybe a little over the top. Though it is meant as a street performance, the tools we use should be our skill as artists.

Questionnaire:
Milind (Gokhale) came up with an interesting questionnaire that would help us think clearly about the entire project. ( I have asked him to email it to me and I can have it available to download in the coming week).
But briefly the questions were -
1. Aims
2. Objectives
3. Method
4. Competitors
5. Threats
6. Communication
7. Responsibilities
....etc.


Subject/ Theme:
Several Topics were discussed as potential themes.
1. Asha had a fascinating real life account with an old acquaintance about the similarities of Religions.
2. Sujata thought up of a more metaphysicla subject - Life, Death and Life after Death.
3. Gauri had visions of using the street and the people present as the theme, the medium as well the audiance.

Other interesting thoughts were - Relationships, Corruption, Roads, etc.

In the end, it was felt that as artists we might be able to contribute better with subjects that we have studied and explored in deeper ways like - 'Line' or 'Colour' or 'Shape' or thereabouts.

HOMEWORK!!!:
We need workable ideas with the above themes, or similar, that maybe from the artists' domain.
The time duration of the event is seen as 20 minutes.
The event, so far, has been visualised as a performance including - dance, theatre, drama, painting and/or sculpture (along with any other art form)- in combinations or all together.

We need:
1. A story
2. A script
3. List of resources required - in terms of manpower and materials
4. Approximate preparation time

Please e-mail your ideas to the address - studio@forethoughtindia.com
and a CC to - aditydeo@rediffmail.com,
sujuwad@yahoo.com, and
jyoti1606@yahoo.com

Deadline: 5th September, 2006

Once we have an idea of the above points we can move to practicalities - acquiring funds, permissions, scheduling work around this activity, publicity etc.

As always, members of Amorphous Circle we would appreciate if this matter is kept closely guarded until such a point that we feel confident that publicity is desired.

Welcome

Welcome to Anubhav II.

We have created this blog as a forum as well as discussion board where we can all exchange our ideas and work out the progress of the next event for Amorphous Circle scheduled for December 2006.
Following this entry, there will be a summary of the discussion, debates and decisions that were taken at the meeting held at Ambar on Thursday, the 24th of August, 2006.

We solicit your views, comments and, in general, creative ideas with regards to the event at hand.
Please bookmark this page to make it easily and frequently accessible!

Check this space on the 28th of August 2006 for the next post.

- MODERATOR (A)
In the interest of the organisation and sentiments of its members, we request you to maintain strict privacy and refrain from loosely circulating the address to this blog. As members of Amorphous Circle we feel certain that you will co-operate.