Indent: The Body & The Performative

Last-ing

An edition accrues over time. The etymological underpinnings of the term ‘edition’ gesture at acts of ‘giving’, ‘producing’, or ‘bringing forth’, doing so ‘out of’ or ‘from within’ bodies and repositories of people, ideas and images. Last-ing has been several years in the making, starting from murmurs in 2020, to a proposal in 2021, and finally, an edition with 12 works spanning writing, video, and photographs in 2022. What it has meant to us has changed constantly; imagined in a shaky post-pandemic moment, it now manifests as the intention to endure, to remain, to leave traces. To last, leakily.

Indent originated as a project of Gati Dance Forum, a dance organization in New Delhi. It was set up with the intention of exploring the relationship between the body and performance, with its mapping of this performative body expanding across space, time, and disciplinary boundaries with each edition. In 2022, Indent is imagined with collaborators working across time zones. Besides furthering an engagement with a performative and embodied imagination, it has also allowed us to consider what it means to edit and publish a ‘journal’. In making space for various textures of ‘writing’, from the diaristic to the academic to the visual, it can no longer rely on uniformity as harmonizing force, in using the same citation system, or models of ‘blind’ peer review. Journals are messy, leaky affairs, and Last-ing stays true to this confusion.

Moving away from a more conventional system of peer review that we implemented in previous editions, where external reviewers responded to contributors, this year, we set up peer review groups with contributors from the present edition, where they responded to each other’s work. This allowed long conversations to unfold between contributors, who then took some of that feedback into revised drafts of their work.

Instead of being released in a single drop of 10-12 works, this year, Indent releases 2-3 works per week, to allow readers to spend dedicated time with each of the works. This means that there is a shift in how the editors introduce the issue. Instead of doing a single introductory note, we write episodic texts each week.

How does a journal constitute itself? ‘Mapping’ how the 12 works speak to each other has been a large part of this year’s editing process. This included working with illustrator Alia Sinha to visualize a mind-map of the edition. The map takes many forms, appearing as a GIF and a series of still images that are further broken down into detailed segments as we release each work.

 

The Last Conversation

ANISH CHERIAN AND VIDUR SETHI

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Note: The above are letter exchanges and visuals between Zoe and Whippersnapper, by Anish Cherian and Vidur Sethi respectively. All 3D and AR visualizations are created by Anish Cherian.

Anish Cherian is a multidisciplinary practitioner. A graduate in urban planning, and architecture & design, they use an assemblage of mediums from painting, architecture, performance, creative writing, and technology to articulate their practice. In their current work they blur the boundaries between nature, human technology in affirmative communion, to record memories excluded from the archive and by extension the “official” narrative of our reality. These minor archives inform a speculative post-human world they create through drawings, listening sessions, stories, and music. They see collaboration and kinship between species and allies as integral in forming new languages and speculative possibilities. A recipient of the Legislative Assistant for Member of Parliament fellowship and Skowhegan artist residency, their works have been shown at KNMA, Max Mueller Bhavan in New Delhi, Museum of Goa and BeFantastic TechArt Fellowship 2021.

Vidur Sethi is an interdisciplinary cultural practitioner; their practice is located at the intersection of performance, writing and curation. Vidur has played the lead part in ‘Pine Cone,’ a film by National Award Winning director Onir. Further, they’ve been a features writer at STIRworld and have works published in the Hakara Journal and the Artdose Zine. Additionally, Vidur has collaborated for performances at NSD, Lok Kala Manch, JNU and Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, hosted the Artdose Podcasts and worked as the Curator of Physical Art at Terrain.art.

Gati Dance ForumComment