Think this planet’s oldest surviving art forms and latest technologies don’t mix? Think again.

I collaborated with Lingalayam Dance Company and the team behind Rasa Unmasked early in 2009. It was the first time CuriousWorks had embarked on the All Around You model specifically with a group of artists and it was fascinating drawing up a digital media strategy aimed at bringing greater attention to Asia’s classical arts.

Rasa Unmasked premiered at Casula Powerhouse in March 2009 and followed with a sold out season at the Opera House before touring to Malaysia, Singapore and India in in April 2009.

This is a scene from the show:

The vehicle is the show. In this project, I left that up to the artists – experienced pioneers of Asia’s classical arts. But in spreading word on the show, I was interested in spreading word on the culture these artists come from. They have all travelled widely between the East and the West over the course of their lives. Most of them do not live in the place they were born in, or that their families were born in. Their art forms originated, in their full form, thousands of years ago. What kind of perspective do they have on their communities, on the world at large, that they can share? How can they educate us about the nature and purpose of their art?

We set up a website for the tour that not only provided information on the show and the artists but, piece by piece, unraveled the world that these people and their work emerged from. If you want a taster, look through these photos of Anandavalli – director of Lingalayam Dance Company – going from a child dance prodigy touring Europe and Asia, to the Director of a leading Australian dance company.

Anandavalli and Gowri Ammal, the last of the Devadasis (Google it)

In true CuriousWorks, style, no expensive software or big creative burdens were taken up to start sharing the world behind Rasa Unmasked with a wider audience. Digital photos are taken often and stored on Flickr to share with international, mainstream media and the interested public alike. Consumer level HD videos of the performance sit alongside spontaneous interviews with the artists, all stored using free web video services. Written pieces, photos and videos all automatically converge on a website set up in less than an hour using the irrepressible Wordpress.

In the first few weeks of launching, thousands of people had already experienced, shared and commented on multimedia from a world that was unlikely to otherwise cross their path.

The final stage is to pass on methods for maintaining the website and the flow of multimedia to students of the company. They don’t need to be digital media specialists to continue the model we have set up, which means for once there’s actually a good chance the work can continue.

Links:
Rasa Unmasked Website
Lingalayam Flickr Stream
Lingalayam All Around You Profile

A video by Iqbal Barkat and Vincent Tay from Lingalayam’s You Tube Channel