Mauj was commissioned by the Asia Europe Foundation to do a research based project of mapping new media activities in Pakistan.After much hard work and persistence

the new media mapping is finally published on culture360.org.

http://culture360.org/asef-news/mapping-new-media-in-pakistan-research-paper-out/

Thanks to all who contributed and to Valentina for taking this project through to completion!!

Here is the link to Leena and Ians audio participation in Art Dubai from 16th to 19th March 2011
http://theislandarts.org/exhibitions/menasa-studio-dispatches/leena-ahmed-and-ian-fletcher/


Leena Ahmed Born in Karachi, Pakistan, 1975. Lives and works in Karachi. BArch.Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, Dec’ 2000. Madhyama Purna (Tabla) Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi, 2006- 2008. Tabla.

Ian Fletcher is an electronic musician, DJ and Producer from the UK. The tracks N-Coach and Dub Coach have been mixed by him during the course of this Mauj residency for The Rising Tide exhibit.


"Saddar"---sonic art pieces within 'The City in Nature' project at the Rising Tide exhibit at the Mohatta Palace Museum , Karachi ---Leena Ahmed and Ian Fletcher, Manchester
These sonic art pieces , aim to celebrate both the urban and the rural/folk sounds that have become an integral part of our daily lives. Using the bus as the analogy for the City and the river as the analogy for Nature, some of these pieces explore how these two moving bodies move through their routes/courses. One picks up more people on its way and the other, water, in its flow.
When the bus conductor calls out his route, one discovers in it a loop of melody and rhythm. This soundscape is a unique feature found on our roads, an addition to the universal vehicular sounds. Since the written word is not understood by all, this oral tradition has developed into an innovative, popular genre of street sounds which could also be termed as 'popular-folk'.
All sounds and rhythms in the track W-21 are from the sound vocabulary of the road/bus/bus conductor, including the conductor's thumping at the back of the bus signalling to the driver.
Sometimes one even encounters a folk snake charmer, jogi, on the city road, taking one to the sounds of the beautiful ancient folk tradition of Sindh.
Such is the amalgam of the soundscapes enveloping us!

N Coach

The rhythms of the bus conductors’ chants immediately suggested these rhythms and bass lines. Editing and combining different chants and applying various effects such as filters and delays, the chants fuse with Broken Beats with Tabla and Latin Percussion.

Dub Coach
This piece combines the sounds of the city with different Bus Conductor chants. Dubstep and Ragga rhythms support the chants alongside a Deep Bass line. Various effects have been applied to the voices such as frequency shifting.

Come and visit the Mauj Media Lab at The Rising Tide, an Exhibit of Contemporary Pakistani Art from the 90's uptil now_ Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi

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The meeting in Bandung, Indonesia last month was about civil society, media and environment, but it also connected self organised groups and individuals from many parts of the world like Arthit who organizes the ICT Mekong camp in Bangkok, Cathy Candano from Singapore who is an environmental researcher, Vicky from Arcspace Manchester, Steven Kovats from Transmediale, Gustaff, Ranti, Andun and various other friends from the Common Room, Bandung, France, Australia and myself from Mauj, Karachi.

During our formal and informal sessions, which inevitably but happily were disturbed by some amazing food that Common Room organized, a number of questions started reverberating around my head which most of us needed new definitions for

I'll just jot a few down that came out in our brainstorming session,maybe others want to comment on them, we already decided to prepare a document addressing some of these questions. It would be divided into a public declaration and a more intimate working document

1) why is mapping important (and for whom)
2)the importance of media artists to cross boundaries between art, technology, science and education
3)funding sources and how they end up affecting the way groups function
4)the people within a group and how they affect the kind of activities a collective is involved in
5)what kind of network approaches work
6)digital activism and censorship (how to get around obstacles)

a lot of discussion went into funding and censorship

While in Bandung it was also very fruitful to have a live streaming session and chat irc about WATER issues with Jean Noels group in the Alps and Vanessa in Columbia, Venzha, Andreas in Yogyakarta and the Arcspace group
not only was it enjoyable and people on our side wanted to share beer, food and snakes with their virtual friends so it was quite entertaining as well as educational

Ive come back from this meeting with a big smile that there are some really cool people still in this world
people who could possibly change the future :)
and best of all they are my friends

all the best
Atteqa

The theme for the photo exchange was energy, with each participant trying to respond to the previous photo sent to him or her

Some mobile phone images exchanged between Karachi and Amsterdam at Shanaakht 2009 during a game called City Ragas designed by Lipika Bansal from the Waag Society.