Screen.IN: Project Nim

Do you like monkeys? I do.
We’ve got something in store for you.

Project Nim tells the story of a chimpanzee taken from its mother at birth and raised like a human child by a family in a brownstone on the upper West Side in the 1970s.

Come join us on our rooftop for drinks and monkeys.

PHOTOJOURNALISM WORKSHOP

…telling stories with photos…

 
 
So you’ve already taken our Intro to Photography workshops and you want to learn more, but the idea of learning more about exposure, depth of field and composition bores the everliving crap out of you?
 
It’s time to take your photography to the next level: learn how to tell stories with your photos.
 
We’re holding a 2-day workshop for intermediate level photographers who would like to learn more about exploring the possibilities of documentary photography and photojournalism.
 
Wait, you say, you’re telling me this photo of my cat sitting on a fence doesn’t tell a compelling story? Not unless your goal is to end up working in kitten calendars the rest of your life.
 
Learn from an actual working photojournalist about how to choose interesting subjects, frame them creatively and dynamically, and edit them into photo stories to be presented in newspapers, magazines, or online.
 
Even if you don’t plan on choosing this as a career necessarily, you might find it a very valuable way to improve your photography. And if afterwards you still want to go back to taking photos of your cat sitting on things, that’s totally up to you.
 
To apply:
Email us <sara@sattya.org> 5 of your best images.
 
These 5 images should:

• 1. Be the best work you have shot.
• 2. Demonstrate your ability to expose correctly, compose creatively and see fantastic light when it hits the frame.
• 3. These images don’t have to be storytelling images although if you have them, send us those.

Please fill out this application along with sending us 5 photos.
 
Cost: 1,000 Rs (for two days)
Scholarships available: email sara@sattya.org for scholarship application.
 
About the Instructor:  Bijay Gajmer is a staff photojournalist for Republica.
Check out his work here.

Summer’s nearly here and it’s time to roll up your sleeves and go green.

 
Our DIY attitude at Sattya is what got us into this concept of cleaning up our community. We strongly believe that we are the agents of change and if we want to see a positive change in our communities, then we should “start where we stand”.
 
So the area in front of Sattya has been really polluted and it has literally been a dump site for everyone to dump their trash. Its high time we stop that area from becoming a scavenger’s paradise. And if we won’t then who will ? We have been doing a lot of cool street art recently and now we would like to do join hands with our community so that we have a clean and a green community.
 
Where we eventually want our community to look like-
 
-Filled with murals, cool slogans and graffiti
-Install trash bins and recycling bins around our community
-Make the abandoned area/dump site into a cool, grassy area and build a park
-Strengthen our relationship within the community and strengthen our networking with the community by encouraging community participation.
-Eventually we hope to do community outreach and teach different innovative methods to reduce, reuse and recycle trash. For this, we are also trying to team up with various green organisations working for environment conservation.
 
So join hands with sattya on this lovely saturday – do some good work and make the change happen. 
 
Events taking place-
- Clean up
-Dustbins Installations
-Painting murals
 
And all of this is possible only with your help and support. So promote environment conservation and take part in the green revolution. See you there people ! Happy Summer !

Video Art Exchange

 
Sattya will be partnering with the Catlin Gabel School to provide a unique and exciting opportunity to learn about video production alongside a group of American students. Throughout the months of February and March, our program will include a number of workshops and events, including training on shooting and editing video, all wrapping up with an event on our rooftop showcasing the work from our students and those of the Catlin school.

Along the way, students will be able to correspond with their foreign counterparts and gain helpful knowledge and skills to help their learning process. Finally, our rooftop event will be host to all the participants, including those from the United States.

All programs and events will take place on weekends, but students should be able to devote at least 10 hours a week to work on their projects individually.

Time Frame

February 11-12: Video Workshop

Two Weeks to Shoot Video
(and one review day with instructor)

March 3-4: Editing Workshop

Two Weeks to Edit Video
(and one review day with instructor)

March 23: Review Projects Together

March 24: Screen on Sattya Rooftop with Catlin students

Details

Participants should be between the ages of 16-22.

This workshop will be offered at no cost to the participants. An application must be completed in order to be eligible.

About the Instructor: Mili Pradhan
Mili feels that video and photography allows for an experience of immediacy with one’s surrounding. She loves to experiment with images and sounds while absorbing the fragments of the everyday through a free associative manner of shooting and editing. Her art and video work explore the use of images and sounds gleaned from everyday environment into images that evoke the psychological realm—altered sense of space and duration, transience of everyday life and ruptures in cross-cultural memories.

Originally from Nepal, Mili is currently based in Buffalo, where she recently completed her MFA program in Media Art Production at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She freelances in web, media, photo and print designs, and and occasionally teaches media and digital art workshops for children. Mili is a recipient of the University at Buffalo Gender Institute Arts Award, and the New York State of Council on Arts Video Regrant.

Application Particulars

1. How does your relationship with your community and environment define who you are?

2. Write a 3 paragraph proposal for a 3 minute video about your self explaining the following statement:

“I am from…”

Example:
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
I am from fudge and eyeglasses.
I am from the know-it-alls.
I am from clothes pins.
I am from the trash on the bottom of the Bhagmati.

While answering this, think about what you love, what defines you…what’s the first thing you think about that comes to mind when you think of yourself?

3. To apply, CLICK HERE and fill out the application.

Workshop: Stop Motion Animation

So here’s a scenario for you:

You have this movie in your mind that you want to make. It’s visually creative and compelling and you know it would just totally blow everyone’s mind, but there’s a problem. You’ve got no actors, no set, no props, and no money. What do you do?

a. Rob a bank and kidnap some Bollywood stars
b. Give up your dreams and get a real job
c. Take this workshop

The answer is of course b. Get a job you dirty hippie.

But if you’re still not convinced, come learn how to make a short film using any and all objects lying around the house or found at your local stationary store, using nothing but a camera and a computer. It’s called stop motion animation, you’ve seen it before, and it’s totally awesome.

Our two-day workshop, taught by the esteemed Molly George of Australian notoriety, will cover the theory, basic techniques, and process of producing your own short stop motion project. By the end of the second day, you should be well on your way to making an exciting and unique piece of work, which you will have the option of screening on our Local@Sattya rooftop event the following weekend.

Participants will need to bring a laptop (PC/Mac), and a camera if they have one (we have a few we can lend).

Date: January 28/29
Time: 11-4PM
Cost: 1000Rs (this fee will be waived with completion of a scholarship application)

Please apply no later than the 26th. Seriously guys, you can’t just show up. Gotta apply!

Apply Here

About the Instructor:
Molly George is a stop-motion animator, video artist, and a full-time student at RMIT. She lives in Melbourne, Australia and is volunteering at Sattya for six weeks. She loves animation, film, art, learning Spanish, traveling, and meeting beautiful people. She’s very influenced by Michel Gondry and Isabel Knowles and has a pet kangaroo. Probably, anyway.

In Nepali, a chowk is a public square or courtyard. Chowks are places where things happen. They are economic and social hubs, centers of activity where goods and ideas are exchanged. They enrich community life in countless neighborhoods across Kathmandu. Sattya Media Arts Collective is setting out to transform our courtyard space into a new kind of chowk – Hariyo Chowk, a ‘green square’ for people to gather and share knowledge about sustainable city living.

As Kathmandu rapidly urbanizes, Sattya aims to support the city’s residents in preserving longstanding cultural traditions in urban agriculture and sustainability. Now under threat of dying out, these practices have long secured people’s access to vital resources like healthy food, clean water, and affordable shelter. Hariyo Chowk @ Sattya will be a place for the community to nourish their traditions and explore new techniques that build on ancient practice. It will be a place to experiment, demonstrate solutions and educate about topics like organic gardening, composting, recycling, natural health and wellness, building with natural materials, and adopting low-impact technologies that anyone can implement.

OUR TEAM

Hariyo Chowk @ Sattya is a joint venture with CATALiST, an interdisciplinary design collaborative that engages global issues of human habitat, sustainable development, peacebuilding and social justice at the intersection of traditional wisdom and modern innovation. CATALiST applies the designer’s process, knowledge and skills to the most pressing problems of our time, working with like-minded allies to educate, develop collective vision and co-create sweeping societal transformation.

Sattya will host CATALiST for 5 months while Hariyo Chowk is being designed and built, which may well lead to a continuing partnership. CATALiST is in the process of registering as a 501(c)3 nonprofit and will establish a web presence shortly. In the meantime, please email founder Meredith Marks at marksm12@gmail.com with questions or for more information about the organization.

Sattya is actively seeking volunteers who want to be involved in creating Hariyo Chowk. We have two positions open for Kathmandu residents that include a small stipend. All other volunteers wishing to lend a hand and “learn by doing” during the evolution of the Chowk will be welcomed with open arms! We hope that many people from Kathmandu and beyond will jump in and get their hands dirty. If you are interested in volunteering or have questions, please email us at collective@sattya.org.

THE SPACE

Our space is a 40 x 45 ft vacant plot of land just outside the Sattya building in Jawalakhel, a lively, fast-evolving Kathmandu neighborhood. In 5 months (March – July 2012), we plan to transform this land with:

- An outdoor pavilion, built affordably and sustainably with recycled and natural materials. Here, Sattya and other groups will gather to exhibit creative projects, hold workshops, and plan new initiatives

- an organic garden, where vegetables, fruit, herbs and medicinal plants will be grown by and for those who care for the space

- a composting area that will allow us to manage food waste and create natural fertilizer for the garden

- a rainwater collection system that will reduce our reliance on city water

- a sunken fire pit for outdoor gatherings on chilly nights

- and more features to make the space useful, artistic, and vibrant!

WORKSHOPS AND PROGRAMMING

We are currently planning a workshop series to be held at Hariyo Chowk this summer. Workshops will include:

- Planting Your Own Community Garden

- Easy Urban Composting

- Rainwater Collection

- Artistic Adaptive Reuse

and more!