Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science and visual culture. Although sometimes wrongly conflated with ethnographic film, visual anthropology encompasses much more, including the anthropological study of all visual representations such as dance and other kinds of performance, museums and archiving, all visual arts, and the production and reception of mass media. Histories and analyses of representations from many cultures are part of visual anthropology: research topics include sandpaintings, tattoos, sculptures and reliefs, cave paintings, scrimshaw, jewelry, hieroglyphics, paintings and photographs. Also within the province of the subfield are studies of human vision, properties of media, the relationship of visual form and function, and applied, collaborative uses of visual representations.
Ashis Nandy is an Indian political psychologist, social theorist, and critic. A trained clinical psychologist, Nandy has provided theoretical critiques of European colonialism, development, modernity, secularism, Hindutva, science, technology, nuclearism, cosmopolitanism, and utopia. He has also offered alternative conceptions relating to cosmopolitanism and critical traditionalism. In addition to the above, Nandy has offered an original historical profile of India's commercial cinema as well as critiques of state and violence.
Vikalp is a network of documentary filmmakers and others interested in this issue, from India. It defines itself as a "platform to defend freedom of expression and to resist censorship." Currently, India has a film certification board, the functioning of which has raises concerns specially among documentary filmmakers. Vikalp has an associated website called Films For Freedom.
Thodur Madabusi Krishna is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, writer, activist, author and Ramon Magsaysay awardee.
The School of Media and Cultural Studies, (SMCS) is a part of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India, engaged in media teaching, film production, research and dissemination. The school was in the news recently because some of their students produced a documentary film Caste on the Menu Card which was not given permission to screen.
Poetry film is a subgenre of film that fuses the use of spoken word poetry, visual images, and sound. This fusion of image and spoken word creates what William Wees called the "Poetry-film" genre. He suggested that "a number of avant-garde film and video makers have created a synthesis of poetry and film that generates associations, connotations and metaphors neither the verbal nor the visual text would produce on its own".
Gauhar Raza is an Indian scientist by profession, and a leading Urdu poet, social activist and documentary filmmaker working to popularize the understanding of science among general public, known for his films like Jung-e-Azadi, on the India's First War of Independence, and Inqilab (2008) on Bhagat Singh. He was also the honorary director of Jahangirabad Media Institute.
Geeta Kapur is a noted Indian art critic, art historian and curator based in New Delhi. She was one of the pioneers of critical art writing in India, and who, as Indian Express noted, has "dominated the field of Indian contemporary art theory for three decades now". Her writings include artists' monographs, exhibition catalogues, books, and sets of widely anthologized essays on art, film, and cultural theory.
Arjunan Saakshi is a 2011 Indian Malayalam language thriller film written and directed by Ranjith Sankar. It stars Prithviraj and Ann Augustine in the lead roles. The film is a thriller which deals with how we evade our responsibility to society. The film examines the vertical growth of Kochi both as a metro and a centre of crimes. It was produced by S. Sundararajan under the banner of S. R. T. Films and released on 28 January 2011. The film released to a positive critical reception but was a commercial failure.
Leena Manimekalai is an Indian filmmaker, poet and an actor. Her works include five published poetry anthologies and several films in genres, documentary, fiction and experimental poem films. She has been recognised with participation, mentions and best film awards in many international and national film festivals.
Riyas Komu is an Indian multimedia artist and curator based in Mumbai. He has invested his time in art education and developing art infrastructure in India. Komu's works are inspired by social conflicts and political movements and topics like migration and displacement. His hyper-realistic oil portraits of people resemble socialist-realist propaganda art, with one of his portraits titled Why Everybody should Look Like Mao.
Vinay Lal is an Indian historian. He is a professor of history and Asian American studies at UCLA. He writes widely on the history and culture of colonial and modern India, popular and public culture in India, cinema, historiography, the politics of world history, the Indian diaspora, global politics, contemporary American politics, the life and thought of Mohandas Gandhi, Hinduism, and the politics of knowledge systems.
The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an international exhibition of contemporary art held in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is the largest art exhibition in the country and the biggest contemporary art festival in Asia. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an initiative of the Kochi Biennale Foundation with support from the Government of Kerala. The concept of Kochi-Muziris Biennale was ideated and executed by Dr. Venu Vasudevan IAS, who was the Government of Kerala's cultural secretary. The exhibition is set in spaces across Kochi, with shows being held in existing galleries, halls, and site-specific installations in public spaces, heritage buildings and vacant structures.
Shilpa Gupta is a contemporary Indian artist based in Mumbai, India. Gupta's artistic practise encompasses a wide range of mediums, including manipulated found objects, video art, interactive computer-based installations, and performance.
Science and technology studies (STS) in India is a fast growing field of academic inquiry in India since the 1980s. STS has developed in the country from the science movements of the 1970s and 1980s as well as the scholarly criticism of science and technology policies of the Indian state. Now the field is established with at least five generations of scholars and several departments and institutes specialising in science, technology and innovation policy studies.
M. K. Raghavendra is an Indian film/literary scholar, theorist, critic and writer who had, till 2016, authored six volumes on cinema, and contributed to numerous newspapers and periodicals in India and outside. He received the Swarna Kamal, the National Award for Best Film Critic in 1997.
Surabhi Sharma is a filmmaker, educator and curator. based in Mumbai. India She has worked on several feature-length documentaries apart from some short fiction films and video installations. Her key concern has been documenting cities in transition through the lens of labour, music and migration, and most recently reproductive labour. Cinema verite and ethnography are the genres that inform her filmmaking.,
K.P. Jayasankar is a documentary filmmaker and researcher who lives in Mumbai. He is currently Professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Jointly with Anjali Monteiro, he has over thirty-five documentary films and has over 30 national and international awards in film festivals.
Miriam Chandy Menacherry is a Keralite documentary filmmaker and producer based in Mumbai, India. She founded Filament Pictures in 2005, a production house which creates socially relevant feature length documentaries. She was one of the 18 filmmakers selected from the Middle East and Asia for the Global Media Makers Fellowship 2019-20. The fellowship is offered by the US State Department and Film Independent. Her documentary, Rat Race (2011) was the winner of the Mipdoc Co-Production Challenge at Cannes (France). Miriam has also won the Asian Television Awards for Best Social Documentary (2007) and the UK Environment Film Fellowship (2008).
K R Sunil is a visual artist hailing from Kodungallur, Kerala. He is an alumnus of the College of Fine Arts, Thrissur, where he developed his passion for photography. Sunil's work primarily focuses on human life; often ethnographic portrayals set against the backdrop of social and environmental issues. The recurring themes in his art documentation include the sea, maritime history, and climate change. The powerful, investigative representation of common people's struggles in a complex society through his work intents to inspire social change and bring attention to important issues. Sunil has received multiple awards for his series on various socio-relevant topics. For instance, his series titled 'Chronicle of a Disappearance,' which explored the dwindling ponds of Kerala, won him the India Habitat Photosphere Award in 2016. His 'Vanishing Life Worlds' series, which depicted the lives of the old port city of Ponnani, was exhibited at the Kochi Muziris Biennale in 2016. Additionally, his 'Manchukkar - The Seafarers of Malabar' series, which documented the last surviving group of dhow workers along the Malabar coast, was exhibited at the Uru Art Harbour in Kochi in 2018 and at the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum, USA in 2021, while also getting printed by a Swiss publication the same year. Sunil's series 'Home' explores the impact of climate change on coastal homes and livelihoods. It was part of exhibitions by the Kochi Muziris Biennale Foundation at Kochi and Alappey in 2021. Furthermore, his photography series titled 'Chavittu Nadakam: Story Tellers of the Seashore' sheds light on the lives of Dalit Christian performers of the age-old art form Chavittu Nadakam and how climate change affects them. He has participated in the curatorial exhibition of Mattancherry by artist and curator Riyas Komu. Mattancherry photography series gazes the subaltern livelihood with a concrete ethnographic document to the contemporary cultural historiography Kerala. Mattancherry Island is a major hub of many waves of sea root connections from various parts of the world.
