Date: Tuesday 3rd December 2019

Venue: Budden Lecture Theatre, Liverpool School of Architecture

Time: 17:00 - 19:00

A diverse repertoire of musicians and musical instruments compliment the acclaimed traditional folk and classical performance styles of southern India. Expanding urbanisation has resulted in the loss of folk and rural art forms. Perhaps less understood is the decline in the art and craft of musical instruments. Examples are the marginalised performance tradition of Villupattu, a bow-shaped instrument used in traditional rural Ramayana performances, or the cymbals employed in the classical Bharatanatyam or Kathakali dance forms, a manufacturing tradition going back to the megalithic period. The remnant music and re-cycled metal – a saga of transmutation into other aural forms, visual and material heritage – has its own ephemeral performance-like dimension with spatial, temporal and historical implications.

Biography

Sharada Srinivasan is Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru. She works in areas of archaeological science, archaeometallurgy, technical art history and performance studies.