Milindo Taid - Part 16

International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) at QUT, Australia. 2012

Sep 05

International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS) are prestigious scholarships, funded by the federal Government to encourage exceptional students to undertake research higher degrees in Australia.

Student type: Future international research students

Eligibility: Academic performance

Study type: Postgraduate research (PhD / Masters)

Early years schools: Sculpting of space and imagination.

Sep 02

I still remember my nursery/kindergarten classroom with a great deal of lucidity. The texture of paint on the chair and tables, the colours and the general layout of the land, as it were. In contrast, I don’t quite remember my teachers or my friends from that period – not to say that they failed me as teachers or friends, it is just what it is. I figure it has much do with being impressionable at that age and that sculpting of space has much to do with the sculpting of imagination. Having done my rounds of pre/nursery school visits in urban India this century, I am struck by how ‘Disneyfied’ everything is. I choose to call them the ‘Mickey Mouse Schools’ – the walls, tables, fixtures plastered with Goofys, Mickeys and Donalds, not to forget the Simbas and the Alladins. Predictable, dull, uninspiring, dead spaces. However all is not lost, as some remarkable architectural and interior minds have silently worked to put out school projects of remarkable inventiveness elsewhere Take a look.

Thomas Balmès: Bébé(s) [Babies] 2010

Aug 22

In ‘Babies‘ non-fiction filmmaker Thomas Balmès weaves an engaging narrative chronicling a year in the lives of four infants from four countries. Simple enough premise, but executed with great mastery, and it really feels like he did not have to try very hard. What gave me pleasure was the fact that this is a ‘silent film’, unencumbered by cinematic excesses of lensing, hyper-cutting, voice-overs and what not. Accompanied by an understated yet effective musical score by Bruno Coulais, get ready to welcome little Bayar, Hattie, Mari and Ponijao into your lives. Watch. Read More…

Ben Webster and Joe Zawinul: Soulmates. 1963

Aug 22

Ben Webster & Joe Zawinul - Soulmates

Watch this video on YouTube

Rare photograph manipulations before Photoshop: 1855-1950.

Aug 20

Two-Headed Man: Unknown, American ca. 1855 Daguerreotype

It is quite curious for us to look back at an age of visual practice which did not have the tools that we take as an assured presence now. From anonymous daguerreotypers (about 1855) to Oscar Rejlander (very often credited with one of the earliest articulations of manipulated photographs – 1857), the century that was to follow saw the imaginations and skills of myriad ‘trick photographers’ come to the fore. The George Eastman House and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have in their collection some of the early ‘imagineering’ that occurred much before the Knoll brothers changed the image making world in the latter half of the twentieth century. Take a look.

Bertrand Russel: Face to Face. March 4th, 1959.

Aug 16

In 1959, as part of the BBC series “Face to Face”, the influential mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russel had an engaging conversation with John Freeman, touching on various aspects of his professional and personal life. Russel comes across as a particularly ‘like-able’ human being, with an abiding mistrust of human war making and hate mongering, and according to him “… love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world which is getting more closely and closely interconnected we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way and if we are to live together and not die together we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.” A timely message from back in time for these times of strife and hate.

Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarships, Canada. 2013-2014

Aug 16

Social Sciences and Humanities. Open to international and Canadian applicants. Up to 15 Trudeau Scholarships are awarded each year to support doctoral candidates pursuing research of compelling present-day concern, pertinent to one or more of the four themes of the Trudeau Foundation:

(1) human rights and dignity; (2) responsible citizenship; (3) Canada in the world; and (4) people and their natural environment.

Trudeau Scholars are highly gifted individuals who are actively engaged in their fields and expected to become leading national and international figures. Far beyond being simply financial assistance, the Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship offers award winners the opportunity to interact with an exciting community of leaders and committed individuals in every field of the social sciences and humanities.

Value and Duration of Scholarship
1. $40,000 tenable for Three Years
2. An annual allowance of $20,000 available to support research related travel expenses and to cover networking expenses associated with the Foundation’s Public Interaction program.

Piero Ribelli: 50 Main Street. Same Address. Different People.

Aug 13

New Jersey: Prasop and Saowaluck Kiewdara, South River, NJ

New York based Piero Ribelli undertook a project of a lifetime in stretching his legs across the USA: 6 years, 50 towns, 50 people, 31,000 miles by plane, 16,000 miles by car, 12 hours on trains, 90 minutes on ferryboats. The people in his portraits share only one thing in common – their address of 50 Main Street. A Hasselblad enthusiast, Ribelli does manage to ‘paint’ more than just red, white and blue in his USA. Take a look.

Short Films: Je t’aime John Wayne (1991) and Inside Out (1999)

Aug 13

Two delightful British shorts. Toby MacDonald‘s ‘Je t’aime John Wayne‘ is a witty tribute to ’60s Godardian actor Jean Paul Belmondo. Watch the unfolding of a hero, played with great aplomb by Kris Marshall. ‘Inside Out‘ by the Guard brothers, Charles and Thomas, captures a fleeting moment on busy Oxford Street in London sans dialogue, but with a hefty dose of ‘non-verbalism’. Watch.