September 2024
World Alzheimer's Month
Artwork of the Month:
View of a Mosque and Gateway at Motijhil, ca. 1814–23, by Sita Ram
Sitaram, the painter of this enchanting scene, was hired to record the travels of Francis Rawdon, the governor-general of Bengal between 1814 and 1821.
The painting illustrates the Sang-i Dalan palace complex at Motijhil, Bengal, where the Rawdons traveled in 1817. The artist, working in the picturesque style, has chosen to depict the scene not by foregrounding the site’s majestic palace but rather by emphasizing a romanticized state of decay, with fallen debris from the nearby structures. In doing so, Sitaram creates a melancholic view suggesting a nostalgia for the Mughal Empire before the arrival of the British.
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Friendship Workshop
What is better than dancing? Dancing with friends! ARISA along with the ever so talented Henna Raisinghani conducted a dance workshop structured for queer folk. The workshop took place on the 10th of August at the ARISA office and was open to ameteurs, professionals, hobbyist, and anyone who wante to dance! The immersive movement workshop was catered to facilitate self-discovery. It was specifically tailored for queer folks and focued on queer friendships, community support, and found families.
Testimonial from a participant- “It was really good. Obviously it was fun. It was a bit heavy at the same time as well. It made us think about the internal and external factors affecting your mood, who you are, what shapes you.”
Thank you to everyone who participated and we hoped you had a great time! We thoroughly enjoyed having you and hope we were successful in creating a safe space for the queer community.
Aesthetics Journal Club
In our August edition of the AJC, we had Amruthavalli V V present on the topic of emotion-sharing and emotion-recognition in artistic expreiences. The research papers presented were - ‘Do You Feel Like I Do? A Study of Spontaneous and Deliberate Emotion Sharing and Understanding Between Artists and Perceivers of Installation Art’ by Pelowski et al., 2019 and ‘Perceptions of Emotion From Facial Expressions Are Not Culturally Universal: Evidence From a Remote Culture’ by Gendron et al., 2019.
The Science of Engaging with the Arts
The weekend of 17th and 18th August was spent exploring the interconnectedness of art and science. The brilliant cognitive neuroscientist, Dr.Megha Sharda conducted a workshop on how art and aesthetic experiences can change our brain, body, and behaviour - the primary interest of ARISA foundation. We are dedicated to fostering an environment where art and science are not viewed as opposing forces but as complementary aspects of a unified whole and we hope the workshop helped us achieve this.
The workshop was attended by 10 participants and was open to both, students and professionals. The six hour workshop was spread across two days. This was a second installation of the workshop which was first launched in May 2024. We thank everyone who joined us and made this a success!
Paint - A - Brain
Our last event for August ended the month with a big splash of colours. We invited you to join us at our office to create a brain-themed mural on one of our walls. The final installation is breathtaking masterpiece and we are so thrilled ot have this artwork as a constant reminder of the fun we shared making it! Thank you all for joining us and making our August so beautiful.