Rajivan Ayyappan is a sound artist/composer and visual artist from India.
He works independently as a sound designer for film, video, choreography and installation. In live performance he is a classical Indian lead singer, contemporary voice-work improviser and a multi-instrumentalist. He has presented his work at various art spaces and festivals internationally.
He was born in Kottayam (Kerala, South India) in an artistic family. At the age 5 he began learning South Indian music (vocals and percussions) under the guidance of Sri. Kuttappan Bhagavadar, Itthitthanam (1970-1986). In 1975, with a self-carpentered acoustic guitar he started to understand other systems of music along with his brother. Between 1978-1992 he had an active role as a singer and guitarist in his hometown as well as in Ahmedabad where he spent 5 1/2 years studying visual arts/visual communication at the National Institute of Design. His traditional skills and interest in typography and his exposure to visual arts history triggered a kind of paradigm shift to his musical direction. After the design studies, he traveled extensively in India and absorbed pretty well the heterogeneity of Indian sound environment and sound culture.
As a sound artist, his work primarily falls under the perspective of sound-scape discipline, referring to various resources that are rooted in Indian musical system as well as sound culture. Recent projects include: Gastric acid, a mix media real-time work about the food world, in collaboration with Vedanza artists International, Luxembourg, Telescapes (Audio elf): 5.1 installation based on Soccer, Scorecologn light screen Festival, FIFA world cup 2006/ Museum für Angewandte Kunst. Koln 2006. The Air Around – a global network/real-time performance installation with 213 sound artists from around the world and Signals untitled – an installation based on travel maps from Bangalore.
His Bollywood times in sound design (2005-06) in collaboration with Fireflys post sound Mumbai, brought brilliant sound dimensions to films such as Printed Rainbow, Straight 8, The Rising, My wife’s murder, The Turtle people, 15 park Avenue, etc.