Modern technology and its immense scope in communication are explored by Surabhi Saraf, currently studying in Chicago. trained in Hindustani classical music and in Kathak, sound and movement have been an integral part of Surabhi’s arts praxis. Her ‘work’ ‘Coppertube’ explores the relationship between art and technology, in a live networked performance on the day the show opened (recordings of the performance were played for the remaining duration of the exhibition). utilising Skype, a popular computer programme for long distance communication, she ‘entered’ the gallery space through a performance in real time, over a broadband internet connection. the songs and ragas she sang in Hindi in a private space in Chicago were simultaneously interpreted by a computer programme, converting her voice into bandwidth stream
of numbers and then to digital data which resounded as piano notes playing along with her voice. the role of long distance communication and its region specific lacuna are highlighted through gaps that emerged in the live performance. Surabhi writes, “the goal of this performance is to maximize the remote presence, while operating in a potentially resource constrained environment and embracing the everyday issues with long distance communication”. the use of a particular language adds a further subtext to ‘Coppertube’, where meanings reveal themselves in disparate proportions in different regions. at the end of her performance, Surabhi is able to view the audience and interact with them through a web camera, thus overturning the notion of a work of art as a mute entity in a gallery space. Simultaneously, the viewer becomes the viewed as the artist/ art work looks back at them.

A four-channel video with sound, ‘add season to taste’ continues Surabhi’s engagement with sound. Rich visual, aural and sensual textures are available in daily experiences; Surabhi highlights those inherent in the act of cooking. the repetitious sound of chopping and slicing, the hiss of a pressure cooker releasing steam, the popping of seeds in hot oil and vegetables frying were mixed and juxtaposed to create a symphonic mosaic. Close-ups of the cooking process form an immediate visual textural layer. in another ongoing project, Surabhi has recorded sounds from mundane locations and situations such as market places in very different locations such as Baroda and Chicago which are then juxtaposed in live mixing
sessions.