The Sarai Programme at CSDS - The Impact of Sarai

The Impact of Sarai

Sarai's Impact on the intellectual and creative scene, especially in India, has been both deep and sustained. Issues such as the 'Public Domain', Intellectual Property and its Critics', 'Technology and its Cultures', 'Politics of Information', 'Surveillance and Censorship' and the transformation of urban spaces, which were either marginal or low on the agenda of discourse in the intellectual milieu have become fairly significant as a result of work at Sarai. Sarai's commitment to FLOSS (free, libre and open source software) has led to a wider public acceptance of alternatives to rigid intellectual property as the only model for cultural production, at least in India.

A new interdisciplinary ethic of practice has become much more significant as a result of Sarai's activities. There has been a modest increase in the level of publicly available support for independent artistic and research projects through fellowships, as the Sarai fellowships model has found takers in the case of other initiatives and organizations working within the South Asian context. Further, the support extended by Sarai through fellowships, residencies to practitioners and the work of the Sarai Media Lab have both brought forth dividends in terms of an increased international visibility for contemporary art from South Asia, as well as the emergence (within the Indian context) of new forms such as the graphic novel, media installations, sound art, tactical media forms, and collaborations between artists, media practitioners and software programmers. Initial criticism of Sarai's activities focused on its attention towards technology and urban issues, which were considered by some to be too 'elitist' in a developing country like India. Over time, this has given way to a more balanced assessment of the Sarai programmes strengths and weaknesses.