Gulael/Catapult Arts Caravan: Rural Digital Media Collective

Catapult Arts CaravanGulael means catapult. It is the weapon of the resourceful and the mischievous. The Gulalel collective works with media and technology in a similar manner to combat the hegemony of dominating cultures.

Since 2004, the Caravan initiative has catalysed public participation in civic debate by using traditional and electronic arts to articulate issues and ideas of common interest in north-east and central India. These are centred on an open air community arts performance with video, like a traditional Jatra/theatre with multimedia. Using new-media tools to promote local stories to an audience from the neighbourhood gives poor, marginal and rural communities a sense of recognition, like the marking of a moment.

Operating as a partnership with grassroots organisations and institutions, the Caravan brings the margins to the centre using new media to act as a bridge between tradition, folklore and contemporary imagination. The Caravan at Jatan conducts periodic workshops and trainings to create a media presence for those people of India for whom none exists. For a country that is still rural and ignored by mainstream media, this is important.

Technical and creative support for the caravan shows are provided by 28°77 Communications, New Delhi.

To see Catapult Arts Caravan public performances, click here. Lamlong, Manipur and Pipariya, Madhya Pradesh

To see short films locally created and played at Caravan performances, click here for Rain Live at Manipur, or Pehelwan Kaun in Madhya Pradesh.

Photo gallery

  • 2005, Catapult video+arts public performance, Pipariya

  • 2005, Live song and music at a public performance

  • 2005, Public performance in village square

  • 2005, Low tech use of hi tech equipment

  • 2008, Museum of Memory on a touchscreen

  • 2005, Catapult theater performance in IHC, New Delhi

  • 2005, The team at work - on location

  • 2009, Video installation at the Museum of Memory exhibition, Bhopal

  • 2007, Field audio recording of folk song and dance

  • 2007, Field video recording

  • > 2008, Photography club members recording in their village

  • 2008, Club members learning photography on-the-job

  • 2008, Photographing clay figurines for multimedia use

  • 2008, Oral history recording