Support for Media Lab in Rural India

The MediaArts Lab is a natural extension of the multisensory approach to learning employed by the Agastya Foundation. The seeds were planted when Vasant Nayak offered a photography workshop on the campus for Agastya’s teachers. A former professor and director of the Digital Arts, Masters Program at the renowned Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland (USA), Vasant is a photographer and media artist. That initial session helped many of Agastya’s teachers to see photography as a tool for teaching and for learning.

They next needed equipment to put what they had learned into practice. The MediaArts Lab was launched in 2011, with funds from the MurthyNAYAK Foundation (MNF) that have provided digital camera equipment and computers to download, integrate, manipulate, and edit images and videos. Color printers made it possible to examine, critique, and display images. Staff knowledgeable in digital equipment and media were also hired with funds from MNF.

Agastya’s iCommunity project falls under the direction of the MediaArts Lab, as well, teaching digital literacy to village students who otherwise have no access to computers or the internet. They learn enough to at least understand what these tools are and the basics of how to use them, should they be able to further their studies or get work where such tools are used.

Technology’s unfettered seduction of society has prompted seminars on Agastya’s campus to keep technology in check. Led by Vasant and paid for by MNF, these have included experts in media from across India. Brainstorming sessions have led to projects and programs that augment rather than detract from Agastya’s core purpose. Interns and graduates from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, have participated to help further the goals.