NEXT on SEA Conversations

Winter 2023-24

Technological Practice as Riyaz



How do we explore technology as a form of cultural practice through the conceptual lens of Riyaz? For us at SEA, Riyaz is a systematic way of practicing a form of art or craft with a long term commitment to not just learning it but also advancing the self and the form of practice in the process. It involves routine, discipline, engagements, isolation, diligence, play, repetitiveness and experimentation, through which one arrives at and struggles with the longue durée questions. As a practice–a technological practice, be it in architecture, music, sculpture, or engineering, riyaz involves a rhythmic engagement with the self, the technological matter (body, mud, brick, textile, strings, concrete) as well as the world within which the practice is located and towards which it is addressed.

This winter cycle SEA Conversations aims to explore technological practice or techne as riyaz. We ask: In riyaz, how does one engage with matter (molding, sculpting, weaving, screwing, ramming, kneading), which is not just material but also emotions, experiences, memories, histories, dreams and desires? What kinds of rhythms are devised between the practitioner, the matter, and the world in this practice of engagement? What kinds of routines, repetitions, and intensities constitute these rhythms?  How does the material and the immaterial, shape the process and the rhythms? What kinds of asymmetries, imperfections, and unexpectedness emerge in this process? And what role do they play? How does the larger world, including the fields of art and architectural practices, within which the practice is located shape the riyaz? And lastly, how does the conceptual lens of techne as riyaz allow us to rethink the given notions of technology in the field of architectural practice and pedagogy? We explore these questions  through conversations with six invited practitioners who have been working with different mediums across different geographies.

speakers 2024

Jan 05     Neha Kudchadkar 
Jan 19     Sankalpa Sankalpa*
Feb 02     Afra Eisma
Feb 23     Sagarika Suri*
Mar 08     Asim Waqif*  <<
Mar 22    
Priyanka Narula

*sessions on campus