The five core ArtLab projects and two satellite public event projects, as listed, now completed appear at first sight to be totally different from each other. What could an urban ‘bat problem’; (Lab 2/SatLab 1)  a new form of the city (Lab 1); a series of investigations into the cultures of/surrounding water (Lab 3/SatLab 2) and a Southern India sacred ritual (Lab 5) have in common with each other? The answer is that they all are linked by an acknowledgement of the agency of a ‘trace of historicity’ – that is, they all carry something of significance from the past into the future and in so doing contribute our gaining an ability to be futural. More specifically, they help us think and act towards new cultural practices of sustain-ability that draw from explorations of the distant past.  

A concern about the way human beings both treat and strive to understand bats is indivisible from the way ‘we’ treat and seek to comprehend animals in general. To be able to do this requires we human beings recognise our own residual animality. But as many leading thinkers are now making clear, we overlook this part of our being at our peril (see for example, Giorgio Agamben’s The Open: Man and Animal (trans Kevin Attell) Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004). Effectively to repress the trace of our animality is not just to negate empathy with animals but more significantly it is to fail to see our interdependence with them and with organic life in general. As the French philosophy Maurice Merleau-Ponty put it: we are ‘flesh of the world’. Unless we learn the full importance of this we will never become more sustain-able.

Thinking the new for of the city, the ‘urmadic city’ – the city that moves – the first ArtLab, was no science fiction fantasy but a recognition that our current dominant mode of earthy habitation is in the end just not viable. The more static our way of life, the larger and denser our cities get, the more at risk we become. This applies to an exposure to existing threats, like ‘natural disasters’ and conflict, and especially to the still unfolding dangers of climate change. Against this backdrop we do well to remember that while human settlement has been around for some 10,000 years for the approximate 150,000 years prior to this Homo sapiens survived by being nomadic. As the climate changed people moved. Embracing the trace of our nomadic past to conceptualise the forms of cities of the future may thus be one of the key factors in our species future survival.

The last ArtLab in India was essentially an inquiry into the trace of the aesthetic of community. It was based on the acknowledgment that community is no mere socio-geographic construction but, as been understood by thinkers over the aeons, centres on the power of belief. As we learnt first from Goethe, and many sociologists thereafter, is the commonality of belief, the sacred, ritual, tradition, which bonds people together and constitutes community – this is equally true of secular and non-secular cultures, both modern and ancient.

Thus with the now dominance of secular society in the West that lack central values and core politico-ethical beliefs, the power of community has dramatically weakened. Clearly, some of the strongest and most powerful expressions of the actual power of belief are found outside the Western tradition. To this end the ArtLab explored the use and power of mantra and chant in the Samavada tradition in the ritual practices of Southern India – it did this by visiting, with local mediation, three families who are the sole remaining keepers of this knowledge. As research by Indian scientists working in the region has made clear, the trace of the power of ritual in this example brings much knowledge underscored by reason into question (including the relation between cultural practice and environment).

What can be learnt from this tradition, specifically and in general, is one question this Artlab posed to itself. Another goes to how its knowledge can be conserved and explored? Likewise, the question of the place of the trace of the sacred in innovation in the making of secular traditions was also deemed to be of considerable importance. What the research in India – not just of the three families but also of traditional music and its educational methods – made evident was that whatever the practices attain, they stand upon an induction into rigor, discipline and absolute commitment to the heuristic agency of aesthetic forms. Evidence of this was seen across all generation, from small children to very old men, from the pupil to the guru.

                                                                                           Tony Fry, November, 2011

India is a country that has fascinated me for many years. The rich culture, chaotic energy and juxtaposition of the ancient and contemporary have drawn me back year after year. The opportunity to develop the final Remnant Artlab allowed me to delve deeper into the relationship between India’s ancient cultural practices and the natural environment. During my initial research, I discovered the Athirathram, a 3000-year-old Vedic ritual that is believed to be the longest and oldest surviving ritual of mankind. Athirathram is a ritual of twelve days, consisting of Vedic chanting allegedly derived from birdsong, and is considered the ultimate invocation of Vedic scriptures for universal harmony. It is believed the Athirathram purifies the atmosphere and the Vedic chants transform to the natural environment.

 I found the unbroken tradition existed among a few Nambudiri Brahmin families in Kerala, South India and began to explore ways we could work with this community and understand the rituals effect on the environment. My research led me to the work of Professor V.P.M. Nampoori, a dynamic scientist from Cochin University who had recently conducted research into the impact of Vedic chants and the fire ritual on the atmosphere. His fascinating scientific experiments solidified the core of this lab, and I designed a two-week period of learning and observation pivoting on the Athirathram ritual practice. 

We had a rare opportunity to visit the Nambudiri Brahmin families and were extremely privileged to hear them perform excerpts from the Vedic chants. These communities are traditional completely isolated and have only recently allowed observers and academics access to the ritual sites. The scientific team we worked with believed the 12-day ritual presents the opportunity to explore the 'scientific implications on nature, mankind and all other living creatures'. Professor Nampoori said the 'chanting of mantras and the worshipping of Agni (Fire) with medicinal herbs energizes and protects the environment'. He also believes the application of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and astronomy is evident in every aspect of this complex ritual. Throughout the first stage of the research, the team conducted elaborate experiments in the areas of atmospheric changes in temperature, humidity and pressure level during the ritual. They also conducted experiments on the implications on microorganisms in the soil and variation in the yield from plants with outstanding results that soon to be published in an international journal article.

The next stage of the research will include exploring the physiological and psychological effects on human beings during the ritual through neurological experiments. The artlab team intends to keep working on this project, with the intention to develop new cultural/ritual practices for contemporary society that have a deep understanding of the ancient past. This long-term project will involve extensive study and experiments with the Athirathram ritual, including some real-time spectral analysis and sonification experiments in April 2012. This stage of the research is underpinned by the agency of sound; the idea that sound can extend beyond purely expression and have a transformational effect on the environment.  

As I briefly reflect on the intensity of this lab and the material we have covered, there are evidently more questions than answers. The explorations of Athirathram ritual was just one element of this complex artlab experience, that spanned from crafts practices in regional villages to workshops in the complexities carnatic rhythm. In this state of ecological crisis, there is a clear realization that there is significant value is preserving and understanding these ancient cultural practices. India is a country rich with ancient knowledge that is evidently a pivotal source in our thoughts and actions towards envisaging an environmentally and culturally sustainable future.

In each case our interest goes far beyond the practices and technics of each form themselves  to instead seek out the knowledges imbued, unspoken, or only at terms barely surfacing within these cultural riches. What is it that we can learn from this then, we from another place and with another sense of time and history? Whilst we have witnessed much environmental devastation, the cultural ecology that underpins that apparent fact has undeniable strength. What Puzzles us I think is why so much care can be lavished into cultural practices and such little apparent care is then given to the daily living spaces and ecological heritage - at least this is an initial impression. To our eyes the endless piles of rubbish, detritus and apparent lack of uncultivated land in the vicinities we have travelled begs one set of questions - and yet - whilst we in the West pay lip service to this as our limited 'image' of environmentalism we also witness the cohering spiritualities and yes, the absolute frugality of our Indian colleagues - and the people that we have met. No fancy backpacks, appliances and latest phones here to whimper about - just the simple basics. (Again I must stress that these are but generalisations based upon first impressions)

Its important  of course not to overplay the idea of Remnant Culture (in this case the Athirathrum ritual risks being lost because of the intense traditions and practices that its leaders must adhere to over lifetimes). Powerful cultures cohere and bind India, predominantly through the enduring connection to the Hindu gods and deities, and of course the practices of the other religious minorities -  a formal and informal strength arguably unmatched elsewhere in the world. But our task has not been to be a specific part of 'saving' this culture, this a  highly developed and highly specialised species of the greater Indian ecosystem. Of course what we can do to help we will, but what we see our place to be is interpretation of the sensitivities of what we witness here and a shift of that energy into our own collective and individual pursuits.  For example our experiences here draw into direct questions our limited focus on the green/nature elements of environmetalalism alone. What for example can we learn from the evident connection between human ritual practice and bio amplification - should we reject this as many might or look toy the evidence gathered ow both qualitatively and quantitatively that suggests changes in growth patterns and microbial counts before and after ritual events. Is there within this power of human connection meets environmental connection something we can glean. How might we invoke the idea of sacred ritual within new practices and forms - what might that lead us to - what palace the mind within the sensate driven world of science. A hundred questions circulating at ease with the Carnatic ragas  that fill our  ears and imaginations.

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