Tag: art forms

Music, Science and Technology find concurrence in Academics at IIT Kharagpur

IIT Kharagpur launches Academy of Classical and Folk Arts in the spirit of NEP2020 to inculcate the spirit of innovation and inclusive learning
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On the occasion of its 70th Foundation Day, IIT Kharagpur inaugurated the Academy of Classical and Folk Arts on August 18, 2020. A first in the IIT system, the Academy aims to nurture the creative talents of the IIT Kharagpur community through an immersion in music and fine arts. 

Watch e-Launch Video

The Academy will offer regular training on music, fine arts and other performing arts, and run micro-credit courses for students. Its global outreach programs, that will include MOOCs courses and live classes, will create opportunities for a wider dissemination of the creative liberty at the heart of Indian classical music. The Academy will also pursue collaborative research in science and technology interventions in Indian classical music and other art forms that will not only help preserve India’s rich heritage but also create new teaching-learning resources.

“The spirit of creativity, collaboration and collective well-being is ingrained in the teaching-learning of our traditional performing and creative art forms. Inspiring the present generation to learn creative arts will enable them to develop the faculties of concentration, coordination, confidence and creativity, which are catalysts for scientific excellence,” said Prof. Pallab Dasgupta, Professor-in-Charge of the Academy and Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

The Academy is working in close collaboration with Padma Bhushan Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty, Distinguished Professor and Mentor, who will grace the inauguration and conduct a unique workshop called “Sur-o-Srishti: The Science and Philosophy of making Indian Music” connecting the principles of learning music and rhythm with that of cultivating scientific innovation abilities.  

“India will reach the pinnacle of scientific and engineering eminence if the spirit of innovation is inculcated in the young minds,” said Pt. Chakrabarty. “The modern style of learning music, which I have been professing over the years with remarkable effect, is designed to inculcate the traits of experimentation and innovation in young minds, rather than blind imitation which has become prevalent not only in music but in most other forms of learning. There is no better place to bring about this change in the mindset than a top seat of learning like IIT Kharagpur.”

Pt. Chakrabarty is heading the ‘100 Ragas Initiative’ of the Academy. The initiative intends to formulate the deep structure of Indian ragas as semi-lexical languages by forging a connection of the creative arts with the cognitive sciences. 

“It is essential for an institute of national importance to focus on the holistic development of its students, staff and faculty. The Academy of Classical and Folk Arts is the first of its kind at IIT Kharagpur. This and other forthcoming academies such as the Academy of Leadership are designed to expand the mind set of our students from narrow individual academic competitors to versatile and creative social beings with the flair and confidence of excelling in innovation and technology leadership. We are privileged to have an eminent musician in the form of Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty by our side as a Distinguished professor and mentor of this academy. With him by our side, we are happy to officially launch the academy,” said Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur. 

“The activities of the academy will bring new colors into the life of the IIT Kharagpur community. We launch the Academy on the auspicious occasion of the Foundation Day, and look forward to exciting events from the academy. We are very happy that Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty has very kindly agreed to deliver a lecture demonstration on a very apt topic, where he will explain why learning music can help in developing the necessary traits for scientific innovation,” said Prof. S K Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director.

The Academy is closely supported by IIT Kharagpur’s distinguished alumni, including Mr. Arjun Malhotra, Dr. Kiran Seth, members of the IIT Kharagpur Foundation, USA, and more recently Mr. Mukund Padmanabhan.

Talking about the Academy’s vision, Mr. Malhotra said, “In today’s world innovation is driven by individuals or teams who have access to both the left side and right side of their brains.” 

Over the years IIT Kharagpur, besides producing great engineers and Managers has produced a number of outstanding individuals who have excelled in the arts and the humanities – people like Kiran Seth of SPIC-MACAY, Harish Hande and many others. There are many more who, if they had the right stimulation when at IIT Kharagpur, would probably have gone and done much better in what they have achieved. By having an academy of music and arts in the Institute we not only archive and save our cultural heritage, but enable those young minds to look at issues in a more holistic way and hopefully, provide better answers and solutions to our problems.”

Centre Information: Prof. Pallab Dasgupta, pallab@cse.iitkgp.ac.in

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; 

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in; 

More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/; 

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A gift to posterity

IIT Kharagpur’s Centre for Classical Arts will transform the way the classical arts are taught and preserved

 

A new dream is unfolding in IIT Kharagpur. The premier technology institute is working towards the creation of a Centre for Classical Arts.

As to why an institute specializing in science and technology should ramify into the arts, the big picture first. For a variety of socio-economic reasons, the traditional guru-sishya parampara through which many of India’s intangible art forms have been passed down through generations is unlikely to survive in the future. There is a dire need to evolve a modern pedagogy of teaching and learning the traditional art forms so that they continue to be appreciated, practiced, researched and improvised upon. IIT Kharagpur believes that this can be made possible through appropriate technological interventions that can make the teaching-learning experience interesting and innovative, while at the same time preserving the core fundamentals of the traditional art forms.

Collaboration with Pandit Tejendranarayan Mazumdar and Pandit Shuvankar Banerjee

There is another concern closer to heart — the students. Professor Joy Sen, head of the department, Architecture and Regional Planning, who is already knee-deep into heritage preservation as part of IIT Kharagpur’s SandHI (Science and Heritage Initiative) team, says, a course in music will be a “small infill in the lives of new entrants who are entering the rat race.” While they engage in analysis, logic, deep maths, computer programming and such like, music and the classical arts will give them a chance to contemplate, listen and appreciate.

Professor Pallab Dasgupta, Dean, Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy and leading professor of computer science and engineering says, “Since our musical heritage is more about innovation, engagement with it gives a cognitive satisfaction to minds that are intelligent and creative,” he says. Professor Dasgupta, much like Professor Sen, is a driving force behind the proposed Center of Classical Arts. But while it is important to rejuvenate interest in classical arts among students through the process of teaching-learning, appreciation and innovation, “the goal is to preserve our heritage,” says Dr Dasgupta.

Collaboration with Jnana Pravaha (Suresh Neotia Foundation) Varanasi and Dr. Bettina Baumer, Abhinav Gupta Foundation. Varanasi

This thought process goes back several years. The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth or SPIC MACAY was founded by an IITKGP alumnus, Kiran Seth, whose work has been an inspiration for Arjun Malhotra, co-founder of HCL and another noted alumnus, who has taken up the cudgels for the creation of the arts center in IITKGP. Says Mr Malhotra, “We have been thinking about the impact SPIC MACAY has had on our youth and we wanted to leave a perpetual legacy for our classical art and music and culture to continue. That was the motivation behind SandHI”

The institute already has ongoing collaboration in the areas of music and fine arts, notable among which is a recent tie up with Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty and his school of classical music for children, called Shrutinandan.

This first-of-its-kind Center for Classical Arts will consist of three main components. One, an educational center for students that will create a teaching-learning experience uniquely crafted with the help of modern technology. The educational center will offer training in music, fine arts and the performing arts, and also introduce credit courses in the forms of electives and micro-specializations.

Collaboration with Shrutinandan – Pandit Ajay Chakraborty and his team

Two, the school will create national and international outreach programs for dissemination and collaborative research on science and technology interventions in Indian classical music and other classical arts.

Three, it will create teaching-learning resources for Indian classical music and other classical arts. This is a huge challenge given the fact that traditional pedagogy of Indian classical music is anchored on direct dissemination from teacher to student, without reference to any archived content.

The team working on the founding of the Center of Classical Arts understands the challenge they have taken up. Says Mr Malhotra, “The challenge for IIT Kharagpur is that there is so much to do in this area… what would they (the arts school) focus on initially and how would they expand this. Just in music alone there are so many gharanas… and then there is folk music.”

Besides, enormous resources are required for this initiative. The institute is looking forward to public-private partnerships, support from its alumni, music enthusiasts and the government funding to give wings to its mission.