Colours of India "Holi"

Colors of India (Virtual Holi) is theme number two of the events lined up on the sun calendar of the internationally collaborative Solar Eclipse'99 project. This is a project about using computing technology to connect up communities located in different parts of the world. The aim will be to interact, exchange, share ideas and work together through synchronous networking, in spite of the participating members being separated by huge physical distances.

This event that was scheduled for the evening of the13th(Friday) March was designed around playing virtual holi through the information technologies with other countries from around the world. As part of our "new audiences"( which for us would imply those not involved yet or likely to be involved in the conceivable future, in any way whatsoever, to these technologies.), we had with us a painter Jitish Kallat and six street children from YUVA(Youth Unity for Voluntary Action) who painted on the theme of the festival. The interesting outcome of this being that Kallat created a digital canvas by interpreting the paintings done on paper by the street children. This went online on web. Since M F Hussain had agreed to come and could not at the last minute, the response to his last-minute cancellation has been interpreted in a 'Hussain feature' and is being put up on the web.as well, along with a critical elaboration of Hussain's work by art writer Meher Pestonjee.

Though the site was launched with the above event, we expect the site to be an interesting place to discover and exchange notes on colors. We have also created this site with the view that it will extend and grow with suggestions from people who are accessing it. 'Colors of India' being the overall theme, anything that would contribute to this is expected to be either included or linked to this site. The aim is also to make the site interactive, playful and useful. We solicit suggestions, feedback as well as additions to the theme of 'Colors of India'.