MUMBAI: Culture Connects, a collaboration between Delhi-based culture curators and Magnetic Fields Festival co-founders Wild City and San Francisco-based digital innovators MUTEK.SF, aims to be a catalyst for creative expression, and a platform that supports artists, creative entrepreneurs and cultural trailblazers to respond to and grow from the COVID-19 crisis.

This year-long series of digital and physical events will explore themes of music, culture and technology, and creative entrepreneurship and will showcase the success stories of individuals and collectives from India and the United States through dynamic conversations, immersive workshops, insightful speaker sessions and multimedia performances.

Culture Connects is made possible through the generous support of the American Center New Delhi.

The first round of digital events kick off on February 24. You can register for the events here.

Events from February 24 to March 4

Featuring a mix of conversations, multimedia performances and workshops, Culture Connects brings together thought leaders and trailblazers from the fields of music, technology, creative industry and social entrepreneurship.

February 24

The first event on February 24 is a discussion titled, ‘The ABCs of Gen Y-Gen Z’ that will aim to deconstruct the difference between millennials and centennials, and how they engage with the world.

The conversation will feature Anto Philip, co-founder of India’s foremost youth collective Under 25, marketing leaders like brand strategy, design and communication consultant Rajeev Roy, Shreya Sachdev, head of marketing and strategy at Puma India and Nisha Vasudevan,executive creator director at the award-winning content studio Supari Studios.

A multimedia performance by Nothing Anonymous’ Kayan will follow the conversation.

February 25

The pandemic meant that artists and cultural institutions had to rethink and redesign their core offerings.

For new media practitioner, curator and culture entrepreneur Tejas Nair, that meant designing a gamified multi-player experience that would allow brands, artists and promoters to curate unique events, unhindered by any physical limitations. For OML that meant designing a virtual version of their flagship NH7 Weekender festival, complete with personalised touches like Book a Bartending Experience, where audiences were provided with bartenders for the festival duration at their house.

‘How technology helped the creative industry pivot in a pandemic world’ will look at creative disruption and need to constantly evolve and innovate, in times of a pandemic or otherwise.

The discussion will be moderated by independent arts consultant, curator and founder of Art X Company, Rashmi Dhanwani, and will be followed by a performance by New Delhi-based music producer and visual artist Dolorblind whose debut EP Forbidden Fruit was acclaimed as one of 2020’s most exciting releases.

February 26

A greater focus on non-western electronic sounds during the last decade has revitalised dancefloors around the world. The desire for new sounds – coupled with the musical democratisation ushered in by the rise of the internet – might have broken the West’s hegemony over dance music but it gave localised movements a life that hadn’t been dictated by international trends.

‘The Sound of New India’ brings together some of India’s most distinctive producers like desi bass pioneer Nucleya, composer and music director of the Tamil band The Casteless Collective, Tenma and San Franciso-based sound architect and synthesist OSE. The discussion will be moderated by music journalist Amit Gurbaxani.

While the above panels and performances will be livestreamed with live Q&A over American Center New Delhi and Wild City's Facebook pages, the first week of March will see limited capacity workshops taking place with selected participants over private Zoom sessions.

March 2

Multidisciplinary creative technologist and co-founder Algorave India AbhinayKhoparzi who will demonstrate live coding techniques on a workshop in Estuary — an online platform for collaboration and learning through live coding that enables the creation of sound, music, and visuals in a web browser. Estuary allows participants to explore theTidalCycles live coding language, which allows the performer to play, transform, and modify patterns using sound samples.

Live Coding Jam with Abhinay Khoparziis open to all, including those who have no programming experience.

March 3

There is perhaps no one better than Little Black Book (LBB) co-founder SuchitaSalwan to talk about how a passion can be developed into a project and pivoted into a business.

LBB started life as a Tumblr blog in 2011 with Suchita reviewing and providing recommendations of interesting places she had visited in Delhi and soon built itself as a repository of recommendations in the city. Between 2015 and 2017, LBB’s user base swelled from 100,000 to over 1.5 million amidst expansion to cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata. In 2017, LBB opened up the platform to user-generated content allowing people outside the contributor base to make recommendations. In 2018, LBB pivoted from content discovery to transactions and sales, working with local merchants to sell on the platform. Suchita wants to build LBB – which connects 25 million consumers across 9 cities to over 100,000+ merchants – into India's definitive platform to find and shop from great local brands, that are not run or owned by large conglomerates.

March 4

Want to start your own radio show but don’t know where to begin? Online radio boxout.fm co-founder, DJ, curator and one of the central figures in the burgeoning alternative scene in India Mohammed Abood will share all that he knows.

You can register for all events here.

About Wild City

Wild City is a brand that has become synonymous with alternative culture in India. Wild City is an online music magazine, events company, consultant for brands that engages with youth culture, executors of regional cultural programs across South Asia. Wild City also co-founded Magnetic Fields, an annual three-day music and arts festival that hosted its first edition in 2013. In addition, Wild City runs the boutique music PR agency City Press, which focuses on the growing cultural landscape in India.

About MUTEK.SF

MUTEK Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting innovative local, national, and international electronic music, sound art, collaborative audio-visual works, and digital art at large in San Francisco. Their annual flagship festival MUTEK.SF features ground-breaking music programming that blurs lines within genres and media alike; panel discussions and educational programming; culinary offerings from renowned chefs; and immersive artwork showcasing the cutting edge of digital arts and technology.

About The American Center New Delhi

The American Center New Delhi is the U.S. Embassy’s cultural center located in the heart of the city. Adjacent to the Barakhamba Road metro stop and a short walk from Connaught Place, the American Center is home to the Nexus business incubator and iHub, the Center’slibrary and innovation hub. The American Center also plays host to free film screenings, art exhibitions, panel discussions, roundtables, workshops and more. Topics include LGBT rights, diversity and inclusion, public health, and women’s empowerment.