Paper short abstract:

This paper will focus on experimental research methods that combine the concerns of software studies and participatory art used to study the intermission in South Asian cinema. It will also discuss aesthetic strategies used to represent a broader understanding of the infrastructure of cinema.

Paper long abstract:

The intermission or "samosa break" (as it is referred to in Bombay vernacular) has long been phased out from cinemas in most parts of the world, but is very much a routine and ongoing experience for movie-goers in India. While there is a significant body of work on Indian cinema that has focused on the textuality of film, there has been scarce theoretical attention paid to the material aspects of film production and distribution. As a working context for such an endeavor, my research has focused on Blaze Advertising, a company that held a monopoly on the distribution of cinema advertising across India from the 1960's until the 1980's. Their story takes an unexpected turn, when in 1986 the monopoly was disrupted and Blaze re-purposed their network as a domestic courier company (similar to FedEx). To complicate matters further, all of the company records were destroyed—the only trace of the original network is in the data logs of the courier web site.

Faced with an empty archive, I have begun to use more experimental methods that combine software studies and participatory art to recuperate and historicize the network. Building on this, the final output of my research will include a work of critical praxis that focuses on co-articulating the dual subjectivity of labor and the audience within the context of the intermission. This paper will focus on both the research methods and aesthetic strategies used to represent the infrastructure of cinema.