The pad.ma project

Friday’s lunch talk in Hallein highlighted the work of Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran,  founders of CAMP, a collaborative project based in Mumbai. Shaina began with a description of pad.ma, a phenomenal project of which CAMP is a co-initiator.

pad.ma is a project which involves the creation of a vast online repository for digital film material. The rise of digital technologies has enabled documentary film-makers to shoot large quantities of footage much more cheaply than before. The majority of the footage - often as much as 99 per cent - never makes the final film. But this unused footage is the archive of contemporary society and life. pad.ma seeks to give access to this vast quantity of material, and has approached film-makers to share their unused footage. This footage is then text-annotated to create a searchable archive covering every aspect of modern life.

An extension to the project has involved digitalising part of the collections of Afghan Films, the national film institute of Afghanistan. Through the courage and initiative of various curators the collection survived the ravages of the Taliban, and is now being made accessible to the world.

The speakers went on to describe further projects associated with CAMP: Shaina described a project based in Jerusalem, The Neighbour Before the House, and Ashok told us about his Wharfage project.