DAY 4

Today my tourist expedition was quite short. I just had time to visit the Purana Qila old fort before retreating under the rain. 

On the road back i encountered this strange road sign that should have been design for my good old town of Geneva...

(on a second thought i believe the second one could have been too..)

Tonight i've been in KHOJ a cultural center for a night of experimental electronic music for the release of a CD "Sound Reasons Epiphany" (check it out : http://soundreasons.in/sound-reasons-epiphany-2014). It seems that i was pretty lucky because there is not that much of this kind of music around here. First we had a guy whom i forgot the name (sorry for that) that had video synchronized to the sound through Processing (the next software i plan to learn)  and second Ish which is responsable for the compilation, his live was beautiful, very dreamy. 

Then came da Saz, he is living here since 16 years and he came from... Lausanne (the city next to my hometown..). Very nice guy using Modular synth for a very abstract live-set. We already planned to play the 3 of us next week. So i would have travelled a quarter of the world to play with a fellow compatriot.

On my way i stopped by Gatti studio where i've been in residency two years ago. Mandeep, who is in charge there and the sweetest guy of the city is gonna think with whom i could collaborate to produce a small dance piece to show before i leave, i'm really waiting for that. 

So, Day 4 and already two projects on the go, i will certainly not have time to get bored. 

On the Mantar project side : I started to read the manual of Stellarium a software that reproduce the night sky (and day sky too). It is free and very fun to use, have a try : stellarium.org

DAY 3

Daily Delhi Report

Today i've been a very efficient tourist. Starting by the Qutub Minar. This 72.5m minaret was the tallest "skyscraper" in the world when built (1193-1368). A very impressive sight indeed. But if the imam was not totally out of breath when reaching the top, the distance had probably for effect that nobody could hear his call. The goal of inspiring awe in the people though is perfectly achieved. 

The Tughlaqabad Fort is quite impressive by his size too but it is a ruin so i show you a picture of his inhabitant instead. 

The Lodhi Garden is a beautiful park where lovers meet hidden under the trees.

The Humayun's Tomb is someway very similar to the Taj Mahal (if you wanna be cool, say "The Taj" like everybody as Mahal means Palace and you don't need to be that precise).

Sometimes, the auto-rickshaw drivers feel that your goal is too far away from their zone of activity but they won't tell. As usual, you bargain the price and you get on the vehicle but after a while the driver will stop and sell you to another driver for the end of the journey. But sure, they will argue between them how much of the tariff should go to the second driver. It is quite difficult to explain what you feel when to guys are arguing over your head about your value. That's what this driver is gonna do in a minute. 

Everywhere in the city you can see these police signs that sound a little funny as it is well known that the Delhi police is heavily corrupt and brutal. With the locals it is, with foreign tourists they are very sweet and helpful.

The funny moment of the day was a shop keeper whom i was buying a shirt who wouldn't believe me when i told him i was definitely NOT Afghan.. I couldn't convince him of the contrary... life is full of surprises and India is their prophet.

On the working side, i started to read "The pleasure of starwatching" and I now know that my sonic installation duration should be a year as the sky is exactly the same every year at the same date. (in fact it is not, but the shift is so thin that you couldn't feel the difference in your lifetime).

DAY 2

Day 2 started with a meeting with Blessy, my personal coach during my stay in Delhi. I asked her if I could meet an historian of the Mantar or anybody who could tell me more about it. I also asked to meet some musician, Sitar and tabla player, but on a second thought I decided not to and meet electronic musicians instead. I really want to avoid the occidental cliché of India as a country of highly spirited people playing sitar. 

What I would like to know though is what was the music like in 1724 when Sawai Jay Singh build the observatories, I don't know if anybody can answer that, their is obviously no audio recording of the time and I don't know if the music was written and if we got some traces, or if the tradition goes so deep that you can ear it on the indian music of today, or if nobody knows, it really arouse my curiosity.

Thanks for your help Blessy !

The music studio is now set-up in my room. You can see that I put some inspiring decoration, the Mantar poster and a globe I intend to offer to the place as it will never fits in my suitcase. It helps me to visualize our moves in the galaxy. The fact that the earth is tilted of 23 degrees on is axis is really difficult to compute to me.

Day 2 saws my achievement of assessment 2 on this fantastic Mooc about astronomy https://www.open2study.com. I have alway been fascinated by starwatching but never took time to really learn about it. Thanks again Pro Helvetia, now I can go deep on the subject.  

A word about the weather : during day time the temperature is around 20 but it is cold at night and i have to confess that i quite enjoy it because i know what's in store for me in 2-3 weeks from now. The temperature will quickly rise to reach 40 in april and let me tell you that for a redhead northern guy like me it is the closest picture of Dante's inferno. Expect some complaint about it in the near future. That's why I intend to do all the tourist activities right now. 

Day 1

My arrival in Delhi in the Pro Helvetia residency was perfect. I spent most of Day 1 looking for a book about Jay Singh Astronomy and it was quite an adventure.

First I looked in Nai Sarak a street in old Delhi with dozen of bookstores. After an hour asking to every single shop keeper if they got my book and following one of them in the small backstreets to his uncle shop (that didn't had it either) i decided my quest was vein and headed back to the metro station but not before asking to this last shop which was closed when i first saw it. And there the man in charge gave me 3 adresses in 3 different neighbors where i could have more chance, so i took a rickshaw and hit the first one after a ride in the most vivid bazaar you can imagine. Delhi bookstore opposite of the fire station on Ansaré Road send me further to 2 others places and 2 others fail (one was closed for years..). So, back to the rickshaw, to the metro and to a rickshaw again and here we are in Kamla Nagar. The shop owner was very nice and he found my book ! At this time in my quest I had long abandoned the idea and pursue it only for the sake of it and for the pleasure to discover new blocks i would probably have never seen otherwise. Very happy about my luck i reach for my money only to see that i didn't took enough... So.. back to the rickshaw, to the metro, to a rickshaw, to home, to a rickshaw, to the metro, to a rickshaw, to the bookshop..

"Sawai Jai Shing and his astronomy" is THE book with all the answers i was looking for about how the Jantar Mantar instruments really worked and how you can get useful observation from it. This is gonna be priceless in the making of the project.

After that i went to my favorite restaurant in Lajpat Nagar (where the residency is) "Hari", i had a Shahi Paneer with rice and a Paneer Parantha and it was delhicious.

One last thing : It looks like the neighbor has a "cats protected" car. I've seen a lot of stray dogs around, perhaps it is to protect the car from them..