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I.05 · Active · 2022 — Ongoing

A Declining Commons

A long documentary on urbanisation, labour, and memory.

MemoryLabourCommunitiesDocumentary
Status
Active
Timeline
2022 — Ongoing
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I.05
Black and white interior of a dhobi ghat — a worker shakes out a large white sheet beside tall stacks of folded laundry and bundled clothes.
I.05 · Madiwala ghat — worker shaking out a sheet

Project overview

What this is, and why it exists.

The commons does not disappear in a single moment. It thins — through policy, price, plumbing, paperwork — until one day there is nothing left to lose.

How do you document a loss that is gradual, structural, and contested by the very people living through it?

A long-form documentary investigation into disappearing commons in South India — washing ghats, weaving sheds, lakeside grazing, neighbourhood courtyards. Composed of sub-projects (Washing Rituals, Silent Shuttles) that can be read alone or together.

Background

Context, origins, problem space.

Context

Urbanisation in India is most visible at the centre and most felt at the edge. Commons — shared land, water, work, and time — are the first to be enclosed.

Research origins

The work began with one ghat in Madiwala, walked over months. The sub-projects accumulated as the question expanded outward.

Problem space

Documentary risks aestheticising loss. The methodological challenge is to film and write in a way that names what is being taken, and by whom.

Methods

The vocabulary of the work.

The camera is treated as a witness, not an extractor. Filming begins after relationship; release happens with consent and review.

Research

  • Long-form ethnography
  • Oral history
  • Stakeholder mapping

Design

  • Cinematic documentation
  • Photo-essay sequencing
  • Long-form writing

Documentation

  • Patient camera
  • Audio interviews
  • Field journals

Process

Timeline, fieldwork, iteration.

Each sub-project follows the same arc: one site, one community, many returns. Editing is slow and discussed.

  1. 2022.03

    Madiwala — first walks

    Beginning of the practice; relationship-building before any camera.

  2. 2023.01

    Washing Rituals

    First sub-project completed; six-month engagement with two ghat families.

  3. 2023.08

    Silent Shuttles

    Weaving-shed cycle; portrait-led photo essay published.

  4. 2024.04

    Long-form edit

    First feature-length cut assembled; private screenings with subjects in progress.

Documentation

Images, field notes, recordings.

Stills from the film, paired with field-journal entries.

Black and white interior of a dhobi ghat — a worker shakes out a large white sheet beside tall stacks of folded laundry and bundled clothes.
DOC.01
Madiwala — interior, frame from Washing Rituals
Wide view of a Bangalore dhobi ghat — rows of brightly coloured laundry strung across the open yard under a clear blue sky, framed by trees and apartment blocks.
DOC.02
Madiwala — exterior, drying yard
A Bangalore lake at dawn — marsh grasses, still water, distant apartment towers under overcast sky.
DOC.03
Adjacent lakebed — context shot
A hand holding a handheld field recorder at the edge of a Bangalore lake, overcast sky and acacia growth.
DOC.04
Audio capture at the water's edge

Outputs

What the work produces.

Related work

Where this connects.

Investigations

Projects

Fragments

Writings

Resources

Downloads, references, further reading.

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