From the conflicts of middle class India and the criminal justice system in India to the application of block chain in art and future of 3D technology, the Goa Project kicked off at Panjim with interesting sessions and conversations across tracks.
The highlight of the day was visually impaired film director Anand Kulkarni talking about the possibilities of the visual medium for the visually impaired. "I learn by listening to people and shamelessly eavesdropping”, Anand Kulkarni said, cracking up the crowd.
Author Avirook Sen spoke on what led to the rise of middle class India and the dynamics that shape it. The session also touched upon his book Arushi, which reignited a national debate on the criminal justice system and media ethics. This brought up a discussion on the role public opinion plays in passing judgement when criminal cases come into the public eye, as it was seen in the case of Arushi’s murder trial.
Apart from filmmaking and writing, day one of The Goa Project also saw talks on the future of innovation. One interesting aspect was the use of block chain in Arts and how it can be used to build an art app, spoken about by Nathan Wadhwani.
Vijay Raghav Varada, CEO and co-founder of Fracktal Works, a 3D printing start up spoke about 3D printing in India and the future of it.
Every year, The Goa Project also acts as ground zero for many ideas and projects to take off, be it through an initial round of seed funding or an interesting collaboration of creative minds. Three projects are chosen to present their ideas and pitch for funding at the event.
This year too, three shortlisted projects pitched for crowdfunding, in association with Wishberry.
The first was Pehli Pehel by Zubaan, an initiative to bring Indie artists to the mainstream. Since inception, Zubaan has become a collective of these artists who wish to take their project to the next level through "Pehli Pehel", a collection of 10 video songs and compositions that are a result of these collaborations.
Chor Police, a board game made to encourage parent-child bonding was the second project to pitch at TGP. “Technology is not the only way to keep your kids occupied,” Amitha Singh of think tank Ideas ‘R Us said. Built by Avi Singh, Amitha and Nirmal George, Chor Police is the second game to come out of the think tank, which aims to bring back childhood games to every living room in India! In their own words,
Extreme Nation, a feature documentary film project by Roy Dipankar was the final project to pitch at TGP. The movie chronicles one of the darkest, most explicit and mysterious forms of a subculture spawned over years of metal music in the Indian subcontinent.