A lecture performance by Nitoo Das (riverslant) and Surbhi Mittal (pale blue dotter). Within their artistic practices,  Nitoo Das and Surbhi Mittal work with the sounds of birds. Their artistic inquiries are varied and vast, touching on topics of conservation, ecology, and representation. 

A longtime birder, Nitoo weaves birds into her poetry and photography. Surbhi approaches birds through sound and listening. Together, they find common ground in observation and documentation through their practices. 

In their collaboration, with the Red-wattled Lapwing as their departure point, they explore practices of meaning-making. Through fieldwork along the Yamuna, desk explorations and thought experiments, their flight with the Lapwing has led to sounding its presence in the city. In Lecture Performance 1, they will explore how this opens up ideas of repetition and mapping through Nitoo’s poetry and Surbhi’s engagements with sound. 

To collectively continue the exploration of ideas opened up during LP-1, they did a  walk along the Yamuna the next morning. They envision their collaboration to unfold over time, with lecture performances and participatory walks leading to a multimedia installation/publication.