Pratyay Raha
bangaloREsident-Expanded@ZKM

© Diptyarka Bose

Pratyay Raha is currently artist-in-residence at The Indian Sonic Research Organisation, Bangalore. He is a sound artist and composer working in the area of acoustic ecology and new media. His practise has an investigative and multi-layered approach towards understanding natural ecosystems which are facing the adverse impact of excessive anthropogenic encroachments and the ongoing climate crisis. His focus is to bring a hyperreal representation of the complex human-environment interactions and their relationships with these ecologically affected areas to the forefront. He completed his Master’s in Composition and Creative Music Practice at the University of Limerick in Ireland (2021-2022).

Pratyay was invited to present his long-term work on the history and analysis of Indian People’s Theatre Association and its music, at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna in the year 2018. His work on the vanishing traditions of ancient languages in West Bengal has been selected and showcased at the Forecast Forum in Berlin in 2022. He has been actively involved in composing for documentary films, theatre productions and contemporary dance performances which have received critical acclaim in India and abroad. Bhumchu: The Drops of Eternal Life by Abanti Sinha is one such documentary film which collected accolades from film festivals across the world. Pratyay is the founder of the Kolkata based cultural organisation Surokahon which delves into the multifaceted aspects of music through recordings, performances, conversations and writings.
 
About the project:
 
During his residency at the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Pratyay will work on MetaMangrovis which is a sculptural and spatial investigation to explore and experiment with the ideas of environmental sound, human voice, degrading landscapes and human-environment relationships. The research is based on the “Sundarbans” region (largest mangrove delta of the world located in Eastern India and Bangladesh) which according to the World Wildlife Fund (India) is “lying in the low coastal zone and is more vulnerable to the effects of the changing climatic conditions such as floods, cyclones, relative sea-level rise, and coastline erosion".

It is a poetic and surreal representation of the mysterious Sundarbans and the mangrove delta region as a reservoir of entangling soundscapes. The project navigates deep into the study of human animal interactions in the region through acoustic memory and sonic story telling. Through the application of advanced spatial sound technology, MetaMangrovis will aim to present a multi-layered image of the Sundarbans. Curated by sound artist Yashas Shetty, Pratyay has presented his first major multimedia installation on this project at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore in May 2023. This installation and presentation was supported by The Indian Sonic Research Organisation and Pro Helvetia New Delhi.