Mapping Through Media: Khirkee Storytelling Project
By Ned Carter Miles
The Khirkee Storytelling Project is an umbrella for a range of media-sharing and community broadcast activities, including Khirkee Talk Show. All images courtesy Khirkee Storytelling Project.
“I like cities,” the architect and artist Swati Janu told me; “I think of them as living organisms, beasts really, life throbbing through the many layers and intricate, interlinked networks.” Like the body of any beast, cities adapt to their circumstances, and New Delhi, where Janu created the Khirkee Storytelling Project, is no exception. Since mobile and smart phones have become available in India, the phenomenon of the neighborhood recharge shop has arisen to meet demand for top-up credit in urban areas. However, this isn’t all such places do. They also act as nodes in a network of pirate media distribution, selling movies for around INR 10 (USD 0.15), or 2GB of songs for INR 40 (USD 0.62).
