हाक १७ / Call 17

Repetition is an inescapable reality of our lives. It is the means through which we structure time and action. The repetitive pattern of the Earth’s movements gives rise to the routine of day and night, and the cycles of summer, spring, monsoon, and winter. The human instinct to categorise, classify, and organise latches on to these repetitive movements to bring order to the free flowing stream of time.  

For our 17th edition, we are interested in exploring the theme of ‘repetition’. 

We repeat the same tasks at regular intervals of time: we brush our teeth, bathe, pack our lunches, and leave for work on a daily basis; we pay our household bills every month; we keep annual reminders to file our taxes. For an artist or a working professional, the act of repetition is an attempt to discipline their instincts and maintain a consistent practice. In poetry or music, repetition can create emphasis, pattern and rhythm; in performance, it is a tool used to train the body and voice. Repetition can also be an exercise in memorisation, and a step toward learning, and the creation of a form of knowledge.

For some, repetition can be a source of drudgery, boredom, and frustration. It can lead to a feeling of being stuck in a time, place, or a situation. A housewife caught in the cycle of daily chores, a manual labourer bogged down by the need to earn her daily bread, an accountant with a desk job that is stable, but fails to stimulate. 

What does a repetitive act mean to a society and an individual where progress is measured in continual production? What role does the act of repetition play in your physical, intellectual, creative, and social life? In what ways does it structure your daily lives, and the world at large? How does it feature in your art practice? How do you negotiate with the sameness of repetition along with the burden of creating something new? 

You may be a musician, dancer, performance artist, fiction writer, social scientist, poet, social/political activist, visual artist, cartoonist, critic, photographer, translator, or curator; we invite you to reflect on the theme of ‘repetition’ and contribute to Hakara’s seventeenth edition. Send us your work in Marathi and/or English or in an audio-visual form by October 8, 2022 to info@hakara.in. For submission guidelines, please click here. 

Ashutosh Potdar
Editor, हाकारा । hākārā
(Purvi Rajpuria will be Guest Editor for the 17th Hakara edition.)