IMAGE © RAMU ARAVINDAN

Rajivan Ayyappan is a sound artist/composer and visual artist from India. He works independently as a sound designer for film, video, choreography and installation. In live performance he is a classical Indian lead singer, contemporary voice-work improviser and a multi-instrumentalist. He has presented his work at various art spaces and festivals internationally. He was born in Kottayam (Kerala, South India) in an artistic family. At the age 5 he began learning South Indian music (vocals and percussions) under the guidance of Sri. Kuttappan Bhagavadar, Itthitthanam (1970-1986). In 1975, with a self-carpentered acoustic guitar he started to understand other systems of music along with his brother. Between 1978-1992 he had an active role as a singer and guitarist in his hometown as well as in Ahmedabad where he spent 5 1/2 years studying visual arts/visual communication at the National Institute of Design. His traditional skills and interest in typography and his exposure to visual arts history triggered a kind of paradigm shift to his musical direction. After the design studies, he traveled extensively in India and absorbed pretty well the heterogeneity of Indian sound environment and sound culture. As a sound artist, his work primarily falls under the perspective of sound-scape discipline, referring to various resources that are rooted in Indian musical system as well as sound culture. Recent projects include: Gastric acid, a mix media real-time work about the food world, in collaboration with Vedanza artists International, Luxembourg, Telescapes (Audio elf): 5.1 installation based on Soccer, Scorecologn light screen Festival, FIFA world cup 2006/ Museum für Angewandte Kunst. Koln 2006. The Air Around – a global network/real-time performance installation with 213 sound artists from around the world and Signals untitled – an installation based on travel maps from Bangalore. His Bollywood times in sound design (2005-06) in collaboration with Fireflys post sound Mumbai, brought brilliant sound dimensions to films such as Printed Rainbow (4 canne awards 2006), Straight 8, The Rising, My wife's murder, The Turtle people, 15 park Avenue, etc.

SOUND INSTALLATIONS
Tele-scape: Audio-elf. Sound screen festival.
FIFA World Cup events, Koln, 2006.
Dusting off: Open Studio residency, Cairo, Egypt, 2006.
Air Around: A global real-time network installation with 213 sound artists,
Worldinformation.org, Bangalore, 2005.
Signals untitled: Soundscape installation, Srishti school of Arts, Design and Technology,
Bangalore, 2004.
Found sounds: Prefabricated sound objects based on a series of objects from India,
Funded by Independent Net-art forum, 2000.
Subsequent hearing: Sound scape compositions from Urban India,
Funded by Sarai new media forum, Delhi, 2003
Whistle tree: landscape installation in Machlipattanam, Andrapradesh,
Funded by Radiodrum electroacoustic, Bangalore, 2001.

SOUND DESIGN/ MUSIC
One-way: 16 min. Film, Made by Ayisha Abraham. Bangalore, 2006.
Printed Rainbow: 13 min. Animation Film, Produced/ Animated by Gitanjali Rao, Mumbai, 2005.
Straight 8: 18 min. Video, Made by Ayisha Abraham. Bangalore, 2005.
The Rising: 180 min. Film, Sound design in collaboration with Satheesh PM, Directed by Ketan Mehta,
Kaleidoscope productions, Bombay, 2005.
15 Park Avenue: I20 min. Film, Sound design in collaboration with Satheesh PM,
Directed by Aparna Sen, SPS productions, Calcutta, 2005.
My wife’s murder: 120 min. Film, Directed by Jiji Philip, Ram Gopal Varma Productions, Bombay, 2005.
100%: 45 min. Video, Directed by Mamta Moorthy, Gram-vikas productions, Mumbai. 2003.
Turtle people: 75 min. Video. Directed by Surabhi Sharma, Crysallis productions, Bombay, 2002.
Child play: 06 min. Films, Directed/Animated by Monali Sadanan, National Institute of design, India, 2000.
Naja goes to school: 07 min. Film, Made by Chilpa Ranade. Channel 4 productions, 1999.
Thatchusastram: 60 min. Film, Made by Sasibhooshan, Doordarsan, Trivandrum, 1995.
VK Krishnamenon: 60 min. Film, Made by Ramu Aravindan, Film division, India, 1993.
Magic tree: 07 min. Video, Made by Prakash Moorthy, Trivandrum, 1992.
Energy race: 07 min. Video, Made by Prakash Moorthy, Trivandrum, 1992.

MUSIC FOR CHOREOGRAPHY
A fountain for instance: 8 min. Choregraphed by Emanuela Iacopini,
Vedanza artists international, Luxembourg 2007.
Permanent Impermanent: 8 min. Choregraphed/ performed by Emanuela Iacopini,
Atelier, London, 2006.
Itself: 8 min. Choreographed/ performed by Saju Hari, Snagged and Clored choreographic project,
Royal Opera House, London, 2004.
Moner manush: --- min. Choregraphed/ performed by Khalid Tyabji,
Theatre trust, Bangalore, 2002.
Inaugural music: 20 min. Choreographed by P. Jaychandran, Contemporary dance festival,
Attakkalari, Cochin, 1999.
Far yet too close: 08 min. Choreographed by P. Jaychandran,
Imlata dance company, London, 1998.
120 footsteps: 8 min. Choreographed by Tripura Kasyap, India Foundation for the Arts. Bangalore, 1997.
Spin: 08 min. Choreograohed/ performed by Viswakant Sinha, New Delhi, 1997.

TEACHING/ WORKSHOP:
Sound artist: Facet 2006, Attakkalari, Bangalore, 2006.
Sound design: Srishti School of Arts, Design and Technology, Bangalore, 2006.
New media workshop: Srishti School of Arts, Design and Technology, Bangalore, 2005.
Colour/ timbre (theory): National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore, 2001.
Representation skills: National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore, 2001
Typography: Srishti School of Arts, Design and Technology, Bangalore, 2000.
Sound workshop for children: Ministry of education, Trivandrum, 1998.

EDUCATION
Design Education: Design methodology/ Visual communication design,
National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. 1984-1990.
Music education: South Indian music, vocal/ percussion,
Studied under Sri. Ithittanam Kuttappan Bhagavadar, Kerala, 1970-1982.
North Indian music, vocal,
Studied under Pdt. Atul Desai, Ahmedabad, 1984-1989.
Principle field of music: Improvised music
Practicing Instruments: Sarod, Guitars, and various self-fabricated string instruments.