She might be on a year-long sabbatical, but media artiste Margie Medlin is doing her best to both teach and learn from artistes in India. When she embarked on her journey from Australia to India, she was extremely enthusiastic about teaching the children here and travelling the country.

“I was delighted to come to India and teach the children from different schools and institutions here. The amount of joy and enthusiasm I saw really motivated me. It took us some time to get to know each other — but as soon as they got comfortable with my style of working, they started trusting me and my work and contributed to the project,” she says.

Margie is a trained light designer and has worked extensively with a post-modern dance company in Australia. “When I joined this company, I saw that the choreographer did not use any music — that gave me a lot of scope. I could see the movements of the dancers and experience it as well. I began studying about and working with lighting and design. I began to enjoy conversations about choreography. When I started working with different people, I started to convert creative ideas into art work. Slowly, I also started moulding architecture with movements and kinetic spaces, using images to create a dimensional connection which looks really interesting,” she explains. Her stay in the City, she says, has been a great experience. “When I was told to do an outreach project with the children in Bangalore, I designed it on the lines of a journey and fused it with the idea of non-linear time. Later, I also asked the children whether they wanted to go back in time or step forward. I tried inculcating the ideas of stage design, photography and dance in them. They were extremely enthusiastic about it and worked very hard on it. The interest level was high and so was the enjoyment level,” adds Margie.

The busy artiste took time out to visit some of the cultural programmes held in the City. She says, “The City works on various energies and the amount of cultural exchange that goes on here is incredible. People speak in different languages and despite that, communicate with each other easily. I visited the Bangalore International Film Festival and it was really well-organised. I also attended concerts where artistes from different parts of the world performed.”

During her short stay here, she also discovered much about the history of the City. “I was talking to people who have stayed in the City for a long time and they rued the loss of Bangalore’s green cover. They were also disappointed that the speedy growth of the City has led to the destruction of its natural climate and ambience,” adds Margie. As of now, she is all set to travel the country. “I will be visiting various cities such as Kolkata and Varanasi as well as the shores of Kerala,” she concludes.