Syzygy

＇SYZYGY＇, a rare experimental film by the eminent Indian painter Akbar Padamsee, was created in 1969 through algorithmic processes. Funded by a government grant and produced under the auspices of Padamsee＇s Vision Exchange Workshop, this generative work features a visual motif of unwavering straight lines that autonomously generate abstract patterns, evocative of celestial configurations.

Drawing inspiration from the astronomical term for the alignment of celestial bodies, Syzygy manifests constellation-like patterns derived from over a thousand drawings of abstract lines and forms. Conceived as a "theory towards programming forms," the film presents a matrix of horizontal and vertical lines that merge into abstract combinations via a self-generating process.

Although the original negative was lost, Syzygy has been meticulously restored from the last surviving, heavily damaged 35mm positive print by filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia, in collaboration with Future East Film (Mumbai) and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. This revival not only breathes new life into Padamsee＇s vision but also resurrects what may be the only trace of an Indian experimental film movement that was prematurely extinguished with the disappearance of this film.