>GreenC bot at 16:58, 20 April 2021

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{{Use Indian English|date=December 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2014}}
{{Infobox project
| name = Blank Noise
| logo =
| website = {{URL|http://blog.blanknoise.org}}
| commercial = No
| type = Community, [[Public art]]
| location = India
| owner =
| founder = [[Jasmeen Patheja]]
| mission_statement =
| date_of_establishment = 2003
| funding =
}}

[[File:BlankNoiseWalk.JPG|250px|thumb|right|Blank Noise, Walk the Night (similar to [[Reclaim the night]], Bangalore on 8 March 2007]]
'''Blank Noise''' is a community/[[public art]] project that seeks to confront [[street harassment]], commonly known as [[eve teasing]], in [[India]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060910071943/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2005/07/12/stories/2005071200450400.htm One night stand on the streets]''[[The Hindu]]'', Metro Plus Bangalore. 12 July 2005.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071204161445/http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/17/stories/2006091711180300.htm Women take to streets to stake claim to their rights] ''[[The Hindu]]'', New Delhi. 17 September 2006.</ref> The project, initiated by [[Jasmeen Patheja]] in August 2003, started out as a student project at [[Srishti School of Art Design and Technology]] in [[Bangalore]] and has since spread out to other cities in India.<ref name=a>{{cite web|title=Case Study: Blank Noise|url=http://www.indiasocial.in/case-study-blank-noise/|access-date=17 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524125457/http://www.indiasocial.in/case-study-blank-noise/|archive-date=24 May 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

== Activities ==
Blank Noise is led and run completely by volunteers. A core team of male and female volunteers from across geographical locations and age groups work with the collective. Blank Noise seeks to trigger public dialogue on the issue of street sexual harassment. Conversations range from collectively building a definition of "eve-teasing" to defining the boundaries of "teasing", "harassment", "flirting". The collective builds testimonials of street sexual violence, harassment and "eve-teasing" and disperses them back in public, thereby creating public debate.<ref name="a"/>

It addresses women's fear based relationship with their cities via direct street action and public interventions, which ask women to be "Action Heroes" by not being idle in public.<ref name="a"/> They are referred to as Blank Noise Guys. Blank Noise works towards an attitudinal shift towards 'eve-teasing' and involves the public to take collective responsibility of the issue.

[[File:INAFI-WIKI 01.jpg|thumb|Poster of the campaign "I Never Ask For It".]]
Though Blank Noise was founded in Bangalore, it has spread to other cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, and Lucknow. It tackles the notion of shame and blame through campaigns such as "I never ask for it" (ask to be sexually harassed when on the streets).<ref>{{cite web|title=The Blank Noise Project, India|url=https://informationactivism.org/en/blank-noise-project-india|accessdate=17 March 2013}}</ref> A major notion that it seeks to dispel is that women get harassed because of the clothing they wear. Through street actions and dialogue, Blank Noise hopes to achieve its aims of achieving a safe and free environment for women on the streets, and enable society to become more egalitarian towards women in general.

In Dec 2012, following the brutal [[2012 Delhi gang rape|gang rape of a young woman in a moving bus in Delhi]], Blank Noise started the Safe City Pledge, an initiative urging citizens to pledge ways in which they can make cities safer for women.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pledge : Making Cities Safe|url=http://blog.blanknoise.org/2012/12/pledge-making-cities-safe.html|publisher=Blank Noise|accessdate=17 March 2013}}</ref>

The project has undertaken actions such as [[spray painting]] messages, recording the testimonies of victims of [[sexual harassment]] in public places, and printing tee shirts with anti-harassment messages on them. It has also staged demonstrations.<ref>[http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=201536 A night out on Capital pavements to end eveteasing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070514073428/http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=201536 |date=14 May 2007 }}''[[Indian Express]]'' Delhi Newsline. 17 September 2006.</ref>

==See also==
* ''[[Priya's Shakti]]''
* [[Rape in India]]
* [[Sexism in India]]
* [[Slut-shaming]]
* [[Victim blaming]]
* [[Women in India]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://blog.blanknoise.org/ Blank Noise Blog]
* [http://actionheroes.blanknoise.org/ Blank Noise Action Heroes - blog documenting testimonials of responding to 'eve-teasing'/ street sexual violence]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/world/asia/04iht-letter.html?_r=0 Fighting for Safe Passage on Indian Streets]
* [http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/dialogue-on-a-lonely-stretch/article5201488.ece Dialogue on a lonely stretch]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131023061458/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-09-01/deep-focus/41662451_1_lane-tables-city-women Taking back the city]
* [http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-293803/ Cleaning Up Rapist Lane]

{{Social issues in India}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blank Noise Project}}
[[Category:Public art]]
[[Category:Sexual harassment in India]]
[[Category:Feminism in India]]
[[Category:Culture of Bangalore]]
[[Category:Rape in India]]
[[Category:Sexism]]
[[Category:Violence against women in India]]
[[Category:Mass sexual assault]]

Blank Noise - Revision history

>GreenC bot at 16:58, 20 April 2021