dagagiri

Drawings

2012-01-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

Techno Cultural Schisms

2012-01-23T08:19:00.001-08:00

Today morning as soon as i entered office i saw parmeshwar and we involuntarily struck off a casual conversation. He passing told me that he forgot his mobile phone at home. As he was leaving, he remembered something and turned back. He asked me if he could borrow my phone to make a call at his home. Initially i felt he wanted to inform his parents that they must not call him during day in case they wanted to contact him. But he went on saying later that he must inform someone at his him to switch off his phone.

I offered him my new touch screen Samsung ace and he was perplexed. He honestly and boldly requested me to dial his residence number passing a quirky remark on 'touch screens'. I enjoyed it. He waited patiently for his mother to pick up and respond. As soon as his mother picked up, she herself reminded him of the fact that he had forgotten his mobile at home. Going on further he asked his mother to switch off his phone. He waited for his mother to get his phone and then began: "press the button on top left and the bottom left...', and then kept on repeating... Although his mother tried hard, she couldn't figure it out. He went on explaining her to press the 'red' button. She didnot register. Paro silently gave up as if he already anticipated his mother's failure. He concluded suggesting her to get it switched off from his father.

This is the story of our struggle with the technological revolution. We crib, talk, try, cry and adjust with technology. We use universal references like top, bottom, red, white, etc to make others understand about it. These references too fail. The idea of serial pressing and operations donot work. Manuals of technical languages for operating gadgets fear away the older generations. The older generation would have been happier if they only had to press a single button. Or just pick up a call like that on the landline. For some.like marketing people, such struggles become USPs of their innovated products that resolve some cultural issues in technology. Others build up on agencies that can demonstrate to them...

Inspite of all this, i think we can only get to the next level of technology digesting the half baked developments in this sector.

Naiharwa / Kabir

2012-01-21T23:29:00.000-08:00

Note the Lyrics. Personally, I like the Kailash Kher version more from his first album Kailasa.

To be read with this post on dagagiri

Seven Social Sins

2012-01-19T07:33:00.000-08:00

Internal aggressions

2012-01-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

Why does one look to move away from one's own context? What is the need to travel? Why does this occasional internal desire of fleeing away occur? Which kind of space constructs such circumstances? Are these implications of social space? One of the prime reasons i want to go away from my place is because it has remained too conservative for a very long time. From parents to seniors to friends to students to most colleagues, all are so narrow minded and so closed to the world that this place seems almost suffocating. The social institutions bask in their own rotting principles and it is almost impossible to overturn the educational instituions anytime soon. Hypocrisy is another large value, the inheritance of which always puts a fake mask on the name of progression. Everyone claims to be open, but want to be in their own comfortable positions. It is like a moving wheel just lifted slightly above the ground. Everything seems to be happening but we don't seem to be moving ahead.

We have hardly been productive, since we seldom commit. Commitment is a responsibility. Every responsibility has risk. Perhaps that is why we fear to commit. Being productive would mean opening up ourselves for judgement. If we become productive, we can look back and see we have created and thus can evaluate ourselves. We hardly leave such traces behind thus making ourselves difficult for interpretation. Perhaps that is why we are a land of mythology and poetries. We take a lot of pried in our history of non-building or the idea of nothingness. Everything is layered and open for interpretation. For some time, i too would have loved such layered past since it allows deep penetration. But it also makes us an extremely slippery and uncommitted race.

We take a great pride in this legacy of ours. I am fed up of such slipperiness. Perhaps this is not an age to afford slips. I can not slip now to damage my crucial bones. I need to stand and therefore develop a position to be able to open up different perspectives. Perspectives will allow multiple views. Poetry shall follow - after all, i began my life with it. I want to go out to become more rational to be able to appreciate my own context of irrationality. Irrationality perhaps may not be a correct word that exactly defines the spirit of this place.

Although they say that the grass on the other side is always greener, still at least from here, other developed countries seem to be much more progressive and receptive to different ideas. "My world" is only a construct of my own limited exposure. It is made up of people i know and things i am around. I need exposure to make comfort with the place i live in. I need to know if other contexts are as difficult to live. I want to test if i can stay with myself for long enough to produce ideas.

Peeling History

2012-01-18T08:44:00.001-08:00

Falling buildings have along railway lines of western suburbs have revealed to me another layer hidden behind the facade of an existing interesting building. Layers of urban fabric morph into new forms in the process of which they expose glimpses of hidden cultural manifests that are never available to us otherwise.
One wonders how to capitalize on such events to record moment which will be soon lost to the monsters that will again cover the temporarily revealed history.

The city is an evolving script which changes its own interpretation depending upon the position of the viewer. The changing visuality through the door frame of my train compartment manifests the above idea in reality. It seems as if suddenly someone decided to cut a new section through the everyday city.

Academy of Architecture: Studio Space

2012-01-18T08:33:00.000-08:00

Fruits again

2012-01-16T08:24:00.001-08:00

Terrace Cultures

2012-01-16T04:27:00.001-08:00

The absence of terraces in high rise buildings has disrespected an old atmospheric culture of people in India. People in India share a distinct relationship with the sky and celestial bodies. They begin their day by worshipping the sun and eat their food on certain special.days only after seeing the moon. Festivals like Id and karva chauth are so closely tied to the worship of moon.

High rise buildings hide them off, create difficult viewing tunnels. Pent houses further eat up terraces. The space of the terrace in a building which was once public and readily available to every member of a building has now been lost to wealthy people who prefer to live above everyone commanding grand views of the city. This reflects the capitalistic culture of the city that has eaten up old customs and traditions which people still follow.

Gardening, kite flying, feeding birds, keeping offerings for birds after deaths are all activities intrinsic to our culture which kept terraces as an active place. Even when buildings were four to five storeyes tall, one wouldn't hesitate to run to a terrace during the evening where everyone would meet up, play, walk, etc. Although four storeyes still maintained terrace culture, seven made it difficult. Later, these were too sold off to the communication companies or advertisement companies, to earn money for individual societies. Communication antennae occupy large amount of space on terraces and leave no space to move. Further, their installations are hurtful. Similar is the case with advertisements that come up on buildings. I remember going to a friend's house to view the Halley's comet when it crossed across Indian skies during the '90s, the then recent tall building completely blocked the view of the north sky from my old house.

Thus, the new urban forms have disregarded these very activities of people through which people connected to the world outside them. The sky scrapers have not left any room for people's engagement with the sky. Forget terrace for people, we do not even have enough open space to run out to in case of fire. We thus do not appreciate the different shapes of clouds, the hues of the evening sky, the moonlight or the pole star - which we all once gazed at through our benevolent barsatis. The sky is perhaps the only space which forces us to think that there exists another reality beyond our own. It allows us to penetrate deep into it and takes us to a macrocosm that we are only made familiar of primarily through our mythological texts. It is the space which the grand mother points at hinting to the devil's house and the place from where Santa Claus arrives. That patch of sky, which has stitched the quilt of memories is now a luxury of the past. Shrinking into the balcony, the terrace shall soon disappear (or has it already disappeared?) as an architectural gesture which allowed human imagination far deep into a cosmos that once chiefly structured our lives.

Why Vertical Studio gets low response at AOA?

2012-01-16T04:22:00.001-08:00

It is clear thar students who opted out of NASA did so because they wanted their share of relaxation time. They perhaps avoid NASA so that they could avoid any extra work. In the competition between NASA and vertical studio, the latter will never afford to take the lead since
1. NASA always shall suck up the enthused students.
2. Remaining students would never give their 100% to the vertical studio.

It is therefore critical to reconsider the assumptions that we made regarding NASA and students participating in it. Firstly that we assumed that NASA doesnot produce highly analytical work and that its analytical methods are age old and have never been revised. Other assumption we made was that students working for NASA donot undergo all round development. In making such a categorization, we subconsciously grouped the people not participating in NASA as wiser. We completely forgot or misread that people not working for NASA are those who are generally uninterested in extracurricular activities. Their priorities are different and their interests do not fall completely within the realm of architecture. However, the vertical studio, over the last two years have revealed strange results.

Methods of NASA may be outdated, but students who are enthused unquestionably gravitate towards it and within their boundaries and cone of vision, produce just decent work. These are students who have the skill and motivation to take initiatives. NASA undoubtedly attracts the better of the student lot - perhaps because the end product is defined and predictable.

This makes NASA a preferred option. There is a format to it which academites have mastered. They love to work within that and keep winning. It is something like being a Lata Mangeshkar and singing only Bollywood romantic songs and winning a filmfare award consistently for multiple years. However, if we were able to bring these students out of the fixed thinking framework and show them what the world is doing, and make them believe that they can conceptualize, initiate and work on newer and more interesting projects, it would be a great departure. On the other hand, if they also understand that they needed to revise old frameworks and challenge existing practices of researching in NASA, they would be much more receptive to what is going around them. Unfortunately, the NASA award at the end of the event is too lucrative for them to understand and push projects that they undertake towards knowledge production.

However, I personally do not think that we have been able to produce good enough work through the vertical studio to be able to challenge the cult of NASA . In my vision, it shall never even be possible. Until the better students themselves understood that knowledge production is different from just documentation and analysis and that it's a serious affair (don't conflict it with the seriousness of winning an award at an event), we shall keep struggling for good product from our vertical studios. Vetical studios according to me are much more progressive, innovative and exploratory. They are more open, unlike the closed circuits of NASA where data is consciously guarded. Vertical studios also expose one to a variety of people - highly respectable people from various disiplines. It is so much more exciting to talk to them on wider issues and use ones skills towards learning more about a field. I think vertical studios must be tried apart from NASA period to see if my above theory is true. I am quite confident that the results will be different.

Drawing on the Phone

2012-01-14T21:12:00.001-08:00

Sent from Samsung Mobile

First year and theoretical design

2012-01-14T20:48:00.001-08:00

I think most of the times, the grand conceptual ideas that we craft out our first year design projects from are not received as intensely as desired. However, this shall always be the case with first year since they are in the initial stages of learning the basics of architecture - from its vocabulary to the issues. Much effort is invested in getting them out of the literal interpretations to explore the poetics. Theories, that we hope to realize into real space, thus waste themselves, although sometimes they do manifest interesting results.

On the other hand, first year projects always end up being conceptual manifestations or translations of theories. These turn up to be what a practising professional would otherwise produce as the first iteration of a theoretical understanding. Thus, i believe that first year projects that i have been involved with have immense potential to substantiate theoretical discourses at a preliminary level. It would be really exciting to work with an enthused student on poetics of space right in the first year, where a student does not accept crits but develops ideas and sharpens his/her mentor's sketchy thoughts. That I think would lead to the success of not only a design, but a design studio.

Art - Expression - Imagination

2012-01-14T20:31:00.001-08:00

Can one reduce one's life to be just utilitarian? Why did humans start to paint, craft, dance, sing or write? They are not related to any of our basic needs of living. The intrinsic human need to express is what creates meaning for existence. Is meaning so important for existence? Perhaps it comes out of the desire of the self to go beyond the body. It manifests the need to conquer a larger world, that doesnot exist here. It comes out of the exigencies of the individual for a universal exploration. Through such expression, one makes imagination possible. Imagination allows the self to go beyond the real and existential.

What is the need for sharing imagination? Why do people share imaginations? Why do they ask others to join them with their imagination? Perhaps in imagining a new world, one makes a new social space, which still exists within the current one, and by default is lived through the institutions of the present space. Fears of being singled out, or social exclusion perhaps force us to share imaginations. Through this they try to validate their new imagined social space. Expressions are also probably tools to validate imaginations. The form of Epressions belong to the real world. Hence imaginations become acceptable to some extent. Some believe in them, some remain intrigued, some question and others remain unaffected. Many others consume them.

When expressions are consumed, they take the form of entertainment. Entertainment has thus become an industry. It sucks in a lot of people, emerging into popular culture. It has made its own multifarous institutions. Institutions although validate expressions, they end up guarding them. Art is thus the domain of expression, which gives meaning to life. Architecture has the possibility of engaging with all forms of expressions. Thus it becomes unmanagable and complex - the mother of all arts. We have reduced it to construction and buildings.

If students realize this intrinsic connection of architecture with art, they could start looking at all forms of expression with a close eye. They would only then appreciate and acknowledge expression of human life.

Mumbai Joy: A Critical Reflection

2012-01-14T03:58:00.000-08:00

The AOA Vertical studio 2012 "Mumbai Joy" will come to an end tomorrow and we are here, waiting at the college to get all the prints for the exhibition organized. We have about 40 A0 and 8 8' x 4' panels to be printed (it's 12.00 am right now) and the printer has just started printing our sheets. All of us are wondering when will we get the final prints and I am here, sitting with Ajey waiting patiently for our prints to arrive.

Ravindra Punde and Rohit Shinkre were here for some time during the late evening. We couldn't help but get into a self evaluatory, self critical mode. We were discussing about how the Vertical studio turned out to be, although not in much detail. but thoughts keep crossing my mind on this issue and I wonder what I got out of the studio.

I do not really know if the studio has been a success, or even close to success, whether there has been any positive aspect that the student body sees. There were various possibilities and opportunities of learning in the "Mumbai Joy" studio, where we aimed to map cultures of Mumbai. We selected 10 areas of research which included celebrations, films, theatre, food, festivals, gymkhanas, fine arts, crafts, music and cricket. Each group had a team of 20 students and 2-3 faculties. We wished to map Mumbai cultures, a serious, rigorous effort to understand distinct patterns of the city we live in.

I will now begin discussing gaps, lags in communication between the students and the organizing team. Later, I will try locating the problems. Lastly I would try to open up possible strategies for our future operation.

Preparation:
We prepared as faculty. We prepared a final compiled 'intent sheet' with each of these sub groups. In order that student got enough time to decide and choose their area of interest, we floated an e mail, rather an e mail form with the entire description of the exercise along with a registration mail which asked them to choose their first three preferences among the 10 areas. I think we were prepared.

Later, we individually submitted our methodologies of working and compiled it to understand each others' way of working.

GAPS:
1. It seems that many students assumed the studio to be a workshop where they would be trained in their area of preference. For example, many in the fine arts group thought they would be involved in the production of paintings and artwork if they registered with this group. Students in the 'crafts' group thought they would make craft. Some students opted for food since it seemed too playful. This clearly suggested that many students did not read the introduction of each of the sub groups carefully. They did not understand the intent of the studio. They didnot ask for clarifications. We as faculty assumed they understand well.

2. Faculties thought that students would be enthusiastic to channel their energies in their areas of interest and that every student must be able to relate to at least one of these areas. We assumed students would be eager to know more and research on these subjects. It wasn't the case.

3. Vertical studio meant the formulation of groups vertically - across classes. There are two divisions - aided and unaided, in the college and very few students interact. We thought this would be a good opportunity for students across classes to know and learn from each other. However, I found personally that there was hardly any intermingling or strong interaction between them.

4. The 10 groups, we idealized, could work independently. We never thought of overlaps or sharing of information except the Mumbai map.

5. We assumed students to have drive and skill to be able to analyze things around them.

PROBLEMS:
1. There was a clear case of mis-communication in the intent of the studio. We aimed at mapping (document+analyse+represent) and it turned out to be a documentation project.

2. Students had no idea of research. Our fourth year students are no equipped with enough training to accumulate and assort data.

3. Vertical studio groups did not interact vertically. Student groups did not mingle much. Many did not attend, many shuffled. All data remained isolated.

4. Field studies were unsuccessful. Students didnot have methods of observation or any idea of conducting surveys, interviews or taking pictures. They had no clue of "what to document", or what qustions to ask. They remained limited to questionnaires handed by us. There seemed to be very little effort from students to dig out information.

5. I found a serious lack of drive and initiative in the entire groups. No one waited for their panels to be printed and put up. Students had no attachment to their work or no excitement to see their work displayed.

PROBLEM LOCATIONS:
1. We get a large amount of student group highly under-informed and under-confident. Students new to the city, shy students and those coming from non-English backgrounds find it extremely difficult to communicate. I too was an under-informed student and particularly had no skills for architecture, except modelmaking. However, I had the drive.

2. Research has always been assumed to be an activity that is subsidiary and something that is 'all talk', which does not fetch money, and can not fill the stomach. The relation of research to design is seldom explained to students. Further, this gap widens due to over-emphasis on production of designs and drawings.

3. Faculties differ in their schools of thought, but make them personal issues. As mature individuals, we need to appreciate each others' theoretical positions and widen our spectrum of vision. However, the root of the problem lies in faculties pouring in from diverse groups, schools of thought and opinions. Recently, the age divide may be another big reason for the incoherence and intolerance of ideas.

4. Design at Academy is looked at in a very constricted manner. Architecture students are hardly made to (note the assertion) interact with other disciplines that are housed by the same building. Neither do students capitalize, nor does faculty encourage or force. All remain happy in their own comfort zone.

5. As a corollary to the above point, I believe students can take larger initiatives to bridge these gaps. However, I find students are unmotivated, who see no point in discussing any issues beyond marks, and do not take any step towards making design education well rounded. Neither are they exposed, nor do they want to expose themselves. Internet seems to be a safe hideout and prevents physical exploration of our own city. Generally, the kind of students we are getting seem to be uninterested and hardly care for design. They are here for a degree and want to score good marks.

POSSIBLE TRAJECTORIES:
1. We need serious orientation programmes for students towards architecture and its scope. Further, we need orientation programmes for all sub-disciplines under the purview of the discipline of architecture. Students need to be engaged in the programme of architecture only if they understand and are willing to invest their maximum time in it.

2. Research programmes have to be initiated and they have to be funded well. This will possibly bring in a reassurance in the activity of study through documentation and analysis. There needs to be research method courses at all stages of the architecture course. Examples of research and its practical usage has to be spelled out from the beginning. The fact that research is closely related to pragmatic problems and is a respectable and viable industry has to be established.

3. Faculties may not be selected by word of mouth. They must be rigorously interviewed and their past work and credentials has to be taken into consideration. They must be qualified and mature enough to teach.

4. Design programmes have to be reworked. Exchange programmes need to be initiated. Interaction between various design institutes must be made compulsory and students should be made to understand other methodologies of working.

5. Counselling for students joining the stream is required. We get a lot of students whose true passion lies somewhere else and due to cultural pressures, end up joining a professional course like architecture which is considered to be the toughest of all courses. We need to admit students based on their motivation levels, not as per their marksheets. The reason why most colleges abroad seem to be successful is because they choose their students. We have no choice. We have to accept what is given to us.

I wish to end this post here. It is a highly personal, narrow and restricted evaluation of the entire situation and much of it may be incorrect. However, it is a documentation of my experience of this entire studio that keeps me agitated enough to not make peace with the system, and thus maintaining my drive. All faculties felt students did not perform to their capabilities. But the landscape and nature of problems encountered by every one may be different. Thus, the above account may be completely invalid. Also, it is restricted to only 5 points in the framework. There are many other aspects to our non-success. On the other hand, the above points could have been supported with examples or cases - which one intends to skip only to maintain the length of this summary and preserve the integrity of the student.

Overall, it has been an event which has consumed a lot of resource and time to excite a small section of student body which would have taken the extra initiative even otherwise. I believe, it was a greater opportunity for the faculty to understand the diversity of the practice of architecture and to mould their subjects to the specificity of the place they live in. The generic nature of information that the students are fed with meanwhile widens the gap between a student's practice and their immediate context. This further leads to strengthened belief in objectification of architecture. I hope after reading this post, there would be reactions, and I would be glad to receive them here.

Intelligent v/s the Wise

2012-01-04T10:37:00.001-08:00

Looking at smart people I have started observing what makessome smart people different than the other? How does one describe thespecificities of different kinds of smart people? The ultimate adjectives,which seem reasonable measures are the intelligent and the wise.

I am a big fan of the wise instead of the intelligent. Howdoes one characterize the two? Through my understanding, here are mydistinctions between the two.

Firstly, let me make clear distinction between data andinformation. Something purely factual (a first hand reading of any situation)is data. It concerns with hard reality. We generate information throughcollection of data. The study of information creates knowledge. Thus theintelligent are those who are controlled by and in control of knowledge. Theintelligent work within set knowledge systems and operate through thisunderstood and accepted system. The intelligent will be able to help you withall kinds of things that exist in the real world. They talk of facts and theirsynthesis. You can trust them on the authenticity of information. Their skilllies in memorizing and processing the memory to get the right information atthe right time. They work exceptionally well within structured environments.These are the people made for the cities – they can impress people and maketheir way out of situations, through legal and technical knowledge in theirrespective fields.

However, the intelligent could make mistakes innon-structured environments. They are highly susceptible to fall into traps ofincorrect decisions in places where no formal knowledge systems exists. Wadingthrough such field is the expertise of the wise.

It is yet difficult to define if the wise make their waythrough intelligence. Let’s assume that the wise are intelligent by virtue oftheir ability to contextualize any kind of data (they do not understand datathrough knowledge structures). They operate in the field of information, morebasely, in the field of data, making their own meanings and readings that arehighly contextual to different environments and situations. In this view, thewise are intelligent not because they can memorize all the data, but due totheir ability to grasp new data for a particular scenario efficiently andquickly. The wise work with human response and behaviour. In this sense, thedifference between the intelligent and the wise is similar to the nature ofscalars and vectors respectively – while one is, in essence, quantitative, theother has multiple transforming aspects (like direction, momentum andacceleration) to it which makes it quantitative in the realm of (in the purview, subset) of qualitative.

The wise are thus able to foresee new knowledge systems /structures and are able to take tactical decisions. Due to their ability tocontextualize any kind of information, they are always at their toes and areable to take logical decisions, which bear results for the time being. The wisemay not be able to give long term decisions, they may be able to frame adecision that is relevant for the immediate action. In long term, thus, thewise may make mistakes. But also, they may give creative outlooks towards thefuture. There is a value to this creativity, this leap that the wise takes forthe future based on the assumptions of the current. The intelligent may bestrategists. They may not conceptualize futures based on current conditions,but imagine new conditions for the future. In doing so, the intelligent missout on a lot of humour and wit. But the intelligence of their decisions can beharnessed through following their plans.

Another important distinction one can make is the amount ofrationality that the intelligent show versus the wise. The intelligent wouldalways have a high level of rationality as compared to the wise since they relyon very safe back up like factual information. The wise use personal logic andbring in a lot of subjectivity to the interpretation of existing data. Also,they rely more on personal experience than objective case studies. While theintelligent would build up a decision based on a range of case studies, thewise would use personal history to give an output.

This post is under construction. It may continue if moreideas occur. Meanwhile, suspended.

Update

2012-01-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

For a long time I have not posted. This is not because I have not been involved in writing. Instead, I am writing all the more. I was very busy writing my personal statement and research proposals for various places. In this process, I had to really really think hard on myself to understand my interests. I think I have achieved a great extent of clarity on my trajectory now. Although it's not completely clear. But every time I think of a new project or research, I clarify my theoretical position. Thus, this process has been quite enriching. For a long time, I thought of uploading all such work on my blog, but I finally refrained, because I just wanted to keep all these things to myself.

On the other hand, I have been manually writing a lot of things - since the computer is a tool which makes me dwell too much on perfection. So i end up losing a lot of ideas. When I write manually, I am not thinking about the correctness of language or the use of words. I mix and match, and mostly I am translating from Hindi to English. So such write ups are really crude. But they help in vomitting a thought out. I take time later to refine them and make these ideas crisper. I have accumulated pages and pages of such text.

There were some other writings which started off really well and were interjected by circumstantial events. The link is lost, and so, once I reconsider them, I will be able to produce a lot more writings at once. Subjects come and go. Strong ideas and thoughts pass across the mind. Sometimes, student work in nascent stage makes me think a lot, and I am able to give a good feedback to a lot. But later, I feel all that thought must be recorded. Lectures must be transcribed. A lot of times, after I finish my lectures, I sit in my room and write what I spoke...It makes so much sense. Students ask questions which help to clarify concepts.

I will take time to collate all such writings and scribblings into tangible output. For the time being, I have made a good compilation of my earlier works into a portfolio, which I really like to gaze at. I keep flipping and feeling the pages and writing all the time. I hope it makes the same impact on others who see it. It's called "Idearchive" - a hint Siddharth (Nadkarny) gave me during an informal chat...

I want to write about the nature in which my phone has gone out of order. It has started behaving weirdly. Being a touch screen, 1/3rd of it has become insensitive. the middle 1/3rd is partially sensitive and the right most part is intact. So I have to constantly be very informed to press at the wrong place to press the right button and execute the right information. For example, the "yes" and "no" button are on right and left on the touch screen. But I end up saying "no" to every thing that occurs with the phone. The key pad types absolutely absurdly. If I have to say, "Sorry to have missed you", it writes "Sorry to have kissed you"! Messages are completely going for a toss!! It's really funny and I am looking forward to theorize it...How? Imagine a skewed phone - like a man looking crooked, performing unexpected operations and landing you up in imaginary landscapes! One could construct an interesting story out of that! Of all unintended things one did, which opened up a new perspective of life...

Of all "no's" that became "yes" and vice versa. Of all messages that went to wrong people and did interesting connections. Of all unwanted cancellations, of all numbers you dialled wrong...It could be revealing...

I have always imagined such an exercise with archaeological space. When at the Sun temple Modhera, where we saw the intricately carved temple stone blocks numbered and lined up to be reset on the facade, I wondered if all those numbers mixed up, would it change relationships between people? Wouldnt it challenge our whole belief systems, mythology, and all those narratives...An exploratory exercise in challenging history could be fictitiously constructed.

However, there are other things going on. The vertical studio where we have too much to explore and only a few sincere, interested students. I could just indulge in writing about all the 10 areas that have been selected - there are so many stories out there, so much to learn and also produce knowledge. We just have a bunch of extremely lackadaisical students who do not want to do any thing. Either their futures are set, or they do not have futures. It's as black and white as that, perhaps...

I am handling the visual culture group and there is so much to talk about it that I can't contain within myself. I am just waiting for students to bring up some amount of enthusiasm and eagerness to work. Then, I am sure we will achieve something. So, finally, writing is going on. soon you will see a lot of it. It is in the process of cooking up, and it will be served soon. The application process is already over and I can get back to attack this space again!

Academy of Architecture, Annual Lecture 2011-12

2012-01-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

Poster Design: Anuj Daga

Delhi Study Tour 2011

2011-12-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

An account of the "adventurous" Delhi tour with the third year batch 2011:
More details and observations to follow...

On International English Exams

2011-12-06T03:10:00.001-08:00

Right now I am typing this text in Notepad only to be copy pasted in the blogpost; since this is the format I will be using in TOEFL exams.

While the reading and listening section of the toefl test are extremely interesting and informative (since even if you do not score well, you learn about new things), the speaking and writing sections are really funny. They expect us to write like babies and ask our opinions on frivilous issues, to the extent of suggesting things for people. All this is to understand our speaking and writing skills. Something that can be identified through our personal statements that universities ask for.

However, while thinking of some topics, I felt so bored to prepare for such an exam that I came up with my own set of sillier questions that must be posed to TOEFL organization in the speaking and writing sections, and mind you, with time limits.

Speaking section:

Do you think TOEFL is an essential test for international students?
You have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to answer.

Should TOEFL exam be waived for students whose medium of instruction has been English in High School?
You have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to answer.

Which is your favourite section in TOEFL: Reading, Speaking, Listening or writing?
You have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to answer.

Writing Section:

Is TOEFL the true measure for fluency in English? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

Is it enjoyable to give TOEFL test?
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

Some people believe that TOEFL is a very easy exam and prepare by themselves while others take coaching for the test? Which one of these do you think is a better way of preparation? Support your answer with examples.
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

TOEFL is overrated. Do you agree or disagree?
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

Some people like to read, others like to write. Does TOEFL reflect true potential of a person through its evaluation?
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

Well,

One can keep on going with this silliness. But the point is often, speaking and writing are considered to be 'extempore' activities. For people applying for arts or humanities programmes, speaking and writing are serious disciplines. TOEFL makes highly subjective areas objective. This translation of subjective into objective is an obsession of the modern world where every thing needs to he put on a scale for evaluation...Unfortunately, Universities abroad chaff out the best amongst the 100s of applications that they receive in the first round on the basis of these english exam scores. How many thinking minds are neglected in this objectivity?

State of Mind

2011-12-05T04:46:00.001-08:00

These days, things are a bit crazy. I am writing this though my mind tells me I must not be spending time on this.

However, I am just wanting to express what I am going through physically versus mentally. When I work, I feel sleepy and when I close my eyes, I feel insomnia. I feel warm and I switch on the fan and switch it off only to realize I am feeling cold. I eat something and realize the taste only after it's almost over. Taste doesnot matter - it's for my health that I eat perhaps! I feel tired, but when I take rest, I feel restless. I feel I have a lot of work and when I work, I feel there is nothing to do, rather, I wonder where to start!? I feel immensely negative about something that is not, while have a gut feeling of positivity in something that I am underestimating! I start to read something and only realize later that I have been only staring at it for a long time. Ideas come to head and vanish as soon as I begin to note them. I want to draw and end up reproducing old things. Articulated sentences shout in my head but dont make way to the paper!

What is this state of mind I dont know. Nothing is happening, but still it seems I am brimming with work.

What is this? I wonder!

Re-living the Silk Mill at AOA

2011-11-22T05:58:00.001-08:00

So we (the un-aided department) has finally got a new raw space.

Just two days ago as I was going through the Yale School of Architecture handbook, I realized that each course had its own separate instruction space with added seminar halls, research cells and other conveniences that they require. Each space had its own equipment too. I realized that as and when they start new courses, they add new physical spaces as far as possible it seems. Perhaps they never think of new courses unless they have space.

At Academy it's the reverse. However, the concept of recycling space in our kind of context is an interesting one. We save so much space - we save so much of everything!

It is told to us that a part of this new space will be a 24 hour studio for our department. Let me describe this space to you. Its a roomy volume with a tin shed - something that matches my imagination of the school as the historical silk mill. It's practically open on all sides capturing excellent views of the city. There is a lot of light, along with a lot of heat. We were wondering how to control both! Perhaps there was no one to supervise the whole work and there are hundreds of mistakes in execution of all possible things that exist here. The paradox of AOA is that all spaces in this architecture school are built without any involvement of architects as designers - we are just clients here. That's because the school doesnot want to pay professional architect's fees to any one who takes charge. So things happen - they just happen like buildings come up in slums.

But in appreciation, our expectation with this raw space is tremendous. We all (faculty) love this workshop like space which makes one feel in air. There is a large balcony that overlooks another one below. The volume of the space is nice, airy. The most important aspect of this space is the privacy it offers from the rest of the school. It could become a great thinking space - because it allows to wander and dream - it allows you to gaze deep and far.

I wonder how it will be handled by all in future. All have their aspirations with this raw volume - all want to carve out a space for themselves - students will want lockers, teachers will want workspace, meeting rooms, seminar rooms, projection spaces, exhibition area, work area, equipment storage, administrative staff... the space as I see, is already ruined. Some one spoke of partitioning the two class rooms. To me the biggest opportunity was the merged classes, where there are no boundaries. People just make smaller discussion groups. Eventually, many would want to have a permanent partition - because then they can sell the space, or lock up part of it claiming security reasons. However, a flexible partition must suffice.

We overdo all decisions. We will rape this space. I am sure. In all possible ways. Students, if mature will understand that the best way to keep this space is open, so that they can pop onto each other desks across class and communicate and talk of ideas, debate designs...Teachers if dont have walls will be one with the students, nonteaching staff will be so much more a part of the team. I recall of a paper by Robin Evans called "Translations from drawing to building" where he says that

"If there is anything that the architectural plan describes, it is human relationships, since the elements whose trace it records - walls, doors, windows and stairs - are employed first to divide and then to selectively reunite inhabited space."

Thus, to me, the absence of any definition of this space (the absence of the intervention of the architectural plan of the floor plate) is the biggest opportunity at hand we have. As soon as we divide this space, we will be demeaning all debates we have of reducing gap between students and faculty, inter-student interaction, the idea of being open, democratic, and all that!

Before any of the above happens, I have clicked some pictures for my record. We look at what future holds for this shed!

I wanted to write a lot more, but I will refrain. There are lots of ideas with this space still being a shell. We could keep doing so much with it just being a shell. Let's see...

Dead Plants and Architecture

2011-11-19T07:20:00.001-08:00

Today morning as I was leaving home for a visit to the CST building, I saw this plant in my house which was almost dead. Perhaps this happened while we were away for a week from home for my brother's wedding. I picked up the pot from our grill and was amazed to see the beauty of the dead plant. Taking a closer look, its leaves had taken permanent shape, they were crisp brown and refused to oblige. They had become hard and adamant. The leaves curled into itself and did not open up. It felt as if the plant was very upset, angry and looked away into itself.

Like we say, when angry, some people look even more beautiful. I captured this beauty in my camera.

Incidentally, at CST (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai), we saw similar ornamentation on the building. The visit was quite mundane, but refreshing after a long time. For the first time, I noticed the intricate detailing of flora and fauna on the different parts of the building. Animals, birds, reptiles...all in action adorned the building. Flowers too seemingly looked at us and felt like animal figures. Water and lamp holders spurt out of animal mouths. If we only put glass cases around all of these, the station would become a zoo-ish museum...

Architectural Design Final Jury

2011-11-13T07:59:00.001-08:00

S Y B Arch / AOA UA

This post was due since some time now. I have managed to put together some thoughts on the final jury for the last project that happened just before the Diwali vacations for the second year students. The design problem given to them was that of a play school - students were given a site along with requirements (brief). The method chosen to execute the project was the channel of mathematics. Students were to choose / develop / explore a mathematical system / ordering principle to evolve their design. Here are my observations after the closed jury:

Overall, the quality of communication through the drawings that we were seeing throughout the process had improved. The closed jury seemed to be helpful because students understand the importance of non verbal communication and try to update their sheets with as much information as possible. Sometimes, they over do it also. We decided to have a closed door review to avoid unnecessary theorization and misplaced jargon of words. Especially with a class good at getting away with talking, we thought it would be best to avoid discussions which become cyclic and subjective arguments.

Juries get caught up in pointing out drawing errors when open. Most of us are quite distracted due to the non conformity of thought in drawing that students generally produce. The drawings do not show distinct plinths, doors, windows (openings), roofs, etc. Structures or structural systems are difficult for students to comprehend. Most projects wanted to take an intellectual leap in terms of formulation of a completely new, original module. Students invested much of their effort and time in this process. This could be concluded on the basis of the fact that most students were reluctant to work on simple grids to begin with.

The various ways in which the brief was understood generated a range of attitudes of working across the class Most of these design attitudes were towards generating a formal architectural language. The form, to the students, unarguably becomes the most important aspect of the design process. It is the form that the students draw. Thus, it is the drawing that makes their sheets look dynamic and interesting. It is through the drawing that they are able to show their skills in design as well as its documentation. For the student, a lot of effort goes in deciding about the presentation - the format of the sheet, colour, texture, sheet size, way of rendering etc. The drawing is an intellectual product of the studio project, equitable to the actual building in its absence. The drawing is thus the building. Designing the experience of the presentation is the real project at hand.

Thinking in space, thinking of space and drawing of space (and not form) somehow remained the lacuna of the project. It is very difficult to communicate to students, architecture's engagement with space v/s parallel cultural engagement with form. We selected 6 projects out of the 42 or so for a final pinup. (of which i remember only 5 meanwhile). The projects at hand could be seen as different ways of working / different understandings:

Concept driven
Process driven
Geometry driven
Space driven
Drawing driven

1. Sujeet Pehekar / concept driven: Sujeet's work was an abstraction of the figure of a baby drawn within the shape of the site. The concept of such form was successfully broken down into smaller scaleable modules which were neatly organized in structured cross sections of open-semiopen-closed spaces. The open areas were subtly detailed and the delicacy of structure was well understood.

2. Rishad Netarwala / process driven: Rishad's work reflected the indefatigable innocent play of cut-fold module that he came up with during the initial stage of his project. This flat module which encapsulated a variety of spaces when rhythmically cut and folded became the prime generator and regulator of space. By virtue of the module, Rishad's design did not need, nor had any special openings in his building. The module folded in to building elements of the roof, wall and the plinth leaving gaps between them (as they joined) to form sky lights, semi open spaces or inner courts.

3. Shantanu Bhalla / geometry driven: Shantanu's meticulous efforts in understanding and breaking down a 5-pointed star form and thereby using it as a planning, structural and articulating principle was the merit of the project. Shantanu's struggle in deriving all possible expressions in his design using his diamond shape module without being literal resulted in a play form that played with well thought out levels and well integrated inner spaces.

4. Pranit Rawat / space driven: Pranit decided in the initial stages of his project to work with a circular geometry coupled with a square grid. Initially he produced interesting gear like interlocking spaces by virtue of his square grid off centred to the circular. However, in the process, he decided to chaff out the circular forms from the square forming an interesting spatial composition on the site. The narrative he produced by the composition of well articulated levels, planes and openings in his space was the strength of his design.

5. Sanhita Vartak / drawing driven: Sanhita enjoyed the project through the drawings she made. The project displayed exemplary commitment from the student to think about how the triangular grid would work in layout of plan, skin as well as roof forms. The completeness of the project in terms of its drawings (deliverables) and thought in design made it commendable.

There were a few more interesting projects which were not discussed due to lack of time. However, I am sure the class's standard is to go higher in drawings and non verbal communication. This is something that they have consciously realized for themselves.

Bikaner

2011-11-12T09:22:00.001-08:00

Song - Translation

2011-10-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

Song: Suniyo ji Araj mhaari
Film: Lekin
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Composer: Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar
--

Listen, o father
a request of mine
The rains have arrived
Now, take me home

Memories of the wet court strikes
and the dry sand fills in the eyes
in my lonesome, solitary, empty eyes
spray some shower of hope

Have you forgotten having sent me to a foreign land?
call me back sending a carriage
Summon, send, call
people who can take me away

Listen, o father,
just a single request
the rains have arrived
take me back home.

Baghban V

2011-10-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Parents,even if they try to, cannot live without expectations from their progeny. Thisis perhaps a natural instinct – a give and take relationship. There werealready films in ’70s which raised the issue of children ignoring their parentswhile they grew old. Others sensitized the tension of difference in thoughtbetween the generations. Recent films like Baghban, Dil chahta hai, etc bringout several issues of this gap very sharply. Where does the problem actuallylie? Every age is a generation, so there ought to be a generation gap in aparent and child span. 30 years. Veryfew of the older generations actually are able to connect to their children.There is a change in the value systems, in the way things are understood aroundthem and even the priorities of children change. Then how are relationshipsunderstood and expected to remain ideal? Parents always expect their childrento take care of them, to support them, to help them financially. Yes, they didthat for us too when we were small. But didn’t they know they had to do itanyway before having a child? Are children investments - Social, moral,financial, emotional? And when they do not give expected returns, issues springup.

Idon’t think there has been any film constructed from the point of view of thechildren. There is a tremendous pressure on the children itself – balancingtheir own ambitions, managing the family (starting a new one, and keeping theold one), etc. The argument will be: “We did that too” – to which the counterargument is “then why don’t you understand the situation? The circumstances andthe complexities of life today have increased, only because the number ofoptions available have increased.” It’s infinitely difficult to communicatethis to the parents. Communication has always been a tricky issue inconventional Indian families. Most of the children fear the head of the family.Hence, all talk is routed through someone.

Whenchildren grow older, able, and self dependent, they do not understand what kindof a relationship to maintain with the otherwise head of the family. Ours is apatriarchal family system. This head of the family is generally a headprimarily because he supports the family financially, according to me. Anotheris of course the political power that hehas in the family. When this head retires, the power automatically transfers tothe succeeding financial figure. But how does this new financial position getconstructed? I mean, when does a son or daughter decide that he/she would startcontributing money for household affairs? How are such decisions taken – theseare extremely political, and what when the number of earning heads are morethan one?

Education,although on one hand enables children to become more sensitive to parents, italso makes themselves more ambitious and rational. In the pursuit ofrationality, children question most things – what they wear, eat, drink, live,use and even relationships. How must parents handle this? Or what should theparents expect out of such relationships? Parents try and educate theirchildren as much as possible, but isn’t it hitting their own heads? Becausechildren are going to be more self contained, self exploratory and selfsufficient – perhaps a law of nature. Each time in each generation is a newindividual constructed. This is bound to be different from the old one. Butthis new and old creates a lot of friction.

Someonetold me that some friction is good. If a child chooses to keep his/her parentshappy, is it necessary that his/her happiness too lies in that? These questionsbother me all the time. My ethical stance is to keep everyone around me,related to me in any way, happy. How does that help me though? I wonder. But relationships are complex. And expression towards suchrelationships is very difficult. The generation gap is what perhaps makes theexpression difficult. How must the parents deal with children to make them morecomfortable to talk to them? May be, here I must get specific about certainkind of conventional families, where children in their formative years facethis kind of extreme difficulty to convey their emotions to parents.

In traditional Indian family systems, thechildhood is a period is which the child is trained in family values – social,moral, ethical codes of conduct. The aspect of communication within a family isnever dealt with. The emphasis is on teaching – in a crude sense, giving. It isnever believed that one could learn anything from kids. Kids are to be attunedto the society and in the process of training in social values, a lot isalready lost. Moreover, while communication is not the agenda, it itself isinstitutionalized. Implied codes regarding what must be spoken and what not areinflicted. Sharing of emotions at a later age becomes a gestural act. Emotionsare then to be understood through acts and are not really expressed. At amature age, it is even embarrassing for most to publicly express happiness orsadness since it has either never been done before or it seems a sociallymisfit act.

It becomes very difficult for my father toacknowledge or appreciate me in public. He stumbles and doesnot know what tosay. My mother ends up expressing her happiness by talking about it to as manypeople as possible – neighbours, friends, relatives, etc. On father’spromotion, a silent sweet is prepared at home. The tastefulness of this sweetis not orally acknowledged, but suggested by eating a bowl extra. During afestival, new clothes suggest happiness. Gifts on the table for success becomeways to express happiness. All becomes suggestive. Such over-suggestion isrepressive. It is implosive. Objects, thansomething that was once emotive, become more important. This lack ofcommunication suppresses a lot of expression.

On the other hand, during tough times, amaudlin silence pervades the atmosphere of the home. Behaviour becomes stricter.Television programmes are moderated, volume of talk is regulated. Eye contactsare stolen; everyone looks at the walls or dead vantage points. Low moods arenever discussed – the feeling of vulnerability is seldom a part of theinstitution of the family. The family alwayspresumes an ideal role for itself. Perhaps it is due to its hegemonic socialfunction of keeping all the state of affairs at home in a happy condition.

But I am very concerned about the how membersof a family talk to each other. I believe that the hermetic way in whichtraditional Indian families behave is detrimental to furthering of socialvalues and the problem lies in the training period of the child during earlydays.

This is a highly “under construction” post. Feedback is most welcome.
Earlier threads of 'baghban' can be searched at "Search This Blog" Section (Type Baghban)

Folds / First Year Final Jury 2011

2011-10-25T01:55:00.000-07:00

Envelops for (from top to bottom):

1. Florist
2. Bhel Wala
3. Rat Poison Killer
4. Corn Remover

Project Brief

Body - Envelop

Students are supposed to select a hawker fromtheir respectively studied areas and study how they negotiate their activity inspace. Hawkers carry their shop with them and thus, the shop becomes thespatial envelop of the body. These shops are objects that transform into spaceswhile they still respond to the body. This understanding has to be developedinto a portable envelope that supports the profession of the hawker andsolutions that can offer more than what the hawkers currently do with theirenvelops.

For Sky Walks

2011-10-22T00:39:00.000-07:00

Sky walks have become spaces to wait, loiter and transit into various places around stations. In a city where we struggle for spaces to meet, interact and spend time to do nothing, sky walks seem interesting places to be at. These spaces not only elevate you from the otherwise busy ground, but allow new perspectives of the city as a distant observer. The passivity of this observation prolongs our gaze deeper into the fabric and functioning of the place we live in. The activity of peeping into everyday activities from a distant perspective / view point makes us conscious of things that we otherwise ignored while moving through them. This phenomena makes us aware of the hidden patterns that the city works in. One can observe how traffic moves, where densities travel, the mosaic of types commodities, the closed and open spaces, the commercial-residential-market activity relationships and how they make the city space.

At many other sky walks, people have started to meet their lovers, partners or friends. The sky walk remains reasonably peaceful, offering a tranquil, shaded, breezy space right above a thriving, messy, congested market place or a busy road, aligning to the transport hubs of the city. It being covered and elevated, one is not bothered by externalities of weather (sun or rain). In addition, these are absolutely "free of cost" spaces right outside station premises. Such a model becomes an extremely successful public intervention in the city space where one is able to achieve a public space at the nodes of transport and market activities. Its open architecture poses no security problems keeping all activities transparent. Thus, it is self vigilant. It conveniently allows to sway away from busy hubs, yet being near / contained within them!

It has been noticed in some places where the footfall is too low, that the sky walks have become jogging tracks during the morning, 'kabutar khanas' for bird feeders, etc. Thus sky walks become an interesting space for the birds and scavengers hovering in the sky, who often take refuge in people's homes and building corners (often undesired) in the city.Sky walks could save a lot of birds who lose their lives getting entangled in wires, or experiencing electric shocks.

The architecture of sky walks, if taken seriously (apart from its aesthetic & structure) by studying various activity patterns they are creating can become an extremely useful and vital intervention for the city. After being built, sky walks may occupy minimal space (if well designed) on the ground, and their design can facilitate activities below them. In making a space of themselves, they also create a space underneath them where people prefer to walk in strong sun or heavy rains. They become massive overhead shades for hawkers, people who have forgotten their umbrellas during rains or sudden downpours.

Sky walks can be extended into smaller viewing decks (without seatings, thus maintaining their transitory nature, not accumulating crowds), to expose or introduce people to interesting or attention-seeking areas of the city. Could they become viewing galleries and mini-display spaces without extending into museums or galleries? Their surfaces could harvest a lot of solar energy for lighting urban infrastructure or collecting great amount of water for maintaining city spaces (or something that could be supplied to the poor?).

One important aspect of the city that the sky walk opens up is a large number of people who meet only for a small amount of time to exchange smaller personal activities of their day while going to work or returning home. This exchange of momentary time forms an important nature of public space. The public spaces that we design never address such issues of quick meetings, talks, chats or instantaneous give and take that often happens on the streets. Sky walks thus are an interesting model which may address such issues of public spaces.

Most of the times, we reject sky walks due to their non-pleasing visual appeal or over-designed structure. However, it is high time we acknowledged their presence in the city and channelized their programmatic possibilities and use them opportunistically to revive the lost sense of public space in the city.

My proposal "Platform no. 0" - an early conception of skywalk for Dadar Renewal project as a part of Urban Design Studio in 4th year B Arch (2006-7):

Excerpts from my concept sheet:

The area under study is a very dense activity area. There is some activity going on in the area at any time of the day. These activity patterns have formed over years, and my activity pattern thus becomes temporary.
Hence I see myself as someone who is disturbing the existing activity pattern.
And then, there are many people, who come to Dadar, contributing to the Temporary Activity Pattern. These people might not have anything to contribute to the existing plane of activities, but they use this plane to commute to the Dadar station.

Thus, conflicting planes of activities create a lot of conflicting movement at a single plane. It is hereby, imporatnt to SEGREGATE the various activity planes such that the area comes under order, and becomes a pleasent space for all activities, and allows easy movement.

Layers:

Every layer of activity existing in the area is contributing to the richness of the area. Hence, each of the layer has a right to exist there, it can not be completely eradicated. Natural Markets, the Wholesale markets, Vegetable Markets, Shopping lines, Flower Market - all diverse activities converging at a single patch of land makes it extremely resourceful and important.

Objectives of the programme:

1. De-congestion: The design aims at decongestion - NOT of the area, but of the existing singular plane, by creation of multiple planes. Thus, the traffic is segregated and each plane fucntions smoothly.

2. To Look Into Activities: The precinct has a lot of activities which are hidden due to the very layout of the same. Hence the redesigned scheme would try to bring visual attention to all the activities in the area.
3. Allowing Free Movement through segregated layers: Due to a lot of activities happening on a same plane, the pace of the commuting user having no interaction with the plane reduces considerably. The area of walking reduces due to its occupation by hawkers, extension of shops, etc. Thus the elevated plane helps in taking commuting users through the same space, quickly, giving them opportunity to divulge/look into activities happening underneath and over.

Each plane attempts to have its own character, trying to accomodate the activity in a better way,
The created plane constantly tries to have a connection with the existing lower plane such that activities flow into each other, still remain separate.

Architecture & Mathematics

2011-10-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

Our second project for the second year class was based on mathematical principles and how they could be used as methods for design. Shinkre sir had an interesting way of looking at it:
A building goes through mathematical operations at all stages and levels of its realization. Right from anthropometrics (measure of human body proportions) to the number of people who occupy the space, to areas, and finally the structural logic (along with many other things).

One can work out a lot of ideas to manifest the building through maths. To me, the most interesting relationship between architecture and mathematics is the translation of numbers into shapes. The relation between algebra and geometry. Saurabh Vaidya very nicely elaborates on this idea on his blogpost as follows:

According to Foucault, the relationship between thought and language is that of geometry and algebra, where all the geometric shapes spontaneously pre-exist in nature waiting to be drawn and discovered but it is the algebraic expression that provides the shape a meaning that is precise to its nature, where the spontaneity of the shapes' existence gets tuned in a mathematical meaning that when played will become that shape. And sometimes it is formulation of an algebric expression that could lead us to an undiscovered shape.

What interests me is that equations become shapes on the Cartesian space. An expression like x^2+y^2=1 becomes a circle or a locus becomes a sine wave...of how patterns happen and how ratios work towards beauty. There are so many things to think of with numbers and architecture.

However, I am still to see the final output of the students on Friday...

Rolling thoughts / Roofs in Architecture

2011-10-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

Folds / Readings

2011-10-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

I was reading Deleuze's "The Fold" a week ago and tremendous ideas rolled my head. I have these phases when I heavily start interpreting students' work through the latest reading that I am doing. Sometimes, I feel it's unfair and silly. Many of my ideas and opinions are influenced by my immediate readings...

The fold opened up to me something like Einstein's theory of matter - that every particle's density can be exploded and expanded into large amount of energy. Meanwhile, I keep thinking of shrinkable spaces - spaces which fold (literally) into packets and when unfolded, become large envelops that surround bodies.Yes, although it's a very apt reference for an exercise where we are looking at hawkers, bodies and enveloping spaces, I feel I am too influenced by Deleuze's "the Fold"!

Some time ago, I was reading theories on "Diagrams" or "Diagramming" and I felt that I got carried away in understanding everything around me as diagrams. Reading Stan Allen, Tschumi and Reiser on Diagrams has been enriching and these also feed into my graphics classes. Some time ago, I was reading Koolhaas and I became very cynical of things around me. I guess readings really really engage me and change me...When as a student, I read fountainhead, I almost became a Roark! It was only until someone gave me a reality check that I realized that I had gotten unnecessarily into the character...

Reading Rosalind Krauss's papers on grids influenced me to working with grids in innovative ways, breaking earlier conventions - I designed a whole Graphics exercise on grids last year. Archigram's work influenced my drawings, sketches. Readings of David Harvey again changed my outlook to society and things around me...But readings have made me too academic and I must change the nature of my reading to lighten up a bit...

It would be, I suppose, so futile to discuss "The Fold" with the first year-ites - they don't even understand "anthropometrics" yet! I don't really have any one to discuss ideas here! So I keep listing them! What will happen to these lists I do not know! I feel, theory is an area where one grows through only discussions. I am in a world of my own references!

Globalization & Insecurity

2011-10-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Globalization not only creates cultural homogenization, but also induces a tremendous feeling of insecurity. This insecurity is caused due to the slow rupture of roots from one's own culture, one's own way of living and working. It is a process in which one tries to adapt some new kind of order that is imposed or set by another faculty. Globalization automatically creates minor hierarchies though destroying many others. For example, culturally, most of the developing nations accept the western ways over their natives. The idea of 'imported', or the favour to white skin, the adoption of English - all are indicators of accepting the west as superior, thereby setting an order of aspiration. The sense of not possessing many such (foreign) values creates a lot of insecurity. It challenges one's confidence in one's own culture.

Image production capitalizes upon and nurtures itself through this insecurity. Today, the entire world is presented to us as an image - through television, internet, mobiles, photographs, etc. What we once lived as memories of distant lands are now virtually available to as as visuals. The fact that we can see and virtually experience a simulated distant reality hybridizes existing cultures thereby creating doubts in everyday living. Doubts begin through comparison and end in homogenization or flattening of cultural practices.

In universalizing English as the communication language, hasn't globalization quietened a lot of people who haven't able to cope up with change? Hasn't it paralysed people who can not use the internet? Hasn't it generated a lot of gap between the immediate generations of fathers and sons? Although people are putting in a lot of efforts to make a tool like the internet as accessible to all people, the language base it uses is still English. I am thinking of the most interesting and subtle folk traditions, cultural practices, of songs, theatre, craft - what would happen to them? We can record and keep everything, but could a Jaipur Music festival at Mehrangarh fort be experienced by images - where the fort walls are equal participants as the performers? Or can the Siddhivinayak be really worshipped on a website - where the smell of the incense or the place makes one feel transported to a new place? I am not being romantic here, what I am trying to say is images flatten our real experience, and they win over us through our insecurity.

But why am I writing all this? Because I actually wondered why I felt so vulnerable as a college kid and almost felt lost in a whole new world that opened up after my school...It was a time which forced me to rethink my value systems, upbringing, culture - everything - it was a very difficult period. An in this insecurity, I took time to be quiet and rejected most images. I could never rationalize for myself the reasons for homogenizing....And I still haven't been able to rationalize...

Open Jury at AOA - II

2011-10-08T00:34:00.000-07:00

"Open Jury" event at AOA is an initiative to exchange ideas and reflections on student works across classes, departments and faculties. We had the second open jury yesterday. It was more of a review in the process stage.

The invited reviewers were to comment on students' process work. I feel it's pointless to call reviewers in process. It's like asking a pottery specialist to comment on the strength of a pot when it's still drying. Or like asking a chef when he's cutting the vegetables of how tasty the dish will eventually be...In such cases, you know what the feedback would be like.

Some classes decided to show their earlier projects. We (UA) felt that showing an earlier project right in the middle of another project is adverse on two grounds - one that you re-prepare to present your earlier project (a day spent in touching up earlier sheets) and second that you spend another day in something thats done long before and closed! So we decided not to have any special people and instead let our students see what others are doing...

Our principals like to keep the mood of the college upbeat. They keep on thinking of doing various things in college - like tamasha. I was reminded briefly of Sarita Vijayan at IAB - many said that she never bothered about the content of her magazine but kept on doing all sorts of nautanki - organizing events, seminars, launches, etc...

The other day I met an absolutely beautiful human being - Vandana Sinh. She spoke to me of her recent participation at the NIASA awards. She was invited to a small place in the interiors of Maharashtra to choose the best architecture thesis projects amongst some 20 colleges which participated. These included city colleges along with the smaller towns. Without a doubt, the city colleges were far ahead in their thought, work and representation. The others were not even talking of issues around them...(The identity of such colleges appeared to her only later, since in the jury, the college names are not revealed). She said that she had, on perusal, absolutely rejected the entries of the smaller towns.

A girl from one of such places comes and asks her politely: "Ma'am, I wanted to know why my thesis wasn't selected amongst the final 10". Vandana looked up her file to read her comments on the girl's entry. She had written - "NO - X ". She felt absolutely guilty and without disclosing her sharp judgement, she asked the girl probably to recall her project. She then patiently spoke to her.

She then shared with me how bad she felt of her decision and judgement. She spoke of how under-exposed the kids in the smaller towns are. How un-motivating their faculties are...We spoke of our experiences of students from smaller towns (I spoke to her of my NIASA experience when I met students at Bhopal trying to take our autographs on winning the national award). We spoke of how sensitive students are, and "students are same every where", she said. She said how she would never do the mistake of rejecting a kid's work in future. But we were all very concerned of the under exposure of students in the interiors to issues and works around. Rohan (Shivkumar) once said to me (when I asked him - what's the point of organizing these seminars so frequently?) that "Anuj - students get to talk, they get to meet people, they want to meet new people"

Within these thoughts, I wanted to contextualize yesterday's jury. Our principal called fancy architects: Sanjay Puri, Ratan Batliboi, Chirag Jain etc. I wondered if there was any coherent agenda - all these reviewers are different schools of thought. What does the Academy want to think like? On questioning the team, it would be conveniently passed of as: "We wanted different points of view" - but I believe, that's an escape. We have to accept that we dont have a stand - it's always a pao bhaji - like our built environment. The physical condition of our environment is nurtured / begins at the school of architecture.

We refrained from calling any jury. Although, taking from Rohan's point, I felt, the students should absorb from others. That they might find some resonance and ideas from other panels. But I wonder how much are students from the urban areas interested in all this!? Only a few. The review would have been much successful if we called a college of Bhopal or Nashik or Lucknow to interact with ours. They would all sit together and talk to us - as a team. They would realize the value of discussions we have. Many of our kids take this time off to chew some more bubble gums and spend time at the canteen, giggle off jokes and not even note down a new comment in their books or sketch out a detail from a panel the liked, or connect to a senior on an idea, or get back to faculty on a comment he/she made...! Who is interested?

That's why I reject such grand gestures as 'tamashas'. They only feed into grandiloquent egos of our decision makers. Although they ask us for suggestions, they change or amend their decisions only peripherally to accommodate even our significant ideas - to make us feel happy! That's the kind of diplomacy I despise. So I keep myself away from meetings and suggestions.

If this post seems to be too judgemental, I cant help it. This open jury at AOA (the second one in series) seemed least interactive to me. None of the internal faculties across departments really got time to see other work, the management is always a fuss, space was terrible (they covered up all open spaces to make them green houses, which were supported on bamboo framework that visually interjected all possible panels) - our comments muddled up in a lot of street noise - but i guess that was all desired - a part of the designed chaos. I hope the students made some meaning out of it.

Untitled

2011-10-03T10:56:00.001-07:00

When

I take my tongue out in the air

I can't taste it

I feel,

Have I

lost my sense of taste

Or is the air tasteless?

When

I plug onto my ear

the music from my earphones

I feel

Have I

merged my song with the tune

or is the city full of noise?

When

I try to see new things around

trying to frame through various means

I feel

Have I

just turned blind

or is the space around me unchanging?

When

The sweat rolls by my forehead

to wet my temples

I feel

Have I

worked enough for the day

or it's some hidden tension oozing out of my mind?

When

I think of my senses

and sense my thought

I feel

Have I

started to think too much

or I think too much to start?

Boredom

2011-10-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

If there is any thing that I could write here, it should be about my absolute boredom with the current state of my life. I think I am done with this city and there is nothing more Mumbai has to offer to me! Although I haven't seen the entire city, every new place I go could be categorised into some kind of generalized experience. I went to Dharavi yesterday and I didnot feel any thing different, just before that, I had been to Ghatkopar and I felt like I would feel in all typical neighbourhoods. A few days ago, I had gone to Brinda Somaya's office - yeah , that was something that made me feel as if I entered a different area, the huge walls screening of the docks and the sea. That was interesting. But over all, the fort and the suburb has nothing new to offer.

The events in the city are mundane. The fast paced life is machinic. Not that I didnot try to unwind myself: I enjoyed at Namrata (Shah's) engagement over the weekend - we danced, jumped, ate...But why would I feel bored? I wonder!

I have written off to Sen Kapadia and Vandana: Both have been extremely helpful and cooperative. I have no interest to undertake those projects now. I could have ended up in great papers on their practices. There is a sudden lack of motivation to work on it now. Project offers come and go. Design ideas don't occur to me. Studios are dull. Teaching is exhausting...

But I am not even working enough, producing enough...sometimes I feel I should take a sabbatic - just go to some asylum. I am wondering if I can carry it on for the next year...!?

From the Sky Walk

2011-09-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

Goregaon West.

Academics - A Fractal of Reality

2011-09-26T09:19:00.001-07:00

I think as academicians in the field of architecture, we take more pleasure in the production of representations of the real world. We love to get beautiful work done from students on paper. We like good drawings, good models: all good looking things which are a miniature version of the real world. Do we feel happy about it being more pristine, clear and pleasing to the eye as compared to the reality around us? Are we too disturbed by the adulteration of imagination as it becomes real? What kind of a world do we live in - that of the comfortable 'experiment' space where we can change colours or materials to suit the eye. It's only about the eye. That which looks pleasing to the eye. On the other hand is writing, which can slip from within our hands...

Yes, academia produces questions, criticisms, debates. But the nature of frustration that professional practice brings is absolutely different and could completely validate the physicality of the built environment. I guess the biggest factor in profession is time - the time in which you deliver. Imaginations get crunched in this time machine. Other is the reality of economy, unfortunately. And lastly, all material things that manifest ideas. I am recalling Plato and his idea of the ideal being something that you could hold...

But I have to find stronger role of the academia in the built environment - not just that of the training. How much of training does the built environment reflect anyway? The professional any way has an different institution through which he/she operates. Its almost like brain washing - what you retain from school is only the factual knowledge. It's a pity that those who want to engage with critical questions only can teach...I am wondering if profession can allow / look beyond time, money and material...I am sure it can, and it has, but the extent is very less.

Anyway, why I thought of this was thinking of all abstractions that we make in school to make things look good. I had this habit of making models as they would look in real - so I had really jazzy colourful models. Later I started making monochrome models - but buildings are not monochrome! And in addition, people like multiple colours on their walls...But in school, its probably all about the aesthetic, or rather am I getting too driven into it? Hmm, point to note.

Pedagogical Deviations

2011-09-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

Over the last year, we were experimenting with a very bottom up approach. We would give the students problems which completely throw them off and force them to question if that is what architecture was. Our projects revolved around strong theoretical ideas and issues and we were able to raise important issues through conceptual solutions that students unknowingly brought to the table. The faculty was interested in thinking with the students and I felt, it was an interesting way of working.

However, by the beginning of second year, we realized that students had no idea of scale and proportion and still drew their drawings as if nothing mattered. They had no idea of logistics of space or proportion. Staircases were randomly placed or unresolved, rooms were obnoxiously proportioned, there was no relationship between sequencing of spaces, no response to anthropometrics - something that we thought was a matter of observation. However, students failed to even think about all of it. This year, it was scary to have designs which had no idea of proportion and scale - even when questioned about it, students were in oblivion. This is when we realized that we need to address this aspect critically in our upcoming projects.

As a result, we started thinking of very pragmatic projects, limiting the scope of thinking and response. The project like the play school, which the second yearites are currently working on - is a fairly simple, infact simplistic project. Inspite of this, I do not see conceptual ideas coming through. There is a big gap in the students' mind in relating the programme with the space and user. There is no inquiry into how the user behaves. No one thought of their own childhood - all are working like scientists, trying to manifest it into a formal idea, which itself is based on very weak grounds.

If I was to say that our initial projects in first year were about form (Marrying Machines), constructability (Building out of waste), expression (Expression space) and function (Building New Grounds), in respective order, the students have completely ignored the learning out of it and infact brushed it off. It was disheartening to hear from them that they felt that those projects never addressed 'practical' design issues. I felt that was too myopic a judgement made. However, accepting their feedback, we thought we must try working with them on a practical project and see how well they receive it. It is always difficult to channelize a project without a theoretical stand point for me. The project "Playschool" does not appeal to me, because one does not know how to channelize thought. They have been asked to work out the design through mathematical principles (eg. Fibonacci, fractals, modular, etc.).

Before the mathematical principle, one has to arrive at an idea. This idea across the class is a landscape of randomness - none of the students have come up with a relevant idea, that even relates to a child, or a play school or the organization of a building. Probably what I mean is in such a project, any idea is workable - and then, how do you contextualize? None of them have yet, gone into their childhood to dig out any aspect that they could manifest into a project. But then, there are these vague ideas of working with rhymes, music, dance, sound - all of which can we dealt with in so many ways. The lack of theoretical stand point does not allow to channelize a direction specifically for this particular project.

But eventually, we are moving towards the same random design method of the old school: give a project - student brings an obscure idea - nudge it to make a project. Eventually it will become something. My problem with this is a large amount of literal translation that becomes foolish buildings in our built environment. For example: a child is like a blooming flower, so the building becomes a flower; or children like basic shapes, so the building is a concoction of triangles-circles in plan, which eventually extrudes into a cake form. That the school is a place where knowledge grows - so the graph of growth of knowledge becomes a building; that it should be a happy place, hence curved forms. Such cliches shape our physical environment and a brief like this does not address it at all, in fact, it allows them to take it forward and make it build-able. It is the academia which has to address such issues. However, that's not happening right now.

We always chalk out objectives of the project but we never evaluate at the end of the project if students have achieved them. Most of them don't. And with the current 2nd year class, they ignore much of it, rather, they question the objectives itself! That's silly. But this pedagogical shift which embraces the old school programme driven projects are disappointing and unfortunately become monotonous engagements with a singular site.

I know this post has become fussy - I am not clear on any thing mentioned here. I have not stated what is the deviation, because I am not finding the right words to articulate...but eventually I would elaborate.

The Architecture of Non-Reason

2011-09-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

"Why can't architecture be illogical?" asked a student.

I answered in the classic modernist way - that architecture is not absolute sculpture - and that thus it differentiates itself from art, that it is for a function and that it has to serve a larger community. That no architect can generate buildings (event if it was for the self) without considering logistical factors. That sculpture does not have to follow rules..." and so an and so forth...

To which, another classic, but un-informed response - "But all forms work..."

I said: "Yes, you put a toilet block in the middle of the road and it shall work - but what as an architect are you offering?"

Ah! Classic statements (I have educated myself on this while I was studying in my SYB Arch fuelled by my angst regarding role of an architect and what we are supposed to do? these were explanations I was satiated with...)! However, to me this debate was outdated and it did not take us anywhere. Sometimes, students ask questions which they themselves do not believe in. (I felt so with this one)

(my problem was the misplaced question on illogic: a brief that demanded an inherent mathematical logic to arrive at a design solution must not have harboured such a question which absolutely seems a-contextual to the project method)

I have been thinking of writing on "The Architecture of Non-reason", which shall ironically be logically reasoned out. I haven't decided on how and what would I write on it. But the trigger is my recent engagement with documentation of Sen Kapadia's projects - absolutely unreasonable. One can't even call it absurd: It does not even fall into a logic of method - he makes purely a-typical objects / spaces (as he would prefer to call them). He calls them intuitive. His buildings are absolutely un-relatable, abstracted to a level where one has to struggle to make an association with the reality of the world.

Below are some images from Sen's office - and I have purposely chosen images I do not relate to. In all images, I see the manifest of non-reason. He would never justify even if my threw my question in the most direct way.

The architecture of non reason perhaps works through intuition. Intuitions are one time decisions. They are untamed. They appear and die, one does not make plans for intuitions, they come on their own and go away! They do not have histories and hence are free of associations. Can one justify intuitions? They are not empirical or scientific, yet correct most times - or at least decisions made intuitively never make you feel dejected. They qualify themselves as acceptable, and certainly one can not demand explanations for intuitions.

That is how the above architect works - with the idea of non-reason. But I am still not sure if non reason is a reaction to reason. Is it the struggle to be unreasonable that one makes such alien forms? Are these objects from another planet? They certainly do not qualify as poetic formally, the look like remains of some dead object, or something that has smelted, melted, eroded, in the state of metamorphosis - non conclusive.

However, I have to elaborate some pedagogical deviations or revisions in the next post. Meanwhile, the post has allowed me to surface some points to elaborate my argument on the idea of non reason.

Implosions

2011-09-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

I have not been writing. I have no drive to write meanwhile. Perhaps I am just in a void.
There are times when I want to draw badly - and when i take a paper, the pencil refuses to draw.
There are times when I wish to paint - but as I arrange all my materials, the paints become colourless.
There are times when I feel like writing poetry - and as I write, sentences reduce to words and letters.

Why does this happen? And why is it happening now all of a sudden - when just some days ago, I was almost regularly reflecting on everything, everyday. Am I tired or bored of it? Do I need a change? Do I need to quit what I am doing? Do I need to find a new place for myself to be in? Do I enjoy teaching? Am I doing enough or far too much than required? Or am I too ambitious and focused? Should I just let things easy? I keep floating in this pool of questions - wading one question by another! There was a point in time when I was negotiating questions by doing things. Now, I am just meandering through them! I feel it's dangerous, scary. For some time, I feel like a weed - existing for nothing worthwhile!

Although, I enjoy completing half done things initiated by others, - when students produce sparks of ideas, and are not able to take them through, I feel like pulling their pencil, sitting on their stool and finishing off the ideas. "But those are not my ideas", I say to myself. Why am I not producing ideas? Am I really not producing ideas or have I just fed myself with too much of theory? Do I need to sit and just ruminate over all what I have read by far? I have read a bit too much i feel- it has made me very quiet, perhaps? Am I quiet? I don't know...

I keep going to the library occasionally - only to remind myself that there are so many books I haven't read yet. Today I re-familiarized with the library, and found there were so many new books...Whenever I see a new book, the only thing I think is that someone is thinking far more than myself. I am badly stuck in the sea of information. The other day, Chaitanya spoke to students in class: "This is your time to gather information, after a few years, all will make sense." I am in a phase where all information makes perfect sense to me and I don't know what to do with it! I am tired of being patient. I am tired of waiting. Wait is painful. I have to move on, and I am losing all interest to take the next step...

Its terrible - there was a time when I was upset because of my unclarity. Now I am so clear that I don't find the means to bridge huge gaps that lie towards my goal...

Janmashtami

2011-09-10T11:14:00.000-07:00

This time I made a tree out of newspapers. I rolled up lots of newspapers and then kept tying them up using the knot system. Basically like a cue. I kept pairing lots of papers to make a thick trunk and left the branches loose to hang down. Then I painted most parts of the tree in brown to cover up the 'news' on the tree :P.
However, lastly I got some natural fibre of the tree from the building campus and covered it up with it and some green leaves. In the process stage, it looked a really gorgeous abstract tree form - like an octopus. I had to subtle it down to appeal to my family!

Some propping of branches was required due to the weight of the leaves, but the dim lights and correct focus successfully hid all the jugaad!

Natural trees and lots of clay toys made up the forever acceptable raas-leela scene for Jansmashtami. I had a good day of experiment.

Plaza, Dadar

2011-09-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Kafkaesque models

2011-09-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

TEXT - WORDS - IMAGE - BUILDING

Over the past 3 years we have been trying to formulate programmes which translate text into a physical landscape. Our endavours to engage with text have primarily been to inculcate may aspects into the studio. A study of Adrian Forty's "Words & Buildings" will give a worthwhile explanation of how we negotiate through language to communicate intangible ideas and how they finally get understood and manifested. In such transfer of ideas from faculty to student, and student to physical form, wide gaps are created. These gaps are because of the varying levels of understanding at which thoughts are exchanged. Much of the times, these thoughts are physically manifested as literal.

I have been trying to exactly define what does one mean by 'being literal' in architecture over the past 2 years. There is one mode of explanation that I generally use.
If you say,
A = B
A = C
then make B = C,
(where A is a word, B, C is a meaning)
you will be making something literal.
Mathematical logic in equating words & meanings perhaps makes architecture literal. The words we use for communicating our thoughts in architecture can be translated literally. Much of the goof up happens in verbalizing. While faculties talk of ideas, students understand it as words and dictionary meanings.

However, in this process, we were able to generate some interesting forms - sloping, crooked, twirling, swirling, spherical, conical, biological, etc. Only that none of the forms were placed in an appropriate site context. We have to still investigate how the interaction of form and site should be instructed. An architectural form is a result of not only the externalities of context, but also responds to the interior functions. This complex process, when well balanced along with all other default parameters like light, ventilation, circulation, etc allows for a debate at the next step. In juries, we ignore much of it and still are not able to talk of architecture.

However, if I was to evaluate text-based-entries to generate design solutions, we have to care to make students aware of the following:
1. When do you choose a text to intervene in a site.
2. On what basis shall you choose the text - how do you make a text relevant for a project
3. Do you use text as meaning or as concrete poerty? In other words, how do you use the text?
4. How should you rephrase architecture as words?
5. How should your building 'read' as text?

And there are many more, but the above questions are highly complex. What we wish to do is to expose the students to reading, thereby imagination and visualization. At that level, the project does open up points of debate. A lot of effort needs to then educate oneself on exposing to a lot of text-to-visual translations.

I don't really blame students, it's too early to manage all of it together. Perhaps if we could control our ambitions and design more feasible projects, it would be better for students. Although studios would be dry then, we should be able to bring out much more interesting and promising work.

Teachers's Day 2000

2011-09-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago on this day, I was preparing for a lecture on "Biosphere" for class 9. The next day was going to be Teachers' day and students were going to pose as teachers and take a class. I was excited. Most of my classmates taught lower classes and were surprised of my choice to teach a class immediate to mine (I was in class 10 then - my matriculation year). Moreover, it was a subject handled by one of our strictest teachers in the school. However, I wasn't intimidated.

The next day was fun. We dressed up as teachers and went to classes to see how our peers performed and what responses they got from students. Later during the day, it was my class. Although many would pass of this day as waste, I conducted a serious lecture. I explained each part of the lesson using my own version of notes. Students asked questions later and I clarified each and every doubt. The jury went around classes and looked at how we conducted classes.

At the end of the day, results were announced. To my surprise, I was declared to be the Best Student Teacher. I was thrilled and excited. My friends were surprised of me handling class 9 being just one year senior.

The story wasn't over. I was only thinking that this was just a one sided affair. The jury felt that I conducted a good class. The next day, as I attended my regular lectures, the Geography teacher of class 9 (the strictest one, as I said before and our class teacher then), came to my class in person and shouted:

"Anuj, what have you done?"
I was scared! I asked, "Why, what did I do ma'am?"
"They are not letting me inside the class, they say they want you!" she was referring to the students of class 9.

This had never happened in the history of our school before. Most student teachers pass off the day for fun, but I was quite passionate about it! She never taught the lesson to that class later - they only discussed questions on it. I felt truly appreciated and hence, the certificate below is very precious to me.

Perhaps there would be no better time than this to relive this part of my history. What importance do such certificates that we win during school times hold ? - probably they only gave us confidence then. But they have certainly helped / shaped our current trajectories...

Baghban IV

2011-09-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

In the past few weeks, I have been questioning, rather understanding the construct of the institution of Indian family. How does the Indian family work. What are its codes? What are the roles of each person in the family? How is one made/supposed to behave? What if one does not follow the codes? How does it rupture one's way of living or operating then?

If family is our first school, then a lot of rules are set up within this institution. The Indian family is very hierarchical. The hierarchy dictates the code of conduct. Essential values like respect, truth (honesty), economy are controlled by this hierarchical setup. What one must speak and how one must talk to any one is also a political construct of this hierarchy. Unfortuantely, this hierarchy continues till you die, so there is not way to peek into your parents' lives by pointing at them any questions. Questions can easily be screened through the wall of hierarchy: "How dare you ask this question?"

However, a bigger problem is that all these values conceptually conflict and contradict each other. We are taught to be truthful and honest in our childhood. We are asked to talk politely to elders. We should respect others, and all that! In the real life, these actions are guided by factors completely unknown to us. There are times when our parents themselves refute their taught value systems. Money is a funny issue! All this while, my father maintained that life was larger than money, and these days he says that money is very important in life.

A major portion of the education from family or school is imparting certain idealist values in a person. These ideals were created and suited to a certain historic time and space. Do these values work in today's world? Does the conceptual framework of the formation of ideal ideas change? Are ideal thoughts sacred? Ideals create a lot of friction in the real world. The family never addresses this issue. Why does the ideal get so much importance in our lives when it never holds true? Why are we made to believe in this apparent truth, which ceases to exist? What consolation do we seek for in honesty? I don't understand. The family has to teach a small slice of corruption or to be flexible to corruption. We don't live in an ideal space and we have to be groomed for such a space right from the beginning.

Schools have to teach us to be tactical, opportunistic! Unfortunately, we only learn this when we grow 60 years old - that knowledge conveniently classifies as wisdom! By then we already lose on all luxuries of life - then they say, be happy of the fact that you never committed a crime! I say - well, those who committed are living far comfortably! Truth is over-rated, honesty too. Yes, we do need it, but in a world like this, family values itself have to change.

History:

Baghban
Baghban II
Baghban III

This post needs more clarification and elaboration. It shall be done in subsequent time.

Toys

2011-09-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

Since a long time now, I have been wanting to write a post on the kind of toys I played with in my childhood. This thought was triggered primarily by two things: the reading of Roland Barthes' "Toys" from Mythologies and my discussion on the same some time ago with a students during the Humanities lecture. Rather, I wanted to test if my toys have really shaped me!? I thereby started to write on cartoons too. But that article is not complete yet. I have to refine it further such that I can make it into a formal paper.

I hardly remember what were my childhood toys like! Perhaps I must have thrown them, chewed them or swallowed some of it - I dont know! The faintest memory of my first toys is a jumping chicken which my mother brought for me after I got my teeth extracted! It was a white furry chicken which lasted for a long time and needed to be keyed. Yes, there were a lot of toys which worked on keys. My uncle used to travel to foreign countries very frequently. He had then got us (my brother and me) a car each. Mine was an old style fiat! I loved it. I would keep rolling it around my axis! During 1990 we had the opportunity to go to Singapore. My parents got a lot of toys for us from there. They were mostly electronic. Electronic toys could be trusted being imported! But it was an eclectic mix - a golden robot, 2 fighting tanks, a set of cars - all of it worked on batteries! I don't remember but there must have been a lot more! We must have misplaced them here and there.

As we grew, our choice of toys became peculiar. I was drawn to more human toys, more subtle; while my brother to the more destructive and aggressive! I had a distinct liking for teddy bears! They were quite expensive then. So my first and the only teddy bear was stitched by my mother. My aunt gifted me another one on my birthday some time later. I kept them for a long time! I also remember buying a doctor's set - I would see myself as one! It had plastic scissors, cotton, bandage, a fake thermometer - all that! I still remember it cost Rs. 28/-. We got toys only on two occasions: on getting a good result or on a birthday. There were no un-occasional toys.

Further I invested more in the GI joes - they were really marketed well and I wanted to almost make a collection. Over 4 years, I could collect only 4 of them, through which I would weave stories and plays. Immediately then, the teddy bear became the monster due to its size...Cars were all half broken so they could carry the gi joes...I had enough material to create a setting.

Later, I invested in toys like the safari (cars going through a track), i also had "The Young Architect" and "The Mechanix". I took a game on cricket too, which i seldom played! But these were the toys through which I really experimented a lot! I would not stick only to the manuals, but would go on to make more exciting moving things.

There is another aspect to the whole story - games: all sorts from board games to the virtual ones (video games and computer games). I had distinct liking for games. I would play games like Business or Ludo with my friend and I guess it informs my notions of 'circulation' that I use in my architectural work today. Computer games like Prince of Persia and Digger presented the world of 'sections' to me. Later as we played newer games, they appeared in perspective. Spaces revealing themselves in perspective were scary...sectional spaces were so much subtler! Games like Tetris on the video games probably taught me articulation - of fitting things together compactly. I had immense liking for racing games. I don't know if they really induced in me the idea of competition. But I developed immense amount of patience and perseverance through these games.

All such games and toys made a definite space around me - a very human like, mechanical environment. Gijoes were a great way to understand anthropometrics and mechanix taught me structure. I think these toys contributed to a lot of my architectural knowledge. I still have all my toys, well preserved - to an extent that my parents are fed up of me. I don't share them with my nephews since they would immediately break them into pieces! Although some of them have been destroyed.

But I am going to try to theorize the above! It's just a descriptive account meanwhile. Somewhere, it does make me different from my brother's aggressive nature coming from his toys like the gun, or the bat, or the WOLF or DOOM he played on computer...Hence the Barthes connect...

Don't our toys shape us!? I have been wanting to pull the idea of toys in studio, especially since Prasad Shetty mentioned it last year to which I refuted. But I guess I am going to think about it seriously to be able to understand and derive newer expressions from the idea of toys and games...lets see...

Taj - Mumbai

2011-08-27T06:36:00.001-07:00

Practice

2011-08-27T05:10:00.001-07:00

Any kind of artistic practice involves so much of manipulation. There is so much to and fro in achieving an end. Take water colour for example. The artist uses washes over and over again , sucks or drops more colour and keeps on repeating the process until the desired result is achieved.

The process of repetition is the key to a rich product. Repetition allows overlay and thus gives a lot of depth to work. Depth gives multiple readings of a single work and it creates different moods during different times. Oil painters keep on mixing colours till they achieve the desired result. This process is perhaps meditative.

Architects use tracings, through which they repeat processes. Through repetition and mixing, one may layer ideas. It also involves iteration of mistakes, then correcting them. One keeps going back and forth, revising the earlier thought at each step. Thus these processes are not linear, neither cyclic. They are like eddies, which keep micromanaging themselves. Such processes give rise to techniques, which can be used in varying scales of work.

I work on my writing like above. I first write in the crudest possible way. Probably because I think in mixed languages. Then I try giving it coherence, by first putting it grammatically correctly, then polishing sentences, words and phrases. But I purposely delay all these steps since every time I read my text afresh, I am able to refine it further. At one go, all seems fine, but in another instance, it appears terribly wrong. Many a times, I find no relevance of a plenty of texts that I once began writing. Then I realize how convoluted my mind is. I discard a lot of such texts. I also preserve a lot of such texts, only to laugh at my silliness. But when I look back, I can estimate how far have I come. And this is the reason why archives are important. They allow to trace trajectories.

The Discourse of Form

2011-08-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

"The discourse of architectural form has become obsolete...who talks of form today? The debate on form is an old issue now,"

"India has not entered, or even managed to enter the discourse of architectural form" - I discussed with the new team of Architecture Design first year. The debate was about the role of form in architecture.

India-trained architects immediately understand form as "iconic" and label it as pejorative. In Indian context, I think the idea of form itself is borrowed. The emphasis of space in Indian architecture is so strong that we fear to deal with ideas of form. Formal responses in architecture have never satisfied the community in India. They have only served the craving for aesthetic or beauty, or otherwise invited a lot of criticism for a-contextual responses. Indian architectural community has not successfully placed a form that generated a dialectic - an argument in a mature architectural sense. All bold forms here can be so easily classified as copied or adopted.

Vernacular has become a style, instead of a cultural manifest. Why doesn't present cultural condition fuel the design of form in architecture? Why don't cultural processes shape form? They are either expressionistic or reproductions of the past. Do buildings talk to each other in the city? We have not, in the real sense, explored the function of architecture as a formal message... Architecture has so much potential to communicate in space. How does Antilia talk to Kanchunjunga? How do buildings in the IIT campus talk to each other? How do the tall buildings respond to each other? Do our cultural institutions talk to each other? All architects are only writing off buildings. Statements is not the way I want to talk of form. In fact, I am talking of form as response in 3-dimensional space. What meanings do forms hold? Can we tap them? Can we play with the imagery, yet be spatial? Any debates, disconnects...post here...

Post buildings, we shall discuss...

Sketches - Ideas

2011-08-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

Most of the above sketches are states of the mind. These are done over the last 2 years randomly and I am only putting them here as a memory of the past.
In order: (Sketch / Idea)

Glass within a glass / Overflowing desire
Branches / Directions
Water Level Balance / Manipulation
Balloon & Knot / Holding nothing
Knot Study / Obstruction
Street USB
A chance encounter between an umbrella and a sewing machine.
Lemon Cut / Abstraction

Of Cultural Movements

2011-08-16T07:57:00.000-07:00

Globalization:
The process of globalization is characterized by 2 main concepts:

Idea
Computer & Technology

The process of globalization is characterized by the fact that it doesnot have boundaries - it is open to everyone. The fact that an idea can be explored and presented openly provided a greater opportunity to individuals. For example, Sabeer Bhatia was just a drop out from his college when the idea of Hotmail struck to him. The idea was accepted in the market and it had many takers.

Globalization furthers easy exploration by making technology accessible to everyone. It thus assumes a democratic status. Computer and technology are the major factors providing momentum to globalization. The mantra of globalization is mobility, speed, dynamism and fast pace. The era of globalization sees an upward trend in movement. Movement of not only people, but funds, technology, ideas, income, etc.

Glocalisation:
The manifestation of global ideas into local environments is colloquially called glocalization. Glocalisation is the appropriation of the global into local.

Mc Donaldization:
The a-contextual prototyping of built forms is termed as Mc Donaldization. It is the establishment of visual identity of a built form in space which disregards specificities of a place.

Coca-colization:
It is a term used pejoratively to imply the rise in western consumerist culture and westernization (rather Americanization?) of all cultures in general.

Summarized over discussion with Padma Desai in 2007-8. The above explanations must not be taken as precise or accurate.

Economy & Social Relations

2011-08-14T11:03:00.001-07:00

Economy restructures every aspect of life today. Right from the area you live to the friends you make. Your spending potential is something that strongly configures the choices you make. Why do we find that our friends (the ones whom we consider closer to us) are mostly within our own economic bracket? As students come in a mixed group in a class, we immediately find them flocking into their own 'secure' economic groups. I think the spending potential defines the way we are brought up, the way we think and the way we would eventually want to spend. However, how beneficial is that anyway?

Generally, it is very difficult to communicate on money matters or spending potentials with friends while studying. This is one area where friendship doesnot always succeed. Are our friends able to accept us beyond our monetary constraints? To critically look at the situation, we already define our friend circles within our own economic range. Many a times, we also end up spending irrationally...

The middle class is seldom confident with its economic status. It is a highly unstable, unsure and aspiring class of the society. Money, and only more money gives it confidence and stability. What kind of change will a confident middle class make? I am not sure. Education automatically distances people - historically, knowledge and money have always been related and these two factors eventually structured the society.

Academic studies are very refined and primarily engage the middle class for its livelihood (learn > earn).

But it would be refreshing to see some inter-economic bracket strong friendship bonds. I haven't seen them in a while. Probably I haven't seen them ever except films! Does it mean that even films have failed to erase such economic differences? I am not sure if i am conveying what I want to say here clearly. Probably I am trying to understand how money structures social relations. The virtual world completely destroys it. It successfully challenges economic hierarchies. I like that about the virtual world. Something that I learnt during my thesis, on globalization, during my discussion with my guide Padma Desai. I shall digitize that conversation from my thesis diary here...

Hand gestures while singing?

2011-08-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

Many people ask me what do singers do with their free hands while singing? Why do they make gestures which mean nothing? Does it affect their singing - make it worse or better? Is it a fashion to make such gestures to suggest supremacy over singing or the surs?

Although most of the times I escape the question saying I don't know, I will attempt an explanation as I perceive it. The hand gestures made by singers while singing may be understood as visual graphs of sound versus space. How do you visually explain sound? And more-so, when someone's life is only as non visual as sound, about its intricacies, how does it obtain a visual dimension? Hand gestures gives a visual meaning to sound. It almost objectifies sound to a playful thing.

Many a times, professional singers have explained singing as a play of /in sur or swars (notations). When striking a high note, the hand and head goes high; and vice versa for a low note. That's simple to understand. but when the song is feasible, its more about the play of throwing a word in a desired manner. This 'throw' can be perceived through the gesture. There is a treatment to each word, each line and the entire song. The hand-gesture thus shows the way performer treats the work - i e the song.

The hand gestures also capitalizes on the structure of the hand itself - in terms of the arm, palm and fingers. The movement of all symbolizes a 3-dimensional graph - much like the tantra, a diagram which only exists in the mind. The gesture probably, according to me is a manifest of such a diagram of music. The gesture grips the rhythm, the sur (tone), the swar (notation), the lyrics, the mood and thus the composition. It symbolizes abstract qualities of music like smoothness, softness, sharpness, etc. for a particular song. Bhaav is intrinsic to Indian Classical music as against the structure of a piece for the Western Classical. Hence, one finds a separate director for live music in western classical performances. In Indian Classical, it's more of a jugal-bandi, or an interplay - where all come together and improvise.

This improvisation will see improvised hand gestures. It is compulsive, not fashionable - it is a reflection of what those vibrations inside do to you. Sometimes, while singing, one closes ones eyes, or hints, suggests, smiles - all such actions primarily are involuntary.

Yes, when you find people who do not know much about music doing weird hand movements, you can easily point them out as forced or fashionable...

Sloping Landscapes*

2011-08-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Today morning, I decided to attend a lecture. I wanted to avoid the second year class and so I stepped into the third year! And perhaps it was the right decision to take. I entered a class of Landscape, where Arjun (Sharma) was lecturing on analyzing contoured sites. He went on to explain all about site analysis. And while he spoke, parallel images ran in my mind. He spoke of steepness of slopes and how we could map slopes of different gradients into a ratio map to understand which zones one could consider to build or traverse through.

I had been thinking of what makes newer construction so out of place in interior sites of our states. I am referring to new constructions at places like Alibaug, Palghar or ourskirts of Pune. They invariably paint their houses white or bright pink or yellow from the exterior. I think that is the imagination of newness. White is a new colour for people in the interiors. However, bringing in the idea of local architecture, Arjun raised the question of what gives the local architecture its character? It is the colour of its built form. Most of it is built out of local material - which makes the entire place black or brown or grey. This is the colour of the local stone or material used for construction. White therefore makes you feel out of place. That is why, I think browns have become the colours for architects - to make one feel at home. Even in the interiors, brown is a safe and popular palette.

As Arjun went on to talk of ridges and valleys forming streams, I thought of the mythical story of Ganga descending on to the earth lead by bhagirathi. Of how the river follows the path Bhagirathi takes. Although it is a bit absurd, but to think that Bhagirathi took the path through the valleys such that the river could conveniently follow a path is interesting. It reminded me of Mahabharat's visualization of Ganga flowing through a mountain - forming streams and then a river. Later, I thought of Rishikesh and Benaras. Where the land form is gentle, the river becomes shallow and wide, where it is steep, the river is deep and narrow. On the other hand, I was reminded of a story we read in our primary school. The autobiography of the river- flowing through mountains and valleys. The rivers says that due to a mound in its path, it gets worried of how to go ahead. There are many obstacles in her way - the stones, trees, etc. She embraces all of it as she flows from the mountain. Later, she gives birth to her sister (distributary) due to a large mound. The separation is painful and the river feels pained. However, as it reaches a shallow bowl shaped area, the river gets to rest into a pond and meets back her sister.

Mythical and poetic stories crossed my mind and gently tickled me - all through a study of landscape. But also, I began to think how mapping landscapes (or even mapping in general) has become a strategy to control any land form. The idea of being able to conquer or build through its meticulous study has led to the generation of a huge amount of documentation. It has led to special agencies like surveyors who help plotting trees and all features on land. Opening up untraceable land through mapping allows human entry into natural territories. This has led to severe and undesirable results.

Later Arjun spoke about a lot of things including orientation of built form w.r.t. water drain off. But the best part of the lecture was when he led climatic analysis - sun-path, wind direction, amount of rainfall to the idea of vista and sight lines. Drawing a mountain on the board, he drew a round rising smiling rising sun. He explained how it was important to understand where the sun rises on the site versus where it sets and how this information could be used as a design strategy. Of how one would never want to screen off a rising sun using trees or designing pathways in wrong areas. More interesting was his idea of looking at fog and using it as a positive landscape feature. It reminded me of impressionistic paintings of Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. Seeing blurred images of people approaching you - strangers whom you think you know - it becomes so interesting to use the concept of fog as an architectural strategy!

By the end, I was so overwhelmed with the lecture that I felt I must enroll for a course in Landscape Architecture. I wanted to tell Arjun what a fabulous session he took and how beautifully he conducted it. However, things are to always take unexpected turns. Arjun revealed to me about the incoherence in Landscape and AD studio and he was really dejected. Our conversation took a detour and I got no opportunity to tell him how well he spoke and how nice I felt as I saw him teach.

But this is what I meant by circumstantial - life is so circumstantial. A lecture which I thought was brilliantly put up, was actually a reaction to the system. I thought the merger of AD and Landscape was planned, but it wasn't. If only the students took some charge...

*metaphorical (sloping = unstable, landscapes = scenarios)

Where do I go?

2011-08-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

Suddenly I feel all has become so peaceful. I have reduced interacting too much with others. I don't look at too many things here and there. And it is really making me feel comfortable. I have started to think lesser and things bother me even lesser. The past few days were really bothering me too much. But I think the credit goes to Prakriti: She told me about the ancient Vedic strategy - "Let the thoughts come and go, don't hold them". And I am practicing it all the time. It seems to be working. Although I haven't mastered it yet.

Things happen around me, and I have learnt to let them happen even if I am feel they not ought to be so. Anuj tells me: "You can't change the world". I quietly agree to him.

Lots of things actually come and go, but these days, I am not finding the urge to note them down. Neha went for her masters and I really felt at loss - on one hand for missing a friend and on the other, something that ignites my own aspirations.

Writing is going on, but I am not so confident of it. Projects seem to build, but fall more instantly. The moment I open them out for discussion, the next moment, they collapse. No, I am not going to get into "why does this happen" mode. It just happens. Perhaps it is meant to just be like that. There are times when nothing seem to be heading anywhere. This is a similar feeling to that during my thesis. But things take their time. I am not sure what to wait for and how much to wait for.

Sometimes I question even if teaching is meant for me? I don't know! Where will this inquiry lead? What is this inquiry for? Is it isolating me? Am I becoming too obscure? Why do I need to question? Where will all this culminate? Large questions. No answers.

But I keep doing; When I am doing, I am not thinking too many things. Its peaceful when I am not thinking. So I do. I write. I keep writing. So i feel less bothered by things around me. I record - all the time. I take pictures, everywhere. I look, re look at them, thinking of stories, which get lost in my mind...Eventually, i think they will be lost. Now have I contradicted myself again here?

Art & Architecture

2011-08-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

Visit to Volte / Sheeba Chhachhi's works: "Winged Pilgrims- A Chronicle from Asia"

Visit to Maskara / T. Venkanna's work: Print making

Book Launch / Rahul Mehrotra: Architecture in India post 1990

We visited two art galleries as a part of our Graphics studio yesterday. Firstly we went to Volte Art Gallery to see Sheeba Chhachhi's works "Winged Pilgrims- A Chronicle from Asia". The works tried to raise the issue of migration and mass consumption, the flow of goods and ideas in the age of globalization. To convey so, the artist layers moving images of birds or moving ships over landscapes of various topographies. As one passes through the exhibition, there is a gradual transition from the mythical landscapes to those of the modern and global scenes. One sees flying peacocks and floating musical objects against barren landscape - a contrasting combination of colour and rawness. Ships travel across the decaying Yamuna river. A line of cocks move across a background frame of a forest of birds and terrestrial creatures. All works suggest movement and consumption. Her selection of birds make an interesting communication of many other ideas such as the bird flue - a disease that was also transported from one space to other, or birds as messengers of information, knowledge (like the saraswati's hawk). On the other hand, there are various invisible figures, indicated by hollow robes holding screens which have miniature distorted images of similar type. These talk more poignantly of contemporary issues of global culture, mixed imagery, borrowed ideas, borrowed forms, imported goods, consumerism, flowing capital...

She very intelligently also chooses the tool of the moving screen - a chinese bulk-produced item which has become an object of mass consumption today by its sheer novelty. Such objects have a very short life in the public memory but still make an impact momentarily. She studies the mechanism of these cheaply produced chinese items and uses it's technique in her installations, thus intensifying our fetish for such objects. Overall, it was a completely interesting experience to see her works. I know I have not justified her work at all by my limited writing skills, but if i spent more time over it, I could really write a good review of her works.

Shubhalakshmi informed me very late that Maskara Art gallery was designed by Rahul Mehrotra. It was a large simple volume - almost a hollow with a sloping roof peaking to about 40 feet high. It had a large door made completely out of steel box sections and it was absolutely brilliant. We briefly had a work with Abhay Maskara, the curator of the gallery. He told us the history of the gallery being a cotton mill before where cotton stacks were piled up as high as 30 feet or more. The place was almost left deserted once the mills moved out. the walls of the mill, almost crumbling were repaired by laterite slabs and the interior floor was finished with concrete. Maskara Art Gallery is a must-visit for any architect around the city. It was completely awe-striking space.

Walking through a series of drawings, later monochrome prints and then some coloured ones, one saw sexually explicit images of love making, eroticism and masturbation. In Venkanna's view, he was trying to depict reality. But I wasnt sure what reality he wanted to depict? What about this reality? What was the reason for this perversion? Particularly, I felt so since there was no new interpretation of perversion. Bananas, couples, brassiers, eggs, phallic symbols - is this the only way to indicate the so called "reality"? Or was it about the technique? The technique of print making through wood cut, etching.

On his working table lay a series of books he was referring to for his copper plates he was etching. There were papers, tools, wood cuts, sketches, drawings, scribblings and colours. Venkanna looks a young little chap who has already been to Amsterdam (and probably other places too). He showed us how the entire process is carried out. It is extremely laborious. And as he sat with the book experimenting various details of techniques, I realized how important it must have become for the modernists to document these processes for later generations to come.

When I asked Venkanna if he gets bored alone working on his prints in the huge volume, he subtly pointed out that being in a private gallery was thus different. There are not many people who know of private galleries in the first place and on the other hand, public galleries bring in much diverse crowd. Unlike public galleries, private galleries are visited by the affluent section of the society to a great extent. But since he keeps working all the time, keeps producing all the time, I think his mental space keeps him occupied all the time. He later said that his studio too is a silent space. Probably I was again dissecting his mind through my architectural lens (trying to understand if the physical space affects his mental space).

Abhay (Maskara) helped with many larger questions like what happens when miniature like works are displayed in an absolutely huge space like this? Or how he was trying to collapse the workspace of the artist and the gallery into one. Or what happens when one sees the artist producing the work in front of you...How does one relate to print making technique today? On how the right kind of art work should be displayed in the right scale (you need the right scale to communicate an idea). [Abhay did his masters in management from the US and happens to be interested in art since the age of 12. He has been a thinker, curator out of passion and believes in expanding dimensions of imagination.]

Lastly, Rahul Mehrotra's book on Architecture in India post 1990s seems to be an interesting one especially since this was the phase I too grew up in. Mehrotra writes in his book that this phase becomes important for him not only because India's economy was liberalized or information technology came in, but also because it was this period when he too began setting up his practice. His personal struggle placed in the larger landscape of architectural practice around the country was a very interesting way to deal with the subject. He described a lot of works across the country, however spoke little about what he did extract. Much of his talk seemed almost familiar, but I wonder if it was so because he makes it so easy to understand (his skillful talk) or because we have already read and discussed much of it. Although I expected the book to be a coffee table publication, I was glad to see enough critical text to substantiate the building activity in the 2 decades. However, I am sure much of the content is an assorted mix of various essays and writings done by others. Nevertheless, it shall be worthwhile to have the book in the library.

Had a long day! But an interesting one.

Warli Tracings

2011-08-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

I practiced some warli figures and finalized the strip above for my brother's wedding invitation.
It was difficult!

Then did some photoshop job to make it pleasing and layered!

Architectural Gossip

2011-07-31T00:21:00.000-07:00

1.
We were generally discussing stories or gossips around architecture the other day.
Apparently, Peter Cook's (Archigram) name was to be considered for the Prtizker prize, but was eventually rejected. The argument was that he hasn't built any structure till date (except one), to be considered for the Pritzker. The reason he was selected for the Pritzker was the fact that his conceptual works have influenced the architecture community to a large extent. Also, his contribution to the academic field was immense. To this, the critics argued that if it was so, then one could also be a painter and get the Pritzker. The question was whether it was necessary for an architect to build. On the other hand, if Pritzker was to be opened to those who "influenced" architecture, then why not also nominate painters, musicians, singers, artists, etc., since all these disciplines have influenced architecture in some way or the other.

Thus, his name was finally dropped, it seems.

2.
Corbusier planned Chandigarh as an absolutely modern city. (We know of his famous sketch of the bullock against the building, suggest his first impression of un-modern India)This modern city was to break away from the shackles of the past.. Thus there were to be no memorials or statues to be erected anywhere in the city. The city was to be kept free of any such things. Corbusier didnot plan a space for any such statue / emblem (except ofcourse his Open hand!).
Ironically, it seems that after Corbusier's death, and on completing about 5 decades of Chandigarh, the Government of Chandigarh decided to commemorate something to the great man. They proposed his own statue to be erected in the city! Now isn't that completely laughable?

Of Unknown Imagic Realities III

2011-07-30T23:27:00.000-07:00

Over the past 20 years, I had never entered my own building from its front entrance. I always took the back entrance which was a small alley directly leading to the backyard and then the road. Since I stayed on the 2nd floor, I never even bothered to take a lift to my house. Today while returning back to my building, I had some extra time at hand. For the first time in the last 20 years, I thought of confronting the building I lived in. I took a big turn around the building to enter it from the front. As I faced the front, I saw it was a huge building - almost like a mega structure. The entrance seemed like a large double height opening. It seemed as if this building housed 1000s of people. There were so many doors and lanes inside the building. I had to inquire at the reception about the lift (I thought I must use it once in my life, although i stay on the second floor). They directed me to a large door.

I waited for the lift for a short while. The huge door opened and I saw a large - extremely large auditorium like chamber. It could almost house 300 people at a time. It waited for people to fill. I promptly walked in side this poly carbonate amphitheatre (imagine an essel world ride). I wondered if I had ever seen a lift like that - and how I was kept away from this although I stayed in the same building? Why didnt my parents ever bother to tell me that we live in such a megalomaniacal building? What was happening?

I took a seat. It felt like a time machine. There were many people around me - all unfamiliar. Although I wasn't scared, since I was confident about my place, it seemed weird. The lift finally closed and moved up like a roller coaster ride. Topsy turvy. All our bags were scrambled. After the lift stopped at my floor, (it seemed like a joy ride), I could not find my bag. Someone helped me finding it under a girl's skirt. I promptly took it and walked out.

I walked out of the lift to find lanes that lead to various kinds of places. Some of them overlooked to a large warehouse where it seemed like a factory. I again wondered how the factory was so well hidden from my house? Why didnt I ever notice these huge hollow spaces? How could I be so ignorant? I moved around and found singly loaded corridors. They had lines of doors which probably housed people. The corridor seemed never ending. I did not have any clue of how I must proceed to my house.

My father called out and then I woke up.

Visit to Pen

2011-07-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

We visited Pen yesterday and looked at this cooperative society - on a 14 acre plot, designed on the principles of Laurie Baker's ideas for architecture. Most of the houses here are in bricks and they are quite simple. The pictures above are of Ar. Rohit Shinkre's studio house where he comes occasionally on weekends to work peacefully on his designs.

The house is a spiral on a contoured land. Steps take to you landings that become livable spaces. The upper floor has a studio room which takes a table. The most interesting part is the roof - the timber free cost effective filler slab roof. It gave a clean look and also felt very light. The spaces inside were voluminous. However, I remember one comment made by Gautam - he said that the siting of the house doesn't allow enough circulation of air. Probably he was right.

The moss that grew over irrespective over every thing looked really interesting and fascinating. It filled up the cracks of benches, made the sloping roofs green and made the rough bricks soft. Layers of leaves coloured the floor. I did not see much flowers. Over all my experience was boring.

Firstly, I am not a great fan of Laurie Baker. I feel his works are lifeless. Secondly, the green was overpowering. Something was missing. Thirdly, the house we stayed in was far too basic. We did not talk to any one, students did not interact, probably they were too tired of the week and Shinkre's lecture was a lecture!

Just putting up more pics here!

Architecture & Time

2011-07-22T04:09:00.001-07:00

Download & Read

Presented at Guild Art Gallery

on Architecture & Time

Titled: Time = Distance / Speed

Of Unknown Imagic Realities II

2011-07-22T02:40:00.001-07:00

The elephant was inside a house that had a glass facade. It almost occupied the entire volume of the simplistic house. Its head was tied using cables to its mezzanine. The elephant struggled to get out of the glassed cage. There was an equally big elephant outside on the other side of the glass. Was it a mirror image? Both the elephants struggled to hug each other. I wondered how they stood up on their hind legs. I had always heard that elephants cant jump - and here they were almost trying to hug each other.

At a distance, I was trying to light up a few matchsticks to make some light, since it was beginning to grow darker. While holding the lit up matches in one hand, I tried to remove my Samsung star from the other to capture the 'elephant struggle' in my camera phone. A little away, behind me, the keeper of the place came out of his administrative block to interrogate me. By then, I wasn't able to take position of my matchstick with the camera. Seeing the keeper approach, I dropped down the burning sticks. He saw me dropping them and I began to apologize.

By the time he came to me, I again turned to the elephants. The trapped elephant was growing fierce and finally broke the glass facade. I was scared. He was still tied.

In the mean time, I saw another man coming closer to me. He was a policeman - although he seemed an American! He had seen me drop the match sticks too. I thought he would take me to jail, assuming I was a terrorist - I was playing with fire.

The alarm rang and then I got up.

Chats on architecture

2011-07-19T09:38:00.001-07:00

18 minutes agoAnuj Daga

poetic modernism

how does that sound?

really?

he told me he met hejduk

18 minutes agoFriend

actually all the modernists had a poetic edge about them

18 minutes agoAnuj Daga

ummm

explain

17 minutes agoFriend

like I guess the poetic thing you are getting in the forms...but if you see drawings of these people...they were poetic when they drew

guess you'll have put yourself in their shoe

17 minutes agoAnuj Daga

someone told me that modernism wasnt about form at all

16 minutes agoFriend

well it was a response...to past

lets say modernist shed all the symbolic facades

15 minutes agoAnuj Daga

what kind of response?

15 minutes agoFriend

but then while sheding they adopted a symbol

if you'll see hejduk's drawings you'll find very strong shapes

13 minutes agoAnuj Daga

true

but he also made very free flowing shapes

his wall house?

remember?

12 minutes agoFriend

yea...but you see best way to study modernism would be to study flw...who simply rubbished international architecture lead corbu n all

but if you see flw also never adopted ornamentation

11 minutes agoAnuj Daga

interesting

didnt he?

i think he did

11 minutes agoFriend

and while going through all the works of his from past...they were forms volume...one leading to other

11 minutes agoFriend

and mies adopted from flw

11 minutes agoAnuj Daga

flw probably influenced every one who followed him

heheh

but how did mies adopt flw?

9 minutes agoFriend

I'll have to find a peace where adolf loos, flw are mentioned with mies

Mies anyway left germany to work in USA

piece

9 minutes agoAnuj Daga

aha

9 minutes agoFriend

where FLW worked

you'll see a video of flw roaming in a cart with a journalist rubbishing a mies building

7 minutes agoAnuj Daga

hahaha

where is this

i want to see

7 minutes agoFriend

its a complete series of movie made on flw

like they make on architect

the independent walls ceilings of mies was influenced by flw

4 minutes agoFriend

After 1923, Mies's style shifted, and he came heavily under the influence of Dutch neo-plasticism and Russian suprematism. The former influence, along with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, drove Mies to experiment with independent walls and ceilings arranged in an open, pin-wheeling manner. The latter influence drove Mies to consider the reduction and abstraction of these elements into dynamic and contrapuntal compositions of pure shapes in space. Mies was enthralled with the free-flowing spaces of inter-connected rooms which encompass their outdoor surroundings as demonstrated by the open floor plans of the American Prairie Style work of Frank Lloyd Wright. These experiments culminated in one of Mies van der Rohe's most significant works, the German Pavilion built for the Barcelona World Exposition in 1929.

about a minute agoAnuj Daga

that was crisp summary

more...please...

Of now

2011-07-19T09:35:00.001-07:00

Today I learnt a very important thing in a very soft way - that what one is talking about or writing about has to be relevant to now and ahead. Probably history had fascinated me so much that I just fell into reproducing much of it!! There is so much in history - people have churned out so many ideas that there the future seems to be so competitive! I think in this phase of my life, I will have to spend all my time in only knowing what all has been really done already. The next phase of my life should begin by the age of 35. If life discovers that I am extraordinary, then perhaps this phase may be smaller. But I think life is not so generous!

Anuj keeps on telling me a lot of stuff which I keep on forgetting. Some day, I will introduce Anuj to you all. I don't yet know how to present him to you. He keeps on questioning all irrational ideas that come to my mind. Sometimes I feel irritated with him. But he is one composed fellow who never seems to have any problem. I am very jealous of him. Very.

Meanwhile, I am stuck with my paper, especially since that first comment that someone made. It has become so descriptive that it seem stale now. It also turned out to be a writing exercise! I will have to revise it in the next few hours so that I am able to present tomorrow!!

Jewel Building

2011-07-17T11:25:00.001-07:00

There is something fascinating about the big buildings that are coming up these days.

One of them here absolutely stuns me as we pass by Mahalakshmi station. We call it the jewel. It is brilliantly lit up every evening.

Bomb Attacks: Curating events in the City

2011-07-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

Terrorists are such great curators. It's not only about exploding a bomb. From the terrorists' perspective, it is about exploding a bomb at the right place at the right time in the right way. They prepare for it for months, or probably years together.

The purpose of the whole act is also to construct a meaning in space through multiple references that they draw from previous events in history, through the creation of a situation. It is very situationist in that sense!
Imagine thinking about a date (number 13) matching earlier blast dates, co-inciding with Kasab's birthday again in the period of July...also the same time...There will be more alignments which news channels will eventually bring out!

This planning is highly curatorial. If any of these alignments with history was missed, the reading of yesterday's event would fade. I am sure, all this is not incidental. In this reading, terrorists may be seen as highly creative and artistic people. Their execution is clean - all the time, every time. If they were architecture students, they would always get an A+!

Bomb attacks in Mumbai happen like earthquakes in Japan or The Berlin Biennale. It's weird that I am writing about the bombs in Bombay for the third time on my blog since I started it in 2006! I did not want to curse the system this time. Probably we should be tired of it.

We must make friends with the terrorists and tell them the right places to bomb - those may lie in Delhi. Probably what we can learn from the terrorists is their dedication to execute a job right till the end successfully.

To end, Belated Happy Birthday Kasab. Hope you liked the celebrations. Although you did not make many people happy. Instead of people wishing for your life, they are only wishing for your death.

Bomb in the Museum

2011-07-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

Investigations into the physical manifestation of fear in the city

Post the terror attacks, where on one hand, there is a lot of rage in the pubic mind, there is an induction of tremendous fear on the other. We see the manifestation of the fear in urban environment in the form of increased security booths, check points, CCTVs and upgradation of existing infrastructure.

Bomb is a volatile explosive. It has become a common object of everyday discussion, still maintaining its destructive position. As an object, the bomb remains suspicious and follows no particular schedule to explode in the course of city life. Explosions happen. However, bomb is an explosive only when ignited. If placed in a museum, a bomb is just an exhibit.

The city is a container of objects, people, infrastructure and above all – ideas and memories. It is here when all physical substance in the city becomes exhibit. The city gives a large canvas to all the matter to exist in the backdrop of each other. Therefore, like the museum, the city is a storehouse of myriad objects and activities, contributing towards memories, histories and events.

Bomb in the Museum thus allows a dual perception of both, the bomb and the museum. The museum is a storehouse of memories, like the city, but also in an explosive state because of the presence of the bomb.

The city’s behaviour to this bomb is aberrant. To some, the bomb invokes, to some, it inspires and to some, the bomb just scares – others just ignore it. Each of such behaviours ultimately results into some kind of explosion – personal or public. These explosions might be diverse in nature and either work towards improvement of the museum/metropolis or destroy/harm the city which may again gear towards improvement. Both these acts are indicators of some physical action in the city, which affect indirectly the city’s functioning, the city’s perception and its behaviour.

The museum’s behaviour towards the visitor is important because that may also lead towards the creation of a ‘bomb’/the exhibit. Thus user in turn defines a space for the artifact – the bomb, through the nature of their movement around the exhibit. This space is either repellent or attractive, it creates its own domain. Thus the exhibit controls the actions of the visitors in the museum, and the visitors remain in disguise about the fact that the bomb is their own creation.

How do people’s thoughts become the ingredient of supplanting a bomb?

e.g.: Statue of Thakerey’s wife at Shivaji Park is a bomb as well as an exhibit in the city. It creates its own space and own behavioural pattern.

An investigation into which spaces are used for realizing and placing such bombs: What tension such spaces exist in and what is the nature of a volatile space? How does a bomb, which is an exhibit first has the potential to explode the museum itself?

(another obscure fragmented idea developed during 2009)
seems like the right time to publish it here!

Orientation Workshop AOA 2009-10

2011-07-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Things which probably all forgot. Some beautiful drawings of students from my archives. We did an orientation programme at our own humble scale for students who joined AOA in 2009-10. We showed them films, read a book and deconstructed and married objects to open up ideas then...
These never got published, never got recognized and were never spoken about again...I don't even know it students cared! I mailed them a copy, and got no response!

Arrangements

2011-07-10T01:55:00.000-07:00

Every morning when I see the fruit sellers on the D'silva street at Dadar, I go crazy with the amount of things I imagine. Edging the pavement on both sides, they all sit arranging various kinds of fruits in their baskets. The round basket sets the meta-geometry for the arrangement of their fruits. They try to line the edge of the basket through the geometry of each fruit. I think it's like playing or solving a jigsaw puzzle. Although each piece of this puzzle seems same, their smaller variations need to be manipulated for a crisp arrangement all the time. This probably must be a meditating exercise in itself.

Can I, for the sake of generalizing these shapes of various vegetables and fruits, call them objects? Let us treat them as objects for my discussion here.

The various parameters that dictate the arrangements are the shape, size and the material of the object. The size that the arrangement can achieve is also dictated by the above three parameters.

most of these objects are spherical and therefore are stacked into concentric rings over each other. Each following ring in smaller than the previous to keep the centre of gravity within the basket. Objects like mangoes, apples, etc. are treated as eggs and one can find papier mache crates these days to accommodate them. Apples have the luxury of having styrofoam jackets also.

Probably the most careful handling amongst all the fruits would be that of the black berries (kala jamuns). In my childhood days, I have thrown a lot of stones at jamun trees to have the pleasurable fruit. Jamuns are very delicate and much of them are destroyed by crows and rodents. They shake them off the trees, and the fruit is destroyed due to the impact of the fall. Ripe jamuns are very delicate. And one can see with how much care the vendors treat it. It must also be a very delicate process to pluck them off the tree such that we can enjoy the beauty of the smooth skin of the fruit with our tongues! The vendors carry and arrange each fruit with so much care...like a jewel. Further, I am fascinated by their arrangements.

Depending on the size of the fruit, the arrangements look like fort walls, pyramids, stone walls, etc. I enjoy looking at these compositions and keep wondering if these can be used a building blocks! Even otherwise, they look beautifully composed objects. The order is functional, completely. Probably the most interesting arrangements are those of flatter objects like leaves, of different plants. The colocasia, or the lotus or beetle leaves. They actually give more cues for arrangement of objects. The dynamic shapes that their configuration eventually takes is worth watching. They are like giving an array command to a shape. Also like scripting. One module multiplied and arranged just by displacing its position.

Forms, surfaces, voids - all of them create beautifully. I wonder if this craft of arrangement can be pulled into some kind of knowledge? Meanwhile, they remain interesting engagements.

Being cynical

2011-07-09T23:19:00.001-07:00

Some people had told me important things which either I have not succeeded to implement yet, or probably I have developed habits which will take time to wash off. One of these was to accept people as they are. To accept human nature. To accept that the way people are behaving is natural. That the difference we see in people and activities around us is a matter of our own conditioning. Does everyone believe equally strongly in they own conditioning? I think I do. And I may be completely unreasonable.

In the course of life, conditioning stops at a certain stage. Till a certain age, one and one's actions are conditioned by the institutions that one engages in. We completely submit in these institutions and construct our values through their learning. Once you are outside the aura of the institutions, you meet a new world. This world is completely different from that of rules, codes and values. Those conditionings that the institutions taught you make you uncomfortable now, since now, you are not operating in a group (either the family as a groups, or the school as a group or the neighbourhood as a group - all are governed by certain rules - said or unsaid). I think it is here where the process of judgment starts.

Which of these institutions is strongest I dont know. But our constructs take on values filtering through the strength of these institutions. To make it simpler, an example would be that if your school teaches you not to lie and the family teaches you that lying for someone else's good is okay, then the way you act in a situation where you have to make a lying-based decision will be filtered through the ideal school principle, then the family - since it encompasses the lie. So you will end up accepting to lie.

I think the above is slightly complex and I can not even begin to explain it. But I am just trying to understand if there is any ONE single way of behaviour which satisfies all groups. Can there really be an ideal human being?

Ah Plato!

At this stage in life, i am beginning to be extremely cynical. I am whining far too much. I think it is the difference of conditioning that I was talking about. Things are not as we were taught by the institutions. And the institutions didnot tell us how to handle this situation. How do you handle oneself being cynical? Being too critical - is it what I just enjoy for the heck of it? I have to find why am I being critical? Is it even helping? What is it doing? It's irritating me.

Who is a Marxist?

2011-07-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

What is it to be a Marxist?
Shubhalakshmi explained me in a very simple manner.
To believe that all conditions that we experience and that the way in which society is organized / structured; is due to a certain kind of means of production is a Marxist thought. The Marxist locates entire history in the materiality of life and the means of production. It is an ideology which bases values like morals, ethics and other social relations also on the material world. Thus, the thought is an extreme version of rationality which locates the cause and effect of all situations in the real physical world. To also understand every one as equal (the socialist thought) and to regard every one to have equal stake over every resource is another characteristic of a Marxist.

Thus a Marxist may not believe in the existence of God, since God is non-physical. God is an idea, would say a Marxist. That irrationalities are also a part of the modern world is still not a reason to believe in something extra-real. The Marxist theory probably doesnot regard the spiritual grounding of certain systems of thought. A majority of India still operates through its belief in rituals, customs, traditions and spiritual thoughts. Such systems of thought believe that life is not so much about the material, but the non-material. It emphasizes on the ideas of space, void, tantra, etc. - things that can not be explained simply.

***

Why did the prehistoric people paint in the deep dark recesses of the caves? (referring to a hunting act painting in the Lascaux caves)
She said:
It is a belief that the practice of drawing was an exercise in practicing the act of hunting. The pre historic people probably thought that the spirit of the animal is trapped in its image. So the production of the image was like rehearsing the act of hunting through the image. In deep recesses, one has to focus light on the painting. The darkness gave an opportunity to focus on the animal and the act (specific parts of the painting). The painting thus became a knowledge to be passed on. It became a cultural object of preserve.

(Now perhaps this won't be a marxist explanation for the cave painting...)

***

When a dot walks, it becomes a line
When a line walks, it becomes a plane.

-Paul Klee.

What's in a Name?

2011-07-03T01:44:00.000-07:00

I have been recently receiving lots of gifts from friends, students - and it is overwhelming and embarrassing! I am not used to accepting gifts now and especially when I don't feel to have done any thing for any one...
the first one above is a thank you card from Nandita Rebello, who expressed her thanks for our discussions on her thesis.

The second one is by Areeba, my student who visited Istanbul during this summer vacation...Probably this could have been the best essence of the place she could have got back for anyone! I can still feel the artist curving his fingers carefully to shape my name - the script reminds me very strongly of Urdu, yet it's english.

In both the above, I kept looking at the lines for some time, only to realize later that they were my names!! I never thought someone could engage with a name so passionately...
But these are probably things which I shall cherish for a life time...

Thank you all!

Symbology / The Cosmic Sexuality

2011-07-03T01:19:00.000-07:00

Mazgaon

2011-07-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

I keep thinking if i could gaze at a city like this forever. From this viewpoint, or probably higher, it would almost seem that buildings are shooting up like wild grass...

However, they look seductive - the picture perfect city...and when you move into these lanes, you feel they are almost going to fall over you - it hurts your neck to turn obtuse to look at tall towers...but from here it was comfortable. Skylines like that of Mumbai are a pleasure. For most, they become logos that mean different things: the architect will put it in the visiting card (as something that he/she shapes), the economist will use it in maps of the economy, the real estate in planning their next tall tower, children in their memory drawing of the city - only a distanced view is seductive. Lines that only go up and come down...is the city as easy as that?

Mumbai Central

2011-07-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Things I don't understand!

2011-06-28T05:56:00.000-07:00

Corruption in India?

2011-06-27T04:32:00.000-07:00

I stepped down the staircase of the railway station only to be stopped by the ticket examiner. I confidently took out my wallet, pulled out my pass. He indicated, it's the old one. I started re-searching my wallet for the new one (I have this old habit of keeping old passes for some time, but this time I was quite sure I didn't keep them to confuse myself at a later date). And after finding no trace of a new pass, I reverted to the TTE to ask for the date.

It was 22-6-2011. The present was already 25-6-11.

I realized that I had mis-read the date 22 as 29; only due to a printing error (see picture).

Without arguing with the TTE, I offered him to pay the fine. I didnot want to make a scene out of myself and neither did I want the TTE to boss over me. He took me along and I wondered why. The fact was that he didnot want to give me a receipt.

On the way to the TTE room, he asked me, where are you coming from? I answered, Goregaon. Will you go back? I answered - what have you got to do with it anyway? He thought I would argue with him to reduce the fine, which ultimately would go in his pocket. I remained terse. I refused to answer to his questions because I didnot want to waste time and I was already willing to pay the fine.

"Will you do this mistake again?" he asked. I told him, "Look: I have been travelling by the train since the last 10 years of my life and this is one of those occasions where I forgot to check the date of renewal of my ticket!" He remained quiet. They hushed each other - "Let's help him...(demanding from me) give us 160 rupees." I said, fine, give me a receipt. They said, ok, how much money do you have?

I said, "I am ready to pay the fine, give me the receipt..."

Finally feeling guilt, he pulled out the receipt booklet and tore a bill of 260 Rs. for me.

I paid Rs. 500/- and collected the receipt to move. Only as I moved out, I realized that I hadn't collected the change back. I went back and demanded the remaining money. He pulled out plenty of Rs. 500/- ; Rs. 100/- notes and gave me my change back.

I wondered how much they would be earning per day. Apart from exercising my morals here, I think it showed the state of affairs of the country. On one hand we have the likes of Anna Hazare going on fasts for eradicating corruption and on the other are these shameless bunch of idiots absolutely non-interrupted or aroused by the movement.

I just felt later, "How else do you support Anna Hazare?"

Of those hundreds of young people who go and shout or join hands and make rallies, would they stop bribing the traffic police on their faults, or for ticket-less traveling or to save an inch of their pocket money? Would they stop succumbing to such situations where the system offers you to let go? And we as a civil society suck up to corruption all the time...Youngsters have no option but to save up! It's the guilt at home that they want to avoid. Moreso, it's our parental pressure that we want to avoid! Break a rule and you will be disallowed from an activity. Pass a red signal and you will be disallowed to use the bike....

Fear.
This is how we avoid or cover it up!

I wonder, how it didnot pinch me to pay Rs. 260/-. Probably I was capable of paying the fine, I wasn't answerable to my parents (because I am financially independent now), and above all, there is a general mood of anti-corruption drive and I thought I had done nothing for it.

At the end, 3 lessons to learn:

1. Read the ticket date properly.

2. You can choose the way others would/should behave.

3. You can support civil-drives by engaging actively in them rather than going for stand up performances (candle lights, processions, rallies, etc.). It begins in the gut. [And here, am I just counter-arguing the "mood of the drive" point that I made earlier? I guess no. ]

The mood is not an outward influence for me. One has to practise it from inside to be able to realize it. Then one has to live by it, however costly it may be. I think that's how you 'pay the price' for your ideals and morals...

I am happy to have made the TTE feel guilty! Although just for 5 seconds! If I could have read his mind, I would have loved to know if he could sleep that day...

(the questions are: we will change...but will they? would this money be still used for better purposes, in this case, the upkeep of the bloody printer which mis printed / ill-printed the date, which could have saved my money and avoided confusion? what happens to the system which is itself plagued, people are ready to change, but the system itself wants the people to be corrupt....where in this society are we talking about development? where no one is content, everyone is hungry for money, even that which is completely not theirs...maybe I am getting to moralistic here. But the point remains, we are in a system and we decide how it works.)

(now is it a good example of dagagiri?)

On the move

2011-06-26T00:11:00.000-07:00

Objects & Newness

2011-06-25T02:03:00.000-07:00

What is it about newness that we don't disturb it? Why do we like to preserve newness of things? Of the many things (objects), stationery is something that people wish to keep fresh and new forever. We like to keep our diaries fresh, we like to keep our new pens fresh. We preserve it from overuse. I have so many paper products which I have never used only to keep them fresh. I keep waiting for all other options to fail to begin the use of a new fountain pen...We always wish if pencils were always long, or we always wish the pencil colours always remained brand new. Is it because all such things have very short life? Do we want things with short life to live long? Such things sensitize our delicate relationship with things, objects.

But the beauty of these things appears, comes out only once they are used! I have stopped keeping myself attached to the newness of new things. Now a days I don’t wait for too long to put a new thing to use. I have realised that I waste a lot of things to time only because I want to eternalize them. Sketch pens dry out, pencil colours fade away, pencils sog, erasers melt, papers turn yellow... But invariably, either I outdate them or they die! What is the use of a dead object? (a dead object would mean an object which has surpassed its utilitarian life). A dead object only preserves visual beauty. But the visual beauty of any object is perhaps in its entirety. We love to look at crisp sharpened long pencils.

The use of an object can be a beautiful...the writing that you produce with a pencil or pen can be beautiful. The drawing that you sketch with a sketch pen can be beautiful. The paper on which you paint can be beautiful. But still, so many times, we misattribute this value of beauty to the existence of the object than what it does / produces. Is it our love for objects? Fetish? In a world of too individualist or isolated people, we probably develop close relationships with objects, such that sometimes we start loving them and wanting to preserve them forever...

Objects store memories, objects have stories, objects connect you to people and they also engage you with themselves sensorially. In these ways, objects live lives and give meaning to our existence. Objects take on adjectives that we use for our living counterparts. Thus the world of objects is as vast as the world of people. I have only spoken of utilitarian objects yet, and the idea of utility itself is to be exploded...and meanwhile I think I wouldnt get into that!

After all, objects are not butterflies. You could preserve dead butterflies, which look visually appealing an can be kept – and that is only because we donot use butterflies. (ironically, living things become objects once they die)!

Moving Figures

2011-06-24T03:18:00.000-07:00

The Shoe Shiner

2011-06-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Climbing down the station steps, I decided to board the next train, skipping the one which had already arrived….

The platform seat being occupied by only one person, I did not miss the opportunity of having a seat till the next train arrived. The seat was cold…made out of some mortar containing marble chips. Just next to the seat, where I was sitting on the edge, stood the steel stanchions holding the roof of the station. The two c-shaped sections facing each other inwardly hid the rainwater down-take pipe.

Suddenly, I heard some clanging and banging from the seat underneath. But soon I realized that it was only the polish walah, who was trying to remove his wooden box which was chained to a hole in the leg of the seat. The chain passed through the hole and then the gap between the two c-sections, which made a lot of noise while he opened it. Carrying the box through the handle on its top face, he circumambulated the stanchion, kept it in the front keeping enough space between the column and the box, for him to sit. Here, he took his final position.

The box was quite fascinating…its edges had smoothened out due to everyday in and out! Completely dark and almost black, it had accumulated a lot of dust from the station floor, from passers-by, from the railway tracks and all the sources one can think of. The size of the box was small. It was easy to carry, maintain and move. Added to the chained security, the box too had a separate lock…a small lock which the owner promptly opened.

The box was completely hollow, and stuffed with some of his belongings - which he took out one by one… a plastic-bag was one of the first things he removed. Then he removed his shirt and redressed himself with the shirt in the plastic bag. Then suddenly, he opened a drawer inside the box! This drawer was barely an inch deep made in the same material as that of the box. It had a partition, dividing it into two halves. One contained a comb and a circular mirror and nothing else and other had some money. He promptly took up the comb and holding the mirror in the other hand, he made-up himself. Then, adjusting himself properly in the position, as he had to sit there for the whole day, he started putting back the things, which were not needed, into the box. And the things he needed were taken out one by one again…

The polish walah had a worn out brush… the profile of the bristles of the brush had almost changed from a straight edge into into a parabola… the swing of the brush, which rubbed the face of the shoe. He quickly examined the brush and removed the dried polish of the earlier day, from its bristles. As he took out his small circular polish box, one could see hundreds of tiny pores in it, finer than the bristles of the brush.

Other than these two things, he also had a roll of cloth - much like a doctor’s bandage, although synthetic. Usually polish walahs use it to bring out the luster of the polish on the shoe. The polish walah unrolled it, examined it and then rolled it again.

The box of the polish walah was quite an architectural piece. Minimum in detail, it still had a complexity. The handle on the top of the box was not merely used as a handle, but the real purpose was to rest the foot with the shoe to be polished. The height was maintained such that the shoe would just be in level and aligned with the chest. This allowed an easy movement of the hand and also proper view for the eye. Not only that, the customer also feels it comfortable. He does not have to rise up his knee till the waist. The edges were of course worn out of time, but it seemed to be a detail in itself.

(old unfinished writing, 2005)

Unpublished Archives

2011-06-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

Looking back in my archives, I have found that I have a plenty of un developed writing ideas that I thought of in my past. Those ideas are outlines (literally) and I have had no time to write elaborately on them. There are ideas to write on the city, people, self, architecture, things around - all of them are just lying as ideas. I dont know what will happen of those outlines. there are intensive documentations of certain events that I experienced, phases of time, reflections on the self...

But meanwhile, i have started collecting some significant stuff on areas of my interest...and so I am slowly turning into more focused thought and writing. Due to this, I observe that the nature of my writing has changed to a documentative mode rather than the earlier self-exploration mode.

I wonder whether people stop blogging when they get absolutely serious with writing? I think I will too, at some point of time. I can feel that strain - especially when there is already so much that has already been explored in writing, what new do you produce? Rather, you question if whatever you produce is even significant? But on the other hand, you write for your readers, the assumed ones, whom you think are interested in you - isn't it? And one can so conveniently overrule their desire to peep into you! And when you know that you can make some people happy by sharing a slice of yourself with them, you feel that you are so powerful...

Nevertheless, I think this writing can remain till I keep struggling with my thoughts, myself...But one day, I will also be able to decide or put all the undeveloped writings that I have on my PC! Till then, I keep working on ideas.

Recent Bold Buildings

2011-06-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

in the city

The Mondrian Shop

2011-06-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

My recent Interior project.

Here is some process work.

More details later.

Measure of an Idea

2011-06-15T04:10:00.001-07:00

Architects produce ideas. They produce ideas for consumption, if we may say so. They also earn a living out of selling ideas. Selling is an exchange of things for money. In monetary sense, what is the value of ideas? How was this value of ideas produced by architects fixated? So, the COA said that the architects' fees shall be a percentage of the project cost. The project cost is essentially the cost of the material and labour used in the project. The labour cost issue is again somewhat like the "valuation of ideas" debate. But it could be well understood through the Marxist theory.

But Marx didnot really talk about the compensation of the intellect!! In a Marxist sense, either we are labour, or we must not be compensated the way we are.

Anyway, coming back to the COA, it said that, for example, the fees of the interior designer shall be 10% of the project cost. It says two things:

Money --> directly proportional to bulk of used material

Value of ideas --> directly proportional to cost of material.

Ofcourse, thats why we have some interior designers fiddling with a lot of materials and costs.

But could it also mean, that the price of an idea is the amount of material manifest it can bring about? That might be a very small, at the same time very large question. Then what about ideas that never manifest yet have value? How are they priced? What I am intending to say is that in this world, its not only the material that has exchange value...how is the immaterial valued then? Who decides it? How? And why cant be an architect's ideas regarded as ideas and paid as the measure of an idea. How do you measure an idea? The COA has conveniently measured through its material manifest...

The question still remains, how do you measure an idea?

Television v/s Internet

2011-06-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

These days I dont engage in television at all. I mean i dont know what to watch on it!! Funny.
But some time ago, my friend Ankit shared an interesting observation. The television is something that keeps on showing you images even when you dont ask for it. You switch it on and you have a plethora of choices for consuming any kind of image you want. This can actually be a two way thing. People can see TV, rather even stare at it for no reason and it will still keep on changing its content. Thus, probably it will keep you engaged, even if it's the most mundane way.

Ankit stays away from his home in this city. So he has no television to kill his time at home. He feels bored sometimes. I told him: "Dude, you have the net, why do you worry? You can watch anything over there and now-a-days all TV stuff is available on you-tube"

Now this is the interesting part of the answer. He said: "Yes, but you have to search the internet for what you want. It doesnt give you things just without asking." Probably thats why we call TV the Idiot box - it's actually a transferred epithet. It makes you an idiot, without you knowing what you want to watch sometimes.

These days, I spend a lot of time with the internet digging out things, reading, collecting, putting different things together, talking to people, their ideas...and all that. And TV seems really futile to me. What this suggests is that not only I have become too focused with what I want to do, but it also suggests a shift in culture of spending time with an object. In this focus, I overlook a lot of things, which are a constant botheration to my father. My father is perpetually interested in knowing the current. And I keep telling him, the current is too distracting for me because I am interested in history! That may be very naiive answer right now. But I just avoid getting into a debate with him, particularly when I know I am going to lose over his wisdom that I does not approve of!

The fact that you have to know something to be able to use the internet as opposed to just staring at the TV which gives information for free (in a conceptual sense - ofcourse you pay your tv bill), was interesting.
In another conceptual sense, the television can be seen as a producer of a vast archive of societal constructs of images. It can become good amount of growing data for research in various subjects.

However, things will soon change when TV becomes digital. Then, everything will be available on the net and you can consider internet as another idiot box. And we shall then have infinite images strolling all around us with us not being able to decide where to invest our time...That will be absolute madness. That's not far really, we are almost on the verge of this technology taking over!

Why does my skepticism propound I don't know. What makes me insecure with this, I don't know...

Electronics & culture

2011-06-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

Before the christian era, the knowledge of self was constituted through the awareness of the physical sensations (touch, smell, taste, see, hear). Knowledge was a collection of sensory impressions.

As the electronic age takes over, a great insecurity of losing this sensorial information / perception looms over many people. Will the electronic take over the senses completely? Can it only replicate our perceptions? does it operate only in the mental virtual space?

The transformation of existing objects and the creation of newer ones constantly bring about cultural changes in our interaction with the material world. After all, we exist for the material and the material exists for us. Does the e-world lay more emphasis on the non-material. The electronic makes us realize the phenomena of how we have actually converted so much of the non-material world (ideas) into material. For example, books, maps, or all kinds of representations of the world! All representations will now change their physical manifest due to the change in technology. A book now, in its physicality is thus a silicon chip. For that matter, a lot of different forms of physical data is going back to a absolute form - the silicon servers!

In some way, because the electronics change the immediate physical space around us, we as humans change too, in the way we behave, engage, move, etc. Thus our bodies will change, because our work cultures will change...

But more than anything else, what intrigues me is the emphasis from the physical world to the non-physical...Didn't the jain philosophy say that the world is an illusion? maya? Are we confirming it? I wonder...

Culture of Reading

2011-06-09T05:18:00.000-07:00

Prakriti told me some very interesting things about the culture of reading. She said that she prefers reading physical books rather than reading them on screen or online. She said she likes the experience of the weight of the book transferring from her right hand to her left as she finishes it over time. She enjoys the smell, the texture of the paper and the size of the book in hand.

On screen, she said, is a different culture of reading. Neither do you experience the above, nor it is anything more than a visual interface. The intensity of the screen, the brightness of different displays are not suited to reading. Reading is also about seeing a certain text on a paper in a certain kind of light. Moreover, you keep on zooming in and out of the screen. Computers do not even help bookmarking.

Thus, books may not be completely erased. They shall exist for the archaic reader, for readers like me and Prakriti. For many more like us. The generation who is already born in the age of computer and the mobile shall definitely take up to the culture of carrying e books! I must say Prakriti's observations are very sensitive.

Band-Aid

2011-06-07T21:14:00.000-07:00