dagagiri
my blog is my archive
Friday, October 31, 2025
Capitalist Landscape vs Communist Landscape
Friday, October 24, 2025
Matrix of Spatial Concepts / Architectural Representation Studio
In 2019, the focus of the second semester Architectural Representation studio at SEA was to introduce hybrid drawing, i.e blending hand-drawing and digital techniques of image making. Rather than maintaining it as a passive skill-building studio, our attempt was to push students to find their own ways of creating an imagery for a given provocation.
Two aspects were mobilized simultaneously:
1. Basic introduction to key softwares (AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign and Google Sketchup)
2. A provocation, where each student was asked to select from a matrix of words, resulting in a phrase that would become their brief for representation.
The matrix for the provocation is as shown above. Students were asked to pick one word from each column to arrive at their "brief". Individual selections from the columns of the table resulted into unexpected, but imaginative propositions like: “Room of crowded ghosts” or “Pavilion above dark trees”. Through referencing artists, architects and graphic designers, the studio worked out possibilities of visually representing each of the phrases, in order to open up image-making in architectural representation as an important tool towards argumentation, evocation and imagination of space.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Investigative thoughts on translating music into space
The frequency bar graph of any music system displays a graph of the different aspects of music on a two dimensional Cartesian grid where the amount of frequencies of different tones are measured. While this can be an empirical measure of sound, the experience of the entirety of music is certainly not so isolated. That means, we do not experience music in its constituent individual tones, rather it is a holistic multidimensional one; where the streams of rounds create a complete environment affecting one physical as well as emotional senses at the same time. Thus using the frequency bar graphs of soundscapes that appear on digital screens offer an accurate measure of tones, but don't give us an accurate method or measure of experience. I therefore find it quite redundant as a tool to use in order to make something tangible from music into architecture.
The way in which music translates into space needs to be investigated through the framework of the musician. A musician, - a vocalist, instrumentalist or any such virtuoso is consciously striking specific chords in order to create a space in the mind of his / her audience, or creating a particular kind of environment for the listener. In this, he / she is also perceiving certain qualities of the environment, in quite an abstract fashion, and for his own practice of making music for the audience. In this, The musician has quite subconsciously articulated a method to work out space into music and further deploy it too. This particular method needs to be learnt by the architect.
In quite direct terms, music has the obvious highs and lows, the adjectives of three dimensional space that come to define certain characteristics of music. Such adjectives offer the most ready means for music to be interpreted as spatial. In terms of a phenomenological experience for the performer, it means (For a vocalist) Singing in head voice for higher note, while from the belly for a lower note. The high and lows in the standard upright position & balance of the body then, are quite literally, but also pragmatically up and down in the body respectively. In terms / for the listener, it either creates a mood of excitement, charging up the body to swing and more with the performer or make oneself sombre, melancholic through the low notes. There is ample theory on how moods are actually created by a selection of sharp and flat notes (for Indian classical music) and then through movements of through notes, in both, Indian and Western Classical music. One thing, that has to be rather. specified in that while curtain association with certain kinds of music or forces are already established for us in both the above music systems, I constantly like to challenge them in terms of feeling what it actually does to me as against the expected or prescribed effect. However, this can also be a factor that may be left up to the subjectivity of the listener. For example, the association of stately Western classical music or Baroque music is a matter of association, or I wonder if one genuinely can understand It to belong only to that context. Similarly certain ragas sung in certain time periods may purely be a historic experience.
In our detached, isolated and mobile environment that we listen to music today, one wonders how these historic associations work themselves out. In history, listening to music (and therefore the production to space) must certainly not have been an individualistic affair. Then comes the idea of volume, depths and perspective - all that closely relate to architecture and space there characteristics are definitely more about technique of using notes.
The question finally is, what essentially do we represent when we are understanding music in order to translate into architecture? Is it the literal redistribution of particles that are visible on digital pads, is it the bar sheet on which notations for music are written? Or is it the rhythmic changes in tones and melodies through subjective experiences that are shown on paper? In all three, the understanding of music is merely visual. But what does it mean for architecture? Do we then assume that in architecture, the experience of music can only be usual? Or is there a way to actually create a space which induces a musical feeling?
These are incomplete ongoing long term thoughts.
Sunday, September 21, 2025
Four Learnings from Gautam Bhan
Gautam Bhan is one of the foremost academics advocating how environments in the Global South need their own theory. Over the last two years, I have had the opportunity of dabbling into a lot of discussion on knowledge production within the Global south, as well as the urge to decolonise education in this region. In my effort to give meaning to what "decolonise" means in academia, and how does one think of performing it, I indulged myself in Bhan's talks, from one of which, I got some very tangible ideas for academic practice. Here they are:
The ability to translate
Academics are not able to translate their language in different scenarios/situations and therefore they feel silenced. Academics speak in largely academic situations/settings because they are almost sure that it is (going to be) the space from where the validation of their language comes from, and thus are trapped in the "seduction of the academia"
Automatic Modernity
Bhan points out how the project of modernism gives an automatic direction to aspiration - and to aspire has to come to mean to be modern. This conceptual relationship between modernity (read modernity coming from the West) and the desire for progress and the engine of aspiration needs to be challenged. That is the culture work academics have to collectively undertake, Bhan suggests.
On Insularity of Academic Voice
Bhan says that no one stops academics from writing, intervening and performing in domains outside of academia. Therefore, academics cannot afford to stay within the bubble of knowledge production of academia and lament that the world outside is not listening to them. The must actively find audiences and write in their language to make their knowledge and findings about the world more accessible.
On Theory from the North
Bhan says that we need to "particularize" Northern theory - meaning, theory coming from the north is not universal theory, and that it must be assigned a status that it is a theory of that place - and therefore, it cannot be "the" way of doing/thinking things everywhere, rather, "a" way in which things happen somewhere, and therefore all ways of doing things hold value and knowledge because they are inherently embedded in certain values of a place.
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
On Existentialism
एक गोष्ट
"मी जन्माला आलो नसतो तर किती बरं झालं असतं," ब्राह्मण म्हणाला.
"का रे, बाबा?" मी विचारले.
"कारण," तो म्हणाला, "गेली चाळीस वर्ष मी अध्ययन करतो आहे आणि मला वाटतं, हा सर्व काळ फुकट गेला. मी जड द्रव्यातून बनलो हे खरं; पण विचार कोठून निर्माण होतात याविषयी मी अद्यापही अज्ञानी आहे. मला हेही समजत नाही की, माझं आकलन माझ्या चालण्यासारखी वा माझ्या पचनक्रियेसारखी सहज प्रेरणा आहे, का मी हातानं एखादी वस्तू धरतो तसा डोक्यानं विचार पकडतो... मी खूप बोलतो, पण ते संपल्यावर मी जे बोललो त्याची मलाच लाज वाटते."
त्याच दिवशी त्या ब्राह्मणाजवळच राहणाऱ्या एका वृद्ध बाईशी माझं बोलणं झाले. मी तिला विचारलं, "तुझा आत्मा म्हणजे काय आहे? आणि ते तुला माहीत नसेल तर त्याचं तुला दुःख होत नाही?" तिला मी काय म्हणतोय हेच मुळी कळलं नाही. तिने आयुष्यात क्षणभरसुद्धा भल्या ब्राह्मणाला छळणाऱ्या गोष्टींचा विचार केला नव्हता. तिची विष्णूच्या अवतारांवर श्रद्धा होती आणि गंगाजलात एकदा स्नान करायला मिळालं, तर जन्माचं सार्थक झालं यावर तिचा विश्वास होता. तिच्या सुखी, समाधानी वृत्तीनं प्रभावित होऊन मी तत्त्वज्ञानी ब्राह्मणाला म्हटलं, “तुझ्याजवळच एक वृद्ध बाई कसलाही गहन विचार करीत नाही आणि सुखासमाधानानं जगते आहे, याची तुला लाज नाही वाटत?"
"तू बरोबर आहेस," ब्राह्मण म्हणाला, "हजार वेळा मी स्वतःला सांगितलं की माझ्या शेजाऱ्याप्रमाणे मी अज्ञानात राहिलो तर सुखानं जगेन; तरी पण तशा सुखाची मला इच्छा होत नाही."
ब्राह्मणाच्या उत्तरानं कशापेक्षाही मी अधिक प्रभावित झालो.
- व्हॉल्टेअर
"How better would it have been had I not been born," Brahmin said.
"Why do you say that?" I asked.
"Because," he said, "for the past forty years I have been studying and all this while has been wasted. The fact that I am made out of a solid material, but I am still unaware about where thoughts are created. I do not even understand if my analysis is as involuntary as my walking or the process of digestion, or whether I hold ideas knowingly like I hold something consciously in my hands ... I speak a lot, but I myself feel embarrassed of what I have said eventually."
On the same day, I got a chance to speak to an old woman who used to live near that Brahmin. I asked her, "What is your soul? And if you do not know what it is, does it not trouble you?" She did not seem to understand what I was even saying. She had not thought even for a fraction of her life about things that may be bothering a Brahmin. She had faith in the incarnations of Vishnu and believed that if she could bathe in the waters of the Ganges once, her life would be worthwhile. Impressed by her happy, contented attitude, I said to the philosophical Brahmin, "Aren't you ashamed that there is an old woman next to you who doesn't think deeply and lives happily?"
"You are right," said the Brahmin, "a thousand times I have told myself that if I remained in ignorance like my neighbor, I would live happily; yet I do not desire such happiness."
I was more impressed by the Brahmin's answer than anything else.
- Voltaire
Thursday, September 04, 2025
Sunday, August 31, 2025
On Self discovery, Kavi Grace
आत्म-खोज के अंधे पथ पर, हर राहगीर कहीं न कहीं एक सहयात्री - सिद्धार्थ - से मिलता है। बुद्ध की उपलब्धियों से ज़्यादा, मुझे उनका सिद्धार्थत्व ज़्यादा मूल्यवान लगता है। बेशक, उन्होंने ज़्यादा विपत्तियाँ न देखी थीं, न ही झेली थीं, लेकिन बस एक दुःख के अनुभव ने उनके राजसी अस्तित्व को दांव पर लगा दिया था। एकाएक टूटकर, वे सारे दर्द को समेटकर चल पड़े। उन्होंने दुख को ईश्वरीय करुणा के आयामों में ढालने के लिए खुद को पूरी तरह समर्पित कर दिया। उन्होंने मानवता के थोपे हुए दायरे में विपत्ति को शीघ्रता से अनुशासित करने के लिए अपने दुःख के अनुभव को नकारा नहीं। जिसने अपने जीवन में समाज के किसी भी स्थापित मूल्य को नहीं माना और अपने आत्म-विकास की प्रक्रिया में अस्तित्व की संरचना में हस्तक्षेप नहीं किया - वही सिद्धार्थ है। न तो इस प्रक्रिया को मंचित किया जा सकता है, और न ही इसका प्रयास किया जाना चाहिए। सिद्धांत मूलतः आत्म-खोज की उड़ान के दौरान निकले पंखों के वधशाला हैं, जो उस विशुद्ध इच्छाशक्ति का उपहास करते हैं जो व्यक्ति उसमें लगाता है। फ्रांसीसी कवि बौडेलेयर ने अल्बाट्रॉस नामक एक विशाल पक्षी के बारे में एक कविता लिखी है। इस पक्षी के पर पंखहीन और सुडौल होते हैं। आकाश में उड़ना ही इसका साहस और सौंदर्य है। लेकिन अपने पंखों के भार के कारण यह पक्षी ज़मीन पर चलते समय बहुत अनाड़ी लगता है। एक जहाज के कप्तान ने गलती से इनमें से एक समुद्री पक्षी को गोली मार दी और उसे आंशिक रूप से पकड़ लिया, और फिर, डेक पर उसके पंजों को घसीटते हुए आनंद लेते हुए, उसने पक्षी के शरीर की फुफकार देखी। जब बलपूर्वक खेलने की उसकी इच्छा चरम पर पहुंच गई, तो कप्तान ने विशालकाय पक्षी के पंख को जलती हुई मशाल की नोक से जोड़ दिया। उसकी उलझी हुई चोटी में छेद करने पर, कप्तान को उपलब्धि का अहसास हुआ। चार साथियों को बुलाकर, वह अपनी आत्म-प्रेरक शक्ति खोजने में लगा रहा। सिद्धार्थ की आत्मा के जीवन/अस्तित्व के पिंजरे में फँसने की अनदेखी करते हुए और उसके निष्कर्षों को मानव दर्शन की नींव के रूप में देखते हुए, मुझे उन ज्ञानियों की बैठक की याद आती है जो समुद्र में मत्स्यांगना की अंगूठी से झनकार रहे थे। सिद्धांत इसी तरह लोगों का मज़ाक उड़ाते रहते हैं। ये वे शरणस्थल हैं जहाँ लोग अनुभव के अंतर को स्वीकार करने के बजाय एक स्वीकृत सामान्यता के आगे झुक जाते हैं। तो फिर पैगंबर के कष्टों का क्या? विश्वमंत्रियों के उपदेशों और मुल्लाओं के भोर के अलार्म से अस्थायी रूप से खामोश हो सकती है, लेकिन यह दुनिया को हिला नहीं पाती। मंत्र के पीछे छिपे हुए रसूलों का अनुभव ही वास्तविक मार्गदर्शक है। धोखेबाज गुरुओं की शरण में जाने से व्यक्ति न केवल मार्ग खोजने में असफल होता है, बल्कि लगातार भटकता रहता है। इस तरह के पथभ्रष्ट मार्गदर्शन को स्वीकार करना या अस्वीकार करना एक व्यक्तिगत निर्णय है। लेकिन अस्वीकार किए बिना अस्तित्व को हिलाया नहीं जा सकता, और बिना चुनौती, कोई नवप्रवर्तन नहीं हो सकता। यही दुख और शोक की महिमा है। इस पठार को छोड़कर सृष्टि के इस जल-तल में डूब जाना ही आत्म-खोज का तप है।
Monday, August 25, 2025
Architectural Practice In India: A Millennial Archaeology
At the threshold of the first quarter of the millennium, which also marks a generation since India’s economic liberalization, architectural practice in India is ripe for a critical re-evaluation. In this period, the country has gradually, yet starkly shifted from a socialist framework to a neoliberal state, where developmental politics has ramified architectural production into new directions and logics. Existing scholarship on the built environment in India has often focused narrowly on the aesthetics of form, the evolving identity of the architect, or the reception of modernism as inherited from the West. Architectural discourse has largely taken one of two paths: either documenting work deemed academically significant, or framing emerging practices in terms of identity—often measured against binaries such as modern versus indigenous/vernacular. Such approaches tend to posit the architect as a servant of academic canons or fixed ideals.
Architectural practice on the ground, as it appears now, is far more complex - one that exhibits reorientation of spatial ideals and values to reflect a rapidly evolving society increasingly shaped by media, consumerism, and aspirations of globalisation. Once trained architects step into the field, the idealism of modernism is quickly refracted through geopolitical urgencies and the pragmatic demands of practice. What is often overlooked is the inherent political exigency that compels practice to adapt—making the operations and expressions of architecture more malleable and responsive to emerging needs of the market - in its widest extensions. In such contexts, architects evolve new formats, languages, agencies, and strategies to negotiate their professional knowledge to remain relevant within the real-world demands of building reinterpreting spatial briefs through the vocabularies of capital, conservation, environment, real estate, and more.
‘Architectural Practice in India: A Millennial Archaeology’ seeks to examine how architectural practice in India has developed over the last three decades within the framework of the millennial shift in its political economy. What forces—of power, ambition, and institutional pressure—have shaped architectural production during this period and how does it reorganise the delivery of the built environment? What aspects of practice gain currency in the emerging market and how does the professional architect find reconciliations and directions in addressing these. In excavating these variegated forms of practice that shape the unevenness of our built landscape today, these discussions aim to explore tendencies such as the rise of managerial approach, the renewed focus on environmental and heritage concerns, the emergence of artisanal and communitarian agendas, the urgency of urbanistic thinking, response to media and the integration of computational and digital thinking that come to constitute distinct, yet composite strands of spatial practice today.
The new cycle of SEA City Conversations is conceived as a year-long series of panel discussions featuring architects and spatial commentators, whose own practices have decisively responded to the millennial shifts in the region, by means of slipping, fitting or pushing the envelopes of conventional formats of practice. Methodologically, the series will draw upon the professional biographies of practitioners from across the city whose trajectories have remained representatively pivotal in bringing and operating in such changing dynamics of practice. Through reflexive interrogation and collective debate over the upcoming year, the programme imagines to present itself as an open course for the city, and invite the public to participate in a collective architecture history-writing exercise that seeks to critically engage with the evolving realities of contemporary architecture in India.
Doom Scroll
It just occurred to me Some people like me doom scroll Instagram because it gives me/Them an analytical charge, to constantly keep parsing information that is coming your way. Here, the lust for information is maintained much like the earlier form of media - be it books reading material. However, the nature of information is much multi mediated - to include not just text, but also Sound, video, Thus, rather than consuming a single kind of thing, me is bombarded with a lot more, which to an analytical mind could be very exciting and testosterone inducing. It gives a thrill to sit and crunch more data, it makes the right kind of next level challenge then to consume this multimedia data, reeling at a much faster pace.
 
