New Societies

These days I have suddenly started to take a lot of interest in things in process. Primarily this is in relation to music production and film production. My interest has geared towards, and gearing towards "how" things are made and can be made. In what ways can ideas be realized. I discovered some really interesting projects documented on Youtube and some such places. If any one is interested, one must look at:

• The Music Project by Tehelka
• Sneha Khanwalkar's show Sound Tripping
• Making of various films
• to some extent Dewarists
• A Capella Groups
• Short film and Animation groups
• Comic and graphic novel artists
• Writers, poets, painters, artists etc

Technology has enabled every one in large capacities eliminating the need for any partners in the production of a sale-able commodity in today's world. But there is some really cool stuff happening out there which is completely overshadowed by mainstream and popular things that we are overtly masked by. There is a rich repository of music, films, interviews, rough cuts, recordings - a lot of material yet unexplored. If only one had the time to look at the immense amount of energy put into such things, there is so much that one could do.

The digital revolution can inverse the notion of the capitalistic way in which most societies are ordered, because it empowers a seemingly insignificant entity to an unbelievable audience. It allows filtration of choice and gets you an appropriate outreach. Although this process happens subtextually, many of us are not still exposed to so much that may interest us. While this may not always get media covering, I am sure it helps these individuals their survival.

The fast changing ways in which culture mutates and creates "new" identities for peoples are regrouped through the channel of the Internet. Internet thus creates completely new societies, sometimes although virtual, through the thread of "common interest". So get there and reach out to the person/group/activity that you like doing. It's just a matter of typing vague phrases on Google and the gaps will be prompted to you by the Internet itself.

***

But I am a bit scared of the universalizing tendencies due to the medium through which such ideas route themselves and proliferate. The English language, the digital media and the computer screen (image) leave out a lot many things that are essential for the receptivity of any kind of art form. Art forms are not only rooted in their visual cultures, the way in which they are primarily mediated and projected. They are often more rooted in their places through their environmental conditions and settings. For example, the seas and storms reflect the Western Classical music forms, the bountifulness of the Bengali countryside reflects in the Rabindrasangeet, the tragedies (the theatre) echo the evolving morals of the European societies, the African masquerades are absolutely ritualistic,  the clothings of various places is a direct response to the climates people grow up in. As all such forms are channeled through the Internet - through medium of image, music and text - much is flattened, much is circulating, mixing and pairing up - not that this hasn't happened in the past. But the time over which such fusion occurs has relatively changed and hence these new formations are very shortlived. It is the time-space relationship that configures the life-span of these forms. We live in a world of moments and momentariness. We like momentary pleasures, momentary joys, momentary gossips, news, events...We consume moments for moments to pass moments. Every moment is a new moment. These moments make up momentum of an event, which to is momentary when considered in historical time.

I conclude remembering Heidegger whose philosophical thoughts summarize that one needs to ground oneself hard on the roads of the countryside to get one's foot print, an impression.

(Hence it is very laborious to define and trace the self.)

Impressions are not momentary, impressions last longer, stay firmer and require some strength and work, only to be revealed by some archaeologist of the future to be able to give meaning to our otherwise fleeting present.

Kiss

"An art professor once told me that in composition, elements should either overlap or there should be some space between them; that it produecs discomfort when things where tangential. he called this phenomenon kissing..."

John Baldessari, Kissing Series: Simone Palm Trees (Bear), 1975. 

"The basic concept was not try to destroy or be provocative to the architecture, but to melt in. As if I would kiss Taniguchi. Mmmmm." (said with closed eyes and elaborate flourish, a bright yellow down vest,. and a heavy Swiss accent).

"Behind the scenes with Pipilotti Rist, Pour Your Body out (7354 cubic Metres)"

-Kissing Architecture, Sylvia Lavin

Kissing may mirror suckling, turn into grooming, generate oral fixations , find sublimated means of expression, and even be erotic. Kissing may be self soothing and appeasing. But ultimately kissing is something you cannot do on your own. Kissing always involves the surprise of the difference of another mouth that is like yours but not yours. kissing is not a collaboration between two that aims to make one unified thing it is the intimate friction between two mediums that produces twoness --- reciprocity without identity - which opens new epistemological and formal models for redefining architecture's relation to other mediums and hence to itself.

-Kissing Architecture, Sylvia Lavin, p.54-55

Kiss

A world that has just been turned around

I told them: "I miss dirtyness - I miss the dirt around, the bottles lying, the pan masala packets, the spit, the dead mice, the crushed pigeons, the rotting flowers, the smells, the leaves, the sweat, the closeness, the density, the air, the smog, the dust, the stains, the layers of peeled posters..."

They just made faces.

I now live in a place where colourful fall leaves are blown away from the pavements using diesel operated blowers. Dried leaves are removed using small vans which blow them and collect them. Clearing off tree leaves is a cultural activity. Skeletal remains of leaves outside their houses are collected by families and pushed into large paper bags which are bought from supermarkets!Similarly, snow shoveling is also a ritualistic activity. Although every thing looks perfect all the time, I wonder how people strive towards making it more perfect. The constantly work towards clarifying the lines they have drawn on earth - including those between road and the pavement, pavement and building porch, porch and house, rooms within house...

These spaces are maps personified. Every line on the map is a real manifest. All representations of their space work towards leveling themselves out - they try to match each other to an extent where everything is real.

I simply ask - "Is this really real?" A place I imagined through greeting cards, paintings - which I always thought were only drawings, only representations! I now live in a world that was never alive to me. A strange predicament between the real and the unreal hits me.

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All views eyes frame are photogenic
All mind is turning schizophrenic


Of notions that have turned reverse
Spaces that strongly feel averse


Searching my filthy beauty on the street
Was present right under my seat

In search of real I struggle around
A cobweb under my chair I found

Reality finally hits the ground
My world has just been turned around.

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Ghost Photos

Random Thoughts

How do you feel when someone who you seemingly respect does not reciprocate in the same way?
Was just wondering!

Being an Alien

Most of my friends here in the US say that they were / are immediately subsumed by the Indian crowd as soon as they arrive here. The Indians take them to places, introduce them to culture, help them place gradually in this new time-space. This makes the transition a lot more comfortable - smooth.

On the other hand, they say that Yale has a very low international admittance. Statistics say it's only 8%. There is no 'Indian community' here at Yale, except the Hindu Society and the South Asian Students Association. The latter is more heavy with Koreans and Chinese. One hardly finds Indians for traditional gatherings.

But what after all is the need to meet, know and be around Indians here? At the American Alumni Association award ceremony, the Director said "try not to be around Indians, make friends from other countries - you are going there for exposure."

Having spent about two-and-a-half months here, I constantly get pulled by the two thoughts above. Where on one hand, I have the opportunity of being away from Indians and Indian culture (and being within a foreign crowd), I feel a strong pull gravitating me towards my community. I shall go towards describing what this whole phenomena is!

There are several issues that operate under above attitudes that various people promote back in India. And through my discussion with various friends here, and who have been here, I have come to realize several aspects. I shall try and enlist them one by one.

The first, which my friend Prashant (Prabhu) told me was that it makes a difference at what age you go to the US. Generally people visiting the US at the age of 22-23 do not find it so hard to mingle up and adopt to change. Those are still the years in which you are moulding your personality and have not seen the world outside the cushioned space of academics. Secondly, it makes a difference if you have been a visitor to the US before actually spending a longer time there. You have a brief exposure of the bests that can happen to you / you can experience in your formal US life.

Coming to what the life in US is: US is a land of young people. The country attracts a lot of youth and likes to invest in youth. The average age of people who drive this country would be around 25-40. This age-group, absolutely free, independent, with very little family connections, away from parents, with hardly any culture of savings, sometimes spendthrift - generate a different kind of socio-economic dynamic. Either you need to attune yourself to it at the right moment or you distinguish yourself from them if it's late!

In universities like Yale, as I said before, since most of the population is American, they get along well within themselves. They have their own circles, own things to do. For them, it does not matter whether or not they indulge in new friends from other places. They know their system, they have their priorities and they hardly have time to indulge with you. In a program like mine - an independent research program, our interactions become further rarefied. Our ages are disparate and we are only 4 of us in this program. It is hard to initiate or enter into the space of Americans. Or rather, I still do not know how. They are not as sociable as us (Indians) and I have yet not seen any American who approaches an outsider for friendship. One wonders why it has to be only us to take the first step, and constantly keep on trying hard to maintain it?

The answer is simple: We came here. We decided to leave our country and study in another. And the above process is what is called the condition of alienation. With no cultural ties to this place, a completely new social dynamic and constraints of geography and time-space, the sense of alienation is completely encompassing.

You realize that when you want to talk back home or a friend, the time zones clash. The facilities of communication clash. And since you can not afford luxury, everything becomes confined. Thus there are two forces acting towards a single condition - an externalized social space that does not absorb you and an internal constraint that restricts you and makes you realize of your limitations - both making you more and more inward.

And well, this inward reflection makes one aware of oneself. In this condition, you are your best friend and you are your worst enemy. All decisions affect you and you are under your full control. All thoughts are self generated, all moods are self controlled. It's futile to expect anything from any one. History and geography play a game.

And this is just something I wanted to write since a long time. This shall pass too.

History of Madness

If madness drags everyone into a blindness where all bearings are lost, then the madman by contrast brings everyone back to their own truth: in comedy, where everyone deceives someone else and lies to themselves, he is a comedy of the second degree, a deception that is itself deceptive.

The Ship of Fools, Hieronymous Bosch

The Cure of Folly (the Cure of Madness), Hieronymous Bosch

Mad Meg, Brueghel


The rise of madness on the Renaissance horizon is first noticeable in this decay of Gothic symbolism, as though a network of tightly ordered spiritual significations was beginning to become undone, revealing figures with meanings only perceptible as insane. Gothic forms lived on, but little by little they fell silent, ceasing to speak, to recall or instruct. The forms remained familiar, but all understanding was lost, leaving nothing but a fantastical presence; and freed from the wisdom and morality it was intended to transmit, the image began to gravitate around its own insanity.

All from Michael Foucault.

Techno-cultural Revelations & Adjustments

Technology makes so much sense here in USA. I think it is ideal for this world. I don't think USA will survive without it!

I had to adapt to a lot of technology as I came here and I am still in the process of updating myself with all the stuff that they use. In the first month, I found it extremely difficult to maintain my schedule. Since the university is a campus and classes happen all over, I was almost fed up using maps and codes for building names. Every bit of document seemed like an index. It seemed as if I was wasting more time in remembering than traveling! I was forgetting so many smaller things that needed to be taken care of and there were pockets of time which had gotten created because of the flexible nature of choice.

(This is one thing I realize as I write: In Indian system of education, you are packed with classes one after the other, and it's all structured for you. Neither do you have to think of space, nor time. You are seated in one place most of the time and the faculty is circulating. Here, every one is circulating all the time. In the system back home, I always knew that I would be engaged for half my day. So I had a fixed empty half - which I could mindlessly think of utilizing anyway. Here, since I have different pockets of time on different days, conventional time table techniques constantly failed)

I finally had to ask my colleague how she maintained her time table. One of them said that she would make a 'To Do' list every morning and follow that. Another one, was much ahead. She would use Google Calender. I have become so used to google calender now that I absolutely need to see it to know which pockets I have free. It makes sense to use them since there is internet every where, there is a computer everywhere and it just syncs with the smart phones. Thus, smart phones are used to their maximum potential. The timetable is always with me since any change is updated through wifi on campus.

Bus systems are on GPS and so I only move out when I see the bus approaching on my phone app. When you call a security shuttle, it gives you a time and arrives then. Before arriving, it gives you an automated call to be prepared out of the house near the place you specified to be picked up. Announcements about weather, storms, robberies and system crash are immediately e mailed. Basically - everything is tied up to the  internet and a strong network system.

The google calender has helped me to slot in chosen lectures, symposia, music events or any other events into my schedule. I plan my time through the google calender. It pops up a message in advance to remind you if you are forgetting any thing! It just makes you forget your distress of following up things.

But in terms of exploiting technology, I am far behind. I will have to make extra effort in order to really be up to date! Needless to say there is another side to this story. But that's not for this post! 

The Past 2 Weeks in New Haven

If those who read this blog have been wondering why has there been no writing for the past month, I am going to spell out the fall of events for my last month in US! If there would be any period comparable to this one in my life before, it has to be the Delhi study tour during 2011! But I am not able to make up my mind which one is graver. After a lot of thought about the context, I feel this one was more emotionally draining.

It all begins during the end of last month - September 2012 end. I was to change my house and shift to the new one. The flowchart below will give a better idea of the fall of events:

And thus, is my life shuttling between settling and studying. There are layers of things between the flowchart and I think it would be best forgotten. They shall remain burried deep into my invisible learnings.

Meanwhile, I just learnt about the above flowchart software - a new thing learnt in constructing this post, and have accumulated a lot of other things to write about. Have to find time and the right frame of mind to put them all down...

The Simile of the Cave

'But anyone with any sense,' I said, 'will remember that the eyes may be unsighted in two ways, by a transition wither from light to darkness or from darkness to light, and thatt he same distinction applies to the mind. So when he sees a mind confused and unable to see clearly hewill not laugh without thinking, but will ask himself whether it has come from a clearer world and is confused by the unaccustomed darkness, or whether it is dazzled by the stronger light of the clearer world to which it has escaped from its previous ignorance. The first state is a reason for congratulation, the second for sympathy, though if one wants to laugh at it one can do wo with less absurdity than at the mind that has descended from the daylight of the upper world.'

-The Simile of the Cave, Plato

Ma vie en rose

Ma vie en rose (French)
My Life in Pink (Translated in English)
1997 Belgian film
directed by Alain Berliner

Apart from the fact that the above film in French uses 'Pink' as a referrent to an ambiguous identity of an individual, (pulling from what associations the society has hooked on to the colour) it also makes these associations blurred. The protagonist of the film, the little boy Ludovic who is in his liminal stages of life where he begins to open up to the idea of sexuality, finds himself to relate to what generally the society understands as feminine traits. He likes to dress up in frocks, likes to make himself up and almost wants to feel like women until he is made to realize that it is not perfectly fine to do so.

We were made to watch the above film as a part of our French Theory class, where we were discussing Simon de Beauvoir's 'The Second Sex' and ideas of feminism. In the literature, SdB brings out the the construct of the 'woman', saying that a woman is made, a woman is a social construct. She goes on to analyse how the woman has been historically placed after the man, and gives a number of examples from historical references that have continued to affect the perception of the woman as the second sex. She uses psychoanalytic theories and goes on to open up cognition systems in children to question when a body realizes and becomes conscious of its biological exclusiveness.

I will put up some of our discussion in the class here, but to get back to the film, 'My Life in Pink' portrays a family struggling between allowing freedom for a body (biologically produced by it) to be like it wants to be versus what the society expects it to be. Ludovic's mother initially supports the boy's different behaviour. She feels it's a passing transient feeling for her child. Ludovic continues to engage with his feelings and goes on to develop a liking for his Father's boss's son who studies in his class. He openly expresses in his innocence, to his parents, that he would eventually get married to this boy.

In a society where roles of males and females are so strictly defined, the family gradually gets in to complications. Ludovic's father loses his job to his boss (who holds his own social position), who doesnot want to either accept his son's eccentric likings too. A blow on thier stomach, the mother realizes that her son's odd social behaviour is affecting far beyond what is just thought to be the issue of an individual body, and she expects it to be rectified. Thus, the psychologist is also involved to correct Ludovic's orientation issues.

There are several layers in the film and the prime one is that which raises questions that SdB raises of gender v/s sex. Ludovic, in the film has mixed up his biological identity with his social one. He is in those stages of life where he is just beginning to gain consciousness about his body and its realtionship to the world outside it. What initially seems to be an effortless assumption of his body turns out to be quite a complex reality for him. This reality pushes him to quietitude, seclusion and makes him introvert.

The film sensitively deals with the difficulties a body encounters while it constructs its identity. This identity for most of us is often socially and politically masked. The film questions this mask through innocent ignorance. It raises questions of whether we can really be free - to make choices for ourselves, since much of our self is already constructed before we gain consciousness.

 

Times Square

Times Square, New York, where everything is moving. Facades of buildings merge in the sky and the ground seems to be unstable. People gaze around and sometimes find themselves embedded onto the screens. LEDs creep over tall buildings till they cover them up completely. You feel exploded into images, until you completely immerse into them, and become one of it...An absolutely ultimate space.

Animal Behaviours

An amazing squirrel crossing the road on the overhead electric cable. 

I see it many times.

The 8 week cat, my neighbour's pet. Absolutely adorable and cartoon-like.

Revisiting Student-hood

To become a student again after four years of graduating is a strange feeling. It's like a constant battle between the freedom one can take and the forces of institution that tie you down. This time, the feeling of being a student is a different one - something between the states of being confident and the underconfidence that you wish to fill up through your further study. As against the undergraduate study course where all is welcome and acceptable as a part of your learning, graduate studies are about foucsing, chanelling, tuning, fine tuning and sharpening your skills into one area for specialization. This process calls for a lot of discarding of what may be apparently interesting for you to know, but not necessary for you to learn. Thus, the probability of things you should be doing reduces.

On the other hand, being an 'alien' student in a distant country, I can now relate to experiences that students going to cities from small places for education undergo. I am sure that my present difficulty would help me appreicate and empathize with what outstation students undergo when they come to a new place, especially a city. The exprience of a city is overwhelming, since it gets you landed in an extremely complex web of rules, regulations and unfamiliarity at once. Inspite of the fact that I am not in a big city in US - infact I am in a very small town (not even a city) - I can feel the friction of unfamiliarity.

Unfamiliarity with history, culture and people; with systems, regulations and ethics of the place makes me quiet and feel secluded. Being a town, one doesnot see much activity here. And soon, when it becomes cold, streets will be laden with snow and there will be nothing to look out through my large window! The disconnect with a place due to your cultural roots being somewhere else can be distracting. My mind is preoccupied by thought of what can be done of this distance that I feel with this new culture. I generally try to fill this distance through writing and recording. In the recent days, I have found myself too distracted to record too...

And I absolutely dislike the fact that my experiences are following the trajectory of 'culture shock theory'. Where on one hand it comforts me, it also makes me feel quintessential...

But I am managing. Quiteness helps looking inwards. And perhaps it is one big aspect of learning.

Waste around New Haven

Around New Haven, I always find people carrying packaging boxes that they may have just emptied off a new item. The dustbins of the city are full of these brown card board boxes. Even inside the buildings, the dustbins always have a lot of cardboard.

Packaging material here can be perpetually found lying on the streets. Such stuff tells differnt stories of the place. That people are constantly engaging in newer products. That perhaps people are constantly changing, and hence constantly buying new products. That the University is buying a lot of new product all the time. That packaging in the US is intensive...so on and so forth.

However, all this material never goes to any further use. The nature of garbage in New Haven is much different than what I would find in Indian cities. There are many times when people may walk up to a dustbin and pick up thigs from it. It's absolutely a normal practice to so it in the US. But what is also tells about this society is that it's limits of seeing the potential of 'material'. The inventive minds of India would try and use up much of all the material before it actually finds place in the garbage can.

For example, we save most of our packaging, often turning it into containers, cutting it for smaller things, selling it to the nearby raddi wala for some money -- in the process of which we mobilize a lot of things and ideas. It gives rise to a certain kind of culture and chain of entrepreneurs. There is no such dimension here. Social space is very flat, and further reduced by the ingress of computer and technology. Technology has made this place, to a large extent, physically immobile. And on the other hand, they crave for more and more speed. Thus landscapes are flat, and textures are plainer...

First Sunday in the US

The Notion of the Campus

In the first week of my arrival at Yale, I found myself asking to the representatives at the international office, "What do you mean by a campus: when am I technically on / off campus?" This unanticipated question received a weak answer. My anxiety with the whole notion of campus was relative to the cultural baggage that I carried along with me from my country.

All campuses I visited in India were bounded entities. Be it CEPT, IIMs, or even regional universities. They are sets of buildings interspersed with a bit of landscape within a confined region. I imagined Yale to be like that too. However, the nature of Yale campus is different. The campus of Yale firstly means buildings that belong to Yale, and operate for Yale University. They could be administrative, educational or recreational. These buildings are interspersed within the town of New Haven, although within a definable geography. Thus the campus map of Yale overlaps with the map of the city.

It was only when I started attending my classes in different departments that I understood the nature of this campus. In some ways, it is interesting because throughout the city during the day time, you see students fluttering from one street to another. The University has mixed up completely into the city (town will be a better word - New Haven is hardly a city). Therefore people prefer to bike (cycle). Walking from one department to other could take you 10 -15 minutes. Walks are never boring across these 300-year old buildings.

'On campus' you have free wifi access. Many a times, you have weak wifi signals while walking on streets, leaking out of the thick walls of the university buildings. Yale has a free shuttle (bus) service which perhaps ties up the campus together. In some ways, it defines the University geography. The campus is tamed to a large extent. Buildings have been appended with wheel chair accessibility ramps, 300 year old doors are inflicted with electronic locks,  interiors are painted white and bright - and all this is done absolutely elegantly.

The Yale 'blue' dominates the colour scheme throughout the town and there is strong architectural control on the signage design. Blue = Yale. Or perhaps, like navy, cobalt or sky, there should also be a Yale blue - wonder why we never heard of it! But what I mean to point out is that colour defines the bounds of the campus too.

These bounds become very important after 6pm and before 6 am since students are advised to 'remain in groups', 'not carry expensive items' or 'not flash your phones' especially during this time period. Within these bounds, we can avail special security services between 6 pm to  6 am! Thus, the campus redefines itself through circuits of security routes.

Finally, from whatever extensions the meaning of campus could have, I have realised that the glossary we worked with in India has a different dictionary for itself here. It would take me time to understand these nuances of language (purely word-meaning relationships) to be able to fit myself into this new system perfectly.


This post can also be found at www.yalestories.wordpress.com

Culture Tickle

I have been in the US for two weeks and what people call 'the difference' is sinking in now. There are both - pros and cons of this difference which is what I am going to attempt noting down here. I have been wondering since the first week if I  wanted to just 'travel' this new country or 'be here' for two years. Cultural adaptation becomes an important issue when you are going to spend a considerable amount of time in a new place - which means a new geography, new ethnography, new ethics and new climate. The constant struggle of rationalizing a future - or perhaps resolving a future creates further complication with the notion of cultural adaptation. What I essentially mean is that it may be as difficult to get into a culture as getting out of it. Meanwhile, this conflict has arisen between the culture that I assumably must leave behind and that which I am in geographically / ethnographically etc. There are simultaneously two aspects that I need to think of - my original roots and my new ground. If I remain in the middle, I would be losing out much of both the worlds - or at least that it what it seems right now.

In one's attempt to keep peace with both these worlds - there is a mental friction. In the beginning, this is pronounced since one is trying to catch up with two different time zones - and at the same time, switching between cultures while communicating, adjusting to accommodate both these worlds into the same time frame. Imagine being awake at the end of the day to talk back at home when your parents want to and being fresh yourself in the morning to attend to your work in the morning. Or vice versa. When you can not cope up these two worlds within a single time cycle, it creates irritation and frustration; making you feel inefficient. The comparison of this inefficiency with your recent past when you were able to manage much more in the given time makes you feel even worse. This coupled with a lot more activities that you need to balance yourself which were once taken care of by your family members makes you almost vulnerable.

Although, managing a lot more activities is an anticipated phenomena. A more crucial thing is the loss of friends, family or room mates with whom you can share these things. Some people are lucky to move in to a same course or program together with a known friend to a same country. Other people who like things harder make a choice like me - completely isolated from any familiarity. Building this new familiarity almost feels like responsibility. Otherwise, there is no social security or space that you look forward to. The construction of this social space  is really important and essentially you do not know the limits of it - you therefore constantly try to limit it, often to just a single person or two. That may not always be healthy.

On the other side, there are beautiful things that you encounter too. Here, I would become more specific and talk about my experiences.

I never thought Mumbai - the place where I come from is such an important dot on the map. As soon as you introduce yourself as a resident of Mumbai, you can almost see a sparkle in their eye. Mumbai has perhaps become more popular because of Rahul Mehrotra being the Dean of Harvard's Urban Planning Department. However, as more and more students from western countries are being taken to India, Mumbai for studying urban space, I am generally able to find common ground to initiate a conversation. On the other hand, India still remains an exotic location for people to travel. My background in architecture and therefore knowing places helps in connecting further with people  where I am generally familiar with Indian cities that they have visited. Talking about idiosyncratic ideas on India is interesting and I find it fascinating to know peoples' impressions of the East.

Architects are highly regarded here and that is another positive dimension. But in general, all people are highly respected, as long as they are involved in any kind of education. Since systems here are so liberal, many people also do not pursue education seriously.

Lastly, in an orientation, one of the speakers said a very sensitive thing: "You may think that back in your school, you were the best and you would always be amongst the top five; and in the initial semesters, your performance may go down. Many people take it as a challenge to their egos. But remember that you are in a University like Yale, and thus in a class of no. 1s from all across the world. So remind yourself that you are competing with the best of the best, and you are one of them. Don't prejudge. Give yourselves time."

And that quite sums up the feeling right now...

Glossary of terms

Lecture: Class consisting a large number of people (about 50). It's an informative session where you are fed with information on a subject. The information flows one-way, that means there is no real discussion, but just a presentation (oral, etc) by the lecturer.  If the class is too large, it could also be broken up into smaller groups led by individual Teaching Fellows.

Seminar: Seminar is a small class consisting anywhere between 8 - 12 people. Students are expected to read up the material specified by the faculty and be ready in the class. Sometimes, a student may also take the lead to present the readings to the whole class. the class thereafter is about discussion and elaboration of ideas. It is more interactive and dialogue oriented.

Symposium: Lectures constructed around a single theme. The format is presentation + dialogue. A symposium is more public in nature and invites more people to participate. It is generally a day long or 2-3 day long where you have a keynote address announcing the theme, where each session could have a moderator and as a whole, the symposium may have a conclusion.

Colloquium: Colloquium is generally a course which goes along for a semester. Students may get credits for it by attending it. It can involve different speakers each session. Thus, its format could be seminar, lecture, etc. depending upon the strength of the class and involves a longer duration of study unlike a symposium.

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School: A building which houses activities / programs related only to study.

College: A place where different facilities like a place of study, living, eating etc is encompassed in a single building.

Campus: An organization of schools and colleges that lie together in close proximity to each other. They may also extend to include other aspects (like recreational facilities, international centres, etc.) within their geography.

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Course: Is equivalent of a topic in a subject which tries to cover a small aspect of study. Ut has credits you get for (i) attendance and (ii) course work which is generally writing or studio based.

Program: A collection set of courses make a program. Programs make up for a degree in a field.

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Assistantship: Generally assisting the lecturer/professor in tasks that are more physical in nature (menial jobs). These could include setting up projectors, arranging classes, collecting material for the class, preparing presentations, etc. Assistantships are generally paid by the hour, and are low paying positions.

Fellowship: A fellowship generally means that you assist the professor in more intellectual tasks like taking smaller groups of discussions for a larger class or also checking papers written for a class, etc. Fellowships are paid in lumpsum and are not hourly jobs. Sometimes, one may not even be required to teach or work for the class in case he/she gets a fellowship. It could just be an award of a fixed amount of money.

This post can also be read at http://yalestories.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/glossary-of-terms/

The IKEA Store

(details later)

Summer in New Haven

Of people singing, dancing, idling, cycling, talking, walking, jogging, running, eating, playing in the summers at New Haven!

The park above is called New Haven Greens - the Historic park which would like at the centre of the 9 square grid that the town was originally planned as. Squirrels, pigeons, sparrows and bugs move freely right now. The squirrels are large and fat - when they jump, they look really nice. I saw a squirrel crossing road through the communication cables above - it was like a performance! Dogs and cats never stray - they are exotic domesticated pets. All benevolent!

Trees prepare to shed their leaves and streets are beginning to accumulate the most beautiful dried flowers. I have picked some. They look like exotic ornaments. Soon the streets will be laden with exotica! Mohabbatein leaves are everywhere - I mean maple - all picture perfect.

The town is too old and it feels like living in history in the city centre, ie the Yale University! It's quite a thing here too - People hold their heads high for students studying at Yale even in New Haven. The other day when I was trying to frame a picture, a lady came by saying - "Oh! that would make a great picture!" - I smiled when her son prompted enthusiastically, "She studied here!" I reaffirmed and congratulated...Even when people on streets come to know you would be studying at Yale, they wonder and appreciate! It feels very special...

In Search of Academic Space

This article has been published in Evergreen Rachana, August 2012 issue.

- 1 -

“...an architect ought to be able to accomplish much more in all the arts and sciences than the men, who by their own particular kinds of work and the practice of it, have brought each a single subject to the highest perfection.”

 - Pytheos; builder of the temple of Minerva at Priene.

The question of ‘academic orientation’ in the present context is a critical one – it creates a dilemma whether to locate a pattern in the way Academy of Architecture (AOA) has operated by far, or to chart a future orientation for the school. The idea of “orientation” also calls for rooting the present in the past, in order to move into the future.

‘Academic’ relates to studies that are liberal rather than technical or vocational. It often extends to the “theoretical” or “speculative” and is not tied down to a practical purpose or intention in the present or the real world. An ‘academic’ person is generally more interested in the ‘how-s’ & ‘why-s’ and thus is inquiry-oriented. Such inquiry helps one to discover the ‘self’ and defines one’s position or point of view to operate within the complex societal construct.

The relationship between the academic space and practice has always been contested. The perception of this issue with regards to the functioning of AOA has always been unclear. The pressure to cater to the needs of architecture professionals in our country in the early 60s and 70s may have compelled AOA to train students who could soundly ‘build’. AOA has had a reputation of training students who can handle the pragmatic aspects of putting together a building well. The idea of a successful architectural practice then relied on precisely that – academia thus became a dormant function of the practice, only catering to a certain demand of the market.

However, the introduction of the virtual – the television & computer over the 80s and 90s brought in a complete shift. The resulting proliferating technical tools and possibilities of engagement with multiple media challenged the established idea of ‘architectural practice’. The consolidate practice with the single “author-architect” who once controlled and facilitated all aspects of erecting a building dismantled itself into an inter-relationship of a variety of consultants who now handled different aspects of the building industry. 

It is here that I want to re-introduce the idea of being ‘academic’ as explained earlier, to perhaps problematize the way in which we look at institutions, and therefore reconsider the role of an academic space – should such a space exist to critically address the changing modes of production or should it merely become a default function of demand of the market? In other words, should architectural schools enable their students to reflect upon and think of possible newer ways of emerging practices or should they reduce themselves to become vocational centres which equip students with sufficient enough skills to work in architectural offices?

- 2 -

Academic environments are difficult spaces to be achieved and sustained. In our systems, academic environments require new energies to take over existing redundant ways in which we operate and teach. As institutions age, they have a tendency of sliding into a comfort zone where they function through established and time tested norms. If institutions refuse to update themselves periodically, they start deteriorating – a phenomena which can be easily studied through the older architectural schools in the country.

In order to nurture an academic environment, we need inspiring leaders having a wide exposure who can motivate students to take up challenging decisions and act upon what they believe in. Academic spaces need to help students to look within and get interested in themselves. At the same time, it is the students’ responsibility to keep up the spirit of an institution by taking up newer initiatives and participating in a larger dialogue with their city. A successful academic environment will not be possible until both – the students as well as the teachers are equally excited about learning and teaching. Academic spaces can potentially become the most charged grounds for experimentation.

- 3 -

The projects that we tried to conceptualize for the first year design studio over the last four years have consistently tried to evoke an academic discussion. The design programs went far beyond the utilitarian aspects of architecture. Programs for first year have two important academic functions: to make students de-learn fixed ways of thinking drilled into them by schools up till the 12th class; and to reorient them towards a field of possibilities that can be explored through architecture over the five years. The tools we used to construct our programmes were quite different. Instead of the projects like cafeterias and bungalows, we offered students stories and machines. Instead of asking students to design sanitized (minimal, clean looking) spaces, we asked them to engage with garbage and junk. Instead of laying out spaces like kitchens and living rooms, we asked students to program spaces for various emotions and preserving memory. This was essentially done to break the students’ perception of architecture as a profession of constructing buildings and subsequently draw them towards the idea of experience and dwelling. Students come with a heavy bias of designing an architectural form, and crave to make objects instead of spaces. We consciously tried to question this myth through our projects.

Changing tools of operation creates equal proximities for all kinds of students in grabbing the object of architecture as well as engaging with an idea. Our project “Body-Envelop” is one such example where we asked students to document activities of a hawker in the city of Mumbai and design a mobile work-live envelop for them. Students recorded the act of a body negotiating the city through its clothing (the hawkers’ shop) while addressing issues of anthropometrics and shelter in its specificities. The project was rooted in the cultural conditions of the city and made the students sensitive to an alternative way of space making.

Secondly, these tools allow for a wider understanding of the field and neutralize latent social disparities (a project like a ‘cafeteria’ or a ‘bungalow’ talk of a certain ‘class’ of economy and are fairly reductive). Projects like “Marrying Machines” or “Garbage Warriors” invert such notion and look at everyday objects imaginatively and derive new meanings and methods of arriving at an architectural form.

Lastly, such programs help in conceiving newer methodologies of approaching an issue, unlike those, where the parameters of building always remain constant (e.g.: the user, structure, planning, services, etc). Projects based on texts like “The Little Prince” or Kafka’s “The Trial”, although ambitious and successful only in intent, exposed students to mediums like texts, images, poetry and literature making a design process more artistic, abstract and “academic” than technical.

Abstraction allows newer imaginations of form and function, thus challenging purist ideas of shaping a building. Many projects we experimented with also dealt in conceptual spaces. The merit of project like “Hell is very badly done” or a “Repository for the Little Prince” is that it demands equal thinking from the faculty as well as the student to realize an alternative space. Through such projects, both are able to delve into other disciplines of art, philosophy and poetry, making architecture more liberal and holistic. These tools enable debate and discourse within an architectural studio.

Today we increasingly find architectural practices adopt a multidisciplinary approach – those simultaneously involving themselves in research and building. In such view, it is almost imperative that AOA re-establishes its academic grounds in order to sustain larger challenges that the future holds for the architectural profession. Until then, we only remain in search of an academic space.

Image 1: Marrying Machines: Sewing Machine + Coffee Grinder / Viren Modi + Akshay Mokal

Image 2: Garbage Warriors: Sleeping bag out of waste cloths and wires / Aditi Mhase

Image 3: Body-Envelop: A hawking object-space for a corn remover on street / Namrata Lodaya

Image 4: Hell is very badly done: a conceptual apparatus / Raashi Parmar (pic) Kartik Rathod

Image 5: Hell is very badly done: a surreal landscape / Ayushi Singh (pic) Kartik Rathod

At Rare Manuscripts Library, New Haven

Also called as the Beinecke Library.

Bandit Queen

unposted thoughts

Bandit queen songs -
Shekhar Kapur's bandit queen in the first place mixed up some cultural signifiers. They used a rajasthani folk song for a film based on a character from uttar pradesh. I wonder if it was just a mistake, force-fitting or i am wrong (which seems unlikely since the language of the folk song definitely uses marwari words and intonations). Seems he tried to give it proper indian feel for a completely foreign audience...in contrast he makes his characters extremely localised Bhojpuri language which much people wouldn't understand. Again indicates his probable reliance on the subtitles - completely for a foreign audience. So it would not be completely incorrect if i started to look at this work of art as a piece that represents some aspects of India to a foreign audience. How is the notion if india brought out? Child marriage, family structure, political structure of the village and the city....all of it.

So what was the central issue? How Phoolan devi became a bandit queen - a question which could be answered in 10 minutes of the the film. Then what is the film about? I guess two things - feminism and revenge as a societal act. A woman disgusted with pain due to a sexual abuse at a very young age by her husband decides not to succumb to it. She grows up with a hatered towards child marriage and abuse of the female body. Interesting aspect of the film is that phoolan at the right time in her life feels sexually active. She is not against it. She has consensual encounters with a man of his age at an age where she feels comfortable, when she feels love for someone in her life.

At Yale Art Center

It is so satisfying to be here at the Yale art Center. Is it because of the space, mood, people, or what? The space is so inviting, people are waiting to help, one can sit at leisure and read, or just stare outside. Even as others talk, one is not disturbed...how is all of it possible? Is it the genius of the architect in choreographing a space as perfect as this? Is it about the weather or is it about my mental frame of mind right now. I donot know. But this space is so mentally comforting.

To talk about the architecture of this building would be little like recounting tenets of modernist practice and remembering Louis Kahn. The building is extremely simple with a clear distinction between served and serviced spaces. The service core in the centre of the building divides it into two huge chunks of space on each floor that are dedicated to various themes . The segregation of subjects is clean. The place is brilliantly detailed. Absolutely pleasant to see everything just perfect. Nothing disturbs the eye and yet catches your attention. No object competes with another. All lie in peace. The signage is extremely customised and adds to the objects by raising, tilting or shifting their centers of gravity. Thus one also learns about the structure of any sculptural remain on display, completing an imaginary part picture into the whole.

The building merges with its surroundings on one edge through its sunken sculpture gardens. One of these holds Richard Serra's iron slabs. Something that i think will look better when it snows. Right now it is mundane.

The construction of the ceiling structure is not as simple as it looks. The triangular mesh is actually tetrahedral. This means that all beams are angled to form tetrahedral cauffers allowing services to pass through empty spaces that get created on the reverse. Also one of the three axis in which the beams are laid is thicker than the other two. Thus there is a careful hierarchy of beam sizes. On an otherwise superficial look, the structure appears only a simple intersection of vertical beams in 3 axis. One of the books on LIK that I am reading right now at the centre says that LIk may have retained such construction for its sculptural appeal, but when he found a way of hiding the services behind this mesh, he could defend the structure more validly.

The space has a decent collection. Something that I really enjoyed was the South African masks and artefacts. Each piece of it was beautifully crafted and amazingly abstract. This is probably the first time I got to see African folk art so closely and I am completely impressed by it - although I always believed that African art would be much richer. As compared to Asian art, I found African art to be more imaginative, abstract and 'crazy'! It was lovely to see how masks were made using visual imaginations of shapes that appear out of everyday life - cut tree branches, hay, cloth, horns, etc.

I must visit this space again. It has lot of stories to tell. And I am captivated by the crisp display design of this place. Something that I will try to document for my future study.

The Yale Art Center has been designed by Louis I Kahn. The building opposite, ie, the British Art Center too is designed by him. 

My Study of the ceiling

An Alternative Landscape

I wanted to finish this post before I left India. However, here it is now. It's not even funny, but now, every time I address India, I will be talking in third person. and it will be 'US' (pun intended) and 'them'. It will be there and here...and things like that.

This othering is perhaps what I am here for. Most of us back in India constantly feel irritated with the creation of this 'other'. However, there is no other way in which you can bring out the difference in a cultural perspective.

So,

Landscape as a discipline has mostly been about domesticating the existing environment. Other than its functional uses, the aesthetic of landscape doesnot build itself up from the natural outgrowths that we see across small corners around our cities. These 'outgrowths' not only occupy the otherwise undetailed and ugly edges of the built environment of the city, but in turn smoothen them and give a unique aesthetic. Further, they silently talk of a culture.

To take an example, the cross over bridges over the railway tracks in Mumbai do not really have a ethical city-cleaning mechanism. Non-ethical because dust collected by the sweeper on the edges of each step is never thrown in a dust-bin. Even if it is, some portion of it is always left at the sides. Small heaps of such dust accumulate and become little breeding spaces for a lot of insects. These insects bring in warmth and nutrients to the pile by organic and metabolic activities. They churn, defecate in and thus nurture this dust. Crows and other scavengers shit and make nests in these burrows.

Eventually, the heap becomes charged with nutrients, warmth and humidity. With a little rain or water (piss, or any kind of dampness - discarded liquid), we see the springing of ferns, and shrubs through the hardened heaps of dust. Thus, without pots or people for maintenance, these turn into green edges along the walk over bridge. These are strange ways in which landscape realises itself in the city. The heaps continue to take in spit, betel spits, red refuses, all of that - and turn it into something lovely. They try to camouflage the dirt and give a fresh face to the place.

Such shrubs grow almost at any place where dust gets collected. India being a tropical country where dust flows benevolently, these beautiful patterns of landscapes that grow on their own, thus tell a cultural story - of how things work. They remain parasites, yet help in lifting the image of any place. Such shrubs grow on walls, between paver blocks, within crevices of concrete - making beautiful patterns of green. Can such cultural  reading be harnessed to create landscapes around the city? Further, can cultures, instead of landscapes be strategised to achieve newer aesthetics?

Readings of environmental conditions in cultural ways may thus manifest landscapes (and landscape designs) that are compliant with city conditions. They do not become burden on cities (by ways of management plans for landscapes / investment in infrastructure for landscape, etc), but become soft interfaces for human interventions that otherwise leave the city rough edged.

First Day in the US of A

I am finally in US and the reason I am able to write this post is because I am jet lagged. It's 4 am in the morning here and I am awake - and although I tried to sleep back again, my head started buzzing with so many things I need to record!

To begin from the beginning - my flight which was supposed to be a direct one, was first made into a single stop over at Delhi, and later a two-stop flight via Delhi and Paris. This made the journey about 4 hours longer. I took all this time to calm down my mind with thousands of questions, opinions, suggestions, ideas, etc that people back there gave me regarding check ups, security, what to take care and blah and blah. I guess I just chose to forget all things - because I just wanted to experience all of it first hand. I don't remember of making any mistake in this entire process - it has been super smooth (touch wood!).

And at the airport, my parents called, and made me meet another 23-year-old boy who was travelling to New York for his studies. Initially I though it would be nice to connect, but i was taken aback too soon by his 23-year-oldness. You could make out his immense apprehension - as he kept taking out and putting back his pass port from his little wallet that hung around his neck for every check that we encountered. I tried to stick around with him till Delhi and then I said - it was enough of him. I kept getting last in every queue due to him! But the age of 23 is like that. You know that you know, but you know that you need to know more, so you are not sure of any action that you do. I was like that too. So I kept assisting this boy for some time - and like all Indian parents, and like me too, he was over-parented. Well anyway. Let's move ahead.

The flight was boring - the food Air India served seemed to be as old as ancient times and nothing tasted good. I cursed AI from the bottom of my heart. I was hoping to get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower at Paris, but I didnt even find the Hoffman's avenues! Seems I will make a trip to find out soon. 

Taking off from Paris, we were over the sea for a very long time. There was nothing except blueness and thick layers of clouds. And I waited till I saw the coast of US. When it finally arrived - I only saw huge parking lots. I landed NY in time and it took a long time for the immigration queue till I went to one of the counters - when I was asked by the young volunteer about my status. He informed me that I was in the wrong queue. I  simply asked him if I must get into the long queue all over again and he said he would just put me into the right counter as my turn came.

Paris

Paris

Paris

Paris

The shore of USA

I could already spot my baggage from the immigration area and was already relieved - we were worried of all the fuss that AI created. I took out a trolley and promptly picked up my baggage anticipating further checks. But, there was nothing of all that. I plainly came out of the airport and spotted Neelima who was waiting to receive me out of the airport. 

At the airport, there were cab drivers, exactly like that in Mumbai - asking you for hiring them. I wondered if I had crossed continents. Neelima helped me take a bus ticket quickly and we were on a shuttle. We spoke and updated each other over our journey. As I looked outside, I felt as if I was in a video game. Buildings passing by at a speed same as those in games and shapes and sizes that I once experienced while playing bike games on the computer. This time, all was real. Grand Central arrived soon - Rohit (Manudhane), who has only been a pen friend (knowing me only by my blog) came there to receive me. It was extremely pleasant. Both, Neelima and Rohit cut short their job hours to coordinate my arrival. We got into the Grand Central station terminal and saw a bunch of tourists led by a guide - explaining the heritage of the place. It was so Mumbai-like. People were busy, running, buying, talking, waiting, etc. I could not believe I was in New York!

We had to take tickets to New Haven and I figured out queues, which I though would be ones I would need to get into. However, Rohit led me to the ticket kiosks from where I took ticket to New Haven and got some change - dollars - one of which I got converted into quarters from the store opposite. People have been so helpful by far (touch wood again!). Our train was in an hour and so we though of spending some time at the station. We soon went to a restaurant and kept our luggage. I told both - Neelima and Rohit that I wasn't feeling I was in NY finally!! Felt like dumping my bag and just exploring the tallness of the buildings. 

However, we spoke, joked, had a photo session and also skipped a train since we wanted to spend more time with each other already! NY was fine with it!

I finally boarded the train - secured my luggage on a seat and bid good bye to Neelima and Rohit. The train soon departed and we cut across a landscape I would have encountered from CST to the north via the Harbour line. This was the first instance of being surrounded by ONLY Americans and still, it didnt feel different. It only reminded me of the Mumbai local trains. The conductor was jovial and happy - and he did look down upon me with my extra baggage on the seat. He went ahead to say - "That's a complete no no - while people are standing in the gang way". I asked him if I could keep the bag on the aisle, and he sweetly said, "Not in the aisle, probably there...", pointing at another place, which was occupied. I smiled away with guilt. 

The train was phenomenally quiet. It felt as if we were flying! We reached New Haven in exactly 1 hour 45 minutes - as specified. This was the first time I had to handle two of my huge bags all by myself . It wasnt so difficult. As I waited back for the crowd to clear for me to take my time with the staircase, a lady hinted me to use the elevator. I was so glad - I just walked up to the elevator where I already saw a few people with their bags. Fellow passengers helped me secure my bags inside and held the lift doors open for me. It seemed as if it was their duty to do so! I was impressed. It just made my life easier. I called up my land lady from the station and she said she'd be there in 9 minutes! And she was!

She drove me to her house explaining me little things and I finally reached my home. Carolina (the land lady) seems to be an extrovert and we spoke a lot. She is in the process of furbishing her house and thus I was already able to give her a lot of suggestions :P

She seemed in oblivion of all options available to her.

I haven't seen any of New Haven yet and I feel exactly like I felt in Chandigarh some 8 years ago. Being in the house, I can hear silence, and a car or two passing by once in a while. It's extremely quiet and I am relaxed. This space already seems productive to me. I have written almost about 1400 words!!

Check this space for more of US!