I believe I haven't written for weeks together. That is not to suggest that I don't have any thing to write about. Infact, of all times, I have the most to write now - about the activities at School of EA, learning from CAMP and a numerous other discussions I have been having with many colleagues. I no longer like to have posts here as babbles (yet this may turn out to be one). I have realized the political instrumentality of the (this) blog. Some time ago, I was pondering on how this writing space has grown publicly. The more one comes into the public eye, the more the openness of one's thoughts shrinks. One has to constantly be careful of what one is throwing out in such open space, which once used to be a naiive, innocent diary which recorded all events of one's life. The internet has created this as a new form of public space that begins to take the characteristic of a real public dialogue. I can relate to Rohan Shivkumar when some time ago, his blog became a dumpyard for his material from being an active blog buzzing with ideas. Originally, Rohan's blogspace used to thrive with posts, ideas, critical thoughts and discussions. At a certain point, people seem to have become too sentimental about what was being written about on that blog, after which Rohan took a detour. After all, the last thing a writer (or thinker) wants to battle is unnecessary politics.
Today, Rohan's blog is merely a dump of pictures from his travels, with occasional captions. I must recall that there has been so much I have learnt from his writing which was only accessible to me through his blog. I have repeatedly found myself citing him in all my significant theses - be it my undergraduate thesis, my fellowship thesis or even my masters thesis. I find it surprising how all of my three research projects borrow from his ideas - those that passionately came across in his blogposts. He no longer writes such posts on his blog.
I used to record the inner happenings of Academy on this blog. My friends used to ask me - 'how do you write critically about a place you yourself work in?' Thinking to this question, I feel the management of Academy was not concerned, neither active on the internet. That is how perhaps, I was able to sustain my writing. The other thing could have been that they were far too involved in the larger level politics to care for my critique on their working. But all these factors helped my reflections then. Today, I can no longer have that freedom because the new school I work in has people who are quite active on the web world, who are constantly on the internet reading who is doing what.
I can no longer be open in the same way as before, as this will lead to the death of my own thoughts. Yes, this is indeed a self-censorship, and I am sure this repression will come out in ways unknown. This blog, as I have perhaps mentioned a lot of times before, has been a space where I have tried to purge my emotions through writing. Now I have taken a lot of my writing back to the good old form of manual diary writing - just to mitigate the reaction of my repressed energy. Seemingly this blog has become popular in its own way. This makes me very conscious while writing. I know people are reading. I know people are waiting for next posts, even if they don't really reply on posts here.
But to come back to the numerous things I wanted to write - I will be writing about my engagement with CAMP's exhibitions across India. I must say that there indeed were many novel things I got to learn about myself in the past three months. Secondly, I wanted to revisit the issue of 'general knowledge' that I have commented in the past on this blog with relation to the visit of a journalist at SEA. Thirdly, working with artists for the past three months, I have been wanting to critically look at the ways in which art and architecture interact with each other in India. This reflection perhaps particularly stems from my work with Ashok Sukumaran, who studied architecture, but now practices as an artist. The question of interaction between art and architecture in our country needs to be investigated, for it has remained for long with me, and I have not had the time to thread examples together. I must be doing some serious work on this aspect. I also wanted to record my thoughts on the Dharavi Biennale that happened two weeks ago in the city. Just last week, I also attended Steven Holl's talk at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, where he spoke about his projects as well as ran quickly through his selected proposal for the extension of the museum's north block.
There are more general things I used to write about before, those that still come to my mind. But I keep questioning if writing about those same things would be relevant. May be? Anyway, now that I have made an inventory for myself in the last paragraph, I should be able to make posts without much delay. With concerns that this blogspace will become more articulate, more formal over time, I am going to continue to write until the point I have faded like Rohan.
Today, Rohan's blog is merely a dump of pictures from his travels, with occasional captions. I must recall that there has been so much I have learnt from his writing which was only accessible to me through his blog. I have repeatedly found myself citing him in all my significant theses - be it my undergraduate thesis, my fellowship thesis or even my masters thesis. I find it surprising how all of my three research projects borrow from his ideas - those that passionately came across in his blogposts. He no longer writes such posts on his blog.
I used to record the inner happenings of Academy on this blog. My friends used to ask me - 'how do you write critically about a place you yourself work in?' Thinking to this question, I feel the management of Academy was not concerned, neither active on the internet. That is how perhaps, I was able to sustain my writing. The other thing could have been that they were far too involved in the larger level politics to care for my critique on their working. But all these factors helped my reflections then. Today, I can no longer have that freedom because the new school I work in has people who are quite active on the web world, who are constantly on the internet reading who is doing what.
I can no longer be open in the same way as before, as this will lead to the death of my own thoughts. Yes, this is indeed a self-censorship, and I am sure this repression will come out in ways unknown. This blog, as I have perhaps mentioned a lot of times before, has been a space where I have tried to purge my emotions through writing. Now I have taken a lot of my writing back to the good old form of manual diary writing - just to mitigate the reaction of my repressed energy. Seemingly this blog has become popular in its own way. This makes me very conscious while writing. I know people are reading. I know people are waiting for next posts, even if they don't really reply on posts here.
But to come back to the numerous things I wanted to write - I will be writing about my engagement with CAMP's exhibitions across India. I must say that there indeed were many novel things I got to learn about myself in the past three months. Secondly, I wanted to revisit the issue of 'general knowledge' that I have commented in the past on this blog with relation to the visit of a journalist at SEA. Thirdly, working with artists for the past three months, I have been wanting to critically look at the ways in which art and architecture interact with each other in India. This reflection perhaps particularly stems from my work with Ashok Sukumaran, who studied architecture, but now practices as an artist. The question of interaction between art and architecture in our country needs to be investigated, for it has remained for long with me, and I have not had the time to thread examples together. I must be doing some serious work on this aspect. I also wanted to record my thoughts on the Dharavi Biennale that happened two weeks ago in the city. Just last week, I also attended Steven Holl's talk at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, where he spoke about his projects as well as ran quickly through his selected proposal for the extension of the museum's north block.
There are more general things I used to write about before, those that still come to my mind. But I keep questioning if writing about those same things would be relevant. May be? Anyway, now that I have made an inventory for myself in the last paragraph, I should be able to make posts without much delay. With concerns that this blogspace will become more articulate, more formal over time, I am going to continue to write until the point I have faded like Rohan.
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