Showing posts with label charles correa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charles correa. Show all posts
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Monday, March 23, 2020
City Centre Mall, Kolkata
This writing is an excerpt from an old essay written in 2007. The writing has been amended for brevity here.
--
The City Centre, Kolkata, one of the latter projects of the architect Charles Correa (completed in 2004), was conceived as a convergence of functionality and aesthetics. The architect has tried to bring in the organic nature in the shopping mall by an innovative re-interpretation of an Indian market. Instead of bringing up a large chunk of building on an otherwise large land, the City Centre has been broken up into smaller fragments of forms interlinked by small bridges, courtyards and semi open spaces. Such a strategy not only makes the mall environmentally friendly, but also develops a character which is so typical of any Indian bazaar.
The idea of mall being an introvert, closed environment has been deconstructed and the place has been developed as porous organization of simple forms. On entering, the architect decides to give multiple experiences to the user by placing a kund and taking the user upwards through a flight of steps to create a sense of ghat, which traditionally has been a meeting place for people in Kolkata. The culmination of the experience of the entrance is its dissolution into the numerous streets of the bazaar. The public spaces within the otherwise conditioned space of the mall have been brought out in the open, which users can occupy and make their own personal zones. During larger public events, these smaller zones accrue to become one large theatre.
While going across th bazaar-streets within the mall, one is introduced to the sudden arrival of courtyards, appropriately scaled down to relate to the human level. The eateries are allowed to spread onto these ‘streets‘ as would normally happen in a khau galli. The interesting patterns of routes that the people make from between all such activities can be seen from strategically created levels which connect the inside and outside.
The City Centre does not define itself by creating boundaries, but itself goes and meets its surroundings. Different parts of the complex are taken up for various activities during festivals, seasonal exhibitions or public awareness. The City Centre thus assumes a truly public character and almost becomes an icon, not visually, but notionally, through the multiple experiences its offers to visitors. It balances the public and private interests of the larger society and dissolves class boundaries through intelligent design. People from all walks of life visit the mall without hesitation, rather it has given a new identity to the once socially relegated area of Kolkata.
--
The City Centre, Kolkata, one of the latter projects of the architect Charles Correa (completed in 2004), was conceived as a convergence of functionality and aesthetics. The architect has tried to bring in the organic nature in the shopping mall by an innovative re-interpretation of an Indian market. Instead of bringing up a large chunk of building on an otherwise large land, the City Centre has been broken up into smaller fragments of forms interlinked by small bridges, courtyards and semi open spaces. Such a strategy not only makes the mall environmentally friendly, but also develops a character which is so typical of any Indian bazaar.
The idea of mall being an introvert, closed environment has been deconstructed and the place has been developed as porous organization of simple forms. On entering, the architect decides to give multiple experiences to the user by placing a kund and taking the user upwards through a flight of steps to create a sense of ghat, which traditionally has been a meeting place for people in Kolkata. The culmination of the experience of the entrance is its dissolution into the numerous streets of the bazaar. The public spaces within the otherwise conditioned space of the mall have been brought out in the open, which users can occupy and make their own personal zones. During larger public events, these smaller zones accrue to become one large theatre.
While going across th bazaar-streets within the mall, one is introduced to the sudden arrival of courtyards, appropriately scaled down to relate to the human level. The eateries are allowed to spread onto these ‘streets‘ as would normally happen in a khau galli. The interesting patterns of routes that the people make from between all such activities can be seen from strategically created levels which connect the inside and outside.
The City Centre does not define itself by creating boundaries, but itself goes and meets its surroundings. Different parts of the complex are taken up for various activities during festivals, seasonal exhibitions or public awareness. The City Centre thus assumes a truly public character and almost becomes an icon, not visually, but notionally, through the multiple experiences its offers to visitors. It balances the public and private interests of the larger society and dissolves class boundaries through intelligent design. People from all walks of life visit the mall without hesitation, rather it has given a new identity to the once socially relegated area of Kolkata.
Friday, March 20, 2020
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Monday, January 16, 2017
The Politics of Representation: Charles Correa
The Politics of Representation: Charles Correa
Anuj Daga
For IES College of Architecture’s Annual Magazine ‘L’espirit’, 2016
Architect Charles Correa’s monograph published in 1996 was one of the most worn out books in the library of Academy of Architecture, Mumbai where I studied. Despite the fact that it was on permanent reserve at the school library it was referred by students far too frequently; to an extent that it’s binding had gone loose. The dismal condition of this book was inevitable given students’ keen interest in Correa’s works. At the same time, it bears witness to the fact that Charles Correa was, and still remains the most celebrated architect in India. Many of the students would always skip the introductory essay authored by historian Kenneth Frampton, or the one by Correa himself that followed. Instead, we would quickly move on to study the beautifully hand rendered building drawings of his projects. Importantly, these plans and sections were drawn by hand, which we believed were prepared by the architect himself. The style of these drawings was instinctively emulated by many of us into our own studio presentations, as for most of us (like students studying architecture in India even today), such illustrative drawing style became synonymous in conveying a certain idea of rootedness, perhaps even “Indian-ness” in design.
While we had no direct access to meet or talk to Correa, we primarily understood his architecture through the representations of built works published in his books. Correa’s approach of using local vernacular idioms in his building responses like the image appearing on the cover page of his monograph, together with the hand-borne aesthetic character of the representations published within it convinced us about those drawings too, to be prepared by him. Through the process of practicing what we assumed his style of drawing, we even hoped to acquire or appropriate an architectural sensibility of the aging Master, and thus to continue his legacy.
Anuj Daga
For IES College of Architecture’s Annual Magazine ‘L’espirit’, 2016
 |
| Cover page of Charles Correa's monograph |
Architect Charles Correa’s monograph published in 1996 was one of the most worn out books in the library of Academy of Architecture, Mumbai where I studied. Despite the fact that it was on permanent reserve at the school library it was referred by students far too frequently; to an extent that it’s binding had gone loose. The dismal condition of this book was inevitable given students’ keen interest in Correa’s works. At the same time, it bears witness to the fact that Charles Correa was, and still remains the most celebrated architect in India. Many of the students would always skip the introductory essay authored by historian Kenneth Frampton, or the one by Correa himself that followed. Instead, we would quickly move on to study the beautifully hand rendered building drawings of his projects. Importantly, these plans and sections were drawn by hand, which we believed were prepared by the architect himself. The style of these drawings was instinctively emulated by many of us into our own studio presentations, as for most of us (like students studying architecture in India even today), such illustrative drawing style became synonymous in conveying a certain idea of rootedness, perhaps even “Indian-ness” in design.
While we had no direct access to meet or talk to Correa, we primarily understood his architecture through the representations of built works published in his books. Correa’s approach of using local vernacular idioms in his building responses like the image appearing on the cover page of his monograph, together with the hand-borne aesthetic character of the representations published within it convinced us about those drawings too, to be prepared by him. Through the process of practicing what we assumed his style of drawing, we even hoped to acquire or appropriate an architectural sensibility of the aging Master, and thus to continue his legacy.
When Charles Correa planned to retire from architectural practice by the age of 82 in the year 2012, he decided to donate his entire archive of drawings, photographs, letters, models and list of published works to the RIBA in London. I was fortunate enough to be a part of this massive archiving project at the office of Charles Correa, which was carried out with the help of his office employees. It gave me an opportunity to observe closely the nature of Correa’s practice – the work of a figure we revered and the drawings from the monograph of whom we almost consumed invariably. To my surprise, I could not locate any drawings in his archive that looked like the ones in his monograph. In fact, I discovered through the co-employees at his office that Correa hardly preserved the process drawings he made for his own buildings. In addition, his original drawing style that I observed being an archivist at his office was quite different to those predominantly occurring in his monograph – one with uncontrolled, uninhibited swiping strokes instead of the slow, undulating ones that we had learned to emulate based on the published monograph. It is here that I came to question for the first time: who made those drawings for Correa’s monograph and why were they rendered differently from Correa’s own style? And how, in this situation, was a peculiar kind of representation technique chosen?
The works of Charles Correa often become a comfortable and pleasing aesthetic to settle for an “Indian” response in built form. They were also backed by the geometric diagrams introduced in the Vistara exhibition, as depicted in his monograph. We seldom looked beyond the Correa’s works as represented in his monograph to decipher the political and geographical forces that shaped his buildings. After detailed research in looking into Correa’s career, his architecture appears to be much more complex and ambiguous than what we as students simply accepted as Indian. I have come to realize that the imagination of Correa’s ‘India’ is shaped by, or even shaped for a number of political and geographical factors that transgress national boundaries.
To cut short to the untold story of the drawings - the sketchy, undulating drawing lines were chosen as a means of reinforcing the Indian identity in Correa’s works – they not only relate to the older Indian artistic representations but also the traditional village building forms made out of hand-plastered mud could never be a perfectly straight line. These practices that imparted an innate visual character to the built forms, in Correa’s mind, became Indian. I got to confirm this while working at his office in a candid conversation over lunch one day when Correa went on to say, “Even the Indian khadi fabric looks beautiful because it does not form clean straight lines. The undulating warps and wefts give character to the cloth, it echoes our culture.”[1] In the pursuit of translating this culture into his architectural representation, Correa commissioned employees from his office to reproduce the drawings by tracing over plans and sections technically made by drawing instruments or computer softwares to give an effect that not only allowed a simpler reading, but also strongly relate to the above-discovered theme of the rural and minimal, in other words “Indian.”
Harshraj Mane, one of the contributors of such drawings explains what he learnt under the guidance of the master architect. In a sense of repeating the master, he explained, “When you have to re-draw and abstract the design to re-present it, you focus your mind on the essence of the design - it is planning, navigation, proportions, shadow pattern and then accordingly make the drawing. Also there were parallel artists like Mario Miranda, R K Laxman, warli painting style, to draw influence from.”[2] The “essence” that Harshraj points out is certainly the notion of Indian that was coined in Correa’s mind after the Vistara exhibition – that which were located in traditional art forms and heritage of India. This is precisely the reason why Correa’s own style of drawing – the free flowing quick strokes unlike the poised illustrations in the monograph, that I noticed when I saw him in action while drawing in his office were not used throughout this publication. As we may now reason, in Correa’s own imagination his drawings were insufficient in conveying the spirit of Indian that was originally informed and established by the artistic building forms included in the Vistara exhibition. The building drawings thus reproduced in the form of undulating hand drawn sketches in the monograph, visually perceived like the rustic, unfinished aesthetic of traditional art forms in India undoubtedly made the works appear more rooted in the place.
In the light of the above study, Correa’s ability to steer the reception of his work as extremely relevant for national as well as international audiences at the same time is worth noting. It is this aspect of being able to mould complex political and geographical realities that have emerged as the highlight of Correa’s practice – one that must be remembered while evaluating contemporary architecture in India.
--
ENDNOTES
[1]I quote this from my personal conversation with Charles Correa while working at his office. Mr. Correa was referring to the hand-plastered walls of villages that do not have machine-finished crisp edges, instead evoke a sense of human involvement, when he stated his impression about the Indian fabric.
[2]E-mail interview with Harshraj Mane, former employee at Charles Correa Associates.
Mario Miranda was a famous Indian cartoonist based in Goa; R K Laxman is a well known illustrator and cartoonist from Mysore, India and warli paintings are folk paintings made by a tribal settlement in Maharashtra called “Warlis.” These drawings are illustrative renderings of everyday life drawn using white paste prepared from crushed rice.
The works of Charles Correa often become a comfortable and pleasing aesthetic to settle for an “Indian” response in built form. They were also backed by the geometric diagrams introduced in the Vistara exhibition, as depicted in his monograph. We seldom looked beyond the Correa’s works as represented in his monograph to decipher the political and geographical forces that shaped his buildings. After detailed research in looking into Correa’s career, his architecture appears to be much more complex and ambiguous than what we as students simply accepted as Indian. I have come to realize that the imagination of Correa’s ‘India’ is shaped by, or even shaped for a number of political and geographical factors that transgress national boundaries.
To cut short to the untold story of the drawings - the sketchy, undulating drawing lines were chosen as a means of reinforcing the Indian identity in Correa’s works – they not only relate to the older Indian artistic representations but also the traditional village building forms made out of hand-plastered mud could never be a perfectly straight line. These practices that imparted an innate visual character to the built forms, in Correa’s mind, became Indian. I got to confirm this while working at his office in a candid conversation over lunch one day when Correa went on to say, “Even the Indian khadi fabric looks beautiful because it does not form clean straight lines. The undulating warps and wefts give character to the cloth, it echoes our culture.”[1] In the pursuit of translating this culture into his architectural representation, Correa commissioned employees from his office to reproduce the drawings by tracing over plans and sections technically made by drawing instruments or computer softwares to give an effect that not only allowed a simpler reading, but also strongly relate to the above-discovered theme of the rural and minimal, in other words “Indian.”
Harshraj Mane, one of the contributors of such drawings explains what he learnt under the guidance of the master architect. In a sense of repeating the master, he explained, “When you have to re-draw and abstract the design to re-present it, you focus your mind on the essence of the design - it is planning, navigation, proportions, shadow pattern and then accordingly make the drawing. Also there were parallel artists like Mario Miranda, R K Laxman, warli painting style, to draw influence from.”[2] The “essence” that Harshraj points out is certainly the notion of Indian that was coined in Correa’s mind after the Vistara exhibition – that which were located in traditional art forms and heritage of India. This is precisely the reason why Correa’s own style of drawing – the free flowing quick strokes unlike the poised illustrations in the monograph, that I noticed when I saw him in action while drawing in his office were not used throughout this publication. As we may now reason, in Correa’s own imagination his drawings were insufficient in conveying the spirit of Indian that was originally informed and established by the artistic building forms included in the Vistara exhibition. The building drawings thus reproduced in the form of undulating hand drawn sketches in the monograph, visually perceived like the rustic, unfinished aesthetic of traditional art forms in India undoubtedly made the works appear more rooted in the place.
In the light of the above study, Correa’s ability to steer the reception of his work as extremely relevant for national as well as international audiences at the same time is worth noting. It is this aspect of being able to mould complex political and geographical realities that have emerged as the highlight of Correa’s practice – one that must be remembered while evaluating contemporary architecture in India.
 | ||
|
--
ENDNOTES
[1]I quote this from my personal conversation with Charles Correa while working at his office. Mr. Correa was referring to the hand-plastered walls of villages that do not have machine-finished crisp edges, instead evoke a sense of human involvement, when he stated his impression about the Indian fabric.
[2]E-mail interview with Harshraj Mane, former employee at Charles Correa Associates.
Mario Miranda was a famous Indian cartoonist based in Goa; R K Laxman is a well known illustrator and cartoonist from Mysore, India and warli paintings are folk paintings made by a tribal settlement in Maharashtra called “Warlis.” These drawings are illustrative renderings of everyday life drawn using white paste prepared from crushed rice.
--
NOTE:
This is a short extract of a chapter for my master's thesis "In the Place of Images" submitted to the Yale School of Architecture, USA, 2014, towards the completion of Master of Environmental Design program. The original chapter investigates the geopolitics of Charles Correa's practice over his architectural career.
NOTE:
This is a short extract of a chapter for my master's thesis "In the Place of Images" submitted to the Yale School of Architecture, USA, 2014, towards the completion of Master of Environmental Design program. The original chapter investigates the geopolitics of Charles Correa's practice over his architectural career.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Which Indian architect inspires you the most?
As much as I was excited to see this video prepared by students over YouTube, which I accidentally discovered, I was equally disappointed. The video documents opinions of students of architecture in India about who they believe is the most inspiring Indian architect.
Although the interviewer brings in a fresh energy in asking the question, pretty much like the anchors hosting any reality show on television (energetic, smiling, with forceful body movements, projecting themselves on the screen), the respondents seem to be weary of the weather, tired by the heat and humidity and the complete opposite of the anchor!
The question is simple: "Which Indian architect inspires you the most?" the interviewer stresses, "Indian Architect" - she wants to say - "See how innovative and significant my question is, have you thought about it ever?"
Respondents in the video have all kinds of looks on their faces - serious, intellectual, thoughtful and burdened by the assumed enormity of the question, rather the assumed responsibility of their answers to the question! One sees all kinds of expressions - Looking up in the air, thinking, eyes rolling in vague space, which affirm that their answer is measured, thought out and a lot of evaluation has gone in the mind before the name comes out.
Some answers are candid and honest. Some try to give text bookish justifications about how their responses are relevant. There are others who do not even take the effort of taking the same name again, whose mind speak - "I believe what the earlier one says must be right, although, thankyou for asking me!" There are others subtones - "Is it okay if I say Charles Correa?" and yet another is "Is it okay if I say Charles Correa again?"; or "I am sorry, but it IS Charles Correa..."
Some are funnier - the ones that almost rhetorically ask: "Do you think I am going to answer any thing else except Charles Correa?" or "Do you know any one else except Charles Correa?" Until this response (1:30), where the interviewer was almost feeding words to others, now she herself begins to believe that the answers have to be Charles Correa!
The other extremes are - "Indian? You think there are 'architects' in India?" which goes on to imply, "that's why we are not even taught about them, no?" and further, with all boldness, her smile (1:40) asks - "You silly interviewer, have you even heard of Zaha Hadid or Norman Forter's name - they are called architects, and they are not Indian." The best undertone (1:58) is "No comments, redefine your question."
Suddenly around 2.10, you hear in the background - "anything, anything" - and the immediate interviewer's answer is almost confessinal - "Okay, you want to hear something other than Charles Correa, I like Laurie Baker! Does that add some variety to your interview?"
Take a look:
 |
| Let me browse my list! |
 |
| This is a really important question for the future of the country |
 |
| It's going to be only Charles Correa. Why didn't you ask ME before? |
 |
| Let me take you on an international tour |
 |
| You are asking the wrong question! |
***
I saw this about 5 times, and it was as hilarious as Kolaveri Di. Seriously.
Nevertheless, the question is serious. I sincerely hope that students merely expose themselves to more 'Indian' names.
Leads:
and so on!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Charles Correa Gold Medal 2012
The Charles Correa Gold Medal 2012 was not awarded to any one.
I had a similar strange feeling yesterday as I took a round after all students pinned up their work. (Being the organizer of the event, one gets to see stuff before any one else, even jury gets to have a look!). As Prof. Punde inspected the room over the evening asking for a good panel to look at, I exclaimed "None!" - Adding further, "One year, they must just not give the gold medal to any one..." To my surprise, I actually found my evaluation was correct! Not only that, my instincts of notable panels was also right - they same 3 panels I thought (exactly those) were cited! Wonder what this meant!
One can clearly point out where things go wrong for gold medal.
1. The fad to compose larger and large (bed)sheets, which students are incapable to compose efficiently, ends up making them hoardings rather than architectural sheets
2. Overly rendered drawings, too many colours, background, flashy views are an eye sore.
3. Panels filled with overflowing essays of analysis. Writeups that flow in every blank inch of space.
4. Pictures like wedding albums, sprinkled all over the analysis panels or design sheets.
5. Unclear drawings, obnoxiously large, pixelated, unoriented, mixing into each other.
6. Non-contextual, irrationally large urban design projects thinking of them to be urban inserts. (a flaw on the part of universities which expect large thesis projects so that students are able to display their skills in all aspects of architecture)
7. Misplaced aesthetic sensibilities - in design, layout (of sheets) and presentation.
And one could probably go on.
The 3 citations, two from KRVIA and another from Bharati Vidyapeeth seemed interesting. I remember pointing out to Punde Sir about Marsha's thesis (KRV: Resonant Memories) that although the panel is poetic, I had serious questions about the program (which was the typical library, exhibition, etc.) - and the jury did pointed that along with circulation issues. I also felt the project layout did not fit in the countour layout well. The jury did appreciate the water colour drawings, that forced me to bring Punde Sir to have a look at it. (Ok, I must clarify I wasn't with the jury, and it was a closed room affair!). The Modern Temple (Dipti, BVP) was well articulated and I knew it was challenging, but it ended up in the shikhara! One would try to look at what Frank Llyod Wright did to Unity temple, which was the first 'modern' church as compared to the classical imagery of the church, in analysing what is a 'modern' form. I did not particularly keenly see the third entry (Nupoor, KRV). It seemed interesting in the way it was composed.
Out of the 21 entries that were received, none of them, the jury felt, lived up to the brief offered to them. They decided to award none on the grounds that, "it would be unfair to the earlier winners who had put in much more hard work" and because they "need to maintain the standards of the Charles Correa Gold Medal" (Kamu Iyer).
Prof. Hazra pointed out very sensitively that "it seemed that many projects were almost there, had there been a little more guidance, would there be really interesting projects". He also candidly expressed that one involuntarily gets into a mode of comparison with the projects that have earlier received the Gold Medal, which seemed much promising. The entries this time only lacked visual communication skills, presentation of analysis and lack of design resolution.
Charles Correa concluded saying that "You all look very disappointed, but that does not mean that you did not put in hard work. All of you have put in a lot of effort, but don't be disappointed since it's a part of life. There will be so many times when clients will not like your design and you will have to start all over again...you all must try and put in your design intent more clearly..."
Students huddled him up as he left the premises - they discussed issues, ideas and what went wrong. After all, Charles Correa still remains a figure in Indian architecture to catch a memorable glimpse of. I re-lived my three year old excitement seeing the students' pin drop silence in the auditorium. This decision only makes the Gold Medal more coveted and desirable, raising the already tall stature of Charles Correa.
I had a similar strange feeling yesterday as I took a round after all students pinned up their work. (Being the organizer of the event, one gets to see stuff before any one else, even jury gets to have a look!). As Prof. Punde inspected the room over the evening asking for a good panel to look at, I exclaimed "None!" - Adding further, "One year, they must just not give the gold medal to any one..." To my surprise, I actually found my evaluation was correct! Not only that, my instincts of notable panels was also right - they same 3 panels I thought (exactly those) were cited! Wonder what this meant!
One can clearly point out where things go wrong for gold medal.
1. The fad to compose larger and large (bed)sheets, which students are incapable to compose efficiently, ends up making them hoardings rather than architectural sheets
2. Overly rendered drawings, too many colours, background, flashy views are an eye sore.
3. Panels filled with overflowing essays of analysis. Writeups that flow in every blank inch of space.
4. Pictures like wedding albums, sprinkled all over the analysis panels or design sheets.
5. Unclear drawings, obnoxiously large, pixelated, unoriented, mixing into each other.
6. Non-contextual, irrationally large urban design projects thinking of them to be urban inserts. (a flaw on the part of universities which expect large thesis projects so that students are able to display their skills in all aspects of architecture)
7. Misplaced aesthetic sensibilities - in design, layout (of sheets) and presentation.
And one could probably go on.
The 3 citations, two from KRVIA and another from Bharati Vidyapeeth seemed interesting. I remember pointing out to Punde Sir about Marsha's thesis (KRV: Resonant Memories) that although the panel is poetic, I had serious questions about the program (which was the typical library, exhibition, etc.) - and the jury did pointed that along with circulation issues. I also felt the project layout did not fit in the countour layout well. The jury did appreciate the water colour drawings, that forced me to bring Punde Sir to have a look at it. (Ok, I must clarify I wasn't with the jury, and it was a closed room affair!). The Modern Temple (Dipti, BVP) was well articulated and I knew it was challenging, but it ended up in the shikhara! One would try to look at what Frank Llyod Wright did to Unity temple, which was the first 'modern' church as compared to the classical imagery of the church, in analysing what is a 'modern' form. I did not particularly keenly see the third entry (Nupoor, KRV). It seemed interesting in the way it was composed.
Out of the 21 entries that were received, none of them, the jury felt, lived up to the brief offered to them. They decided to award none on the grounds that, "it would be unfair to the earlier winners who had put in much more hard work" and because they "need to maintain the standards of the Charles Correa Gold Medal" (Kamu Iyer).
Prof. Hazra pointed out very sensitively that "it seemed that many projects were almost there, had there been a little more guidance, would there be really interesting projects". He also candidly expressed that one involuntarily gets into a mode of comparison with the projects that have earlier received the Gold Medal, which seemed much promising. The entries this time only lacked visual communication skills, presentation of analysis and lack of design resolution.
Charles Correa concluded saying that "You all look very disappointed, but that does not mean that you did not put in hard work. All of you have put in a lot of effort, but don't be disappointed since it's a part of life. There will be so many times when clients will not like your design and you will have to start all over again...you all must try and put in your design intent more clearly..."
Students huddled him up as he left the premises - they discussed issues, ideas and what went wrong. After all, Charles Correa still remains a figure in Indian architecture to catch a memorable glimpse of. I re-lived my three year old excitement seeing the students' pin drop silence in the auditorium. This decision only makes the Gold Medal more coveted and desirable, raising the already tall stature of Charles Correa.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Quote Unquote
Charles Correa's references and anecdotes:
"Hinduism accepts things decaying"
"The medium is the message"
"The man who invented the internet didn't get a penny"
"An Indian mother is never nasty to her son-in-law."
"You can't work on urban problems without political backing."
"Hinduism accepts things decaying"
"The medium is the message"
"The man who invented the internet didn't get a penny"
"An Indian mother is never nasty to her son-in-law."
"You can't work on urban problems without political backing."
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Archive as Play
Lined up 21 files tracing Correa's history in newspapers and magazines since 1962...
and more to be added to it soon.
Yeah, I wanted to mention here that how working on this project is so playful. I used to love solving puzzles when I was young - what comes first, what comes in the end, find the missing number, arrange in order, match the figures, find the differences...all that. That is exactly what I am doing here. Putting things in place, neatly, taking prints of matter, scanning and organizing into a system...guessing out page nos. from "continued at" and "continued from" - all that.
More than that, how it makes me delicate towards the material. That's fascinating. I love handling old paper - the yellowness due to its age, its smell, eroded surface, old signs/logos of newspapers, old typeface, sometimes a random advertisement along side an article makes you wonder what that time was and how people lived - it's interesting in all its dimensions for me to understand the historical aspect of archiving.
And in the end, the colourful tags that I remove from unwanted places make my table very colourful against the old furniture and the old papers. At the end of every day, I put back my stationery in that big round pencil holder created from some stupid unwanted empty spindle of rolled paper... it's interesting to see all pens and pencils self-organize themselves into its curvature.
More interesting things are when Correa talks about them - like he mentioned today about a newspaper called "Daily Telegrams" which used to be published only in Andaman. The reason why it was called a "Telegram" was because during those days, all news could only be sent to Andaman via a telegram. So the publishers would receive a couple of telegrams which would be published into a newspaper, daily. On the other hand, while I was just sorting out all the VHS tapes containing his interviews, etc, it's funny to have no more tapes after 1997, and it makes you realize the overtaking of computerised (digital technology) over TV - since then, one finds only CDs and later only DVDs...
(and on my way back, I thought of another idea, rather ideas, to be written upon, drawn about or recorded {audio/video}...where shall I get the people of my temperament to accomplish it? Lots of work to be done - if the curved line on the palm is the measure of the life, then I want to scratch it right till my arm...hush...)
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