The Discourse of Form

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

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

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

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

Post buildings, we shall discuss...

Sketches - Ideas

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

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

Of Cultural Movements

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

1. Idea
2. Computer & Technology

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

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

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

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

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

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

Economy & Social Relations

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

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

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

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

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

Hand gestures while singing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sloping Landscapes*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*metaphorical (sloping = unstable, landscapes = scenarios)

Where do I go?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art & Architecture

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

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

Book Launch / Rahul Mehrotra: Architecture in India post 1990

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Had a long day! But an interesting one.

Warli Tracings

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

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

Architectural Gossip

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

Thus, his name was finally dropped, it seems.

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