Art - Expression - Imagination

Can one reduce one's life to be just utilitarian? Why did humans start to paint, craft, dance, sing or write? They are not related to any of our basic needs of living. The intrinsic human need to express is what creates meaning for existence. Is meaning so important for existence? Perhaps it comes out of the desire of the self to go beyond the body. It manifests the need to conquer a larger world, that doesnot exist here. It comes out of the exigencies of the individual for a universal exploration. Through such expression, one makes imagination possible. Imagination allows the self to go beyond the real and existential.

What is the need for sharing imagination? Why do people share imaginations? Why do they ask others to join them with their imagination? Perhaps in imagining a new world, one makes a new social space, which still exists within the current one, and by default is lived through the institutions of the present space. Fears of being singled out, or social exclusion perhaps force us to share imaginations. Through this they try to validate their new imagined social space. Expressions are also probably tools to validate imaginations. The form of Epressions belong to the real world. Hence imaginations become acceptable to some extent. Some believe in them, some remain intrigued, some question and others remain unaffected. Many others consume them.

When expressions are consumed, they take the form of entertainment. Entertainment has thus become an industry. It sucks in a lot of people, emerging into popular culture. It has made its own multifarous institutions. Institutions although validate expressions, they end up guarding them. Art is thus the domain of expression, which gives meaning to life. Architecture has the possibility of engaging with all forms of expressions. Thus it becomes unmanagable and complex - the mother of all arts. We have reduced it to construction and buildings.

If students realize this intrinsic connection of architecture with art, they could start looking at all forms of expression with a close eye. They would only then appreciate and acknowledge expression of human life.

Mumbai Joy: A Critical Reflection

The AOA Vertical studio 2012 "Mumbai Joy" will come to an end tomorrow and we are here, waiting at the college to get all the prints for the exhibition organized. We have about 40 A0 and 8 8' x 4' panels to be printed (it's 12.00 am right now) and the printer has just started printing our sheets. All of us are wondering when will we get the final prints and I am here, sitting with Ajey waiting patiently for our prints to arrive.


Ravindra Punde and Rohit Shinkre were here for some time during the late evening. We couldn't help but get into a self evaluatory, self critical mode. We were discussing about how the Vertical studio turned out to be, although not in much detail. but thoughts keep crossing my mind on this issue and I wonder what I got out of the studio.


I do not really know if the studio has been a success, or even close to success, whether there has been any positive aspect that the student body sees. There were various possibilities and opportunities of learning in the "Mumbai Joy" studio, where we aimed to map cultures of Mumbai. We selected 10 areas of research which included celebrations, films, theatre, food, festivals, gymkhanas, fine arts, crafts, music and cricket. Each group had a team of 20 students and 2-3 faculties. We wished to map Mumbai cultures, a serious, rigorous effort to understand distinct patterns of the city we live in.

I will now begin discussing gaps, lags in communication between the students and the organizing team. Later, I will try locating the problems. Lastly I would try to open up possible strategies for our future operation.

Preparation:
We prepared as faculty. We prepared a final compiled 'intent sheet' with each of these sub groups. In order that student got enough time to decide and choose their area of interest, we floated an e mail, rather an e mail form with the entire description of the exercise along with a registration mail which asked them to choose their first three preferences among the 10 areas. I think we were prepared.

Later, we individually submitted our  methodologies of working and compiled it to understand each others' way of working.

GAPS:
1. It seems that many students assumed the studio to be a workshop where they would be trained in their area of preference.  For example, many in the fine arts group thought they would be involved in the production of paintings and artwork if they registered with this group. Students in the 'crafts' group  thought they would make craft. Some students opted for food since it seemed too playful. This clearly suggested that many students did not read the introduction of each of the sub groups carefully. They did not understand the intent of the studio. They didnot ask for clarifications. We as faculty assumed they understand well.

2. Faculties thought that students would be enthusiastic to channel their energies in their areas of interest and that every student must be able to relate to at least one of these areas. We assumed students would be eager to know more and research on these subjects. It wasn't the case.

3. Vertical studio meant the formulation of groups vertically - across classes. There are two divisions - aided and unaided, in the college and very few students interact. We thought this would be a good opportunity for students across classes to know and learn from each other. However, I found personally that there was hardly any intermingling or strong interaction between them.

4. The 10 groups, we idealized, could work independently. We never thought of overlaps or sharing of information except the Mumbai map.

5. We assumed students to have drive and skill to be able to analyze things around them.

PROBLEMS:
1. There was a clear case of mis-communication in the intent of the studio. We aimed at mapping (document+analyse+represent) and it turned out to be a documentation project.

2. Students had no idea of research. Our fourth year students are no equipped with enough training to accumulate and assort data.

3. Vertical studio groups did not interact vertically. Student groups did not mingle much. Many did not attend, many shuffled. All data remained isolated.

4. Field studies were unsuccessful. Students didnot have methods of observation or any idea of conducting surveys, interviews or taking pictures. They had no clue of "what to document", or what qustions to ask. They remained limited to questionnaires handed by us. There seemed to be very little effort from students to dig out information.

5. I found a serious lack of drive and initiative in the entire groups. No one waited for their panels to be printed and put up. Students had no attachment to their work or no excitement to see their work displayed.

PROBLEM LOCATIONS:
1. We get a large amount of student group highly under-informed and under-confident. Students new to the city, shy students and those coming from non-English backgrounds find it extremely difficult to communicate. I too was an under-informed student and particularly had no skills for architecture, except modelmaking. However, I had the drive.

2. Research has always been assumed to be an activity that is subsidiary and something that is 'all talk', which does not fetch money, and can not fill the stomach. The relation of research to design is seldom explained to students. Further, this gap widens due to over-emphasis on production of designs and drawings.

3. Faculties differ in their schools of thought, but make them personal issues. As mature individuals, we need to appreciate each others' theoretical positions and widen our spectrum of vision. However, the root of the problem lies in faculties pouring in from diverse groups, schools of thought and opinions. Recently, the age divide may be another big reason for the incoherence and intolerance of ideas.

4. Design at Academy is looked at in a very constricted manner. Architecture students are hardly made to (note the assertion) interact with other disciplines that are housed by the same building. Neither do students  capitalize, nor does faculty encourage or force. All remain happy in their own comfort zone.

5. As a corollary to the above point, I believe students can take larger initiatives to bridge these gaps. However, I find students are unmotivated, who see no point in discussing any issues beyond marks, and do not take any step towards making design education well rounded. Neither are they exposed, nor do they want to expose themselves. Internet seems to be a safe hideout and prevents physical exploration of our own city. Generally, the kind of students we are getting seem to be uninterested and hardly care for design. They are here for a degree and want to score good marks.

POSSIBLE TRAJECTORIES:
1. We need serious orientation programmes for students towards architecture and its scope. Further, we need orientation programmes for all sub-disciplines under the purview of the discipline of architecture. Students need to be engaged in the programme of architecture only if they understand and are willing to invest their maximum time in it.

2. Research programmes have to be initiated and they have to be funded well. This will possibly bring in a reassurance in the activity of study through documentation and analysis. There needs to be research method courses at all stages of the architecture course. Examples of research and its practical usage has to be spelled out from the beginning. The fact that research is closely related to pragmatic problems and is a respectable and viable industry has to be established.

3. Faculties may not be selected by word of mouth. They must be rigorously interviewed and their past work  and credentials has to be taken into consideration. They must be qualified and mature enough to teach.

4. Design programmes have to be reworked. Exchange programmes need to be initiated. Interaction between various design institutes must be made compulsory and students should be made to understand other methodologies of working.

5. Counselling for students joining the stream is required. We get a lot of students whose true passion lies somewhere else and due to cultural pressures, end up joining a professional course like architecture which is considered to be the toughest of all courses. We need to admit students based on their motivation levels, not as per their marksheets. The reason why most colleges abroad seem to be successful is because they choose their students. We have no choice. We have to accept what is given to us.

I wish to end this post here. It is a highly personal, narrow and restricted evaluation of the entire situation and much of it may be incorrect. However, it is a documentation of my experience of this entire studio that keeps me agitated enough to not make peace with the system, and thus maintaining my drive. All faculties felt students did not  perform to their capabilities. But the landscape and nature of problems encountered by every one may be different. Thus, the above account may be completely invalid. Also, it is restricted to only 5 points in the framework. There are many other aspects to our non-success. On the other hand, the above points could have been supported with examples or cases - which one intends to skip only to maintain the length of this summary and preserve the integrity of the student.

Overall, it has been an event which has consumed a lot of resource and time to excite a small section of student body which would have taken the extra initiative even otherwise. I believe, it was a greater opportunity for the faculty to understand the diversity of the practice of architecture and to mould their subjects to the specificity of the place they live in. The generic nature of information that the students are fed with meanwhile widens the gap between a student's practice and their immediate context. This further leads to strengthened belief in objectification of architecture.  I hope after reading this post, there would be reactions, and I would be glad to receive them here.

Intelligent v/s the Wise

Looking at smart people I have started observing what makes some smart people different than the other? How does one describe the specificities of different kinds of smart people? The ultimate adjectives, which seem reasonable measures are the intelligent and the wise.

I am a big fan of the wise instead of the intelligent. How does one characterize the two? Through my understanding, here are my distinctions between the two.

Firstly, let me make clear distinction between data and information. Something purely factual (a first hand reading of any situation) is data. It concerns with hard reality. We generate information through collection of data. The study of information creates knowledge. Thus the intelligent are those who are controlled by and in control of knowledge. The intelligent work within set knowledge systems and operate through this understood and accepted system. The intelligent will be able to help you with all kinds of things that exist in the real world. They talk of facts and their synthesis. You can trust them on the authenticity of information. Their skill lies in memorizing and processing the memory to get the right information at the right time. They work exceptionally well within structured environments. These are the people made for the cities – they can impress people and make their way out of situations, through legal and technical knowledge in their respective fields.

However, the intelligent could make mistakes in non-structured environments. They are highly susceptible to fall into traps of incorrect decisions in places where no formal knowledge systems exists. Wading through such field is the expertise of the wise.

It is yet difficult to define if the wise make their way through intelligence. Let’s assume that the wise are intelligent by virtue of their ability to contextualize any kind of data (they do not understand data through knowledge structures). They operate in the field of information, more basely, in the field of data, making their own meanings and readings that are highly contextual to different environments and situations. In this view, the wise are intelligent not because they can memorize all the data, but due to their ability to grasp new data for a particular scenario efficiently and quickly. The wise work with human response and behaviour. In this sense, the difference between the intelligent and the wise is similar to the nature of scalars and vectors respectively – while one is, in essence, quantitative, the other has multiple transforming aspects (like direction, momentum and acceleration) to it which makes it quantitative in the realm of (in  the purview, subset) of qualitative.

The wise are thus able to foresee new knowledge systems / structures and are able to take tactical decisions. Due to their ability to contextualize any kind of information, they are always at their toes and are able to take logical decisions, which bear results for the time being. The wise may not be able to give long term decisions, they may be able to frame a decision that is relevant for the immediate action. In long term, thus, the wise may make mistakes. But also, they may give creative outlooks towards the future. There is a value to this creativity, this leap that the wise takes for the future based on the assumptions of the current. The intelligent may be strategists. They may not conceptualize futures based on current conditions, but imagine new conditions for the future. In doing so, the intelligent miss out on a lot of humour and wit. But the intelligence of their decisions can be harnessed through following their plans.

Another important distinction one can make is the amount of rationality that the intelligent show versus the wise. The intelligent would always have a high level of rationality as compared to the wise since they rely on very safe back up like factual information. The wise use personal logic and bring in a lot of subjectivity to the interpretation of existing data. Also, they rely more on personal experience than objective case studies. While the intelligent would build up a decision based on a range of case studies, the wise would use personal history to give an output.

This post is under construction. It may continue if more ideas occur. Meanwhile, suspended. 

Update

For a long time I have not posted. This is not because I have not been involved in writing. Instead, I am writing all the more. I was very busy writing my personal statement and research proposals for various places. In this process, I had to really really think hard on myself to understand my interests. I think I have achieved a great extent of clarity on my trajectory now. Although it's not completely clear. But every time I think of a new project or research, I clarify my theoretical position. Thus, this process has been quite enriching. For a long time, I thought of uploading all such work on my blog, but I finally refrained, because I just wanted to keep all these things to myself.

On the other hand, I have been manually writing a lot of things - since the computer is a tool which makes me dwell too much on perfection. So i end up losing a lot of ideas. When I write manually, I am not thinking about the correctness of language or the use of words. I mix and match, and mostly I am translating from Hindi to English. So such write ups are really crude. But they help in vomitting a thought out. I take time later to refine them and make these ideas crisper. I have accumulated pages and pages of such text.

There were some other writings which started off really well and were interjected by circumstantial events. The link is lost, and so, once I reconsider them, I will be able to produce a lot more writings at once. Subjects come and go. Strong ideas and thoughts pass across the mind. Sometimes, student work in nascent stage makes me think a lot, and I am able to give a good feedback to a lot. But later, I feel all that thought must be recorded. Lectures must be transcribed. A lot of times, after I finish my lectures, I sit in my room and write what I spoke...It makes so much sense. Students ask questions which help to clarify concepts.

I will take time to collate all such writings and scribblings into tangible output. For the time being, I have made a good compilation of my earlier works into a portfolio, which I really like to gaze at. I keep flipping and feeling the pages and writing all the time. I hope it makes the same impact on others who see it. It's called "Idearchive" - a hint Siddharth (Nadkarny) gave me during an informal chat...

I want to write about the nature in which my phone has gone out of order. It has started behaving weirdly. Being a touch screen, 1/3rd of it has become insensitive. the middle 1/3rd is partially sensitive and the right most part is intact. So I have to constantly be very informed to press at the wrong place to press the right button and execute the right information. For example, the "yes" and "no" button are on right and left on the touch screen. But I end up saying "no" to every thing that occurs with the phone. The key pad types absolutely absurdly. If I have to say, "Sorry to have missed you", it writes "Sorry to have kissed you"! Messages are completely going for a toss!!  It's really funny and I am looking forward to theorize it...How? Imagine a skewed phone - like a man looking crooked, performing unexpected operations and landing you up in imaginary landscapes! One could construct an interesting story out of that! Of all unintended things one did, which opened up a new perspective of life...

Of all "no's" that became "yes" and vice versa. Of all messages that went to wrong people and did interesting connections. Of all unwanted cancellations, of all numbers you dialled wrong...It could be revealing...

I have always imagined such an exercise with archaeological space. When at the Sun temple Modhera, where we saw the intricately carved temple stone blocks numbered and lined up to be reset on the facade, I wondered if all those numbers mixed up, would it change relationships between people? Wouldnt it challenge our whole belief systems, mythology, and all those narratives...An exploratory exercise in challenging history could be fictitiously constructed.

However, there are other things going on. The vertical studio where we have too much to explore and only a few sincere, interested students. I could just indulge in writing about all the 10 areas that have been selected - there are so many stories out there, so much to learn and also produce knowledge. We just have a bunch of extremely lackadaisical students who do not want to do any thing. Either their futures are set, or they do not have futures. It's as black and white as that, perhaps...

I am handling the visual culture group and there is so much to talk about it that I can't contain within myself. I am just waiting for students to bring up some amount of enthusiasm and eagerness to work. Then, I am sure we will achieve something. So, finally, writing is going on. soon you will see a lot of it. It is in the process of cooking up, and it will be served soon. The application process is already over and I can get back to attack this space again!

Academy of Architecture, Annual Lecture 2011-12

Poster Design: Anuj Daga

Delhi Study Tour 2011

An account of the "adventurous" Delhi tour with the third year batch 2011:
More details and observations to follow...

On International English Exams

Right now I am typing this text in Notepad only to be copy pasted in the blogpost; since this is the format I will be using in TOEFL exams.

While the reading and listening section of the toefl test are extremely interesting and informative (since even if you do not score well, you learn about new things), the speaking and writing sections are really funny. They expect us to write like babies and ask our opinions on frivilous issues, to the extent of suggesting things for people. All this is to understand our speaking and writing skills. Something that can be identified through our personal statements that universities ask for.

However, while thinking of some topics, I felt so bored to prepare for such an exam that I came up with my own set of sillier questions that must be posed to TOEFL organization in the speaking and writing sections, and mind you, with time limits.

Speaking section:

Do you think TOEFL is an essential test for international students?
You have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to answer.

Should TOEFL exam be waived for students whose medium of instruction has been English in High School?
You have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to answer.

Which is your favourite section in TOEFL: Reading, Speaking, Listening or writing?
You have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to answer.

Writing Section:

Is TOEFL the true measure for fluency in English? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

Is it enjoyable to give TOEFL test?
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

Some people believe that TOEFL is a very easy exam and prepare by themselves while others take coaching for the test? Which one of these do you think  is a better way of preparation? Support your answer with examples.
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

TOEFL is overrated. Do you agree or disagree?
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.

Some people like to read, others like to write. Does TOEFL reflect true potential of a person through its evaluation?
You will get 30 minutes to write your answer.


Well,

One can keep on going with this silliness. But the point is often, speaking and writing are considered to be 'extempore' activities. For people applying for arts or humanities programmes, speaking and writing are serious disciplines. TOEFL makes highly subjective areas objective. This translation of subjective into objective is an obsession of the modern world where every thing needs to he put on a scale for evaluation...Unfortunately, Universities abroad chaff out the best amongst the 100s of applications that they receive in  the first round on the basis of these english exam scores. How many thinking minds are neglected in this objectivity?

State of Mind

These days, things are a bit crazy. I am writing this though my mind tells me I must not be spending time on this.

However, I am just wanting to express what I am going through physically versus mentally. When I work, I feel sleepy and when I close my eyes, I feel insomnia. I feel warm and I switch on the fan and switch it off only to realize I am feeling cold. I eat something and realize the taste only after it's almost over. Taste doesnot matter - it's for my health that I eat perhaps! I feel tired, but when I take rest, I feel restless. I feel I have a lot of work and when I work, I feel there is nothing to do, rather, I wonder where to start!? I feel immensely negative about something that is not, while have a gut feeling of positivity in something that I am underestimating! I start to read something and only realize later that I have been only staring at it for a long time. Ideas come to head and vanish as soon as I begin to note them. I want to draw and end up reproducing old things. Articulated sentences shout in my head but dont make way to the paper!

What is this state of mind I dont know. Nothing is happening, but still it seems I am brimming with work.

What is this? I wonder!

Re-living the Silk Mill at AOA

So we (the un-aided department) has finally got a new raw space.

Just two days ago as I was going through the Yale School of Architecture handbook, I realized that each course had its own separate instruction space with added seminar halls, research cells and other conveniences that they require. Each space had its own equipment too. I realized that as and when they start new courses, they add new physical spaces as far as possible it seems. Perhaps they never think of new courses unless they have space.

At Academy it's the reverse. However, the concept of recycling space in our kind of context is an interesting one. We save so much space - we save so much of everything! 

It is told to us that a part of this new space will be a 24 hour studio for our department. Let me describe this space to you. Its a roomy volume with a tin shed - something that matches my imagination of the school as the historical silk mill. It's practically open on all sides capturing excellent views of  the city. There is a lot of light, along with a lot of heat. We were wondering how to control both! Perhaps there was no one to supervise the whole work and there are hundreds of mistakes in execution of all possible things that exist here. The paradox of AOA is that all spaces in this architecture school are built without any involvement of architects as designers - we are just clients here. That's because the school doesnot want to pay professional architect's fees to any one who takes charge. So things happen - they just happen like buildings come up in slums.

But in appreciation, our expectation with this raw space is tremendous. We all (faculty) love this workshop like space which makes one feel in air. There is a large balcony that overlooks another one below. The volume of the space is nice, airy. The most important aspect of this space is the privacy it offers from the rest of the school. It could become a great thinking space - because it allows to wander and dream - it allows you to gaze deep and far.

I wonder how it will be handled by all in future. All have their aspirations with this raw volume - all want to carve out a space for themselves - students will want lockers, teachers will want workspace, meeting rooms, seminar rooms, projection spaces, exhibition area, work area, equipment storage, administrative staff... the space as I see, is already ruined. Some one spoke of partitioning the two class rooms. To me the biggest opportunity was the merged classes, where there are no boundaries. People just make smaller discussion groups. Eventually, many would want to have a permanent partition - because then they can sell the space, or lock up part of it claiming security reasons. However, a flexible partition must suffice.

We overdo all decisions. We will rape this space. I  am sure. In all possible ways. Students, if mature will understand that the best way to keep this space is open, so that they can pop onto each other desks across class and communicate and talk of ideas, debate designs...Teachers if dont have walls will be one with the students, nonteaching staff will be so much more a part of the team. I recall of a paper by Robin Evans called "Translations from drawing to building" where he says that 

"If there is anything that the architectural plan describes, it is human relationships, since the elements whose trace it records - walls, doors, windows and stairs - are employed first to divide and then to selectively reunite inhabited space."

Thus, to me, the absence of any definition of this space (the absence of the intervention of the architectural plan of the floor plate) is the biggest opportunity at hand we have. As soon as we divide this space, we will be demeaning all debates we have of reducing gap between students and faculty, inter-student interaction, the idea of being open, democratic, and all that!

Before any of the above happens, I have clicked some pictures for my record. We look at what future holds for this shed!

I wanted to write a lot more, but I will refrain. There are lots of ideas with this space still being a shell. We could keep doing so much with it just being a shell. Let's see...

Dead Plants and Architecture

Today morning as I was leaving home for a visit to the CST building, I saw this plant in my house which was almost dead. Perhaps this happened while we were away for a week from home for my brother's wedding. I picked up the pot from our grill and was amazed to see the beauty of the dead plant. Taking a closer look, its leaves had taken permanent shape, they were crisp brown and refused to oblige. They had become hard and adamant. The leaves curled into itself and did not open up. It felt as if the plant was very upset, angry and  looked away into itself. 

Like we say, when angry, some people look even more beautiful. I captured this beauty in my camera.

Incidentally, at CST (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai), we saw similar ornamentation on the building. The visit was quite mundane, but refreshing after a long time. For the first time, I noticed the intricate detailing of flora and fauna on the different parts of the building. Animals, birds, reptiles...all in action adorned the building. Flowers too seemingly looked at us and felt like animal figures. Water and lamp holders spurt out of animal mouths. If we only put glass cases around all of these, the station would become a zoo-ish museum...