dagagiri

Friday, August 31, 2012

Glossary of terms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The IKEA Store

(details later)

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Summer in New Haven

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

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

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

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

In Search of Academic Space

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

- 1 -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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