KRVIA Fellowship 2009-10

So it’s over now.

We started our fellowship on 1^st August, 2009. We submitted our papers exactly after a year in the last week of July, 2010. Today was the jury. We had almost one week for preparing the presentation. As always, I had thought of doing different things for the presentation. I wasted about 2 days in preparing an unsuccessful audio novel. I wondered the first three days about making a panel. I had made 10 postcard-photographs to hand over to my jury such that they could match the photos with the stories I presented in my paper, which doesnot contain any of them. Nothing materialized. But all for good.

The jury was quite different than what I imagined it to be. In the sense that it was to happen in an audio visual room, but ended up happening in the meeting room where there was a round table and about 15 people sitting (I was expecting the number to be quite high). It seemed like some elite privileged group is presiding over some secret research.

Somehow, I was very relaxed with the presentation – not nervous, not anxious, no growing heartbeats, not cold palms, no making rounds of the loo before the presentation – it was the same feeling as before the std X examination: I was excited to give it. Perhaps, when one has good work, one is all the more excited to present it. I feel my work was good, because it came up well as a book. I would like to have such a book in my library. My book was titled “Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki: Stories of Domesticity”

My research was a study of domestic spaces in the city, which offer different conditions of interior space as compared to what the profession of interior design offers. The study was large, and the massiveness of this research area is incomprehensible. Firstly, I have not found any document that talks about the domestic spaces in the city in an architectural, spatial way. Secondly, there is a range of house types in the city. Thirdly, there are a range of user groups in the city. Fourthly, there are multiple agencies which operate upon the making of home. Added to this, there are desires and aspirations of people that manifest in the home.  If I were to take all these parameters into consideration, I could have perhaps spent 3 years researching on this subject, and another two in detailing on each object that the interior space accommodates.

But for me, it has been more important to just open up an idea of domestic space. Did any one before talk about the domestic space in the city before? I did not embark upon any such study. Secondly, for me, this has been a way to learn the tools of research, taking a stance in a project and finding new ways of looking. Thirdly, being able to put any kind of material (collected information, data, pictures, etc.) together in a perspective was challenging. Deciding what to do with whatever you have – how do you work with material rather than a research question, how do you curate and make sense out of the information you have was something that I learnt during the past one year. Above all, although it was very difficult in the beginning to even understand what my guides were trying to bring out, it has been extremely enjoyable process putting the data together, writing stories and seeing at patterns of domesticity. Never did I see logical progression of ideas in domestic space, until I put it in a timeline perspective.

I had not rehearsed my presentation. But I kept reading my book again and again before the presentation such that my tongue gets used to the words that I would be using in the presentation. Somehow, it worked, and the presentation was glib. Although I couldnot keep time, there were two alarms that Rupali gave me during the presentation. It would have worked if we practiced our presentations, but there was almost no time for it.

Coming to the comments that the jury offered, perhaps most of them said that the presentation was good. But almost all felt that it should have been more conclusive. There should have been more conclusions that should have come out of the presentation. Amita Bhide said that the presentation touched upon a lot of extremely fascinating things, but did not follow them to the end. She made a nice observation about the aspect of how are ‘negotiations’ made inside the house, the ‘conflicts’ between various people involved in the making of the house  – how do they affect the final outcome. Also, she questioned with whose point of view is each story written, because a house is not made by ‘a’ person, but several people. The presentation did not bring up the idea of the house in changing budgets. She felt that although each story focused only on the idea that the title conveyed, there could have been a lot more going in each of the cases.

Abhay’s questions were different. He was firstly concerned about the selection of the methodology of the project – the stories; because he felt that it was a safe idea to work with them (ofcourse it was!). But he asked if there were also more ways of talking about the ‘experience’ of the house than only talking about the objects in the house. A question that had come long ago (perhaps the first presentation that we made to our internal faculty) came again: Why are there no people in any of your pictures. Kopytoff came to rescue then! Also, he questioned the idea of a ‘home’, the idea of living. I asserted that I was looking at the subject in the way I was going to use the study in my practice. Hence, for me, more important was to understand what happen of ideas inside the home. But Abhay did not push for any answers and was quite comfortable with my responses.

There were a lot of questions when the discussion was opened to the audience. Sandeep Sir’s question about “what is interiority”, or “what do you mean by internal?” was something that I felt was too theoretical question. One important thing that he said was not to “slot” these trends as phases, and rather talk about them as continuous – be more historical with them. He also raised the idea of duality in the domestic - where on one hand, domestic spaces are adjusted into (made more humanistic), and on the other hand they are tamed (controlled). It was too theoretical again. But maybe I can take this up if I am doing a phd on this!

It was a surprising to see Ateya, with whom I had spoken about a year ago on this project, when I was quite apprehensive – she said, “I am sure you will figure something out for yourself.” She sharply picked the angst in me about “what should be the role of an architect?” and she said that may be one needs to start working with the fevicol company, or be designing together finishes things like these. Basically she said that there need not be this strict notion of the role of an architect. She actually added to the value of the presentation by actually giving ideas of how one can start looking at these agencies.

The most important comment, I feel was that of Rohan. Rohan said, that the achievement of the thesis is the position that he has been able to take, and the thesis has jumped in a huge way from what it began with (having strict ideas of how things ought to be), about “why people don’t understand what I am giving them?”, to being able to acknowledge it. This comment from Rohan was precious for me, because it made me realize what I spent my past year doing. I just deconstructed my own architectural stereotypical notions of looking at things around me.

 Rupali since the last month has been fascinated with the sudden turn that the thesis took in the way of Robert Venturi’s “Learning from Las Vegas”. She pointed out that how the study actually claims to learn from existing situations (rather than being pessimistic about the conditions we see). I did not actually get a chance to talk to any one later because all ran for lunch after the session after kairavi’s presentation.

Two particular names and comments: Sandeep sir said that, “the presentation was very nice, we will talk about it when we meet” and George said that, “we shall talk about it in detail later”. So perhaps these are pointers for the next step.

I missed Sonal Sunderrajan and Prasad Shetty during the presentation. It would have been really nice to have them comment on my work (infact the presentation).

More technology

Right now, for the first time, I used Daemon softwares and torrent download. Sometimes technology is overwhelming. Perhaps everything is overwhelming until you put your hand into it. My brother keeps on scaring me that torrent downloads get viruses in the computer. Under this scare, I have not tried hundreds of thins on the net/computer. Perhaps, this time, its a pressing need. I need to download the sound editing software urgently to make an audio novel. Stupidly, my friend gave me another software, instead of Nuendo, which i only realized when i installed it using Daemon tools. Daemon tools creates a virtual drive through which we can extract data from 'images' of discs instead of discs themselves. Seems too technical. But i can not elaborate on this further, because i dont know how it works conceptually!

On the other hand, torrent is perhaps an ftp where peers share files. So you just share large files over the net.

All this reminds me of my Computer Science subject in the high school. I wonder how dumb I must have been (and still am) in the technology scene. I exploit my devices much less than today's generation. Am wondering if my experiments with all this will allow me to complete my presentation in time. In any case, i will have learnt two new things today!

Nandu

Our help, our peon Nandu is suffering from malaria. Nandu has just finished his 12th class exams. He is small in appearance and has curly hair. Since he has been absent for the past few days, we are experiencing extreme difficulties in the management of our department since there is no one who knows what things are kept where? Chalks, dusters, musters, files, blank papers, stationery, stamps, pads, keys phone numbers, intercom numbers - all are going haywire. Today, I decided to put my hand into it and understand his whole organization system. Little did I know that he kept the main keys in a common cupboard. This main key would open a locked drawer, in which the rest of the keys are preserved. Till some time, we were not able to locate the main keys itself! Today I found them. When I opened the first drawer, I was excited to see a big bunch of keys - which meant I could open almost anything in our area. But later, I realized, there were far too many keys and they were almost unmanagable. Apart from that, looking at the drawer was interesting: all things were scattered:

Drawer 1 - keys, papers, stamps, photos, stickers, batteries, chargers, wires, bills, PAN card, evelopes, letters, contracts, pens, pins, tapes - all together!
Drawer 2 - clips, rubber bands, calculators, pens, pencils, scales, rulers, markers, whitener, sharpeners, erasers, staple pins, U clips, keys, and what not!
Needless to say, everything was all over. I decided to organize this, as usual! Neatly putting things together - papers separate, stationery separate, diaries separate, Cds separate! I located them in secure places.




















But all this while, I was smiling. Why? I was wondering how a person like Nandu thinks? Nandu is almost able to manage everything without organization. He knows where has the pencil slipped in the drawer, where is the eraser lying, where is which CD - everything! And the amount of keys I found was mindblowing! about 50 keys - in deep recesses of the drawer. One could make a sculpture out of them. Imagine remembering which key opens what! I would have gone mad! Infact, I would sit down and make an chart! But Nandu doesnot require that! He is brilliant! We miss him.
But I dont know what he will feel like when he sees everything spik &span! I am eager to see his reaction when he returns - I have neatly spaced everything! I have organized some things even in the Godrej cupboard. I dont know if he will be able to manage with the new organized organization. Our idea (rather my idea) or organization is so visual, clean and orderly. But the purpose of organization is to get the right thing at the right time. This can be absolved without the visual cleanliness. Partly, this debate can also be extended to our city.

However,

Nandu has a flair for design. When sticking the labels over the files of respective faculties, he used fevicol. I asked him to use transparent salo-tapes. I explained that its easy to change a name on any file then! He appreciated. While sticking labels on the cupboards, he initially had put blaring size stickers! I asked him to reduce them to pt 14. He liked them once he saw them. While making the marking sheet on Autocad - which was all customised, I left an exact blank paper space which would be covered under the metal clip. Also, I put a date (last updation) vertically, on the side of the table (since there was no space in the bottom of the paper - and he almost loved it!

How does he understand these nuances of detail? How is he able to appreciate small things is what I wonder! He is a natural lover of art. He appreciates naturally and understands its value. He keeps telling me to forward interesting images on his mail. He has a collection of good songs on his mobile, he keeps collecting such stiuff. This is why I like him.

He needs direction. I hope I can help him choose something appropriate for him. But may be his priorities are different. May be his family's needs are different. Unfortunately, Adarkar Sir sees him develop into a good clerk. I see him grow into a fine architect..? Destiny! But perhaps he is not struck by desire yet. Maybe that is good - for him and for us!

Revisions

I made two people happy today:
Our Services class faculty - Sujata Bhobe's remuneration was revised and increased. And secondly, one of my class students had wondered why she got such less marks in the Humanities paper. Although she had a lot of inhibitions, I had finally asked her to write in a letter to the Principal for her Humanities paper rechecking. I literally made her sit and draft a letter. Today, her paper was rechecked and her score went up by a whopping 6 marks. This makes her not only the topper of the class (perhaps), but makes her eligible for a higher amount of scholarship money she was applying for.

After a long time I felt really happy for someone - I couldnot control going and telling this girl about her revision of marks. She was thrilled. And for the first time, I felt worthy of being a coordinator!

Masters Mania

Last Thursday, I had dinner with 3 people who are going to perhaps the best corners in the world to pursue their post-graduation studies. I had along with me Amrita who is going to Royal College of Art, London for her masters in Product Design, Aditya Sawant, who is going to Harvard's Graduate School of Design in Boston for his masters in Urban Design and Revati who is going to TU Delft in Netherlands for her Masters in Architecture.






















It was a wierd feeling. While all were talking about their visa woes, packing details, luggage limits, flight routes, staying options, dollars, pounds and euros - we cracked some jokes in between. Some time ago, I thought I would be thinking like this too.






















We had some interesting chat. Exhorbitant and expensive dinner, but also a lot of fun. May be such events are for both - forgetting the past, and also realizing that there is something more than what we are doing now, that we have to do. We have to keep trying. And we have to take consolation in what we have already tried. Sometimes doors open. Sometimes, we just have to enjoy the rhythm of the banging. Sometimes, just the knock.

Workplaces

This is ridiculous. If institutions start behaving in such irrational way, what should we expect from our to be professionals?
The AOA library installed about 12 new computers in the library and momentarily put a zip on the students voice. The reality is that none of them work, rather are not made functional yet. They are waiting for its "official inauguration". I dont understand what is there to inaugurate in computers, which were supposed to be here long time back. Students are waiting to work and Mr. Important will come some day and inaugurate the silly pcs.

The students fear to write a complaint letter thinking that the management will fire back and take revenge, which might affect their grades. Systems thus become corrupt. In India, they become stale and then stink.

We are crying for additional machines (PCs) to work and the issue has already been postponed for two months now. We have already lost a lot of data in a computer crash.

In our country, the burden of inefficiency in work is put only on the employees. Its normal to hold the employee responsible for slow, or insufficient product. Seldom does anyone take into account the work environment. Such work environments are extremely demoralizing for people who want to work. This mood settles in people and becomes a long term crib.

Half the time is spent in quarreling, writing complaint letters and traveling across hierarchies to reach right people. The verdict is always that you get frustrated and give up. The people who go on extremes of such situations become cynics. The other kind of people are social workers.

I have worked earlier at the Goethe Institute, Mumbai, and I can compare the kind of professionalism in work atmosphere that we have in our scenarios and international ones. Its sad to categorize our context in the negative in this scenario. But India runs like that. There are momentary answers given to shut people's mouths and the solution is just a 'jugaad'. There is not english word for jugaad. Still, people work, people keep up with their jobs - like we do. The employers are shameless, and they dont mind this kind of shame. After all, they believe that they are the people who produce the highest calibre of professionals in the country.

Money drives institutions. Huge amount of money is pocketed. There is no transparency. And unfortunately, it is the facilities that make the institutions run, not the teachers. It is appalling to see the newest of the institutions promote their swimming pools, computer labs, green lawns, wi fi systems and all amenities - NOT one says that we have Good teachers. Parents too judge schools with infrastructure, not teachers. It is not therefore surprising to see that students become demanding of facilities. But my point here is that institutions realize this demand and use it as a marketing gimmick. They extract huge money from entrants, but in the end, do not give facilities to students. What's the point? There have to be ways to fight. There have to be other ways to retaliate, negotiate. I dont know how! Seems the only party in loss is the students and staff. Long live the parasites!

"You look sad..."

I really don't know what went wrong in the past year?

Durer's instrument

Today we did the Durer's Experiment. although i was kind of confident of what result it would produce, it didnot produce really stunning drawings. It was then when Shubhalakshmi told me that Durer too accepted that there were a lot of technical faults in the experiment he did with the grid. I think still, that durer was a lot more technically correct than us. Almost all the students missed the eyehole in their instrument grid they used to draw! So their vision wavered! Some students were concentrating, others were not able to relate to the grid and our object assembly together. But only in a very few drawings, could we actually see converging lines on a cartesian grid.

This was our first theory in practice kind of session where we got a space on a cartesian grid (although people may debate that it would have been even fine to just take any photograph and draw it out on paper). But the point was not that. The point was to perceive a 3D assembly on a flat plane. Hopefully some students will get the point.

I can think of doing a lot of things with this drawing. Sometimes it just gets difficult in communication with students and faculty. Artists think very different from architects. Although they draw in 3D, they think only in 2D. That is what i felt with my colleagues. This is perfectly fine, and I am just wondering how can I use this aspect constructively. We are teaching "perspective drawing" and our definition of perspective is "the way you look" - so you see how broad this subject has become.

We now have to crack some good exercises. Experiments and more fun on the way...

Cycloid

Today, Prof. Deshpande took us to the first year class where he was teaching the students to draw a cycloid.

A cycloid is the locus of a point on the circumference of a moving circle. Fascinating. It immediately reminded me of the steam engine and the Harrappan toys (frogs with elleptical wheels which when run, jump!). The idea was gripping. Just last week, I had also read about Descartes, and how he took numbers to a visual space. So I immediately asked Deshpande sir about how it could be algebraically noted. Since it was not a free curve, its equation is written in terms of theta (the angle of the radius). Complex. I know. But i could immediately relate to what it meant - it meant that the coordinates of the curve would only be polar coordinates. Fancy no! While preparing for my graphics lecture, I clarified my polar and cartesian coordinate concepts (which I had studied in the 12th standard). It would have been so easy if our teachers then could make us understand visually, rather demonstrate us its use. Today I find it: and I can actually link it to structure of a building, geometry, graphics, algebra, cartesian system and ofcourse - design. Which Design: the lovely Kimbell Art Museum by Louis I Kahn in Texas. There are so many aspects to study in this building. Its amazing.

After coming back home, I could not resist trying to draw this out myself. I quickly opened AutoCad, and the first few times, I got it wrong. Then I had to visit Wikipedia, and learn how to draw it. So here I present to you my version of a Cycloid with a radius of 7 units.



















Imagine if the circle was moving on a sine wave! Now that one would require a software. And what if the circle was a sphere! Keep guessing!

Google Gadgets

Today I have been exploring the different gadgets that gmail offers and it's exciting feeling for a while to make yourself a bit tech savvy. I am writing this blogger post from my gmail account and its fascinating to learn that I am not that bad at technology! Now I will not have to switch between pages to keep maintaining my blogs. Sometimes I wonder how people keep doing such things, where life is becoming so simpler. It's just that on the face this process looked difficult. I made a google search as to how I can blog from my gmail account although I used to login from a rediff username, and google was prompt enough to offer me a solution.

So I am now going to hunt for more such gadgets for my gmail interface. People who visit my blog often will be happy to find my postings more often! Many a times I am too lazy to write, but now, it will be like writing an s.m.s. on my small little blog window on gmail.

:)