Techno-Cultural Schisms

me: so what happened?
why he got frustrated?
her: they (students) didn't want to know or see anything
me: that's a perpetual problem with today's generation
her: were blind*
yes na
why i wonder
me: they see everything thorough their cameras
and mobile phones
her: not even through those
not really seeing ever.

3 important points raised in our chat above:
1. Students have become unobservant
2. Students see thing through technological gadgets
3. Tutors feel irritated with this fact.

One can debate these points against each other. but let us try to come to a more relevant discussion after elaborating on the above 3 points.

Observation is a slow activity. Observation includes not only seeing, but also thinking about what one is seeing. It automatically involves an analytical process, where thoughts generated give rise to more questions and more thoughts. Learning in today's age still, particularly in our educational system is more instructive. Thus, 'seeing' is not 'learning'. 'Doing' is not learning. In the pace of life which students have been brought up in, where things around go so fast (fleeting), it is almost impossible to expect them to stand and stare. Although there might be time to stand and stare, who wants to engage in staring? because remember - staring is not considered learning by students.

So what does one do even if he/she has time and is not staring? One engages with objects that one can keep in your pockets. Mobiles, cameras, i-pods, now i-pads, etc. pervade and accommodate our free time. Listening to one song again and again, watching at videos of funny men repeatedly, passing on jokes and building up on them all the time is what accommodates our time reserved for staring otherwise. So, if we have to see around, we take our camera/mobile and frame a view - which as I said, can be seen again and again.

Are we in the process of generating information that can be relived in a later time? Media technology has immensely invaded our daily lives which keeps engaged in producing this data. I am using the word 'data', not 'knowledge'. Data is information, raw material. Thus, we see through our gadgets. I am using the word 'see', not 'observe'. To observe is to see analytically.

I shall jump back to the above two paragraphs to find new meaning (?) later. Before that, I must explain the third point.

We (myself, the '80s ppl) perhaps come from a different cultural background. We took birth in an age where the TV was the boom (but only with a national channel). 1965? A.I.R.! I will not get into my history with Television, but i must say, cable was a craze, and we were not privileged to have it till 2000 (millenium). Telephone was a luxury and we only got it during 1994. Computer was there at home since father was an electronic engineer - and we worked with Wordstar. There was a humble transistor where we would listen to cricket commentaries. Walkman was the newest invention perhaps? The digital diaries became famous in late 90s - they could keep addresses, phone nos and calculators. Solar calculators were priced possessions. Digital watches with light and alarm was a fad. All I am talking about is our interface* with technology.

The IT became a revolution in 2000. It was only during my FYJC (first year junior college) that IT was introduced as a vocational subject in the science stream for the first time. For us, it was alien? But - long live Rajiv Gandhi for bringing in the communication drive.

Technology is not in our blood stream. Or to be politically correct, i think technology is at least not in MY blood stream. But children today are born in this fleeting pace of technology. Electronic toys - they get as soon as they are born - children want to play with mobiles and computers - jumping electronic monkeys. Cartoons are full of electronic stuff. During our time, cartoons seemed only so hard to believe, and that's what glued us to them! Magic has always been a matter of play in space and time. But today I think we live magically* - Bluetooth/wireless/wi-fi/gps and what not!

The question is what do we do with it? We are too caught up with our space-time experience. We feel nostalgic all the time. We want everyone to live that same experience - perhaps only so that we feel at ease with the society (social pace) around us. But the society is bound to make us uncomfortable. How do we accept such change? How fast do we change? Perhaps the pace of this change is exponentially increasing. If we can feel the cultural schism now, I wonder what happens in the next 10 years.

But going into that discussion is another thesis altogether. We have to conceptualize a space within the new time dynamics. To do this, we have to accommodate two fronts - we have to make ourselves culturally forward and a the same time think of engaging the current technology into the system. It's challenging because it changes our pace of living. But i think, it also, at the same time makes the system more demanding. For example, if a student has a query, he/she can immediately call up/email his/her faculty today, and the faculty too can respond immediately - but what happens in this process is that the data sharing becomes almost immediate, to word it differently, the EXPECTATION of receiving data becomes immediate too, which is what pushes you to be sharper and thus pushes you to be demanding.

This dynamic of the space-time relationship has major cultural pitfalls*:
1. the older generation of faculty many a times refuses to accept such demand. they believe that it is not the correct system for addressal of professional exchange. they would rather trust personal meetings and physical exchange of data/knowledge. Due to the ill-information about usage of technology, the distance between it and the archaic user further develops a gap between the guide and the faculty.

2. many a times, in developing countries like ours (i must say in institutional spaces like ours), systems are not technologically equipped to handle any form of soft communication. This can be easily eliminated.

3. the younger generation (those on the receiving end) are not equipped with the skills that the oldies are familiar with/fond of. This is a major cultural schism which irritates the faculties. Such a schism ends up in recognizing skill itself as a practice. so to take an example, within graphic design, there are practices of printing, dying, making paper, cutting paper, laminating, typography, book making, binding, drawing, etc etc... - although a graphic designer must be equipped with much of the above.

So we are going into too much extreme and i would love to carry on. But the point remains to still find a way of working within this technological, cultural schism.

*(a lot more to be elaborated upon)
Responses on this post shall be highly appreciated.

Patterns & research

Researchers believe that there is a pattern in all random things that are happening around us. I am not sure if this was also the case in earlier researches. It would be rather better to indicate two kinds of research: Proposing new patterns or identifying new patterns.
A classic example of finding patterns is 'Learning from Las Vegas" - the method is such researches is primarily to work with some research material (data) and find meaning into it. Such researches always are constrained within the extent of data and generalizations. nevertheless, the merit of the research lies in extrapolating important points within this limitation.

Of another type is say - "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander. He proposes that there is a pattern to everything that we do.

In both the cases, the methodology still remains the question of debate. A method itself may be a pattern - chosen or assumed or proposed...Nevertheless, in all the cases, a research opens up new ways of seeing the existing abstract information around us.

we had an interesting session on discussion of "what is abstract" with Prasad Shetty in the first year design studio. It would take me another post to detail what we discussed. But one thing that was established in the studio was that we never know "everything" about "anything". We know all only in abstraction. There are a lot of things to archive from the first year studios, also second year to some extent. It seems like a big game of dots, where I keep joining them in different configurations to "see" different things. But i don't know what to do of these new things that I see...
It also becomes a question of suggesting/identifying a pattern...

So i maintain a book in which i keep noting things down. Now I have to have enough dots to be able to make an interesting pattern.

Anegundi at length

Anegundi - as soon as we reached its gateway, told us that "I am a small village", the north gateway was really small for a large volvo 45 seater bus to enter. As I walked along this village to reach our cottage with Tapan, leaving behind the bus (which entered the village from another round about entry), I realized that the village was almost over.

In the evening, we went to a small temple on a nearby hill where Shama (the Mumbai architect activist in Hampi) is proposing to have mini village festivals on the sloping mounts of the hill. As we reached, it was already cloudy, and when we were descending from the hill, it started drizzling. That night it rained. It was a great weather to have in Hampi, given the scorching heat otherwise which makes it unbearable to walk around the village all round the year. Tapan said we were just lucky!

But such a weather is most welcome to see a lot of greenery around, all the time. Our cottage was a superb example of this. We had a great green patch of land, in which were nestled cottages behind colourful flower shrubs against dried thatch roof cottages. Pink against brown really looked lovely, and purple (lotuses) amidst grey granites made an almost realistically artifical pond in the site. On top of that, leaf impressions imbedded on our concrete portico plinths, cowdung plastered walls, white washed interiors and surreal cloud shaped cloth ceilings were a perfect ambience.




















The village people were extremely simple. Tapan was a super star - people saw her in the lanes and would call her out - "tapan madam", while tapan sheepishly kept telling me "i am forgetting his name!". The lanes had some kind of hierarchy, which one could feel - because there was only one spine which we traversed the most. The smaller lanes lead to the Tungabhadra river through some route or the other.

The village had a large palace, the image of which in incomprehensible because it is in such a bad shape that there is no sense of place now. What only remains is a large courtyard, with a mystic orange Ganesh idol (as big as a human head) perched on a concrete stub in the centre of this courtyard. The courtyard doesnot see the sky, it is blanketed by a cover of dense tree foliage. You come out of the palace through a foliated archway, entering into the village cluster houses.

The houses have typical timber posts, which are fast becoming old fashioned / weak structural members for the villagers. Tapan has identified some house types through her study of the village. But what I loved was that every house had a colourful flowering shrub just at its portico. Even if it was a pink periwinkle spread around the first step you take in the house, it was completely naturally erupting from the ground, undisturbed, untailored. Many houses had staircases leading to the top of their houses on their outside surfaces, which gave a beautiful character to the houses. The sense of passing from between two house walls (almost a shaded dark alley) to opening on the open to sky terrace reminded me of the circulation of the palace complex entry (Grand platform) at Hampi. There are these subtle nuances that keep happening in the village, which one can relate at a larger level to the town of Vijaynagar, like the baby rath that the village owns is another example.

Granite is abundant in the village, but for some reason, people seem to be making newer extensions in their houses in brick. Tapan has refuted this approach in the village through her work "Uramma house", which is a beautiful Guest house in the village. The Uramma house (name comes from the Goddess Uramma), has a linear portico, spacious entry room, sunken court, landscaped courtyard and two guest rooms with bathrooms inside. The Neem tree inside is amost a surprise for all the visitors. There were other trees like the white gourds, and some smaller vegetables etc. The courtyard, offset from the living space just brings the right amount of light in the room and the axial passage separating the rooms and the courtyard gives enough privacy to the guests. Not only that, from inside the rooms, one can frame interesting patches of the court that are almost planned.

Coconut leaves were used extensively to extend porticoes and form canopies, the village had a temple which was snugged in the rocky hill behind. monkeys would crawl in and out of the temple. Parrots and pigeons kept fluttering all the time. The green wings of the parrots made a good combination with the red stones.

A bundle of naughty boys always crowded around the 64 pillar mantapa or somewhere near the Tungabhadra river. There was one more temple complex near the river banks. Villagers often go to fish there, or have a bath, clean clothes, utensils. Some awkward impressions of the village was the switch over to plastic pots instead or brass/steel or clay, switch over to plastic bags instead of jute/cloth or fibre, switch over to brick walls or concrete staircase instead of the rough humble granite - all such transformations look grave when compared to the lifestyle of the people around.

There is a small masjid, a small church, a banana workshop, a library and a school in the village - I could not explore them much. This leaves some room for the next visit.

Anegundi Tales

A lot of things to say about this little village - across the river Tungabhadra - a village called anegundi - older than hampi - about 600 years old - small houses - granite construction - timber posts - brick superstructure - lime plasters - rough slabs - smooth dung finishes - colourful flowers against plain white walls - banana workshop - simple south indian food which students disliked - cluster houses - fast disappearing - modernity enters social structure - tapan concerned - mapping mapping - students draw sections through the village - first day of hammering - next day improvement - had a small bonfire - karan's birthday where students ruined the silence of place by silly loud music - and just such typical stuff.

but there shall be another post with detailed observations of what i saw through the NEW eyes.

and here is more of the feel:

Drawings

These are drawings by my 8 year old nephew. He's obsessed with aeroplanes - from earlier two dimensional drawings of aeroplanes, now he has graduated to drawing them in three dimesnion, and he has now started detailing each part of the plane. He has many aeroplanes as toys, makes paper aeroplanes and rockets and keeps getting more of them in all forms!

jury after a year

I took a jury after almost a year today! I almost couldnot comprehend the projects initially - perhaps the first five students I got were extremely disappointing. The latter ones were good. So I too got in form, and understood how to crit them.

Most of the times, it is for me to understand the methodology the student has followed for the project...once it is cracked, the student too enjoys a crit and it makes sense to have a dialogue.

these were my students from last year - who, i thought were extremely shy and underconfident last year. This time, they appeared confident, and strong. One of them, as soon as we gave a crit, changed, rather ripped his model to accommodate our comments - i believe, that was rather bold, and exciting. I really felt nice about it, and about the fact that he too was aligned to what we were speaking as jury. I think, in the latter half, all of them were good - they enjoyed but took our comments seriously. I think this must be the spirit of a jury - and this is when both learn - the student as well as the teacher!

Secrets

Secret: Not open or public; kept private or not revealed

I wonder whom can one share the innermost secrets with?
Perhaps a person whom you never know, or a person who knows nothing about you or anyone you are related to. Actually the questions are more regarding secrets: Should one have secrets? Should one consider sharing secrets? Can one die with one's secrets? Are secrets useful? If they are useful, and can not be shared, then how can one harness them? When must secrets be revealed such that they may not harm anyone around that person? Are secrets always harmful (rhetoric!)? How do secrets change people? Does keeping secrets make you strong or make you weak?

Are secrets associative? Why do we fear to have secrets? In other words, how are secrets generated? Why do people end up doing something that constitutes a secret? Is secret just a social construct? Did the first man on earth have secrets? Do animals have secrets? How are secrets fearful? Why do we fear revelation of secrets? Can we become fearless?

Questions,
any answers?

aise hi...

Decorations

Sometimes life places you in a very ironical situation.

As architects, we have been trained in an aesthetic sensibility which is different from the taste that happens to encompass us. Decoration and design is an intrinsic part of the daily lives of people in India. Each festival, each occasion always has a big share of preparation activity that goes in decoration and arrangement. Thus, as a country, every moment we produce numerous ideas, for makeshift decorations. I am not quite sure if as architects we are made to appreciate them. At least I am not a big fan of such inpromptu ad hoc aesthetics.

I think the closest space building exercise for fresh architecture students is the making of the Ganpati Pandal. When students make an "architectural model" for the first time in the course, they almost end up making ganpati mandals - with plenty of colours, real grass, or atleast plastic grass, flowers, thermocole bricks, patterned papers, frills, poster colours, dried leaves...and all that. The only problem I have with these models is that they do not respect SCALE. All tableaus that are built are too representational to be architectural. So I have been strongly discouraging students to make such models - that they make during Ganpati, Janmashtami or Christmas.

Perhaps I too started to experiment with such spatial models with Christmas tableaus in school, but Janmashtami celebrations at our house has always involved plenty of decorations, and that too with toys, clay statues, bricks, etc.

I was always skilled at making all these crafty things, and so people in my society often call me for such decorations. Although after doing an architecture course, my viewpoint towards these decorations has changed, and as far as possible, I avoid them - because they are only about decoration. This year (just a fortnight back), I was called to decorate the Ganpati pandal of our building. I made mountains out of POP, a very tried and tested trick. However, I felt very funny doing this, since as a faculty of design in architecture, it is me who keeps telling students not to get into "making ganpati pandals". I wonder what this exercise of making a Ganpati tableau does to me as an architect...

The story doesnot end here, rather, the real part of the story comes here. A random DNA (Daily News and Analysis) survey of the 600 Ganesh pandals around the suburbs took place 7 days ago. They selected 20 best decorated Ganesh Pandals across their survey. Our society got the FIRST prize!!! I dont know who the surveyers were, but although our decoration was not eco friendly, nor was our attempt to achieve it, the newspaper (DNA,Sat, 24th July- http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.asp x?queryed=7&eddate=9/25/2010))reports it as

"Ganesh Idol: 5 ft made up of Clay with the Himalayas in the background

Decoration: White Cloth used to depict the Himalayas,

Colorful Cloth Drapes & Real flowers to decorate the mandal"

Reporters always mess it up - they goof up so much! (and the always miss out important names, eg: the decorating team!). The above information has been printed without verification by us. None of the society members knew when these people came for a survey!

Anyway, so here is the news report and the small announcement function that we had in our society today. All were excited to have the trophy. I only worry that this event will become more institutionalized in the coming years and I will be pulled in more and more into this!

I wondered if this was an indirect message by Ganpati that "don't consider these decorations unsophisticated". Well, I remain confused, although I never liked what I did at the tableau here, a strange feeling grips me now...

What is this kind of situation supposed to mean?

Baghban III

I dont understand my relation with relationships. Relationships are very fragile - they are not for people who have a really hard head. And one perhaps takes a life time to learn how to handle them. Sometimes i feel i am too critical about relations - i don't respect relations. The consequences of such an attitude is that i take a lot of liberties to do things which i assume can not be questioned. But such is not the case in real life. Especially when you take moral stances.

I don't know what it is to be a mother? Mother for some one else is just a relation, but being a mother is describing the relation itself. It does not remain a relation then. It is not about two bodies then. Why would one body care so selflessly for another body? Not only physically, but mentally too? What is it to be mentally and physically so? Often I question my familiarity with my mother. I don't think I know her enough. I think i take her so much for granted!

One of the fallacies that my family (in the sense of men vs women) falls into is to compare physical activities of both these genders. I have myself been very critical of this - is physically, a man stronger than a woman? does it affect in the work that we do? My friend Neha (Parkar) always maintained that women are physically weaker than men. I always refuted. Physical strength, i assumed, comes from the mind. But i think a mother is more about the mind, than physical. She goes beyond the physical to achieve something that does not even an achievement. Actually I am not even able to express in words how disgusted I am to understand how I know my relationships.

Can one imagine mothers behaving tit for tat? Can anyone image getting hurt back when you hurt your mother? Sometimes, I have told her things that I didn't ought to, and found no way of expressing my guilt. As children in our kind of social setup, we are never taught to express to parents (its the fear-respect relationship we are brought up in). But we don't even have the courage to say sorry for something wrong that we did to our parents. Once, I came home frustrated, and just passed her a comment - and immediately i realised how wrong it was. It took me an entire night to write a sorry note, which i kept in her room near her pillow to express my guilt. I don't know if she read it, i don't know if she skipped it, but the next morning, things were better for me. But what I am surprised about is that how timid we (children of our generation in our family) are to articulate communication to our parents.

The truth is that we do feel about them, but can not express. We are not equipped with the language in which to express. We never appreciate her for a tasty meal she makes, but we do make a point when a pinch of salt is more in the dal. She takes it courageously. I don't know how. But that does not mean we do not appreciate when she makes an excellent recipe. We are just not taught to appreciate her. The question here is - should you be taught this? who should teach you this?

I suspect sometimes if this is a western thought - in convent schools, (where my nephews study), they communicate to their mothers much effectively. They are taught to say things to their parents. The schools take a lot of efforts for parent-child activities. There is a lot more glib communication between them. We never had such interactions. During our time, it was only the Open house day when the teacher would tell the parent about the ward. That was the kind of relationship that was strengthened between the parent and the ward - a highly institutional, instructional and now i feel utterly stupid.

When once, my principal wrongly called my parent (mother) to meet for some of my wrongly represented activity, I felt so embarrassed, and I cried in front of 40 people in my class after my mother left. It was purely because of the kind of societal values that i was brought up in - of holding parents' nose high. What made me cry was my misrepresentation of the 'institutional' or ideal image that i mentioned before.

Once when I could not finish my Hindi paper (and left questions worth 7 marks), I entered home crying, and my mother consoled me so beautifully, that I felt even more confident for the coming exams. It was my mother who used to train me in Hindi, and I was one of the best students in hindi, which again made me remind of the "institutional" image we "must" represent. Although I managed to get 2nd highest in spite of leaving 7 marks, i now wonder what must have made my mother completely ignore the 7 marks (institutional instruction) and cajole me at that instance... how could she remain out of it...the institutional way in which we were supposed to be brought up in?

I remain with these questions, investigating where does the gap lie, what is the problem, why this gap, it makes me uncomfortable to think of myself as inconsiderate...i hope i am able to manage some middle path for myself.