The Goal
Trying to define my goals again, so as to make the directions in terms of form and content clearer, came up with the following statements:
1. To look at and address the existing phenomenon of the visual in our environments, and how they contribute to constructing the identity of the place, as well as influence our perceptions, relationships and our relative identities with the space/place.
2. To somehow create a dialogue between the space/place and people using the visual.
3. To collate these findings/ observations/ thoughts into final visual outputs.
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The Hypothesis
1. The visual is more visceral than text/language
2. People create fiction*. in their heads. when in a strange or unbelonging environment. about themselves as well as the space.
3. This fiction is the most interesting characteristic of the space. it is the one element that gives the most poignant character to the space.
That the presence / function of visual elements in our environment is more than static. It creates dialogue, whether actively or passively. Because our environments themselves are images / stories in our minds. The spaces that I have chosen are purely on the basis of the kind of dialogue I feel I want to carry out, where it is more about the individual and their relationship (either passive or active) with the environment, rather than being overburdened by geographical/historical context and content. Spaces are slowly being constructed by images. A space and its functions/perceptions/interactions can change with superficial changes in the immediate visual environment. How these changes happen..and why and what they lead to.
* Fiction : in the sense that every person's perception, memory, associations and ideas of a space/place create a narrative of the person, about and in that space/place. Each person's narrative is, of course, unique.
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The brief Brief :
After my first review and some more thought and clarity, the concise version:
Looking at anonymity and identity in public spaces, and the how the visual in these spaces can create an active dialogue, between the space and the people. the people themselves.
Spaces are not just structured only by their architecture. They are structured by the people that inhabit and use these spaces, drawing the visible and invisible boundaries.
To explore the visual elements that permeate these spaces and its relation to the identity of the people and the place.
Where:
spaces that are defined and populated by people who are not primarily 'local' but by inhabiting give the space its meaning, purpose and identity, while their own identities are only relative to the space.They are, owned, divided, specific, yet democratic spaces. Their function is often distanced or disparate from their location, surroundings, architecture, history. Who owns these spaces? Who do they belong to? How do people relate to them?
How:
Interactions.
Conversations.
Empty spaces-billboards to encourage graffiti.
Mapping "Close your eyes and map the place"
Drawing maps.
Re-interpretation of the visual structure of spaces.
Create new experiential spaces from the restructuring of inherent visual elements, icons and symbols.
Possibility of interactive/ participative installations.
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DIPLOMA PROJECT PROPOSAL
Ramya Pothukuchi
Visual Communication Design
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OPENING STATEMENT:
My project is concerned with exploring the possibilities of using purely visual tools, in order to explore the interactions and relationships of people with their environments in urban spaces (specifically Bangalore).
BACKGROUND:
Bangalore, like many other cities in India is currently the site of rapid change.
These changes are in many forms. The boundaries of the city are rapidly expanding; there is an enormous change in the infrastructure of the city, along with a mass influx of people from many different kinds of places.
These changes have led to people from various social, cultural, political, economic and religious backgrounds thriving and co-existing together in one common physical space.
All of these changes are ongoing, and can be noticed in our daily interactions with the city. The changing topography, social and cultural structures and boundaries are more visible than ever.
All this change and forced co-existence has led to many debates and conflicts, as territorialism and a bid to have our voice heard in the midst of so many, is a natural human tendency.
This struggle for expressing their own various identities and beliefs has been the focus of many individual, collective, local and political incidences, debates, discussions and concerns.
For example:
1) The incidences of violence and harassment against upper middle class or “modern/westernised/outsider” women in public places, due to ideological differences between different groups of local population, which became an important political and individual topic of concern.
2) Recent talks hosted by local foundation Janaagraha titled
“ Greater Bangalore and Identities” where the central question of discussion was “Who is a Bangalorean?” ref.link.: http://janaagraha.org/node/1867
3) Recurring conflicts between the local Kannadiga population and non-Kannadiga urban population.
Etc.
Thus we see various ways of expressing and addressing these common concerns.
What fascinates me is the manifestations or expressions of this process of change. We notice everyday a very interesting co-existence of various kinds of people and spaces in this metropolis. Each different area of this city has its own unique personality and identity that resonates with the people that inhabit it and vice-versa. Each space has its own characteristics that are influenced by a collective social, cultural, economic and sometimes religious characteristic of its inhabitants, which, it can be said in many circumstances, are results of the spatial characteristics themselves.
For example:
1)People of a common religion predominantly populate certain areas of Bangalore.
2)Certain older areas of Bangalore have a certain section of socio-economic class that inhabits them.
3)Many parts of Bangalore are pre-dominantly Kannada speaking or pre-dominantly non-Kannadiga
4)The older commercial areas of Bangalore have a certain kind of merchandise and clientele, which are markedly different from the newer commercial areas that house malls, shopping complexes and other such outlets.
Etc.
And as we look closer at any one area we find that we are able to dissect each space even more finely based on simple notions of social, economic, time related, cultural etc. differences.
INTENT AND NEED:
The most universally understood medium, due to its intuitive and immediate nature, the Visual (meaning imagery, whether 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional, static or moving, digital or analog) is fast becoming one of the most universally understood languages across many boundaries.
As technologies and media become more accessible it is important to look at the possibilities of the Visual medium, as also to create awareness of the permeation of these visual media in our lives and environments.
As a visual communicator and artist I am interested in doing two things primarily:
1)To use the advantages (as compared to linguistic mediums) of the visual medium to create dialogues at a collective, public, inclusive, yet visceral level.
We live today in a world that unites a diverse range of people, and in doing so forces us to communicate with each other. While we adapt in many ways in order to facilitate our co-existence and growth, we have breached many barriers. I feel that during this transformation, the Visual has permeated our consciousness and our vocabulary at many more levels than we realise. The visual medium reaches across a large and varied audience, as it works at an intuitive and immediate level, and it is my interest to explore and use this universal language and its vocabulary in creating dialogue at a scale or level that the spoken word or language may not be able to.
2)To take visual communication and apply it in its broadest sense, as a language that is relevant to our everyday context, as we live life.
The constructed image plays a similar role as that of fiction in our realm of understanding and perception. It can be designed based on various observed perceptions, notions and language of the audience, to affect them in a particular manner. It can be used to insert and ‘idea’ (of change, progress, possibilities) without necessarily bringing about any real, lasting, perceptible changes in the concerned environment.
It can be used for instructional purposes, propaganda, advertising, speculation, postulation and such other interactions with our thought processes, at an immediate, intuitive, universal level.
To use the visual in this capacity, in a public sphere, in order to address/explore the increasing presence of the visual in our immediate daily environments, and using this awareness to create dialogue, is the endeavour of this project.
APPROACHES AND POSSIBLE OUTPUTS:
1)To categorise the various spaces based upon my own pre-conceived notions.
For example:
a)Economic variations and their expressions
b)Cultural variations.
c)Based on the functions of the spaces: residential, commercial, transitory, industrial, common interests/hobby platforms etc.
d)Based on the perceived symbolisms of the spaces: spaces that symbolise the past, the present, the future of the city.
e)Based on pre-conceived archetypes of spaces and people: youth oriented, spaces for senior citizens, related to economic/social/ religious/cultural status.
f)Virtual spaces.
2)To go out with these notions and through
a)Observation.
b)Interviews with a variety of people: experts, inhabitants, outsiders
c)Documentation.
Question, explore, expand and redefine my own notions of identity in these spaces.
To create an exercise of participative subjective mapping with this audience of people in order to chart/ map out the city in terms of the expression of its various identities and spaces.
3)Through this mapping document and study the visual language of these individual spaces, in order to:
a)Find patterns, icons, and symbolic and typical visual elements, of each space and comparatively study the visual languages of various spaces in order to discern similarities and differences, common patterns and elements.
b)Look at the discourse of the visual language in these spaces.
c)Discern the various layers, horizontals and verticals of visual language in these spaces.
d)Try and decode and build on a visual language that could be used effectively to communicate in these spaces and across different spaces.
4)To create dialogue regarding identity in spaces using various visual
Media such as:
a)Small scale installations
b)Video
c)Illustration
d)Graffiti
e)Photography
f)Sculpture
In the capacity of Public art,
- As a spectacle, so as to create reactions and dialogue.
- The pieces could also be participative or subject to change in the environment that they are inserted in so as to self-document reactions of the people as well as the space itself.
- To treat the public space as a studio environment where a piece of work is built and evolves with inputs from the space itself. i.e. where I as an artist could make a piece of work and let it be subject to interaction and change in the public space and bring it back and make this an ongoing process.
To look at the possibility of using commonly known metaphors and analogies (such as those derived from mythology and popular culture) as another level of common vocabulary in carrying out this dialogue.
5) To document these artworks, reactions and processes. Collate them in the
form of:
a)A subjective map of the city, in Digital / Book format.
b)A manual for such a project to be carried out in any other city.
c)Create new platforms of communication, which could facilitate alternate collective identities.
RESEARCH:
- Concepts explored/ to explore:
Environmental Psychology
Identity
Collective Identity
Place identity
Public art/media
Bricolage
Mapping.Types of mapping.
Dialogue, types of dialogue.
Fiction.
-To get in touch with current artists and public art practitioners in order to discuss processes and methodologies of such areas of work:
-Various Projects and Articles published in relation to such work:
http://cca-actions.org
http://www.hangar.org
http://www.guerrilla-innovation.com
http://blog.art21.org
Book: One place after another –
Site Specific Art and Locational Identity by Miwon Kwon .
Article: Space, Place and Identity
http://confluxfestival.org/
Some core questions:
1)What is the scope of purely visual communication? How is a commonly understood visual vocabulary built? Is such a vocabulary specific to certain cultures/geographies?
2)How are identities built? How much of a role does our environment, and its visual language play, in the construction of the identity of a collective and an individual?
3)What is the role of the Visual elements in our environment?
4)How do individual identity, collective identity and place/space identity affect, build and interact with each other?
5)How can a constructed image be used to create dialogue?
6)How does one decode the semiotics and rhetoric in our everyday lives and environments? What roles do the concepts of metaphors, analogies, symbols, icons, play in such a process?
7)To what effect can one combine, contemporise and use existing common analogies and metaphors, as those that exist in mythology, religion, popular media etc. that are already a commonly understood language to build a current language or discourse?
8)What are the various existing methods and platforms that one could use to create such dialogue? What are the possibilities of creating new ones?
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES:
-Video: Camera, Projector(s)
-Simple materials such as plastic, paper, cloth etc. for small scale installations
-Materials borrowed from the spaces themselves.
-Inputs from experts and organisations: Janaagraha, authors of research papers, artists working in similar spaces.,
-Sponsorship: some works that could be at a visible place or scale could gain sponsorship.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1)To explore the possibilities and dimensions of the visual in the public
domain.
2)To work with live/public platforms /circumstances.
3)To gain experience in understanding and handling visual vocabulary and effective expression.
4)To look at various methods of documenting and designing communicative pieces in an effective way.
5)To explore my role as an artist/designer/facilitator in the public sphere while dealing with the possibilities of collective expression or reaction to the visual media in a public sphere, at a public scale.
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