Reviews

Review 3

Summary 17-08-2010


Part 1 :
Panel members : Koshy, Jyothsna

On presenting the two possible directions I could choose from :
1)image
2) basic visual elements
I was advised to use the term ‘visual elements’ and avoid the term images as ‘images’ would require attention to significance and meaning.
To be careful about : indicating scope – what elements am I considering, which ones am I ignoring – why?
Three contrasts to be generated through observations of visual elements in the space:
• Shape – organic /inorganic
• Line – aesthetic/functional
• Colour – planned and unplanned
The contrast is important otherwise i will end up talking about nothing.
Looking for anomalies : a planned line that leads to chaos etc.
Once I have collected this data what I will you deduce, infer from that data- have research questions that guide me.
To Look up: Jennifer Mason’s qualitative researching – chapter in research questions. Consider what smaller questions you will create which feed into your big question,
“How do visual elements affect the design of the space?”
To Consider: The form of the final output - book/video etc. play to my strengths.
For this week: To plan and conduct small experiments with colour line and shape and document people's responses through video.
once these experiments are completed: Link to the experiments to hypothesis and forwards to the end i.e. the product.

Part 2: Alison
Try and capture the absurdity of public behavior.
Is it about the reality of it or the unreality of it?
you need large umbers to abstract valid patterns from, sociology depends on statistics. but what about making up statistics? how would you document intangible reactions? not reacting is also a reaction.

refer :
William Pope L
The merry pranksters
The idea of a simulacrum.

Date for next review: Sept 2nd ; 1.30 pm



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Review2 30-07-2010
Summary


Alison and Jyothsna said :

- Now you need to start doing. make small things. simple quick individual exercises. for eg: illustrations, photography, video. individual but active ways of looking at places.
Go to five different places repeatedly and carry out these exercises on your own . it will give you raw material to work with, as well as narrow down your focus through your experience with the doing.

- let the final work/ form and area of work come from what is natural to you.

- layers : you can deliberately choose not to look at all the layers in a space and focus on some, along as you acknowledge this.

- looking at the two kinds of spaces that you are talking about ( places that are transitory but not necessarily expressive : place of transit : bus stops, subways, underpasses, tunnels, flyovers etc. , versus spaces that are expressive but dense and static : old city markets and squares ) you could choose to look at this contrast. or pick one kind and choose to look at the micro. since the latter is what excites you more than the former, you can choose to zoom in too.

- define your role in the space. where are you placing yourself? are you going to be anonymous? conspicuous? a tourist? one of the people? maybe try setting up a stall there? try things.

- How to ask questions : move from the more concrete to the more abstract. start conversations with questions that can be answered objectively and specifically and then move on to discussing the more abstract ideas. you may not need a questionnaire so much as a list of topics that you want to cover. internalize it so you don't need to seem formal, looking at a piece of paper and reading out questions as opposed to natural conversation. Also, How are you going to introduce yourself?


Review 2
Summary 31-07-2010


Summary of review with Koshy ( transcribed from gtalk ) :

-To canvas all places on the list might be too time consuming, and we don't have much time. use your past experiences, since you have been in bangalore for four years to narrow down and choose.

I expressed some concerns in terms of logistics and feasibility of picking two places ( based on the idea of contrasts that we had spoken about earlier to draw parallels by juxtaposing two kinds of spaces ).

- you need the contrast. why not pick one place that has the most contrasts in the most proximity?

From the list KR market stood out. and Raja market was a place that I explored earlier in the week.

- from here now look at the places. study the people -work on binaries -take photos sketches etc - look at rich/poor, urban /semi urban, kannadiga/ non-kannadiga, men/women children/families, customer/ shop keeper/ owner, pavement dweller/ resident

- collect material- sketches, videos etc.

- then concentrate and focus on how the visual elements, the discrete ones and homogenous ones give the place character, add story and how perceptions to same alter

- also try and capture changes in perception changes in perception in one person to same thing, in two to the same thing and also changes when change occurs- visual to perception.

- from this raw data you have to prove you hypothesis. analyze the data, find the commonalities and differences, draw out implications and prove your hypothesis- in the sense, state your findings, and how it contributes something to your field.

- pick out images / ideograms/ patterns and keep jotting down what you think they could mean - in terms of implications. deduce. induce,interpret, anallyze, think critically and sympathetically and empathetically, antipathetically, problem solve.

- then make those thoughts into maps, patterns etc.

- try to keep in mind your hypothesis. visual elements and its impact on human beings. how it fictionalizes, narrates, symbolizes, creates etc.
brings far reaching changes, even when slight. how it works subterraneanly, subconsciously, and consciously. when people notice it and what happens then.

- put this data on the blog and analyze.




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Review 1 14_07_10
Summary



Part 1: Panel members : Alison Byrnes, Jyothsna Beliappa

What are your exact research questions? what are you asking?
What will be the questions in your conversations on field?

book: richard andrews: research questions.
Methods of forming research questions

Jennifer Mason : Qualitative Researching.

Look at: mapping. types of mapping, demographics.
Nikki S Lee : artist.

The concept of a"voyeur"

contact: Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan- Janaagraha.
Rustam.
Bangalore walks- maybe take one. talk to the people conducting these walks

suggestions: Let the the field and process define your outcome.
allow it to "stretch your perspectives".

suggested reads:

Bengaluru, Bangalore, Bengaluru: Imaginations and Their Times
Craft of Research by Booth, Coolomb
Qualitative Researching by Jennifer Mason
Peter Colaco Paul Fernandes’s book on Bangalore
The Idea of India by Sunil Khilnani - chapter : "Who is Indian?
Check out Nikki S Lee: Artist Who Infiltrates different urban spaces



Part 2:panel members: A.V.Koshy

Mr. Koshy had asked me to answer some basic questions, which would help me clarify and concretize my project.
The answers i submitted, which we discussed further during the review were as follows:
1.Whose identities are you going to be dealing with?

Eg: Various Commercial areas of Bangalore : Old city market, Russel Market, Brigade, M.G. Road, Malls, Small shopping areas.
Spaces which are not residential.
That house no 'local' inhabitants.
The spaces 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?

The need to narrow it down to one (or two contrasting spaces for comparison.) was discussed, considering the time frame at hand.

2. What are the two groups you want to juxtapose?
The owners (of the spaces -shop owners, street hawkers, temporary markets etc . people who define a space by inhabiting it, giving it its meaning and purpose.)
The Visitors - the customers and consumers that share a relationship with the space and its sub-spaces, that speaks of their own identities and background.

we discussed the juxtaposition of the temporary dwellers, and the evermore temporary dwellers, and what that means to the identity and relationship of the space. looking at various 'gradations' in the space and the possibilities therein were also discussed.

3. Which places or spaces represents them best in bangalore?
Old city market, Russel Market, Brigade, M.G. Road, Malls, Small shopping areas, Theaters, industrial areas. SB road, construction sites etc.

Again, the question of narrowing down and how to go about it was discussed

4. How will you fictionalize these identities in terms of using interactive visual elements in these public/private spheres you choose whether as installations, artworks etc?

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.

Dr.Koshy was satisfied with this answer, and asked to keep it unchanged, for the time being.

5. What is the theme or idea of guiding principles that you plan to dwell on from the beginning to the end of this study during this aesthetic and narrative process?

Was unclear as to how to answer this question, i.e. what exactly does one mean by guiding principle/ hypothesis. Gained clarity after discussing what a research question means and how to structure one, during the review. added to the list of deliverables by the end of this week.

Readings suggested:
T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland.
Hart Crane's The Bridge.
Joyce's Ulysses.
Baudrillard: America
On urban resilience, symbolism, hermenuetics and semiotics.
Paintings to be looked at : The use of the city in Impressionism ,Expressionism and Futurism.
The venus project

Questions to consider :
under research questions:
"is there any fixity
or only mutability?"

"evolution or devolution?"

postmodernity- "how these spaces flatten the visual elements into the perfect absence of hierarchies mean equality or nothing,yet have or are haunted by the vestiges of meaning"


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