Group Critique

During the group critique I spoke about projecting the filmed cityscape outdoors, and the importance of capturing the essence of the city. Leigh Clarke reacted with a wide range of comments about the work. His main point was that the sound was more powerful than the time-lapse video since it allowed the audience to imagine a larger, more ambiguous space.

~

Genius Loci

In phase one I succeeded in defining my area of study, learning about projecting video, building installations, and the limitations involved. Phase two is about capturing a “feeling” of Mumbai. But what is this feeling, this intangible “sense of place,” and how can I create a space that communicates it effectively.

The city is a multi-layered, complex and rich experience. No one has identical perceptions of something that is so much in flux, so huge in scale. At the same time there is an underlying recognition of its flavour, a distinctive personality that can be called its Genius Loci. In trying to pinpoint this atmosphere of Mumbai, something which is intrinsic in my memories of the city, and which all Mumbaikars are familiar with, I questioned my original plan of building a 360 panorama in a closed studio space.

An outdoor location is one of the ways I plan to solve this riddle. Although it is technically difficult to build an installation outside a controlled studio set-up, I am of the opinion that the right place can physically represent the city, and communicate a lot more than well-edited video or sound ever could.

Reflection

The first turning point was a discussion with Phil Beards about focussing my topic of interest for the MA. Based on Phil’s suggestion, I ended up brainstorming and created a mind map which outlined the proposed area of study.
Initially I was uncertain about which bipolarity I should study and looked at several opposing factors within Mumbai such as ugly and beautiful and poverty versus luxury. During the course of my research on Mumbai’s architecture, I stumbled on an article by Ashraf K. Kazi (2005) where he mentions the concept of elsewhere and it’s relation to the evolving architecture of Mumbai city. This conflict between the elsewhere and the here was the perfect example of bipolarity; juxtaposing the luxurious pseudo-greek high rises of Hiranandani with the crowded squalor of the Tunga slums.

Group Critique

Overall Feedback:
Brian Catling (performance artist and poet) mentioned that I could add a layer of virtual shadows to the video installation, in addition to the real shadows thrown by the audience. He also mentioned that since the user’s action is central to viewing the work, it’s almost as if the user is causing the resulting violence/action, in this case the image of a burning building that becomes visible only in the user’s shadow. In answer to my question about the kind of space I should use for the installation, he said that using a clean, “constructed” white room would work best with the concept. There was a brief discussion on the lack of sound used, and he thought that sound was not required at all.

Several artists and films that could help develop my practice were mentioned: such at Kit Wise, Rope by Hitchcock and “London” and “Robinson in Space” by Patrick Keiller. I was also directed to Foucault’s theories of Heterotopia, Dystopia and Utopia; “Non Places – Introduction and an Anthropology of Super Modernity” by Mare Ange and the History of the Shadow by V. Strichita.

Reflection:
The use or lack of sound is an important issue which I still have to properly integrate into the concept of the bipolar, constructed realities. However I agree with Brian in that the sound itself is not very important to the installation. It is a concern to me that the sound or music could dominate the visuals. The result should be dream-like, since dreams have a tendency to have faded or muted sounds when remembered. Examples of appropriate sounds are: muted voices, very low volume music, or something subtle such as crackling of fire and gunshots in the distance.
During the presentation I also realized that a subtle difference between the “here” and the “elsewhere” is better than an overly dramatic and “literal” difference.
The space itself is still an issue which I need to work on to some extent. A large part of phase 2 will be building on the space, experimenting with the use of objects along with projectors, and trying the 360 degree panorama.
Overall, creating the presentation helped me organize my thoughts in terms of the kind of framework and process I followed, looking at the gaps in my reasoning and further steps I needed to take in my research.

Notes:
Topics to read further: Para-Feminism, Invisible artwork, Family photographs as imposed memories, Leonard Talmy: Force Dynamic in language: “door is closed” vs the “door cannot be opened.” Uses of Enchantment by Bruno: interesting book about fairy tales, Costume vs. Fashion is the folk (narrative, story) vs. elite (market, consumer); Physiology of taste by Brillat Savarin;
Dutch golden age (objects with meaning, symbols) – using a room or a window to project against or using meaningful objects in the installation; Shadows: Using shadows in different tones, different light sources. Also interesting is the book Praise the Shadow; Constructed Reality: creating from photographs, memory, or not even that, but just found photographs is one step down.
Films: Many Moons (2008) b Janelle Monae; Coraline (animation); Eraserhead by David Lynch

Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City

Initially the concept of the “elsewhere” that inspired my focus on the conflict between the real and the ideal in Mumbai came from an article by Ashraf K. Kazi about the “Masala City.” He went on to give examples from Bollywood movies such as Mein Prem Ki Diwani Hoon, where the entire movie unfolds in an imaginary Indian town called Sundarnagar. This lead me to look into Bollywood and the ways it represents Mumbai. The movie-making industry in Mumbai has come of age – now more than a 100 years old, and it reflects the city’s conflicts, politics and desires as much as its people.

Excerpts from the book Bombay Cinema by Ranjani Mazumdar:

“The Bombay-based film industry resonates throughout the world, in places where the Indian diaspora has settled and in places where nonnative speakers appreciate its unique choreography of music, melodrama, fantasy, and spectacle. Much of popular cinema’s success can be attributed to what many in the industry refer to as a “techno folk” form, which combines folk traditions with new cinematic technology.”

“Drawing on various visual, literary, and artistic traditions, each with its own distinct history, popular Indian cinema is an evolving, unabashedly hybrid cultural form that narrates the complicated intersection between tradition and modernity in contemporary India. Film production started in India almost simultaneously with other filmmaking countries, beginning in 1896.”

The author also mentions the Indian street, as a place which contains Indian life and all its related conflicts. Although I am currently focussing on building a virtual Mumbai skyline, creating a street could also interest me in the future.

“In a rare piece, Arjun Appadurai describes the Indian street as the space where “India eats, works, sleeps, moves, celebrates and worships. The street is a stage that rarely sleeps” (1987, 14). Through a vivid visual anthropology (across different cities of India), Appadurai traces both the historical formation and the function of the street, as well as its present location in the cultural and social life of India. The multiple activities and events of the street are a clear reminder that the “sharp demarcation of public from private spheres is a recent addition to the Indian consciousness” (1987, 14). For Dipesh Chakrabarty, the modernist categories of the public-private divide were challenged by the street in India where “People washed, changed, slept…out in the open” (16). But neither Appadurai nor Chakrabarty refers specifically to the presence of women in the street. The Indian street as described by these writers is ubiquitous and peopled by all types engaged in different forms of activity in an almost genderless space.”

Reference:

Ashraf, K Kazi. (2005) Masala City: Urban Stories from South Asia. The New Mix: Culturally dynamic architecture, Sara Caples and Everardo Jefferson, Architectural Design. Vol 75, No 5 Sept/Oct 2005, pp.67-68.

Mazumdar, Ranjani. Bombay Cinema : An Archive of the City. Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. p 18, 19, 120. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/aib/Doc?id=10206194&ppg=18 Copyright © 2007. University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved.

Circle of Confusion

One line from this article grabbed me:  “It is impossible to grasp the city, one can only take a fragment of it.”

[Image Source] | Circle of Confusion by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige | Photographic installation | Mirror, colour digital prints (3,000 pieces), ink inscriptions.

The work resonates with the aim of my project, as it seeks to represent the city of Beirut: how it’s various and poorly documented conflicts have cut it into pieces, making it impossible to make a “true” picture of it, inviting the user to destroy the city by taking pieces off the board and scattering them, revealing a layer beneath. One of the questions brought up in the article is: “How does the viewer’s participation in this work, by removing and taking possession of a fragment of the city of Beirut, add to the meaning of Circle of Confusion?”

Similarly I can attempt to create a question for my work: How does the viewer’s participation in this work, by revealing the hidden city of Mumbai in the viewer’s shadows, add to the meaning of Mumbai+Bombay?

The Elsewhere

My aim is to represent the conflict and relationship between the here and the longing for elsewhere through an interactive panorama of Mumbai city. A digital collage of appropriate symbols, popular images and architecture will create two bipolar city landscapes that will interact with each other and the user, creating an experience that emphasizes the difference between a collectively imagined dreamscape versus the ‘reality’ of Mumbai.

The song-site in Bollywood movies is a good example of the imagined elsewhere for middle and upper-middle class Mumbaikars, where we are suddenly transported from the streets of Mumbai or the here, into an ideal place frequently represented by Switzerland, New Zealand or Germany; a dreamscape that is actually being built (Fig.1) through the efforts of architects and builders who have realized and understood this desire amongst aspiring Indians (Ashraf, 2005, p. 68):

The longing for elsewhere is now embodied in new building configurations that are radically altering the urban landscape: malls and shopping centres, cineplexes and flyovers, and exclusive apartment or residential complexes.

Using popular commercial styles of architects such as Hiranandani and Hafeez Contractor, the elsewhere will be a seamless city inspired by exclusive residential complexes and sets from Bollywood movies.

Research: its Aims and Structure

Phil Jones spoke about his thesis ‘The Bones of the Book:  Schematic Structure and Meanings made from from Books’ and it lead me to question my Study Plan immediately. It is only a synopsis right now, but in time I should be confident of where my research stands in the academic world. These are some pointers from Phil on how to structure your research, in my own words:

> The Subject
This is the underlying aim, drive or motivation behind my work.

> The Field
What is the state of interactive media today? What is the most current research and art in this field, and how and in which direction is it moving towards. What are the factions etc.

> Research Question
Specifying the focus of the study using relevant technical terms from my discipline, in a question format.
Aim, Objectives (Detailed aim) will flow from the research question.

> Theoretical Context
World view, philosophical point of view, which will then influence your practice, awareness.

> Methods
Connected to your theoretical framework.

> Claims and Truths
Provably true, probably true (statistics) or plausibly true (convincing argument)

> Prediction of the form of the final presentation

Explication

Or making the implicit, explicit. That was the goal when writing my plan for phase 1 of the MA project. What I achieved though was a brief overview of the project’s main aims as they stand now, and how I plan to accomplish them within the given time period:

My aim is to create an interactive experience or object that represents a slice of the city Mumbai. Using visual language that symbolically represents the city’s dichotomies and conflicting identities, I propose to explore the city’s depth and complexity through the combined use of an appropriate form language, relevant technology and multimedia.

Download the full PDF here: Study_Plan (2.5 MB)