FINAL PRODUCT

Kite runner

Kite runner circulates around the life of Amir a young boy from Kabul. Its about his relationships with the people he comes across throughout his life and how they are affected when interrupted by other entities. Non existing relationship with his mother, fragility of it with his father and the constant struggle to seek his approval which affects his relation with Hassan later. Brotherhood that he shares with Hassan, and Rahim Khan the constant pillar in his life and Assef the bully. These all are interconnected. when dynamics of one changes it affects all. His fear for Assef stops him from intervening the assault. Every time he sees Hassan he is reminded of his cowardice which leads him to break of his relation with him. He runs every time he sees flaw instead of addressing it and ends up exhausting his body. To heal old wounds, to salvage what is left of his old relations he returns back home dedicates his book to Rahim Khan and avenges his brother's death by rescuing his son Sohrab from Assef's clutches. When something is included or excluded from his life it changes the design of his life for good or for bad depending on the nature of his actions that follow up.

Train of life

      schlomo the town lunatic comes running down the hills in alarm to tell the people of Nazis terrorising the neighbourhood village. When he delivers this terrible news the rabbi is quick to  believe him and then the rest follow. After lot of intense arguing on how to carve their way out of this sticky situation they all agree upon building a deportation train that will take them to Palestine via Russia. The refurbishment of old rusty train surprisingly caused them hardly any trouble. Or people posing as Nazi was not much of their concern, the Mordechai plays the role of a pseudo Nazi convincingly. Encountering some hurdles here and there they still make a safe journey to Russia.
         In the last scene schlomo talks about his friends and their rosy life, but he is cut mid sentence,when the camera zooms out and you see him behind the barbed wires in convicts clothes in a concentration camp. It was too good to be true after all!
          the Jews making a safe journey was just a figment of his imagination which he created to survive the brutal and horrendous treatment of the concentration camp, to remain sane to still keep that tiny hope from dissolving. After all we all have fantasies of our own to keep depression at bay to have a better image of ourselves and our lives. We all some time or the other indulge in the 'what ifs'.
           Schlomo couldn't escape from the clutches of the concentration camp so he found imagination as his only weapon for escaping.

Rembrandt

            In Rembrandt's earlier paintings his focus was on details from what dress the person wore in his painting, jewellery that they adorned and their expressions to tell their personality. He showed every possible detail to convey a story to the audience. I feel he was concerned that people would miss the point if the paintings lacked minute details. He paints what he sees the person as and fortunately the person demands the same in the beginning of his career.
            But as time passes people wanted him to draw them with a mask but still him being his stubborn self refused to which was the starting point of his downfall. He isn't bothered to finish the paintings anymore since they were for him and it didn't matter if it failed to get the message. His initial paintings were more verbose but now it felt redundant to do so. The last painting shows true colours, roots  of brutality in it's naked glory.
             

Skit on body

                A boy misuses his body parts. Fed up with his ways the organs come up with a devious plan to put him in his place.
               Starring
      Abhishek as the narrator
      Kiran as Johnny the irresponsible nincompoop.
      Me as Johnny's date
      Shraddha,Vikrant,Swarnima, Megha
   
        The organs cannot tolerate Johnny anymore, they decide to not co-ordinate and follow Johnny's orders. He starts acting out when he meets a girl at a bus top on his way to work,his eye starts twitching he gets jumpy and starts acting all kinds of crazy, still the girl by some miracle agrees to be his date for the party. Same episode is repeated at the party he gets out of control and is thrown out from the party. the organs make an appearance in his dream where they reveal their plan to him,he begs for forgiveness and everyone lives happily ever after.
         moral of the story: treasure what you have?

In the skit through gestures signs and symbols we tried to tell a story, using our body we tried to communicate.

Cognitive mapping

It is helpful for other classes where we need to construct stories. My chaotic thoughts are processed in a more systematic manner,I still get confused and lost because of constant bombardment of ideas words sentences and its a struggle to voice them out.

CCTV SERVES US IN VAIN

            To record people's reactions we put up some signs saying ' these premises are under CCTV surveillance '
          One was put up near the N3 bus stop on a tree. People looked at it while we were putting it up. But once we were done and new crowd came in they missed to notice it.

The juice center guy jokes "on a bus stop people wait for the bus they constantly keep looking if the bus has arrived they won't see the poster" way to lift our spirits! When asked how he felt being monitored by a camera, giving us an obvious look he replied that it would be good for the safety since everything will be recorded, and he too is going to install a camera in his shop so that he is not accused of theft of gadgets that students leave at his shop.
         We went back to the bus stop to ask the man who constantly stole quick glances at the poster. Turned out he didn't understand what it said since he didn't understand english. Not only should it have been bigger and stuck in a place from where anyone could see but also in different languages. If they buy it or not is secondary to acknowledge it is primary which didn't happen.

           Taking extra measures to stick the poster in the right place we asked around if the bus stop was crowded since it looked deserted and after receiving a green light we stuck it. Big mistake we should have know crowded meant six people to them.  The teenagers at the bus stop told us people won't take it seriously and that it was a safe space anyway. Even the owner of the bakery store Swati thought it was a safe place and cctvs will make it more safe. It's quite hard for me to view it as a place to hang around at night as it is located at the backside not that anyone can see what's happening and again no lights.
            I asked my friends if they noticed anything on the park gate a notice maybe but no,none of them had. My roommate even laughed after seeing it.she didn't think it was possible to install a camera in such a place.
             The guy who recently robbed a laptop from someone's pg even looked in the camera. People get caught and are let off after some time. No one paid much heed to the fact that there might be
cameras watching their every move.

REALITY

       I anticipated there to be many unsafe places in Yelahanka if not during the day at least at night since there is a scarcity of street lights not just in alleyways or backstreets but also on main roads,and having heard tons of incidents that took place near PGs and being warned on multiple occasions to not walk alone, It came as a surprise to me that according to the locals there were no more than one unsafe place, that place being Attur village.
        We met supportive people, some "wise" who wouldn't stop talking, short tempered "gentlemen" who thinks entire north India is foul,a stubborn blemish on his home. On a lighter note,our first talking session took place with Bharti a lady with a particular set of skills, that will put  Liam Neeson to shame. with her koyta-
knife. She wasn't afraid of anyone.It took quiet a while for her to think of an unsafe place just to get us off her case. (kidding she is a sweet lady) she found Attur village and a place near the hospital a bit shady. "Rowdy boys lurk around that area,if not in proper clothing you are doomed" she says. The vada pav aunty( Suguna), Sri Ganesh and many more follow some what same answering pattern, they'll say its a safe area the first time you question but when you grill them a little further they mention the same Attur village, it almost seems rehearsed, to paint a safe picture for us just so we don't run away from this place. We had an endless conversation with auto rickshaw guys just outside the college. "This area is very safe because of the Hoysala police" says the driver with confidence. Other two stationed on the back seat add on to it by saying there are good and bad people everywhere from then on the trio start telling us back to back stories of robberies,Eve teasing,chain snatching,etc. the driver then hands us a check list ( not really) to get
in his rickshaw.
                          An ideal person
  1. Never smoked a cigarette ( will be ignored if you are of male species)
  2. Never consumed alcohol ( same as above)
  3. Covered from head to toe( why even bother, girl who fails to meet these requirements will not be permitted to sit in my auto,unless you have a lot of cash on you)



  "If you flaunt what you have it will be stolen" is what he believes.

 Tormented by hunger we made a pit stop at Ismail uncles shawarma place. Too concentrated in scarfing down his roll it slipped our minds to question him. Coming to our senses and trying not to act like savages we asked him what he thought of Srishti people, were we a nuisance? Grinning he replied "my shop runs because of you students if not for you I wouldn't be able to provide for my family, everyone wants specific ingredients in their roll, I have to keep up with it ,but I enjoy doing it nonetheless, students from N5 still come to this place even though it's far for them only to eat my roll" he says proudly puffing his chest
. He mentioned the area further ahead from N5 was unsafe and went on to add that a Srishti girl was cheated by a local boy some years back.

 We asked Padmawati and Vijyaamma both middle aged housewives about unsafe areas to which
they say "Our boys never smoked after 'srishti girls' started smoking even they followed" I think they
are distant relatives of that auto rickshaw uncle."great minds" do think alike!
 

  I agree that smoking is bad for your health and when you do it publicly it affects ten other people which is unfair to those people but blaming someone else for what your kids did is wrong. We will never feel safe if they still see us as outsiders and already make judgements of our character .We need to respect their culture to a certain extent if we are staying in the same community and they need to do the same.
       People are the same everywhere it depends on how much you come in contact with them. Every Sunday I meet the maids that come to clean our place, we just smile at each other do some hand gestures since language is a Barrier, but I don't have anything against them neither do they. We can live in same place without having to do much. Just be nice and have some respect it will be reciprocated.









         








     





After consulting with Jasmine we thought of asking men if they would feel comfortable with something like neon attack or will it be misused. The Mallya Aditi gurd was quick to reply that it will certainly be misused. we even asked some men working in our pg that ,suppose if a woman is walking towards them from the opposite side do you think that she is going to be scared of you or see you as an offender just because you are a man? one guy simply replied "I am not a mind reader"

FANTASY

         Considering safety 'Glow in the dark wall' idea screamed to us but the requirements for that turned out to be expensive,I started viewing it as an impractical idea. After much discussion and brain storming for hours we came up with neon attack.
         A web of glow in the dark threads between two poles that wraps the perpetrator on pressing the button on the poles programmed in a way that it sends a signal back to the police,this was the concept behind neon attack. When told to actually construct the product it seemed technically impossible to make the threads wrap around someone or even send any kind of signal. After some much needed input we decided to Eliminate the warping part and instead use it as a symbol to get people's attention and create awareness.
           We set out to find unsafe places in Yelahanka Where we could install our design through interacting with locals and understand their perspective.

        

MAPPING

after navigating our way through Yelahanka's streets we were able to establish some parameters taking senior citizens kids women and the disabled into consideration.Following are the parameters;
safety,accessibility,space,health and hygiene.

          A major thing you'll notice while walking through Yelahanka streets is that, there is a lack of street lighting. Even on the main roads for instance the one leading to Mallya Aditi have absence of lights. Such areas become victims for notorious activities. This brought attention to our first concern that is 'women's safety'.What if we paint maps of a particular locality on the walls using colours that glow in the dark? that way the issue of street lights can be solved partially if not completely,also chances of people getting lost will decline.
           Coming to accessibility,one thing that irked me the most was the high leveled footpath. Its an inconvenience for elderly and kids,the most obvious solution would be to lower the height,but then the question of car accidents on footpaths muddled our minds,that's how the idea of a  travelator came to be. It won't be necessary to walk, but if you do your commute will become more fast making vehicles useless and in turn could save fuel. Having seen so many dogs around we thought of putting them to some use by training them as a dog guide for the blind. To make navigation easier for the blind we thought of a mechanism which works as follows.Magnetizing the poles so that the magnet on a blind person's arm attaches them to the pole and slides them off to their desired destination. Rope way for seniors and disabled people to cross roads and for travelling was another bizarre idea we came up with. Street urchins could volunteer to help old people cross the road.
            A recent encounter with a lady who couldn't read made me consider the factor of illiteracy for city planning. Making more pictorial signs could ease of their troubles.
             In many areas the gardens and the dumping pits are next to each other because of which children are most likely being exposed to diseases. Too many open spaces might be a factor why people litter. Using those spaces constructively we
can reduce accumulation of waste in residential areas and help eradicate diseases

BODY

• Body is a framework,shape structure.
• A mask
• It is a temple
• Body signifies change
• It could be a water body,body of a car gadgets etc.
• Life and death
• Pancha mahabhuta
• Abuse
• your own imagination      

The painting is a representation of pancha mahabhuta. It conveys that everything in the physical creation is composed of 5 elements. Akash (ether) being the first one,followed by Vayu (air),Agni (fire),Jala (water),and lastly Prithvi (earth).

p.s lot of muscle power is needed for wall painting ;)


None of the paintings we saw had a realistic representation of body. In kishangarh the eyes resemble crescent moon, in miniatures the lower body is small, in gond and some bundi paintings different bodies are combined together but they still look absolutely stunning.

REBELS

MARIANA ABRAMOVIC

Mariana Abramovic is a performing artist. Most of her pieces have little to do with her instead there is more involvement from the audience. She has taken the role of a canvas throughout  her career.She likes to test the limits of her body,she doesn't shy away from excruciating pain and the embarrassment caused by her experiments.Yes I see her work as experiments to study people.She encourages peoples participation to study the outcome of her performance and reflects upon it. When you feel strong about a certain thing and express it that is art to me.It is about the artist it surrounds his or her life,likes and dislikes. Mariana looked for a reaction from people in her case the people were the artist she was just a canvas who behaved as a different material in every act and presented the audience with different tools,mediums  to work with each time.Most of her works end up in she abusing her body.Maybe it was not the passion she had for performing arts but the thrill of dying,after all she was quite dejected by the fact that her body was bound to certain limits after rhythm 5 where she lost consciousness when surrounded by smoke.Her depression might be the answer to her actions also the reason why she always engages with people,she wants to be a part of the crowd and not an outcast. 'Rhythm 0' depresses me,to see people act in such savage and inhumane way is saddening and on top of it Mariana Letting people almost kill her is shameful,to have so little care and respect for your life to take it for granted and for what? to bring out the evil that we know is inside everyone of us?and portraying herself as a victim and the cowards who couldn't face their misdoings.

In 'The artist is present' it seems as if she is seeing herself as being that person or looking for a piece of her in the subject facing her,or comparing her life. Mariana likes to create her own world and not very often dips her head in reality,it sure explains her dramatic termination of Mariana-Ulay relationship.

BARBRA KRUGER 

Through appropriation art Barbra Kruger sheds some light on the ongoing controversies and politics. Kruger's work calls for your attention,with the use of bold font and red and white colourscheme  you can't miss it.Her artwork oozes of  sarcasm.For example in the following image the girl seems to be mocking the notion of 'money can't buy you love'.Visually her work is eye catching and appealing but it doesn't scream something different.But I do like the idea of mashing up two different images and creating a new meaning from it,but other than that her work seems ordinary for today's world.

GIF

Athena

Athena was known to be the Goddess of wisdom,courage,justice,you could say she was jack of all trades.she is depicted as a shrewd companion of heroes.She was more of a strategist and a diplomat,often Athena was called upon to mediate wars among the gods.She condemned violence unless necessary.Apart from Athens she extended her hand to Argos,Sparta.When Zeus swallowed her fearing his life,Athena leaped from Zeus head.
When i read about her I was inspired by her courage and wit,it gave me hope and strength to create my own identity.
Through the metal armour and cloth i wanted to show that her being a warrior should not rob her off her feminine side.She embraces her warrior persona and at the same time doesn't try to hide or is ashamed of her body. according to the mythology Athena took up a bird's or an owl's form which is the inspiration behind her attire.The sharp jawline and straight posture depicts control and strength.Athena is shown holding a sphere in the hand draped with cloth to show her trying to dissolve a war create peace rather that jumping in it head on.The serpent crawling up the sphere is her adoptive son Erichthonius in actuality,but i have assumed it to be her companion who she trusts and gives her strength and assurance to always have her back

Genesis of an image

Nigel Spivey struggles with the question of how images came to be,to unravel this mystery he goes on a quest to trace the very beginnings of paintings. So hold on to your hats through this mind-boggling journey.

             it all came to light when a young girl stumbled upon an oxen painting in the cave of Altamira with her father,a local archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola. Paintings so charming that they made Picasso think 'we have learnt nothing'. What drove man to create such pictures?was is a form of language? a way of documenting events maybe,if so how did he arise at the concept of an image? But the idea of documenting his life is a contradiction to the cave painting since it focuses only on animals.Which leads to next theory constructed by Henri Breuil which states that the paintings were created to help man hunt. unfortunately this theory failed when the recovered bones of animals were not of those illustrated on walls.On the roof of the small damp cave in which Nigel hardly manages to fit through,you can see red spots and symbols,or just black lines,spots on the body of an oxen.Were they trying to communicate through symbols?what do the spots represent?we recognize things since we have seen them before and it gets engraved in our minds. but how did man draw if he never came across a two dimensional image.Nigel sets an example before us,a Turkish man who in his life time had just seen the said animal but never an actual painting of it was asked to recognize the animal in the painting and to my surprise he couldn't identify it.I still can't digest the fact that he was unable to recognize the horse,who in my defense looked quite realistic!

            running out of plausible conjectures Mr Spivey moves to south Africa where he finds similar paintings as those back in Europe of animals and hunting scenes done by San people. David Lewis Williams took a keen interest in cave paintings.His initial idea suggests that they were scenes from their daily life,but after meticulous observation he found the picture very uncanny.He noticed the man having hooves for feet and hair on both the man and the eland.When you know more about the artist's life it gives better insight of his paintings and it dissolves some of our if not all 'whys' and 'hows'. Bleek having done that got a better understanding of San peoples body of work.He reveals the importance of trance within their culture which Nigel later experiences.It struck David suddenly,its a ritual scene depicted in the painting.He presumes the eland is dying by its crossed legs and so is the man with hooves. When the healer goes into 'trance' that is the half conscious state,images such as the dots are bombarded in his brain since they are wired into our brains from the very beginning.To put this scientific explanation to test Nigel makes a trip to a psychiatric facility.When his eyes are exposed to brilliant led lights he starts seeing similar patterns which were painted in Altamira caves.Our brains are wired the same way,they haven't changed a bit.when the San people go in trance they hallucinate the eland who is considered that of grace,for the cave man hallucinations were caused because of sensory deprivation in the dark cave.They wanted to mark these images since they didn't see it anywhere else but in their brain

                     When man thought that images had died out there was another surprise waiting for him.Man didn't abandon paintings instead he cut out megaliths and carved animals on it with the aid of flint tools alone.To feed these thousands of workers in a deserted place led to the concept of agriculture.It was because they believed in this culture of images and the addiction to nail them down pushed them to achieve such great beauty.Images never died and now we can't imagine a world without pictures.