The stasis syndicate Reuben samson
(cutout)
(cutout)
REUBEN SAMSON
Diploma Project Documentation Book Art in Transit 2015
PROJECT FACULTY: Amitabh Kumar, Samir Parker, Ruchika Nambiar, Arzu Mistry, Agnishikha Choudhuri
SRISHTI SCHOOL OF ART, DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
abstract “Art in Transit � is a public art pilot project that aims at revitalizing transit environments in Bangalore by turning them into cultural forums that integrate multi-faceted and site-specific artistic interventions into public spaces. Anchored in the Peenya Metro Station, the collaborative venture between Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology and the Bangalore Metro Rail Cooperation Limited hopes to engage commuters in meaningful communications with the prevalent context, transforming the space into an enriching destination.
contents INDUCTION IMPETUS 01 Why Art in Transit?
03 Understanding Public Art
06 Personal lens
IMMERSION 11 Dissecting Peenya
13 Framing inquiries
15 Artistic influences
19 Establishing foundation
21 Implementing tools
23 Generating metaphors
INTERVENTION
(PART 1)
27 Crystallizing concept
29 Image-making process
32 Layering complexities
INTERVENTION (PART 2)
INTERLUDE 35 Expanding practice
39 Material explorations 41 Prototyping (level 1 & 2)
45 Material resolution
47 Site analysis
INTEGRATION 53 Generating images
INFERENCE 59 Reflections
IMPETUS - why art in transit? - understanding public art - personal lens
why art in transit? I have always found it immensely challenging to succinctly epitomize the motivations behind my areas of interest and the intention of the projects I usually gravitate towards. Mapping a linear and lucid train of thoughts and personal motivations toward the conception of an idea has always felt quite futile to me because I tend to think a thousand things at a time, and none of them take precedence over the others
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because they unanimously have equal relevance. Since my explorations tend to be polymathic in nature, my choices are always informed by many more factors than I can possibly be aware of.
T h e A r t i n Tra n s i t p ro j e c t s e e m e d m o st i nt r i g u i n g to m e b e c a u s e i t s fra m ewo r k wa s c a pa b l e of a c c o m m o d at i n g t h e p ro s p e c t of p o l y m at h s .
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A ny p ote nt i a l p ro j e c t w i t h i n t h i s fra m ewo r k o n l y re q u i re d to b e g ro u n d e d i n i t s c o ntex t a n d p hy s i c a l l y s i tu ate d i n t h e Pe e nya M et ro St at i o n . I t p re s e nte d i t s e l f n ot a s a n o u t l i n e d d raw i n g t h at re q u i re d to b e fi l l e d i n , b u t a s a n e nt i re l y b l a n k c a nva s .
understanding public art Over the last few decades, it has become increasingly common practice for metro stations worldwide to house public art on a monumental scale. What began as simple architectural embellishment and ornamentation in the form of mosaics and decorative sculptures, gradually evolved into forms that complicated the spaces and escalated their value. The Athens Metro, for instance, is known for its display of archeological relics found during its construction. Similarly, the Rangoli Metro Art Centre at the M.G.Road metro station in Bangalore has become a popular public art forum.
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This practice itself stemmed from the need for alternative places to display contemporary art. While the more classical forms were traditionally limited to white cube spaces or temporal voids such as museums and galleries, more complicated and dynamic forms like installations and performances demanded a different residence, as they required spaces that allowed them to get more intimate with the viewer and facilitate a dialogue. Additionally, these unconventional spaces gave new context to the art, grounded it, and gave viewers the opportunity to find their own access points to it.
Sculptures and excavated ruins on display at a metro station in Athens.
Rangoli Metro Ar t Centre, M.G. Road boulevard, Bangalore
In order to do justice to this legacy of emergent public art practices, I had to learn to sensitize myself to the nuances of transitional spaces, and remind myself to implement broader lenses that could captivate the interests of an extensively wider demographic than the usual niches that I was accustomed to appealing to. My project therefore had to have a firm contextual foundation and contain layers of complexity that could be communicated to prospective viewers without pandering to them.
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personal lens A lot of my own work contains literary allusions, pop-cultural references, and social commentary, all filtered through a personal, introspective lens. My writing and visual narratives are often concerned with the irony associated with the beauty and repulsiveness of human behavior and multiple self-imposed filters that retroactively alter my perspective. I use these filters as a way to extricate myself from my personal social anxieties and embrace empirical experiences with posterior veneration.
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Liemannen stjäl din själ utan skäl
Nej, får får inte. Får får får lamm.
Var tog vägen vägen?
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IMMERSION - dissecting peenya - inquiry and research questions - artistic influences
dissecting Peenya The Peenya Industrial Area carries a complex terrestrial legacy that tends to get subconsciously crossbred with the more overt elements of economic development and communal activity. While overt manifestations of development in urban spaces obviously affect the perception of their immediate environments, the landscape itself also plays an equally significant role in altering perception.
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Image annotation
My engagement with the landscape of Peenya was c h a ra c t e r i z e d by subtle underlying corro sive tensions between the rigidity and f ra g i l i t y o f i n d u s t r i a l s p a c e s , which al lowe d me to form metaphors that drew attent i o n t o t h e i r v u l n e ra b i l i t i e s .
I found that the space s I o ccupie d whi le attempting to sol id ify an acce ss p oint al l e cho e d a sense of imp ermanence. The lo cations highl ight the ephemeral nature of their indust rious o ccupation. I b e gan to cultivate a de ep er sensitivity to indust rial landscap e s as l iving, dynamic sp e ctacle s as opp o se d to mere ge ographical feature s.
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C r u m b l i n g s t r u c t u re s a n d a b a n doned institutions positioned alongside a s p i ra t i o n a l constructions emphasized the s e n s e o f t ra n s i e n c e . T h e p re va l e nt c o r ro s i o n wa s n ot h o w e ve r i n d i c a t i ve of e nv i ro n m e nt a l b r u t a l i t y, b u t a s u bt l e a l l u s i o n t o t h e i d e a o f p ro g re s s n e c e s s i t a t i n g d i s i nt e g ra t i o n .
framing inquiries
Cristiana Morganti in a scene from “Pina�, 2011
While watching a German documentary about contemporary choreography, I was very intrigued by one particular scene where a ballerina performs a series of pirouettes in front of a deserted factory. Although the language of movement was very different from my approach to visual expression, the scene resonated very strongly with me as it communicated the same sort of emotions that I was extracting from the landscape of Peenya. This helped me converge on a frame of inquiry.
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1 How does one isolate elemental occupants of a space that can act as metaphors for the space itself by effectively communicating what it suggests?
3 2 How can these extracted elements be framed in compositions that appeal to the subconscious and trigger involuntary memories, thereby leaving a viewer with a richer, more meaningful experience?
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How can the emotional palette of a landscape affect the way we engage with it and build transient memories of our experience with it?
artistic influences Geoffrey Farmer’s densely layered assemblages and animated sculptures presented multiple obscure narratives within each piece, highlighting their inherent animistic qualities through very subtle, nuanced movements. Sculptural animism eventually directed me to terrestrial animism.
Geoffrey Farmer, Boneyard “A Light in The Moon” - 2013
The evocative music of Andrew Bird, often extracted from landscapes, made for a very efffective ambient soundtrack.
Andrew Bird, Echolocations - 2015
Recorded in the Coyote Gulch canyons of Utah, “Echolocations: Canyon” is the first in a series of short films and recordings that document site specific compositions in exceptional natural and urban environments.
“The really interesting question is why dullness proves to be such a powerful impediment to attention. Why we recoil from the dull. Maybe it's because dullness is intrinsically painful. Maybe dull things are associated with psychic pain because they fail to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient low-level way.” - David Foster Wallace, The Pale King
The writings of David Foster Wallace never fail to reinforce an adherence to penetrating honesty that opposes passive distraction from dullness, urging one to embrace it in its bleakness.
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INDUCTION - establishing foundation - implementing tools - metaphor generation
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establishing foundation I began to converge on the idea of simulating a contained atmosphere for disembodied sensations and incommunicable emotions evoked by the natural and industrial landscapes of Peenya, through a network of layered images that use visual metaphors to simulate the same ambivalence of the spaces that intrigued me.
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I wante d to create a new context for non-linearity in emotional experience, allowing people to choose their own links to move from one visual element to the next , and a rra n g e a t ra n s i e nt subconscious n a rrat i ve from a de ep er p o ol of p ote nt i a l n a rrat i ve s .
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implementing tools
Tapping into the resonance of the shifting landscapes, I began to represent its elusive nature through a series of sketches and photographs that attempted to communicate the same emotions of their subjects. My decisions around form and subject were driven by the phenomenon of terrestrial animism, or the capacity of an object or a space to channel a certain kind of “spirit � as dwelling within them. The overall experience of a space needed to evoke the sensation that it possessed cognition.
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In addition, lyrical reflections allowed me to revisit the spaces and compose pedestrian deliberations that helped form metaphors that described the area. These lyrical musings then acted as the framework to create site-specific visual manifestos through layered compositions. “Haphazardly cordoned off in a way that facilitates only partial concealment, it is an odd place where the macabre and the mundane coexist and play off each other through mutual dependence to amplify each others’ emotions. A barnacled, corroded molting ground for unknowable, grotesque, hermetic creatures to abandon their shells and shed their skins.
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The prevalent mood is dense enough to be penetrated, the sense of callous deterioration holds a palpable tension for far longer than circumstances would ordinarily warrant. A place that dwells in twilight neither by nature nor by necessity. The disintegrating occupants within are vaguely apart from their context, existing more as tenant or totem than rooted structures�
generating metaphors The Peenya Metro station itself endorsed a palpable tension between endearment and repulsion reflected in the architectural magnitude of the structure alongside the bleak, dusty, cemented mark it left in its wake. The desolate scrap-yard in the vicinity acted as a sprawling cenotaph for hermetic industrial manifestations of disintegration, where the macabre and the mundane coexist. Similar metaphors could be extracted from a number of peripheral features in the landscape. These metaphors create a more authentic evocation of the emotional palette of the space, as opposed to the apocryphal assumptions of monotonous industrial suburbs.
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I likened the tapering reaches of the metro system in Peenya to the form of a macrocephalic premature foetus; small, weak and deformed, hoped to have personified growth and prosperity, but ultimately frail and grasping for breath, struggling to survive, mirroring the initially anticipated profitability and high expected ridership from the industrial area. The pale, flesh-tone palette of the station reinforced the imagery of the blotchy, malformed foetus, dribbling cerebro-spinal fluid out of its mouth as it cries out, craving attention. I felt like the form captured the mix of repulsion and love felt for the architectural prowess and technological competence validated through the metro system, alongside the bleak, grey, cemented trail that it leaves in its wake.
“while many nursed aspirations prematurely, some spaces understood that true recognition had to be posthumous�
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Using the infinitely cyclical structure of James Joyce’s “Finnigan’s Wake” as a metaphor for recursive loops in the form of conveyor belts, terminal tracks and escalators.
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Photographs and sketches from the Peenya metro station, the surrounding industrial area and the abandoned metro scrapyard
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INTERVENTION (part 1)
- crystallizing concept - image making process - adding complexity
crystallizing concept The project converged on investigations of industrial urban spaces around Peenya that isolate key aesthetic anomalies which act as metaphors for their context.
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The anomalies that I chose to depict were not just things that visually stood out in the industrial landscape; they were ironic, self-contradicting and in a fragile state of flux. I represented the subjects in visual compositions that used a number of embedded disciplines to advocate a deeper sensorial relationship with transitional spaces.
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Capturing fragile, wounded, decaying, disintegrating subjects before they were completely obliterated was sort of a way to use the tactic of suspended animation to preserve the last vestigial remnants of animistic integrity, the same way a blurred photograph captures a fleeting moment. This series of images about the suspension of the depleting residue of terrestrial animism was a way to hold the spaces in stasis.
image-making process Exploring site - photographing anomalies Step 1: Exploring sites, isolating and photographing anomalies Step 2: Reflective lyrical composition Step 3: Illustration using text as scaffolding
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“A horizon hinged by elevated annex. Synergetic suspension of transportational artery, monolithic unison of ancestral trail and emergent rail. The mutually reverential viaducts dismember the landscape and expose its seams. Despite the evident bifurcation, the prospect is not dichotomized. Natives from either severed domain quietly cross over to the other realm, often succumbing to the hardships of their pilgrimage half way. Just as man is enveloped by briny abyss and left to drown, so are cetaceans carried by currents to coastlines, and left to suffocate ashore, stranded posthumously, at the mercy of the elements, scavenged by scavengers.�
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I adapted the hazy, distorted, ethereal quality of scrim curtain projections and the visual noise of the motion blurred view that is produced when a vehicle is speeding past a landscape. The motion-blurred aesthetic added a new ephemeral layer to the artwork.
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layering complexities Since my images were rooted in the idea of transience, I wanted a canvas that was correspondingly complicated and impermanent. The idea of capturing fragile, fleeting moments on the surface of actual metro windows emerged from the necessity to simulate the ghostly, hovering sensation of stasis.
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INTERLUDE (Mumbai)
- expanding practice
expanding practice
In March 2015, The Urban Vision, a think-do tank of architects and social advocates, invited the Art in Transit project to participate in a week-long charrette creating site-specific public artwork in the soon to be redeveloped neighbourhood of Samtanagar, in Kandivali East, Mumbai.
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The piece I worked on attempted to combine various elements that coexisted within the physical space of a compound of cavernous sheltered housing modules. Apart from the aforementioned piece, I also worked on a number of smaller interventions in the form of rapidly-stencilled, bordering on gratuitously random artworks scattered across the neighbourhood.
Being the very first time I had lifted a brush to a wall, the rhythmic act produced a pleasantly cathartic effect. The overall experience, while not particularly inspiring, did urge me to further complicate my creative processes and consider various alternative media. I began experimenting with brush pens and paint markers and gradually adapted my style of illustration.
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INTERVENTION (part 2)
- material explorations - prototyping level 1 - prototyping level 2 - material resolution - site analysis
material explorations 39
After having converged on the idea of capturing a series of images depicting frailty within the suspended canvas of transparent windows, I had to test a number of surfaces and framing materials in order to arrive at the optimal method to produce the effect I was hoping for, bearing in mind durability and feasibility. Since the windows had to match the materiality of the actual metro cars, rubber gaskets and metal frames had to be sourced and tested.
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prototyping My initial few rounds of prototyping were aimed at demonstrating the effect of refractive edge-lighting. Esentially, when a highly refractive and transparent surface like glass or acrylic is engraved with an image and the edges of the material are lined with LEDs, the light passes through the entire surface, illuminating the engraved image and leaving the remaining area transparent. This technique could be used to produce a ghostly holographic effect that I wanted to explore.
(level 1)
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The quick MDF prototype demonstrated the refraction of a flashlight-beam across the scratched surface of a glass slab. Having resolved the technique, I had to work out methods of engraving the images.
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prototyping For my second round of prototyping, I tried laser engraving an illustration onto various samples of clear and tinted acrylic, to test visiblity and clarity of the illuminated image.
(level 2)
While the method worked, the process was quite tedious and if incorporated in the Peenya metro station, would have increased maintenance costs. Additionally, the theatrical pyrotechnics of the setup was too much of a distraction from the image itself, which was the main aspect.
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material resolution After several iterations, the most viable and effective method for fabricating the windows turned out to be U.V. printing on acrylic at 200%, producting a dense image that allows for dynamic filtering and blocking light. This allowed me to utilize the three potential layers of the form- the surface of the window itself, the reflection that it produced, and the view that is visible through it. The windows would then be framed in powder coated aluminiumproviding support while remaining light.
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With this in mind, I printed a scale test window and positioned it on site at the metro station platfrom, mapping areas where maximum light would filter through, noting support points and impact areas. Additional tests for durability, scratch resistance and visibility of the illustrated sections of the window were also conducted, with the aim of resolving all technical issues, allowing for an uninterrupted intensive image making session to follow.
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site analysis I chose to display my windows along a 60 foot long stretch, punctuated by pillars, on the metro platform. The positioning allows commuters to directly engage with the piece as they have to walk past it after coming up to the platfrom from the concourse. Most importantly though, the granite ledge along this expanse positions the windows at level with the metro coach, thereby solidifying the connection.
Peenya
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10.8“
10.8“
10.8“
23’ 10“
10.8“
23’ 10“
22’ 8“
4’ 5” 3’ 10” 9’ 8”
12”
16’ 11.9”
5’ 11”
1’ 7.5”
4’ 1.5”
1’ 6 “
8’ 3.5”
12”
2’ 11“
Peenya
6”
1’ 10.5”
10’ 3.5”
7’ 2”
13’ 7.5”
1’ 7.3”
2’ 1”
Site measurements (1x1 ft grid)
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Proposed window positioning Peenya
square rod frame and column weld points Peenya
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45 cm
70 cm
40 cm
W3
W3
W3
W3
W1
W2
45 cm (1’ 5.7” )
178 cm ( 5’10” )
11 cm
W2
W3
W3
W2
W3
W3
W1
Metro coach window dimensions Height (h): Width (W1): Width (W2): Width (W3): Corner radius:
11 cm
83 cm ( 2’8.5” )
83 cm ( 2’8.5” )
h
W2
140 cm
83 cm
W1
178 cm
83 cm (2’ 8.5”) 45 cm (1’ 5.5”) 178 cm (5’ 10”) 40 cm (1’ 3.5”) 12 cm (4.7”)
W1 acrylic weight (2 mm): < 10 kg W1 acrylic weight (4 mm): < 20 kg W2 acrylic weight (2 mm): < 2 kg W2 acrylic weight (4 mm): < 4 kg
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IMPLEMENTATION - image generation
generating images The final phase of my project, being the most crucial one, was a month long intensive session of process execution. Deep explorations of abandoned and overgrown spaces and crumbling elements were followed by lengthy poetic musings and written reflections and finally, the intricate imagery for each vista was painstakingly produced and subsequently superimposed over the motion-blurred photographs on the windows.
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To view all the final completed artwork and accompanying textual compositions, please refer to the supplementary artist â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book.
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INFERENCE
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There is often an unfortunate human tendency to actively seek out defining characteristics of places that makes us access them with predispositions. My experience in Peenya has taught me that by exercising constant consciousness of this default tendency, it is possible to alter our perceptions and transition through these places without limiting our engagement with them. I approached Peenya with rigid notions of industrial occupation and gradually learned that residential spaces and forested spaces and commercial spaces and transitional spaces were just as crucial to Peenya as the industrial. This understanding of the underlying ephemeral transience of elemental occupants of places helped me cultivate subtlety in my depictions and and shifted the nature of my work from descriptive to evocative.
Early on in the project, before I even understood that public art didn't have to mean something that brought a community closer together and promoted interaction or risked descending into gentrification, I struggled with the thought of the tremendous responsibility that accompanies such projects, as I never feel like I am in a rightful position to make any decisions that involve other people. It took a substantial amount of time before I understood that I wasn't being asked to embark upon anything of the sort. I wasn't tasked with enriching people's lives. The single crucial requirement was only that whatever I created had to exist in the public domain. It didn't have to take a political position or unite people under a common cause. It was not my responsibility to dictate public-response. The public would do that themselves.
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All I had to do was create something worth responding to.