Contents 1. Introduction 2. Methodology and Output 3. Satyajit Ray: The Designer 4. Deconstruction: Ganashatru Poster Re-design: Bengal Art Influences Re-design: Speculative Exercise Concept 5. Deconstruction: Kanchenjungha Poster Re-design: Bengal Art Influences Re-design: Speculative Exercise Concept 6. Reflective Note 7. Bibliography 8. Work in Progress
Introduction Indian Art and Design movements changed drastically after World War 2 due to Globalization. It was important for India as an Independent Country to be equally forward and competitive with other countries, which led artists and designers to adapt Western Art and Design Movements to their works. But this process of adaptation of the Western Design Styles left the Regional Art Styles of India to evolve in a “Western Depiction”. The main inquiry for this project has therefore been: What lenses and methods could we explore to understand and re-create Indian Regional Art in a Futuristic Vision? As a practicing designer my aim is to find creative and smart ways to move forward. But due to living a large part of my life outside India, I feel that I have yet to understand, appreciate and explore the vastness of Indian Art. Most of my life I consumed Indian Art as an outsider, wondering to myself how can Indian Art be so unfamiliar yet recognizable at the same time! It was during this process of self-reflection I realized that one of the reasons Indian Art feels so familiar is due to the amalgamation of Western Art influence with Regional Indian Art Styles. The concept of understanding Indian Art on its own grew from the specific interest to see something new through a missing lens. Will it be absurd? Will it be incomplete? I didn’t know, all I knew at the start of this journey was that I wanted to completely immerse myself in understand Indian Art. What makes it work? What factors lead to unsuccessful depictions? These were some questions that really encouraged me to start a project on this particular topic. The aim of this project was simple in the beginning. It was to find Western Art Elements in Indian Art, subtract them through the process of unlearning and then create something new, which will be pure “Indian Art”. Sounds fun and easy right? Well, not really! As I
started exploring and researching, the first question that popped up was, why am I doing this research? Who is this research work supposed to help? Has this type of research been done already? And as if these questions didn’t stir up my head enough, I started to realize how complicated the term ‘Indian’ actually is! India is massive, it is truly the melting pot of cultures, languages, traditions, religion, politics and economy, and Indian Art represents all of these factors. To come up with any successful ‘Indian’ Art we will have to address all of the factors mentioned above in a genuine manner, which becomes impossible to conduct in 5 weeks period. By the time I started realizing the ever-growing problems and questions to this inquiry, I was knee-deep in the subject matter. The Indian Art blackhole had sucked my interest in completely and by no means was I going to change my line of inquiry at this state! It was a challenge that excited me more every day, the concept of finding even one way to try and portray a ‘Pure Indian Art’ was an intoxicating feeling! So how could I still achieve some form of output in the short amount of time and still stick with my line of inquiry? It took me quite some time, and after countless hours of consulting, researching and failing at coming up with a proper streamline, I finally hit the jackpot! Instead of focusing on India as a whole, it would be more practical for me to focus on one particular part of India, and the best place to start for me was Bengal. Since I was born here, I could relate and adjust to the new knowledge I was about to acquire, I also had quite a few familiar guides to help me along with the language and culture barrier in case I hit a wall. This initial streamline felt like a move towards the right path, but as expected, the concept of covering all art styles from Bengal was still way too vast to cover in the given period of time.
So, I went back to the drawing boards and mind maps and consultations, and yet again, another solution emerged! The concept now became a study and reflection of a Bengali Artist/ Designer. Look at their works, identify the Western and Eastern influences and try to dissect from there. The obvious choice for me was Satyajit Ray and therefore my inquiry for the first part of this project became: What lenses and methods could we explore to understand and re-create Bengali Regional Art in a Futuristic Vision? An exploration and deconstruction of the works of Satyajit Ray.
Methodology and Output The concept was set, the second obstacle was to find a successful form of output through which I could record my research is a successful manner which would let my work be clear and understandable to external viewers and well as for myself for future reflections. The initial direction was to write up a research paper. I was not solving a ‘Design’ problem, which meant that I wasn’t aiming to create any prototype product or find solutions to a pre-existing design problem. The idea of research paper as a form of output was the first thing that I thought of, how else was I going to articulate my discoveries and research work. However, the process completely changed when I started planning the speculation portion of my project. After consulting with different professors, I realized that the medium of a research paper only worked successfully if we are documenting issues such as reflection, comparison and resolving issues through references of art/ artists who have already created something to compare with. The speculatory nature and the fictional aspect of unlearning Western Art Movements, really made no sense for the output to be a research paper. After reflecting on the nature of work, I realized the only way to move forwards with this inquiry is through the process of Deconstruction. The concept therefore became:
Pick an art work.
Deconstruct the art work.
Identify Western Art elements utilized in the work.
Re-create the art work, omitting the parts containing Western Art Influences.
Reflect on what the art work looks like.
And finally, try and create an art work with the same concept but through Bengal Regional Art style.
This process would therefore work as an exercise to identify and separate Bengal Art and Western Art. This would help me explore if regional art can be taken to the future without Western influences or due to the immense integration of the two styles, it has become impossible to portray ‘Pure Indian Art’ in the future. And if the process becomes an exercise, the format of a diary or journal becomes a very handy form of medium to record the discoveries and experiments. Therefore, the ideation of this book! It’s not really academic or formal, but this prototype of a book will be a perfect way to note, reflect, deconstruct and experiment on design to explore different artists of different regions of India through this particular line of inquiry.
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray: The Designer Satyajit Ray was born on 2nd May 1921. From a young age, Ray emersed himself in drawing and painting. As he got older, he kept himself busy by reading international design magazines and getting inspired by the works of the Western World. Ray being the child of prolific Bengali writer Sukumar Ray was in no way unfamiliar with the world of International Art as his father's collection and subscription of Western Art magazines were a constant source of information that he received growing up. Although Sukumar Ray's early passing did leave a void in Satyajit Ray's life, his passion for art was supported by his mother who advised him to join Vishwa-Bharti College of Fine Arts in Shantiniketan founded by Rabindranath Tagore. (Audiogyan, 2020) During his studies in Shantiniketan, Ray came to contact with artists such as Nandalal Bose and Binode Bihari Mukherjee, who introduced him to elements such as Bengali Folk Art and Calligraphy techniques that Mukherjee had acquired from his studies in China and Japan. With Ray's gift of illustrations, he started utilizing the skills of calligraphy in his works to create regional typography. Ray however did not finish his four-year course in Shantiniketan instead opting to go and work with DJ Keymer, an advertising agency in Calcutta as a junior visualizer. He would then join a publishing house by the name of Signet Press around 1940. Here he started utilizing his illustration and typography skills to create book covers for some of India’s most celebrated books of the time. (Audiogyan, 2020) As Ray slowly moved into the film industry to explore filmmaking, he was already infused with the previous skills of writing, drawing, and layout from his previous studies and experiences. It was during this particular time, that Ray started creating his posters for promoting the movies he made. As he got to explore the world of films, he started to get the opportunity to visit different countries from all around the world, and through his journeys and with the source of his Western Magazines he started to observe
and infuse Western Art movements into his works. His typography and design formats started taking a life of its own. The words on his book covers and posters were not static, they formed into objects and these objects portrayed hidden meanings of the films/stories that he wrote and filmed. The visualization of Bengali text was pushed beyond its boundaries in a matter of a very short period. The layout of every poster for his films were done in a very striking manner, inducing elements such as photography, illustration and customized hand drawn typography created a brand-new way to design and promote commercial art. (Audiogyan, 2020) It is therefore through this medium of posters, I wish to conduct this deconstruction exercise, as this will provide me the opportunity to reflect on multiple aspects of design elements that Ray used.
Deconstruction Ganashatru Poster (1990)
Ganashatru Poster. Satyajit Ray. 1990
Deconstruction The poster includes a black and white image of a man’s face. Ten hands pointing at the man’s face. Alternating colors of blue and red is used on the hands. White background. Large black text spelling the title of the movie. Plain black text, no added effects. All letters in small (no caps). Smaller texts on the bottom of the title. Black, red and blue colors are used to represent the smaller texts. Satyajit Ray created this poster around 1989-1900 to promote his film Ganashatru. It is the international variant of the poster, created to garner the attention of non-bengali speaking audiences. The gaze of the viewers is directly attracted to the only face in the poster. The man’s shocked and slightly confused and bewilderment expression suggests that the man is in some way surprised of the events folding around him. The concept of the viewer’s gaze is doubled down on the man’s face due to the impact of multiple wrists pointing directly at him. The use of color on the poster also accentuates the viewer’s gaze. The use of black and white photography creates a high amount of contrast on the man’s face to help portray his expression in a dynamic manner. Although his expression is subtle, the lack of color helps the viewer’s gaze to stick to the face and explore his expressions. The sudden pop of the red and blue color pointing towards the black and white image creates the notion of the man’s face as the focal point of concentration. The title Ganashatru is followed up with a smaller subtitle which suggests people’s enemy or public enemy. This is a vital information as we can now start to decipher the reason why the floating wrists are pointing at the man’s face. The use of red and blue color represents the public while the blatant suggestion of the pointing to the man suggests that he is being
accused of being the public enemy. This also explains the reason behind the man’s confused and shocked expression. The poster has a very minimal approach to it. There isn’t a lot of things happening that can help the viewers decipher the rest of the movie’s plot. Since Minimalism is a form of Western Art Movement, I will try to subtract this aspect during my recreation of the poster. The poster also has influence of Dadaism and post-modern layout techniques similar to contemporary artists during that period of time, for example David Carson. The cut out of just the character’s face and floating wrists are very much a result of the techniques that were used in the Western methods of practice. Due to this poster being an International variant the title of this poster is written in English. However, there is no stylistic / artistic elements added to the typography. It’s very much a clear-cut rendition of a version of sans-serif style of type. Therefore, it is yet another rendition of a Western method of practice, particularly, Swiss Typography. The lack of capital letters and the even thickness and kerning between the letters can also suggest the concept of uniformity, simplicity and commonness, all of these factors can be stated as a comparison to the concept of depicting the term “public” or “people”. The use of red color is also used to indicate Satyajit Ray as the director for this movie, while the color blue has been used to indicate the producer / production house behind this movie. The use of photography (black and white) to represent the main character’s face is another indication of Western method to design and thus I’ll have to subtract this element from the re-created version. I am not going to subtract this element from the re-created version because I am against Western technology. I do believe that in order to represent the futuristic version of any form of art, technology is a huge factor, but in this particular case, I am trying to find elements unique to Bengal Art and unfortunately photography does not fall under that category.
Re-created poster with Bengal Art Influences
This particular poster was heavily influenced by Western Art Movements, and due the minimalistic nature of the poster, there are no elements left which can be identified as Bengal Art. Also, due to the nature of the poster, the title card also features a very Western format of typography. Due to all these factors, I feel that the end result is that there are no Bengal Art elements present in this poster, thus it is blank.
Re-created poster: Speculative Design
Concept The concept behind this re-design was my desire to portray Bengali Art as purely as I could. Because I conducted my design process digitally, I decided to try and achieve the aesthetic and style of Pattachitra to the design. I tried to keep my subject matter similar to Ray’s as I wanted to see how far I can push the regional style to create a juxtaposition of something new while staying true to the purity of the Pattachitra style. The use of patterns and repetitions around the illustrated man’s face is another aspect that attributes to the aesthetic of Pattachitra. I also tried to use as much primary color as possible to stay true to the natural coloring process of the regional style. I also took influence from the protest art from the Pre- Independence era to show the rage and protest of the public. This type of design is not “traditional” but it is intrinsically tied to the history of Bengal. The use of red depicts the anger towards the public enemy. I did take some liberties for redesigning the title card for the poster. However, this design is very similar to the original regional design Satyajit Ray created for Bengali audiences. Unfortunately, there are no posters of the regional design available and I only found out about this design through screenshots of the movie itself. It is actually through Ray’s design of bengali typography I feel my speculative aspect of this poster starts to grow. The concept of illustrating text and objects to create double meanings is a brilliant way to take Bengali design to the future. The hidden arrow in the title card reiterates the concept of “enemy”, I further explored forms through the overall design layout. The top and bottom parts of the poster design form the shape of a flower, where in the center lies the main character’s illustration, surrounded by red wrists pointing to the man. The concept of an ordinary flower becoming poisonous to the surrounding was something I thought could work really well with the conjunction of the concept of “Public Enemy”.
Finally, as a reflection to this iteration, I do feel that I was able to highlight ways in which we can try and push Bengal Traditional Art, but at the same time, Pattachitra illustrations are meant to be really simple and static. The energy of photography lacks in my recreated piece. Due to the constraints of this particular style of illustration, I was not able to show the man’s subtle yet expressive emotions. The juxtaposition of colors was also not as stark as the original due to the re-created version being so brightly depicted. However, again I feel like this was a pretty successful exercise as it allowed me to understand the Bengal Art in an in-depth manner.
Deconstruction Kanchenjungha (1962)
Kanchenjungha Poster. Satyajit Ray. 1962
Deconstruction The poster includes thirteen portraits. Six men, six women and one kid. Six portraits have blue monochrome colour scheme while six have an orange monochromatic scheme. The background of this poster is white. The title card is done in Red. A small illustration lies at the bottom left corner of the poster, depicting mountain range in blue colour. Black and blue is used to depict the smaller typography present in the poster. None of the portraits depicted in the poster have similar expressions. They are all unique and all of them are looking at different directions. This particular poster was created by Satyajit Ray in 1962 to promote his film Kanchenjungha. This particular iteration of the poster was aimed towards the regional (Bengali) audience, therefore only bengali text has been used. The variety of expressions present in the poster makes the viewers gaze constantly move around. Majority of the characters seems to be looking above while two particular portraits looks directly at the viewer. The grid structure also helps the viewer’s eyes to navigate through each of the characters in an orderly manner. The concept of representing portraits to depict a movie named Kanchenjungha is also interesting. As the name suggests, it is talking about a mountain range, so what implications are represented through just portraits? This can indicate that perhaps Kanchenjungha is just the backdrop and the plot of this movie revolves around the characters portrayed in the poster. The colour scheme also factors in towards how the viewer’s eyes are attracted to the poster. The interplay of the warm and cool colours keeps the focus of the viewer constant, it does not become monotonous. The use of colour is also used to establish genders in this poster. The men are represented through Blue and Women through Orange. The striking Red colour used for the title card
helps the typography to stand out, depicting the title as an important factor. Black and blue is used to portray smaller and formal aspects of the poster, such as the director’s name and production house. The title card is designed in a very calligraphic manner. There are no hidden images or meaning behind the typography but the nature of the text represents similar techniques used in Alpona, which is a Bengali regional design pattern used to decorate houses during celebratory and welcoming scenarios. The layout of the portraits represents two very identifiable Western concepts. The first being the structure of the Grid, which was considered a minimalist way of layout designed in the Bauhaus movement, and second the use of Gestalt’s Theory of Similarity, Symmetry and Continuity. Considering the fact that Gestalt’s Law can be applied in almost anything that we see, in this particular case, the design choices were made to visually create the illusion of grouping and order. I will therefore subtract the portrait elements from the re-created versions.
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Re-created poster with Bengal Art Influences
Due to Western Art movements factoring in with the layout and depictions of the portraits, I decided to completely omit that part of the poster. So, what I am left with is the Bengali styled typography for the poster and a miniature illustration depicting the Kanchenjungha mountain range. I chose the illustration because it does not directly take any influence from the Western methods. Although the illustration does seem like a minimalistic rendition, I cannot prove that this was a direct influence of minimalism.
Re-created poster: Speculative Design
Concept The concept behind this re-design was similar to the previous exercise. I had already separated elements which I found to be Western Art influenced. The way the typography of the title card was presented really showcased the Alpona art style of Bengal, and I wanted to highlight this aspect in my re-design. The concept of an Alpona design is to in a way, dress up a place in order to make the place more attractive and welcoming to the guests. In this particular scenario, since the movie talks about Kanchenjungha and characters visiting the spot, the concept of Alpona fitted perfectly for me. The design therefore acts as a welcoming element that soothes the viewer’s gaze as they visually start climbing the mountain itself. Being able to use the original style of the typography really made the Alpona design come together as a coherent unit. The secondary part of my re-design was to try and incorporate Pattachitra once again to depict the characters in the movie. What I understood through the poster is that the movie’s plot is based around the thirteen characters, and therefore it becomes important to showcase this aspect within the poster. The portraits are illustrated through line drawings, as I wanted them to be as clean and crisp as possible. The amazing thing about Pattachitra is that it allows the artist to explore shapes in a way that allows a form of storytelling medium. I utilized this aspect to highlight the backdrop theme of the mountain Kanchenjungha. Each layer of the mountain houses characters that forms the hierarchy of the story. Added designs such as snowflakes helped me create not only the cold atmosphere in the selected area but also helped me to add Pattachitra aesthetics of small repetitive designs around the whole artwork. I have used a very simple color scheme to represent this poster. The color blue denotes a variety of expressions that I feel helps the poster to shine. The coolness of the color helps
the viewer experience the weather that is present in the movie. The concept of calmness as melancholy is also depicted through the Blue color. The use of White acts as the pop of brightness. The backdrop needs the brightness of White to contrast the coolness of blue. The whites in the character illustrations also helps to highlight and showcase the importance of their role in the film. The White in the design below and the Typography mimics the attributes of the Alpona, which is typically white in color to highlight the darker colored floors. Again, after carrying out this exercise and reflecting on the re-design I feel that the Bengal Art elements works better with this particular poster. The clean nature of the Pattachitra and Alpona styles merges quite successfully. The two-tone color also helps the poster give a unique feel to it. Again, due to the Pattachitra style if illustration, I could not achieve showing off the variety of expressions the characters were portraying in the original poster. The use of warm and cool colors for the portraits in the original image also led the viewer’s gaze to constantly move around the whole poster and the lack of color on the re-created version has a chance of becoming monotonous after a stage. However, if we are trying to eliminate Western Art influences, I feel that through this redesign I was able to achieve a fair amount of success.
Reflective Thoughts One of the main questions we needed to address is who are we conducting this research for? Who is our target audience and will our research be of any help or use to them? I had mentioned before, that there are two categories of research from my perspective. Research based on Design, which aims to find problems or gaps in a design and aims to address or rectify this problem scenario through prototypes. Then there is research based on Art, which aims to address issues that the user finds personal dilemma in. My inquiry and research fall in the latter, and so, I started off working on this project from a very personal point of view. During the early stages of the research process, I blew this question off stating that whatever discoveries I make through my research will definitely come in handy to any future artists or designers in some way or the other. What I didn’t realize is how much of that thought process might actually come true. I genuinely feel that this form of research and exercise to find, eliminate and speculate Indian design is quite a unique process. Yes, the process of deconstruction has become a norm in the realm of the academic world, but as an Indian, who is not fully aware of India’s heritage of regional art and its importance as we move into the future, I truly feel that reflecting on this exercise will be an enjoyable way to immerse yourself to Indian Art. This process can be used by future designers and artists to create design prototypes which can address how we can further certain Indian Regional Art Style into the future. The notion of creating a model for a Design Tool and Module can work really well in conjunction with my inquiry and research. With the constant need for research in both Indian and Western Art Styles, the designers and artists will start understanding ways through which we can both integrate and separate elements more successfully. I have barely been able to make a scratch on the surface of my inquiry. I have neither been able to
address the Indian aspect or the Bengal aspect as a whole. But I do believe that reflecting on the works of Indian designers and artists from the different regions of India will still allow me to engage with the regional art of India in a unique manner. I believe that this process of research carries a lot of potential and I wish to continue my explorations, deconstructions and speculations through the works of other Indian artists in the coming future. This process therefore has the potential to not just become part of the research assignment, but a road to my final Capstone project!
Bibliography Audiogyan. 2020. "Satyajit Ray The Graphic Designer". Podcast. Audiogyan. https://audiogyan.com/2020/08/19/pinaki-de/. Balaram, S. 2011. Thinking Design. New Delhi India: SAGE Publications. Bloom, Harold, Paul De Man, Jacques Derrida, Geoffrey Hartman, and J. Hillis Miller. 1979. Deconstruction & Criticism. New York: Continuum. Brooker, Peter, Andrzej Gąsiorek, Deborah Longworth, and Andrew Thacker. n.d. The Oxford Handbook Of Modernisms. Dunne, Anthony, and Fiona Raby. 2013. Speculative Everything. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Malhotra, Rajiv. n.d. Being Different. Smock, William. n.d. The Bauhaus Ideal, Then & Now. Sundar, Sarita. 2016. Indians Don't Like White Space. Ebook. Bangalore: Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. http://typoday.in/2016/spk_papers/Sarita_Sundar_TypographyDay-2016.pdf.
Image URLs Satyajit Ray Portrait https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/trdss8/article26973579.ece/alternate s/FREE_435/28THRDSATYAJIT Ganashatru Poster https://www.filmcompanion.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ganashatru.jpg Kanchenjungha Poster https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/1/2/2/9/5/8/122958-kanchenjungha-0-230-0-34 5-crop.jpg?k=27e85a65ed
Work In Progress
Brainstorming and Experiments with Design Tools
Mind mapping
Facial structure and floral pattern inspired through Pattachitra art
Use of bright flat colors is another inspiration
Use of the mountain pattern and Alpona designs were inspired through these traditional techniques