National Institute of Fashion Technology (Master of Design)
SYNOPSIS Interactive Installation Design based on Navarasa
Proposed to be submitted in Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF DESIGN of the National Institute of Fashion Technology Mumbai
By Kanishka Aggarwal MASTERS OF DESIGN, SEMESTER- II (2016- 2018)
Faculty Guide: Mr. Ajit Khare
Interactive Installation Design based of Navarasa
Abstract The theory of navarasa is about the taste or savor, and, as used to denote the essence of poetry, it signifies the peculiar experience that poetry affords us. This paper explores how the theory rasa would affect on and through a space. The traditional theory of emotions applied in an installation design testing what type of space evokes what kind of emotion in the viewer’s mind. The research to be conducted would be qualitative research based on primary and secondary data. Phenomenological method would be used to collect data in which interviews would be taken of the participants. The interviews would be taken as both, phonetic as well as in person.
1.0 Introduction In the Indian tradition, aesthetic experience is explained in terms of the concept of Rasa. Rasa can be explained as the aesthetic relish of the emotional tone in the suitably cultivated audience member. Bharata compiled the meaning of the multifaceted word Rasa into one sentence. “Rasa literally means taste or savor, and, as used to denote the essence of poetry, it signifies the peculiar experience that poetry affords us. Thus, for instance, we know what is sound directly by hearing it; indirectly or descriptively in terms of vibrations in the sounding body and air which we may know directly. Rasa itself is not an emotion. It could be preceded to acquire a descriptive knowledge about it by studying its natural correlates. Rasa is realized when an emotion is awakened in the mind in such a manner that it has none of its usual cognitive tendencies and is experienced in an impersonal, contemplative mood. An emotion in this peculiar manner is caused by representations in art of those objects which excite it in nature, such as natural situations, persons of known characters, their actions and physical expressions of emotions; e.g. trembling, smiling, scowling, etc. Emotions and disinterestedly contemplated is widely believed. Using this concept an installation would be designed.�[1] Installation Design Installation design/art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that often are sitespecific and designed to transform the perception of a space.
1.1 Problem Statement How a space turned into an aesthetic territory affects a human mind and evokes various rasas in them? 2
Thampi, G. B. (1965). "Rasa" as Aesthetic Experience. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 24(1), 75. doi:10.2307/428249
1.2 Objective To know the type of emotion that evokes when one interacts with different kinds of spaces.
1.3 Review of Literature As of now, there has been no study done in the past inculcating Rasa into installation design. Hence gives a broader door to work in this area Emotions Scherer, K. R. (2005). What are emotions? And how can they be measured? Social Science Information, 44(4), 695-729. Doi: 10.1177/0539018405058216 states that “What is an emotion?” when he really meant “feeling”, a misnomer that started a debate which is still ongoing, more than a century later. This contribution attempts to sensitize researchers in the social and behavioral sciences to the importance of definitional issues and their consequences for distinguishing related but fundamentally different affective processes, states, and traits.
Jin, X., & Wang, Z. (2005). An Emotion Space Model for Recognition of Emotions in Spoken Chinese. Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 397-402. Doi: 10.1007/11573548_51 states that according to Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum’s theory and subsequent psychological research, the emotion computing can be conceptualized as three major dimensions of connotative meaning: valence, arousal and power. The valence dimension refers to how positive or negative the emotion is. The arousal dimension refers to how excited or apathetic the emotion is. And the power dimension refers to the degree of power or sense of control over the emotion.
Desmet, P. M., Porcelijn, R., & Dijk, M. B. (2007). Emotional Design; Application of a Research-Based Design Approach. Knowledge, Technology & Policy, 20(3), 141-155. Doi: 10.1007/s12130-007-9018-4 states that products can evoke many different kinds of emotions. We found that by measuring emotional responses, I was possible to design products that target specific types of emotions. Most contemporary emotion theorists view emotions as coherent, organized, and functional systems. It conceptualizes wow as an emotional experience that combines the emotions fascination, desire, and pleasant surprise. These three emotions are elicited by particular appraisals that can be
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combined to the following ‘wow-appraisal’: the product is appraised as unexpected, unfamiliar promising, and fit for possession.
Space Porter, N. (2010). Experiencing contemporary nature: virtual and physical designed landscapes of the Blue Mountains, Australia. Technoetic Arts, 8(2), 149-158. doi:10.1386/tear.8.2.149 States that emotions play an important part of our daily life, affecting our perception of the world around us. Emotion may be seen as a physiological response to stimuli, which is both mental and physical. Emotion can be interpreted in a variety of ways and relate to a variety of contexts. Within this paper we focus upon our emotional response to urban space. There is a complex interplay between emotion, mood, place and space; and while we may feel happy and secure in one place, we might feel worried and unhappy in another. There are number of factors that impact our emotional responses to a space. In this paper, an objective way to measure people’s emotional reactions in places by monitoring their physiological signals that are related to emotion has been proposed. Different urban places influence the emotional experience of individuals. This is important because how people feel has a huge impact on how people behave. In relation to this, the use of physiological signals for location-based emotion recognition has been investigated. In urban scenarios, the deployment of wearable biosensors integrated with mobile phones can deliver geo-annotated data relating to emotional states that describe how different individuals perceive and experience space. As many factors can stimulate the emotional experiences of place such as noise level, illumination and population/building density, these factors can be geo-tagged. We can then analyze the physiological signal as a response that is affected by these factors. Consequently, we can identify common patterns arising from large groups of people and mapping the patterns of emotional variance on a place with its affective stimuli. As a result of this, we may be able to understand the way that an individual’s different emotional responses change over time. Moreover, we can visualize the spatiality of emotions on three different levels: Individual Emotion (the emotion of one individual in same place temporal), Accumulated Emotion (the emotion of one individual in many places spatial), and Collective Emotion (the emotion of group of individuals in many places). An understanding of the emotions of the city might enable us to enhance the overall quality of living. This research aims to model the way people feel and how they emotionally respond to urban space. In carrying out this research we are examine: how people feel in their surrounding environment, how their surroundings affect them? How can we use participatory sensing and mobile sensor technology in collecting data? And how the collected data might be analyzed and visualized in map-based fashion? But why urban spaces only? It should work for any space which could help in the future design of any space irrespective of its vicinity weather. That would help in creating virtual spaces that could measure as well as evoke emotions. 4
Jørgensen, U. A. (2012). Bodies and real-time interfaces: in video performance and interactive digital 3D installation art by VALIE EXPORT and Jette Gejl Kristensen. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 4(1), 18149. doi:10.3402/jac.v4i0.18149 States that the aesthetics of the interface can be said to be the moving virtual environment created by the encounter of body and machine. It has shown itself to be both a contact surface and the disappearance of the space of difference between humans and machine, as Munster would say.
Cranny-Francis, A. (2013). Touch: An Embodied, Social and Cultural Practice. Technology and Touch, 9-36. Doi: 10.1057/9781137268310_2 mentions that immersed in a pitch-black environment and experiencing the sensations of touch, and sound; all visitors to the Flatland pilot installation were dependent on a hand-held device and audio narrative to navigate their way through a performance journey. By swapping the usual visual cues for multi-sensory ones, the storyline is uniquely experienced through each participant’s body, says Janet van der Linden of the Open University. The joint aim was to test new ways of creating access and inclusion through collaboration in arts and technology. Haptic Lotus prototype which had formed part of a non-visual test theatre installation called ‘The Question’ in 2010. In this project it was explored how Haptics can form a new sensory means for audiences to engage with these spaces, navigating them, their historic or contemporary features and their art works. All of this is a play of empirical empathy which also creates experience on another level. There are no boundaries to experience something. Installation design would be one of the ways to empathize one own self with some unified experience created some other entity. Hence, concluding with the thought of this bigger umbrella, Experience Installation Design which gives much more scope for further research. Also, the gaps and breaks which have been talked about above create an opportunity for another design process. New media art of this kind point to the sensory motor interaction of body and environment and it opens the user’s eyes to new ways of perceiving and sensing his or her being in the world as an embodied being. It is more interesting how digital code relates to bodies and how this relation produces affect. It is the cumulative memory of skills, habits, and bodily attitudes. One should imagine that it is through the different layers of senses in the body that communication between the inner and the outer world and vice versa takes place.
Ban, H. (2012). The Exposed City: Mapping the Urban Invisibles. Emotion, Space and Society, 5(4), 281-282. doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2012.06.002 states that a pervasive experimental manipulation was carried out to analyze brain signals in order to label 5
outdoor places according to how users perceive them with a focus on relaxing and stressful mental states. Thus, in order to measure the affective feeling of people about places, it is necessarily to measure emotional responses in a more objective way, which could provide the affective feeling caused by the spatial surroundings in real-time.
Rasas Thampi, G. B. (1965). "Rasa" as Aesthetic Experience. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 24(1), 75. Doi: 10.2307/428249 mentions that what is rasa? Rasa is a trance where is emotions are felt when evoked through imitation, visual aesthetics or poem etc. ‘Rasa’ term means ‘juice’’ and the term which designates both these processes and also the objective embodiment of the first which causes the second. The journal talks about Rasa and its concurrent bhavas. In the Upanigadic age-the age of intellectual sophistication- the concrete grew into the abstract and rasa became the essence, the essence of every- thing, the essence of the universe itself. Bharata has employed the metaphor of seed -- tree -- fruit to synthesize all the elements in the poetic process. Thus the term rasa emphasizes continuity of the poetic art from the birth of the seed- experience in the poet through its objectification in the body of a poem to the consummation in the reader’s enjoyment. There are many kinds of emotions according to the author, nine basic emotions like anger, delight, sorrow etc are considered as basic rasas. Also, there are permanent emotions called, Sthayibhavas; the concurrent feelings called, Vyabhikarins; also the situation in which these two emotions evoke or the environmental emotions are called Vibhavas. When the person read, sees, or when the rasa is evoked, the Sanskrit words which describe this process are Carvana which means masticating and rasana which means tasting. These words refer to the reader's imaginative reconstruction of the meanings and the identity of the poem and to his active enjoyment of the emotions even while they reverberate in his heart. To objectify an experience the poet has to detach it from the subject, i.e., himself; and once he objectifies it through appropriate correlatives the experience becomes universal. This twin process of objectification and universalization is comprehended by the term sadharanikarana, transpersonalization. Santa is the great basic rasa (maharasa). All feelings in aesthetic experience merge out of the Santa and are in the end submerged in it. But in the state of Santa, the maharasa, the consciousness is devoid of such agitations caused by egoistic desires. Rasa there is a unique union of the two opposites, tension and tranquility. The content of a poem, which is man's social experience pregnant with contradictions, evokes reverberations of feelings in the reader's heart. But the feelings and emotions do not rise and subside haphazardly; their movements are strictly controlled and disciplined by the objective structure and texture, the form of the poem.
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Installation and Interaction Marsh, T., Wright, P., & Smith, S. (2001). Evaluation for the Design of Experience in Virtual Environments: Modeling Breakdown of Interaction and Illusion. Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 4(2), 225-238. Doi: 10.1089/109493101300117910 states about considering interface as the physical interaction of human body with technology. New and emerging media technologies have the potential to induce a variety of experiences in users. Experiences of place are constructed through three mediums – webcams, largeformat cinema and landscape architectural design -an inter-textual picture of contemporary landscape emerges that are simultaneously virtual, hybridized and ‘real’. It is apparent that numerous creative media have the capacity to determine how the landscape is seen and interacted with; in short, the ‘natural landscape’ is anything but natural. The media discussed here share some characteristics and conventions, but also have unique properties. To summarize, common characteristics include an emphasis on: • Interactivity and ‘experience’; • Condensing space and time; • Communicating narratives; • Rendering nature accessible and convenient; • Creating expectations; and • Allowing the mediated viewer/participant to feel they are ‘discovering’ nature for themselves. Differences include: • The technical capacities associated with each medium (i.e. virtual, prerecorded, 3D etc); • Levels of interactivity; and • Levels of physical effects (remote/simulated/actual).
Voto Daniel 2005 Multisensory interactive Installation mentions, “Multisensory Interactive Installation,” (MII) a musical interactive installation based on Kandinsky’s paintings, through which a user can become a painter and a composer simultaneously. The painting’s visual elements are synesthetically linked to musical elements: each color is linked to a specific instrument and chord while each shape is linked to a specific rhythm. Through “Multisensory Interactive Installation,”users can explore and manipulate visual elements, generating different musical outputs, constructing and deconstructing the art piece and/or creating a new work, and musical composition. The selection and 7
organization of given visual-acoustic elements, determines the different musical atmosphere created by each user. The methodology implemented in the system/installation, explores the correspondence between color and sound, visual and acustic elements, and is based on the neuroscientific research of synesthesia, an involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal association. MII implements a methodology based on the voluntary and rational activation of different sensory modalities to permit data acquisition. In the Kandinsky’s paintings of MII, each color is linked to a specific musical track; in total there are 8 musical tracks. The superposition of these tracks can create an orchestral composition. The user can also choose how to create an audio-visual composition: he/ she can use the synchronization or the succession of audio-visual elements and/or the repetition of the same element within the same composition. The choice of colors and order in which they are arranged permits the creation of unique musical compositions, allowing the user to be free to express his/her creativity. In “Multisensory Interactive Installation� the correspondence between visual and music elements is based on the expressionist theories of colors, and on the teosofic theories of relationships between color and feelings. In this project, the emphasis was divided into two courts. On one court are the synesthesia color, sound and rhythm. The system wants to integrate movement, speech and tactile perception following the cutting edge research in the technologic field. The verbal induction produces a gesture. The gesture produces a sound in an interactive VR environment; gesture can be perceived as a tactile experience by a remote user. The sound gained produces correspondent image. The result is a production of sharing music through multi sensory channels. We believe that modern technological age requires and allows new ways to approach art, music and composition. In the near future Audio-Visual Interfaces that are simple and functional can make Art and Music accessible to vastly more people and not only to the experts.
Opportunities have been found in these aspects when combined with spaces and installation design which creates further gaps for studies.
1.4 Research Design and Methodology The research to be conducted would be qualitative research based on primary and secondary data. Phenomenological method would be used to collect data. Also, expert interviews would be taken. The interviews would be taken as both, phonetic as well as in person.
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A questionnaire would be made with questions related to spaces- Physical, virtual and hybrid. It would be designed in such a way to study the perception people have about different spaces in terms of the type of emotion it evokes in them. There will be a nonverbal self-report questionnaire that will be using animated cartoon characters to represent emotions. Instead of relying on words, respondents can report their emotions with the use of these characters. During the study, respondents will be shown different spaces and will be instructed to use the characters to report their emotional response(s) evoked by the space shown. One respondent at a time would be allowed to interact with the space. 1.4.1 Phenomenological study “When you want to describe an event, activity, or phenomenon, the aptly named phenomenological study is an appropriate qualitative method. In a phenomenological study, you use a combination of methods, such as conducting interviews, reading documents, watching videos, or visiting places and events, to understand the meaning participants place on whatever’s being examined. You rely on the participants’ own perspectives to provide insight into their motivations.” [2] 1.4.2 Respondents There would be 25- 30 participants interacting with the space falling under age group of 20-30 years old. The respondents would be chosen using simple random sampling from the area of Kharghar.
1.5 Time and calendar ● In-depth study of secondary resources about Installation design, Rasa theory, space, emotional design - 2 weeks ● Development of the questionnaire based on online surveys and secondary data collected- 3 weeks ● Printing of Questionnaires- 1 week ● Finding and contacting participants and the experts in the field- 4 weeks ● Coding and analyzing the data- 1 week ● Final Outcome
1.6 Cost and Budget Local conveyance
Rs. 3000/-
Capital Purchases
Rs. 5000/-
Stationary and Printing Cost
Rs. 4000/-
Electricity
Rs. 2000/-
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Miscellaneous
Rs. 5000/-
1.7 Nature and Form of Results expected All comments made by any of the participants that referred to concerns will be recorded and will be analyzed in terms of what type space evokes what type of emotion. Codes/ Ranks would be given to the expected combination of space and emotion 2- https://measuringu.com/qual-methods/ which would be predetermined for the researcher to analyze. Then, the post survey results of the combinations would be compared to the expected predetermined combinations and hence, would be analyzed.
1.8 References ● Marsh, T., Wright, P., & Smith, S. (2001). Evaluation for the Design of Experience in Virtual Environments: Modeling Breakdown of Interaction and Illusion. Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 4(2), 225-238. doi:10.1089/109493101300117910
● Research Gate - Share and discover research. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2017, from https://www.bing.com/cr? IG=1516408EE81E4049A141692028482988&CID=26BE9DAC5AB96ADE02F0978C5B8 86B89&rd=1&h=HRvJWtSN7_v4Y-TGT9d43v4aXn4o9TT0Ru25az7A_Yg&v=1&r=https %3a%2f%2fwww.researchgate.net%2f&p=DevEx,5055.1
● Ho, D. K., Ma, J., & Lee, Y. (2011). Empathy @ design research: a phenomenological study on young people experiencing participatory design for social inclusion. Co Design, 7(2), 95-106. doi:10.1080/15710882.2011.609893
● ProQuest | Databases, EBooks and Technology for Research. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.bing.com/cr? IG=A063D78085B74225ACD3607C8DC9E648&CID=340EEEDBEB686D850CCCE4FBE A596C22&rd=1&h=iE3OUa4pxP98_mRwAChZlTov01meH5XCR9DwhClbZ0&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.proquest.com %2f&p=DevEx,5064.1 10
● EBSCOhost Online Research Databases | EBSCO. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2017, from https://www.bing.com/cr? IG=772634C75AC2488B9AD622E788759343&CID=0D8B27D98C166B4F0CD22DF98 D276AE4&rd=1&h=CANxMQuWC8g9trg1QluvX9BytiEx88noIMaJGqqm6W8&v=1&r =https%3a%2f%2fwww.ebscohost.com%2f&p=DevEx,5060.1
● Google Scholar. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2017, from http://www.bing.com/cr? IG=7A3847BCE2AC450EAA3645F1665D4AC6&CID=2083B6CFA6CC677213A5BCEF A7FD665B&rd=1&h=hLsSnfiHx-fLslGWwg--cpwWD64fYPnDJ7d5S5FVY0&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fscholar.google.com %2f&p=DevEx,5072.1
● Jørgensen, U. A. (2012). Bodies and real-time interfaces: in video performance and interactive digital 3D installation art by VALIE EXPORT and Jette Gejl Kristensen. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 4(1), 18149. doi:10.3402/jac.v4i0.18149
● Cranny-Francis, A. (2013). Touch: An Embodied, Social and Cultural Practice. Technology and Touch, 9-36. doi:10.1057/9781137268310_2 ● Porter, N. (2010). Experiencing contemporary nature: virtual and physical designed landscapes of the Blue Mountains, Australia. Technoetic Arts, 8(2), 149158. doi:10.1386/tear.8.2.149_1
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