mayajaal: the depths and breaths

the depths and breaths

mayajaal karthika sakthivel ma digital direction | royal college of art

Independent Research Project MA DIGITAL DIRECTION 2020 Project Guides :

dr. eleanor dare dr. carol macgillivray Copyrights 2019-2020 Student Document Publication (for private circulation only) All Rights Reserved Independent Research Project (MA Digital Direction) Royal College of Art, London No part of this document will be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, scanning, photography and video recording without written permission from the publishers.

Written, edited and designed by, Karthika Sakthivel Printed @ Kolorkode, Bangalore, India

अव्यक्ताद्व्यक्तय: सर्वा: प्रभवन्त्यहरागमे | रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसञ्ज्ञके ||18||

At the advent of Brahma’s day, all living beings emanate from the unmanifest source.

And at the fall of his night, all embodied beings again merge into their unmanifest source.

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 8, Verse 18.

in a breath The Vedic principle of Maya deems the world- a creation of play (lila), an illusion. Where unity appears as multiplicity; where subjectivity appears objective; where nothing is quite what it seems.

Lord Vishnu, lying in cosmic slumber within the causal ocean, inhales and exhales universes- like bubbles- into and out of existence. Drawing from this resounding image, mayajaal uses the breath, the source of creation, as an illustrative model for embodied interaction.

This Hindu creation story is used as a vessel to explore choice, control and agency within an interactive temporal experience that is non-binary and cyclical.

So take a deep breath into a bubble of mindfulness, myth and magic. In a world of multiple tabs, screens within screens and short attention spans – surrender, and suspend yourself, if only for a second.

a depiction by an unknown artist

special thanks to

dr. matt lewis

dr. eleanor dare

tutors

lena dobrowolska

dr. carol macgillivray

family matthew watkins gabrielle mcguinness

jack hardiker vivek menon

rujuta muley

giulia brancati

kalpana sakthivel

peers

alberto bonanni

michael ted knight

technicians

sophie perkins tom deacon

antoine hacheme john wild ricky ben tom

contents

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mayajaal a world of illusions

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finding magic in pages

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the breath as lila(play)

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bubble bubble toil and trouble the shell story listening

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a spectacle kinetic sculpture

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reflections breathe out

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mayajaal

a world of illusions

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Mayajaal: A World of Illusions

The Hall of Stars in the Palace of The Queen of the Night; scenic designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel

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Mayajaal: A World of Illusions

Usually when I undertake a project it is either because I’m drawn to the design brief or I’m interested in the site specified in it. When there is a real space to be in and draw from — inspiration is abundant and it radically alters the creative process. (edit: Why can’t the site I draw from be virtual? what would it be to create a “virtual site specific” project? How do we define the extent of a virtual space? Does it have boundaries?

Who are its neighbours? ) However, with this project I don’t know where to begin. I didn’t come to the RCA with any plans. I was going to take it one step at a time and see where it takes me; but the steps have gone by in a blink — and I’m left, blank. Over the past year I actively avoided engaging with or encouraging any thoughts and ideas for the Independent Research Project and now I must say I deeply regret it.

(What are my interests? /What is my practice?/ What stories do I have to tell? / Who am I? / Where am I? / Why am I here? ) An existential crisis later, I decide to go with my gut.

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Mayajaal: A World of Illusions

Virtual Realities + Alterities Symposium, Royal College of Art

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Mayajaal: A World of Illusions

I look back at the VR&A symposium and my initial thoughts and responses to some of the concerns that came up: The VR Symposium was an extremely stimulating event. After the panel discussion and the Q&As I was left wondering about some of the topics that came up. I didn’t find myself relating to the questions the topics arose. As some of my Asian counterparts brought up, there seems to be certain inherent understanding we possess in matters about the ‘virtual’ and the ‘real’ that perhaps keeps us from wondering about it or fearing it. However it did make me wonder why that’s so. Some of us with similar feelings engaged in a discussion afterwards and the word Maya came up and that cleared a whole lot up.

Maybe there really is something to unpack here.

According to Wikipedia: Maya, literally “illusion”or “magic”, connotes a “magic show, an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem”. Māyā is also a spiritual concept connoting “that which exists, but is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal”, and the “power or the principle that conceals the true character of spiritual reality”.

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Mayajaal: A World of Illusions

Author Joseph P.Kauffman (Is he a credible source you ask? Is a PHD necessary to be deemed credible? Some of the greatest Indian epics are believed to have been penned by my main man Ganesha over here) writes:

Lord Ganesha writing the Epics as Sage Vyasa dictates

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Mayajaal: A World of Illusions

“When we perceive the stars, the stars are the object of our perception — they exist within us. When we perceive the ocean, the ocean is also within us. The idea that things exist outside of our Consciousness is an illusion. Ancient wisdom traditions have known this for centuries, and even modern science has recognized that our sense organs merely receive information and project it within our own minds. Vision does not take place in the eye, but in an area located in the back of the brain. Everything that we perceive to be “out there” is being experienced “in here.”

“In Advaita Vedanta, and in many other ancient wisdom traditions, the world is said to be an illusion. This illusion is commonly referred to as maya, a Sanskrit name which refers to the apparent, or objective reality which is superimposed on the ultimate reality in order to generate the phenomena of what we call the material world. Maya is the magic by which we create duality — by which we create two worlds from one. This creation is an illusory creation — it is not real — it is an imaginary manifestation of the one Universal Consciousness, appearing as all of the various phenomena in objective reality.

Maya is God’s, or Consciousness’s, creative power of emptying or reflecting itself into all things and thus creating all things — the power of subjectivity to take on objective appearance.”

-Joseph P. Kauffman, The Answer Is YOU: A Guide to Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Freedom

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Mayajaal: A World of Illusions

To put it simply:

“Your entire life is a Virtual Reality, because you are seeing it only the way it happens in your mind” — Sadhguru

‘Illusion: Maya, Mind, Motion Picture’ is an interesting film

by Amber Bemak — touching upon this very idea.

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I then began my process by writing a loose logline to help navigate through this vast topic.

This project aims to trace the use of ‘magic’ in storytelling traditions with a focus on technology. It seeks to explore the shifting modalities of storytelling through the underlying Vedic principle of Maya that deems the world- a creation of play (lila), an illusion- where nothing is as it seems.

I then drafted a proposal which in all honesty is rather vague. Hopefully I will gain more clarity over the course of this project.

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mayajaal

-mayajaal (Tentative Title, 2019)

KARTHIKA SAKTHIVEL

This project aims to trace the use of ‘magic’ in storytelling traditions with a focus on technology.

It seeks to explore the shifting modalities of storytelling through the underlying Vedic principle of Maya that deems the world- a creation of play (lila), an illusion- where nothing is as it seems.

MA DD TERM 4 / 2019 PROJECT PROPOSAL

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“How far will I adhere to all this?� is the question.

Clearly I am in need of some magic myself.

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finding magic in pages

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Finding Magic : In Pages

I began my journey by reading some interesting books about Indian magic. I looked up more on the Vedic principle of ‘Maya’ and contemplated how it could inform our interactions with the virtual. I read about storytelling and creating moments of wonder.

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Finding Magic : In Pages

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Finding Magic : In Pages

One example being ‘Life of Pi’: “We believe what we see. So did Columbus.

What do you do when you’re in the dark?”

“At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far.”

-Yann Martel, Life of Pi To me both the book and film are a work of genius. It is so profound and so beautifully communicated.

“So you want another story?”

Uhh… no. We would like to know what really happened.”

Doesn’t the telling of something always become a story?”

Uhh… perhaps in English. In Japanese a story would have an element of invention in it. We don’t want any invention. We want the’straightfacts,’ as you say in English.”

Isn’t telling about something — using words, English or Japanese — already something of an invention? Isn’t just looking upon this world already something of an invention?”

-Yann Martel, Life of Pi

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Finding Magic : In Pages

I also found an interesting article on Nieman Storyboard titled ‘Storytelling is Magic’, that draws a parallel between storytelling and magic by going over the 7 principles of magic. I wonder if this could somehow translate in my work.

The book ‘Here is Real Magic’ by Nate Staniforth made me cry. When he said “We shrink our world down to the size of our certainties” it got me. He wrote about magic tricks as “tools to unleash the moment” — a vessel rather than an end in itself.

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Finding Magic : In Pages

It also helped to get out and see a remarkable show at the Wellcome Collection-Smoke and Mirrors :The Psychology of Magic

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Finding Magic : In Pages

At this exhibition a lot was said about the magicians creating an illusion of free will — how you are unconsciously manipulated into thinking you are the one making a conscious decision whilst picking a card. It got me thinking about choice, and how interactive narratives function, how it appears as though you have control, agency and choice when in fact most decision branches lead nowhere.

It is all very illusive indeed. Say, would using involuntary bodily functions as controllers be saying something?

“I’m here — this experience couldn’t work without me, I’m making it happen but I have no control over it” Or is this sending a strange mixed message?

What am I even trying to say?

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Finding Magic : In Pages

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Finding Magic : In Pages

Speaking of the body and interactive choice based narratives….

What if we could we write a ‘sensitive’ story?

A story set in gradients. One where choice is non binary. Not the usual — which cereal would you like to eat ?

What are story aids that could exist in gradients?

Sound, Time (Playback Speed), Colour, Size (Zoom, detail) Would it make sense to map these to the body?

How much agency and control do you truly have in these situations? How to draw a delicate balance between surrendering control and taking control. A combination of awareness and ignorance. Maya.

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Finding Magic : In Pages

This led me to thinking about the breath specifically.

“Breath occupies a unique status as both voluntary and involuntary, the only major function of the body that is managed unconsciously in a manner that can be overruled by conscious control�

[Kate Elswit (2019): A living cabinet of breath curiosities: somatics, biomedia, and the archive, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, DOI:10.1080/14794713.2019.163 3107]

I find this to be an extremely interesting model for interaction and creating embodied experiences.

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Finding Magic : In Pages

What sort of bio-feedback loop would this present? The way that you feel affects the way you perceive the world?

This might just be a Cybernetic Loop“The study of systems and processes that interact with themselves and produce themselves from themselves�, how the way that you feel affects the way you perceive the world.

Loop- de -doo!

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the breath as lila (play)

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

Exploring the breath as a source of all creation— for all but a moment.

In this Hindu creation story— It is said that Lord Vishnu lies suspended in the causal ocean- “When He exhales, the material elements and universes emanate from Him, and when He inhales, the universes are destroyed and merge back into His body.”

It is clear that I am drawn to Indian mythology, to the magical stories I’ve grown up with, and to the cosmic wonders they attempt to capture. I find this image extremely evocative. I wonder if I am attempting to, in a way, recreate this image?

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

a depiction by an unknown artist

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

In a sense this visual resonates with the multiverse theory. The imagery of which is strikingly similar.

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

Here is a line from the film ‘The Sun is also a Star’ (based on the novel of the same name written by Nicola Yoon): Natasha Kingsley: [voice over] The Theory of Multiverse was set forth originally by Hugh Everett in quantum mechanics. It posited that every version of our past and future histories exists, just in an alternate universe. This means that for every choice you make, an infinite number of universes exist where you made a different choice. In this way, we get to live multiple lives. I’m not quite sure which universe I’m living in now.

It is quite an interesting parallel to this creation story. It surely takes me back to ‘Samsara’ where we looked at multiple lives and multiple stories existing within a storyverse.

‘Samsara’ with Vivek Menon

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

‘Powers of Ten’ by Ray Eames

I am reminded of the technique used in the film ‘Powers of Ten’ by Ray Eames for IBM that demonstrates the miniscule yet magnanimous nature of existence. It uses technology to take the viewer across space exponentially, visually enlightening the viewer about the Matryoshka like character of the universe and it’s various facets.

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

The following is a scene from a film I admire greatly- Life of Pi

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

“Vishnu sleeps, floating on the shoreless cosmic ocean, and we are the stuff of his dreams”

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

I was deeply interested in this during my undergrad at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India. And I find myself thinking about it again. There is something about this story- this moment, that keeps drawing me to it. I find myself constantly circling back to it. It’s inexplicable.

And then there’s the story of Makandeya from Peter Brook’s Mahabharat , which when listened to with your eyes closed is an experience in itself.

Painted by Pieter Weltevrede

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

Lord Vishnu is also synonymous with Time.

American astronomer and cosmologist Carl Sagan famously said-

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” — Carl Sagan

Drawing Breath - Jayne Wilton Breath and light on coloured sensitised paper.

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

I read a paper by Kate Elswit, these were some of the key portions that stood out to me. [‌] breath occupies a unique status as both voluntary and involuntary, the only major function of the body that is managed unconsciously in a manner that can be overruled by conscious control (Eccleston 2016 , 79; see also Calais-Germain 2006 ).

A key aspect of such external breath is agency: as much as breath is a quality that we move, it also has a force of its own, and can move us.

These combine in a cyclical relationship between the de-familiarization of breath, the reincorporation of that breath object into bodily experience, and then the shifting of that outside-in breath back out again.

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

[…] technologies of the quantified self tend to treat the body as an object to be disciplined according to narrow parameters, rather than expanding corporeal registers of feeling, when in fact there needs to be more emphasis on the complexity of transitions ‘ between feelings and numbers’ (Crawford, Karppi, and Lingel 2015 , 489; Schüll 2016 ). […] somatic practices offer interdisciplinary frameworks to contribute to technological understandings of embodiment and experience, to ultimately shape design, creativity, and use (Schiphorst 2009 ; see also Kozel 2007 ; Bleeker 2010 ).

[Kate Elswit (2019): A living cabinet of breath curiosities: somatics, biomedia, and the archive, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, DOI:10 .1080/14794713.2019.1633107]

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

The followings works based on the breath were truly inspiring.

The above bio-feedback installation ‘Pulse and Bloom’ was made by Shilo Shiv Sulemaan for Burning Man, a senior of mine at my previous institute. I’ve always been very inspired by her work.

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

Breath of Light - Preciosa Lighting A magical wave of light

BREATH ing HEART - Johanna Keimeyer A walk in heart installation.

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

Deep Meditative VR Game controlled by breathing

Strata - The Mill Biometric VR

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

Photographer Joey Terrill adopts a lovely aesthetic by capturing the beauty of water droplets.

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

Naturally I have taken up physical computing to aid this, experimenting with the breath and its temporality to create moments of interaction that could make an experience ‘sensitive’.

I even looked up some pricey sensors that detect breathing and looked at some experiments people had conducted using microphones.

Microphone: I had to start with a basic test with a microphone and processing.

However it is obvious that a microphone would pick up almost everything.

Polygraph: This is rather odd- it is hard to tell what this even measures. Nervousness?

Thermistor : With the thermistor the sensor needed to be uncomfortably close to your nostril. I highly doubt anyone wants their nose in this business.

Temperature and Humidity Sensor: This one worked rather well but needed me to blow into it more or less. Since it was working on the basis of temperature there were too many variables to consider, and location specific calibration.

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

Building a Polygraph

Using a thermistor to measure breath

Measuring Breath using a temperature and humidity sensor 51

The Breath: As Lila (Play)

After having a conversation with Antoine, I became aware of the sensor that I needed. It was the Rev.C Wind Sensor. It was perfect! So sensitive it could sense my breath from a decent distance with little to no interference.

Rev.C Wind Sensor

So what does the breath control? In the case of Lord Vishnu, who is synonymous with time, he controls the lifespan of universes through his breath. How can we use the breath to control time?

Could you hold your breath to suspend in a moment? Gasp to pause? Can your breath act as a control panel?

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

I managed to get the breath data to control the playback speed of a video using Processing. The faster you breathe, the faster the video plays, if you hold your breath, the video comes to a standstill!

Arduino and Processing

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

It feels like Prāṇāyāma in Yoga — a practice of breath control Ramamurti Mishra defines as the expansion of individual energy into cosmic energy. It could also mean the suspension of breath.

By Ian Alexander — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia. org/w/index.php?curid=81051209

What else could I control with the breath?

The generation of virtual objects?Lights?

Movement? Sound? Projections?

It made me think of breathing and buoyancy. Could we use the breath to immerse ourselves and resurface?

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The Breath: As Lila (Play)

“We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality.”

— Janet Murray (Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology) Immersion is the mental representation of a virtual space, a transportation to an altered mental state. The moment you submerge yourself into a body of water, everything that you know to be real on terrestrial ground alters. Your hearing deafens, your weight lightens, your sight blurs. Even the sunlight bends and refracts. Whether you are immersed in a physical pool of water or learning a new language, the reality you previously experienced gives way to a new sensory experience.

— Stephanie Riggs in The End of Storytelling: The Future of Narrative in the Storyplex.

This excerpt set the scene for my experience. I have always had a fascination for water. I’ve heard water doesn’t render in VR. Deception and trickery is necessary.

I found some other folks trying to control virtual objects using the breath on unity.

And now I’m running out of breath.

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bubble bubble toil and trouble

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Bubble Bubble : Toil and Trouble

I’ve been living in a bubble, for a while now — one surrounded by several other bubbles.

Eventually, what started out as a VR project in my head took a turn and I began exploring materiality and interactivity outside of the headset. Expanding the bubble so to speak.

But all the while I couldn’t help but think “Oh god this is going to look like a birthday party” or that “Gosh, this is going to literally be leftover Christmas decorations in February”. I wasn’t convinced.

“How is this project relevant to the course?”/ “How is this digital?”/ “How is this storytelling?”/ “How is the future?”

Hopefully in time, I will be able to better answer some of these questions for myself.

I started seeing bubbles everywhere.

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Bubble Bubble : Toil and Trouble

I couldn’t even irresponsibly bingewatch content during ‘workhours’ on weekdays without being reminded of them.

A still from ‘Raising Dion’

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Bubble Bubble : Toil and Trouble

Free Write — in an attempt to salvage this.

It comes and goes- in waves. I find myself going back to it- in circles. I can grasp it but then it slips away. I believe in it — then I don’t. It’s almost as if it’s teasing me. ‘Aha!’ I say, but I don’t know what it is the next day. I breathe in and out- in hopes of getting closer to it. What is it that I’m trying to say? What about this story connects me to it- so viscerally? How do you communicate a feeling so profound?

How do you communicate something that is so fleeting? As I write this, I try to focus on my breathing. I notice I’m no longer writing in a straight line. Someone told me this morning that our body is designed to curve and bend. Am I in a closed loop? Everything makes sense and then it doesn’t. I find it hard to pay attention anymore. But when I focus on my breath it makes everything clearer. The fuzz in my brain floats away. Will writing help me out of this rut? Is a rut a bad thing? It comes and goes. One minute it’s here and then it isn’t. I feel like I can’t control it but I can.

Every sentence- in conjunction. This and That. A duality so strong. How do I tell my story? Who is it for? Creators or creations?

Real but not real- a reflection- of self- but impermanent. Everywhere and nowhere.

Something and nothing. Where does this take me? Will it make sense to anyone?

This is a free write. But how free am I? I am restricted by this page. I am framed. A small fragment of the whole makes it onto these pages. Storytelling and Symbolism.

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Bubble Bubble : Toil and Trouble

Like Cinderella I was trying to clean this mess.

Cinderella in Bubbles

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Bubble Bubble : Toil and Trouble

It suddenly got me thinking about ‘THE CHAIR’. If there is anything I have learnt over the past year at the RCA, it is that the chair can be the most crucial part of your experience. How people feel in their bodies, will drastically affect the way the experience.

How wonderful would these chairs be? Too bad they cost nearly 700 pounds!

How typical. I hit a snag and I try to online shop my way through it.

Dream Chairs

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Bubble Bubble : Toil and Trouble

(edit: Oh my God! I managed to win a bidding war on eBay and got myself an Eero Aarnio style pod chair! However I must admit that I’ve spent weeks scraping out dog hair and deodorising it. My poor desk buddies. Guess what finally worked though? Tea Bags! Unbelievably well, you can take my word for it!)

My Chair!

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Bubble Bubble : Toil and Trouble

And then there are these people, who have been creating interesting magical experiences with bubbles and smoke.

Tom Noddy

(Should I start smoking just for this project? lol. So much for “breathing mindfully”) Well I’d rather not set off fire alarms unecessarily so I’m going to let working with mist and smoke out the window- clear the air.

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Bubble Bubble : Toil and Trouble

My mind however is still foggy. It’s been a constant oscillation between loving my ideas to hating them. Everything comes and goes in waves. Staying married to any one thing has been a daily battle. If only the smoke would settle.

However instead of fighting my process like I usually do, I have decided to go along with it and see where that takes me.

Inhale and Exhale.

I’ve never been more conscious of my breath.

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the shell storylistening

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The Shell: Storylistening

A couple of high tides and low tides later, I got the sensor in place. I then started wondering how to creatively conceal it within what could possibly be a story object.

I needed it to be of symbolic significance but also accessible and identifiable by those who aren’t already aware of the mythology of it all.

Along the way, some waves became sound waves. Thinking about sound and about the ocean made me think of the conch Lord Vishnu holds in his hand. Blowing into the conch shell creates what is considered

by Hindus and Buddhists to be — the primordial sound of creation — ‘Om’. It also represents contraction and expansion, just like the breath and awareness itself.

It was a perfect vessel for me.

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The Shell: Storylistening

Lord Krishna (an Avatar of Lord Vishnu) blowing into the sacred conch.

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The Shell: Storylistening

Where do I find one in London I wonder? I decided that if I couldn’t get my hands on one I would 3D print my own conch shell, that way I could get one in the size I want , with the necessary openings for the wires.

However I was in luck and I got this beaut online from a local Indian seller. It was the perfect size to conceal the sensor and it had the perfect opening to draw the wires through.

Thank God! Clearly, my 3D model wasn’t going to cut it.

My sub par attempt at modelling a shell in Autodesk Maya

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The Shell: Storylistening

Wind Sensor within Conch Shell

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The Shell: Storylistening

This was also a perfect opportunity to exploit the newly set up spatial audio rig at uni.

Spatial Audio

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The Shell: Storylistening

Translating the breath data into midi signals

I set up Hairless MIDI as a serial bridge between the Arduino board and Ableton. I was able to set this up with Reaper as well.

The idea was to have the sound to lap in time with the breath.

On a side note, while I was looking this up, I found some fascinating controllers and interfaces.

I loved how they reincorporated breath into sound. Apparently they don’t make them anymore :-(

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The Shell: Storylistening

It is also an interesting moment to note the findings of the following scientific research. “These findings that auditory perception also goes through peaks and troughs supports the theory that perception is not passive but in fact our understanding of the world goes through cycles. We have suspected for some time that the senses are not constant but are processed via cyclical, or rhythmic functions; these findings lend new weight to that theory.

These findings are important as humans make decisions at the rate of about onesixth of a second, which is in line with these auditory oscillations�, said Professor Alais from the University of Sydney.

The brain is believed to sample information in this cyclic fashion, reflecting the action of attention which appears to sample neural activity in rapid bursts.

[Hao Tam Ho, Johahn Leung, David C. Burr, David Alais, Maria Concetta Morrone. Auditory Sensitivity and Decision Criteria Oscillate at Different Frequencies Separately for the Two Ears.

Current Biology, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j. cub.2017.10.017]

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The Shell: Storylistening

That explains a lot. It’s all about rhythm and tuning in- paying attention and listening.

The sounds of the waves, the sounds of the breath, the sound of Om.

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a spectacle kinetic sculpture

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

Plotting Eadweard Muybridge

By placing multiple convex mirrors as points along a line, I noticed how I could see several different perspectives right from where I was seated. (Like placing multiple cameras along a line to capture movement) I had fragmented the whole into parts. It was like sitting in a surveillance room of some sort of multiverse.

"The world of the senses is real, but it must be known for what it is: unity appearing as multiplicity"  - The Bhagavad Gita (Introduced and Translated by Eknath Easwaran)

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

Surveillance Room

This image made me want to define my user.

The restless, distracted - consumer- the kind with multiple tabs open. The multitasker who rejoiced when ‘Picture- inPicture’ (PIP) was introduced. The one who would prefer to forward live television.

The one with an endless FOMO. The one who’d rather be doing anything else- or everything else.

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

I wondered what would happen if these little mirrors could move. It took me to the realm of kinetic sculpture; it took me back to a section in my undergrad thesis paper: Nicolas Schoffer’s introduction of cybernetics into sculpture has widened the horizons to animating space making it possible to obtain a “continually renewed spectacle from works of art” by introducing movement into two-dimensional works (Habasque 1957, 38) Schoffer produces continually moving wall-paintings by varying the distance between light sources and his moving-pedestal borne sculptures.

(39) This demonstrates that works of art are no longer “fixed and immobile” (42) It is no more the “petrification of a privileged moment or aspect, it is a spectacle.” In order to access such work in it’s entirety, either the object or the spectator must shift their perspectives (43) - Sakthivel, Karthika. 2016. “A Guardian’s Guide to Animating Spaces”

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

I found the following piece to be a relevant example.

Breathing Wall

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

And then there was, aeronautical engineer and artist Frank Malina and his kinetic systems working with light, reflections and movement are an absolute sight to behold - a dance of science and art.

Frank Malina - Cosmos (1965)

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

I found artist Gyula Kosice to have the most wonderful aesthetic. His kinetic, luminal artwork visually resonated with what I was going for in my own work.

Constelaciones â„–6 from La Ciudad Hidroespacial (The Hydrospatial City)

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

I then came across an absolutely inspiring set of instructions, written by Hans Haacke.

It gave me a sense of direction. …make something which experiences, reacts to its environment, changes, is nonstable… …make something indeterminate, which always looks different, the shape of which cannot be predicted precisely… …make something which cannot ‘perform’ without the assistance of its environment … …make something which reacts to light and temperature changes, is subject to air currents and depends, in its functioning, on the forces of gravity… …make something, which the ‘spectator’ handles, with which he plays and thus animates it… …make something which lives in time and make the ‘spectator’ experience time… …articulate something natural…

Hans Haacke ‘ untitled statement’ (1965)

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

Keeping this in mind, I allowed myself to explore the various possibilities. How could I incorporate these wonderful suggestions into my work? Over the course of the project I had a lot of fun experimenting with materiality and interactivity. I worked with screens, both digital and physical.

A lot of ideas came and went, from rowlux illusion films to projection mapping on mirror balls, from screw caps to accidental holograms. It’s been a kinetic few months.

Projecting on -Gazing Ball (Left); Rowlux Illusion Film (Right)

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

Sensorama

Magic Disappearing Box

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A Spectacle : Kinetic Sculpture

My structure was inspired by the sensorama, something that has always fascinated me. It also took from the magic disappearing boxes.

Guess there is a faint connection to the ‘magic’ I had started off with.

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reflections breathe out

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statement of intent This project seeks to explore the depths and breaths of our relationship with the seemingly real and the seemingly virtual through the underlying Vedic principle of Maya that deems the world- a creation of play (lila), an illusion- where nothing is as it seems.

It is clear that I am drawn to Indian mythology, to the magical stories I’ve grown up with, and to the cosmic wonders they attempt to capture. Like the resounding image of Lord Vishnu lying in cosmic slumber within the causal ocean, inhaling and exhaling universes- like bubbles- into and out of creation.

In a way I am recreating this image, using the breath as an illustrative model for interaction. Better informed by Indian narrative structures, thanks to my previous project ‘Samsara’, I approach this project with a similar cyclical, non-binary, nonlinear and decolonised mindset. I use this Hindu creation story as a vessel/framework to expand on these structures. The film ‘Powers of Ten’ (1975) by Ray Eames for IBM demonstrates the miniscule yet magnanimous nature of existence. It uses technology to take the viewer across space exponentially, visually enlightening the viewer about the Matryoshka like character

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of the universe and it’s various facets. The expansion and contraction- the shifting perception of time and space- is something I seek to achieve by passing the breath on to sonic environments, material objects, and their infinite virtual extentions. “…make something, which the ‘spectator’ handles, with which he plays and thus animates it…” Hans Haacke (1965) What started out as a VR project in my head took a turn and I began exploring materiality and interactivity outside of the headset. In my dissertation entitled ‘Staying in Touch: Haptics in the Age of Touchscreens’ , I write about wanting to create haptic interactions that truly touch you. With the aid of physical computing, and touch sensitive components I also put together a sonic quilt titled ‘Memory Foam’ as part of my elective. Since then it’s been a gradual shift to experimenting with the breath and its temporality to create ‘sensitive’ moments - embodiment being at the core of my practice here at the RCA. The ultimate aim is to bring awareness, and mindfullness to our everyday interactions.

A pre-cursor/interval/outro in a world of multiple tabs, screens within screens and short attention spans - to pause, and listen, if only for a moment.

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self evaluation It’s been a bubbly few months.

My process has largely been iterative and reflective. I’ve dipped my toes in several pools of thought, tools and techniques - curious, but also reluctant to take the plunge.

“How is this project relevant to the course?”/ “How is this digital?”/ “How is this storytelling?”/ “How is the future?”

When working alone, it is quite easy to get in my own head and live in bubbles so to speak. And sometimes you just need to pop them. Thankfully I had my peers to bounce ideas off of.

As longer projects go, this one has presented its fair share of challenges. It’s been a constant oscillation between loving my ideas to hating them. Everything comes and goes in waves. Staying married to any one thing has been a daily battle. But this time instead of fighting it, I went along with it to see where it would take me.

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Inhale and Exhale.

I’ve never been more conscious of my breath.

This has turned out to be a rather spiritual journey for me. I’ve grown so much more aware of myself. Within this sort of radial process, I can’t quite discern the beginning, middle or end. I am truly looking forward to actualising this piece to see the whole picture- now that I’ve seen the parts.

One of the thousand names given to Lord Vishnu is :

Samayajñaḥ:

One who knows the time for creation, sustentation and dissolution.

I have come to understand that ideas and creative processes function similarly; that everything comes and goes in waves, all I can do is breathe and ride it out.

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visual journal: For more candid, immediate, handwritten notes, do take a look at my visual journal.

online blog: You can’t take this book away with you, but you could always read my online blog. I’ve practically lifted everything in here off of there. You’ll even find links and videos. https://medium.com/royal-jellies/tagged/magic

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this book documents my thoughts, processes and reflections; you could call it an offline version of my online blog. it takes you through the depths and breaths.