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EVAN E S CAPE S

A visual narrative of Moodabidri

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EVAN E S CAPE S

A visual narrative of Moodabidri

Tracing Places - Placing Traces

Thesis Project - Documentation Book, 2017 Shubhika Dilip Malara (Public Space Design) Prepared under a Creative Commons License for Design, Environment and Law Laboratory (DEL Lab), January – April 2017 Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore India.

Copyrights 2016-2017 Student Document Publication (for private circulation only) All Rights Reserved.

Final Thesis Project (Undergraduate Professional Programme) Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka.

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 namely SHUBHIKA MALARA and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore.

Written, edited and designed

by Shubhika Malara.

Photographs by Deeptha Sateesh, Ishita Shah, Shambhavi Singh and Shubhika Malara.

Printed at Kolor Kode, Bangalore.

so much depends upon...

CONTENTS 09 Acknowledgements

52 Communication: fragments in fragments

Outcome in Progress 57

10 Introduction

About Project

About Moodabidri

Maps

14 Proposal

16 Immersion: song of discovery

Approach 18 Research 22

24 Exploration: ways of seeing

Study Tour 26 Seminar 1 32 Ideation 33 Design Thinking 36

40 Plotting: the space between

Narratives 42 Layers of Narratives 45

Seminar 2 50

Visualization 54 Trace: a language 60

64 Reflective Statement 65 References

66 Appendix - Term Paper

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ubuntu

This is with deep gratitude to Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology for showing me the world of opportunities and to our founder Dr. Ms. Geetha Narayanan, for leading this creative incubator. Studying here has been one of my best decisions.

I am forever grateful to the Design+Law+Environment Laboratory and our project faculties, especially Ms. Deepta Sateesh for teaching us values that not only helped us with this course but shall also help in our practice and beyond. I thank Mr. Kurush Canteenwala and Ms. Ishita Shah for their guidance and support with this project and otherwise. The trio generated a very lively atmosphere throughout.

This project would have been impossible without Mr. Vasudevan Kadalayil, the Park Hotels collaboration and the generosity of the people of Moodabidri, Karkala, Nandalike, Sanoor and around. I thank everyone who have contributed to this project.

Sincere gratitude to Sri Bhattarak Charukeerthi Swamiji of Moodabidri for his inputs on Jainism and for putting me in touch with the craftsmen in Karkala. Mr. Dinesh, the trustee of Jain Mathas for getting us the necessary permissions and putting us in contact with the right people.

Mr. L.C Soans and Mr. I.C. Soans for taking us around their famous Soan’s Farm.

Ms. Malini Rai, her family and helpers, especially Gulabi Akka, for a memorable conversation and afternoon together.

Mr. Mithun Chowta and Mr. Kuldeep Chowta along with their families, for their consent and access to their home, the Chowta Palace, including the extension that is taken care by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Mr. Mohan Alva and his son, for sharing about their prestige institution, its cultural events and about the tribes and communities of Tulu region.

Sri. M. J. Viraj from Moodabidri, for sharing stories and giving us access to locked rooms and the roof of Guru Basadi.

Sri. Nagaraja Indra Arehaka Pujariji from Gomateshwara temple, Karkala.

Mr. Rajendra Achari and son, Mr. Sampat and all granite-cutting craftsmen at Karkala who explained us the entire process.

For constructive feedback and motivation, I would thank Ms. Arpita Bajpeyi, Mr. Janak Mistry, Ms. Mansee Jog, Mr. Matt Lee, Mr. Narendra Raghunath, Ms. Pooja Kaul, Ms. Ranjani Balasubramanian, Mr. Sanjay Barnela, Mr. Sandeep Ashwath. I would also thank Mr. Ajai Narendran, Ms. Pooja Sagar, Mr. Rustom Vania, Ms. Shivani Sheshadri, and our Public Space Design batch’s favourite, Ms. Urvashi Jalali for just being around in times of anxieties.

Special thanks to the coolest Ms. Shambhavi Singh, and my famous-to-be classmates, author Devki Pande and film-maker Sonali Agarwal.

Nitin Jerath and Rahul Rai have been a constant source of joy and feedback. I can’t imagine this semester without Aaditi Waghmare, Shreyans Baid and Tanvi Ranka. Their love, enthusiasm and midnight snack, especially in the last crucial month is one of the highest rewards of friendship. I feel lucky to have them around along with Sumit Meena and Simba.

I would also thank my elder sister Kanisha Malara, Shweta Jaju, Komal Agrawal, Abheek Malhotra and Deepesh Sanghavi for their support from a thousand kilometers away. Speaking of which, no matter what part of the world I am in, Mom dad are the closest. I dedicate this to my pillars of strength, my parents and to my drawing sir, Mr. Tarun Bhate who continues to impart lessons of empathy and confidence along with his drawing classes at Kala Shala, Jalgaon.

Ubuntu: I am, because you are.

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INTRODUCTION About Project

Tracing Places - Placing Traces

Brief

Places are dynamic entities that constantly evolve with its socio-cultural, political and ecological environments. Within this context, we attempt to understand heritage, not just as a static entity of the past, but also as an active entity travelling in space-time continuum, and to create narratives that blur the boundaries of disciplines and tries to communicate a place in all its complexity.

This project is housed in the Design+Environment+Law (DEL) Laboratory at Srishti Institute, in collaboration with students of Faculty of Architecture, Manipal University, and the Park Hotels, India.

Thousand Pillar Temple. Image Source: Wikimedia.org

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Carving of Rani Abbakka of Ullal at Chowta Armane

Places are composed of dynamic and complex ecologies. These are formed as much from our material surroundings, such as settlements, landscape, and climate, as from the immaterial – our social lives, relationship to nature, and the ways in which we imagine our past, present and future. How we understand and articulate these dynamic relationships constantly changes with the flow of time: places are temporal, always in flux.

One of the ways we envision our environment, past, present and future, is by discovering the traces of their construction that we engage with in everyday life - traces of life, practices, politics, materials – all delicately intertwined to make place. This project seeks to explore, uncover and respond to these layers of complex relationships and interdependencies that form contemporary small town India, today.

Nestled between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, Moodabidri is famed for its thousand-pillared temple, and as a center of Jain culture and heritage.

Moodabidri is at a cross-road where many peoples, cultures and ecologies are evolving in a unique environment. As a result, the region has been shaped by multiple, sometimes competing forms of governance that have imagined and re-imagined the identity of the town. The effects of these layers are visible in Moodabidri as a tension between the past and a desire for modernity that is emblematic of twenty-first century India.

Jain Tirthankara idols at Guru Basadi

INTRODUCTION About Moodabidri

Location

Religion and Culture

History

Moodabidri is a town in Dakshina Kannada, lying 34 kms north-east of Mangalore in Karnataka. The former district of South Canara is the core of this Tulu speaking region, also known as Tulu Nadu or Tulunad. Moodabidri emerged as a centre for Jain culture and heritage between 14th to 16th centuries and is now popularly known as the Jaina Kashi of South India.

Jainism is strongly practiced even today. There are 18 Jain Basadis or temples in

total, of which, the Saavira Kambada Basadi or the Thousand Pillars Temple is

most visited by Jains across the country. There are several other Hindu temples

and churches. A fair number of people practice Roman Catholicism in Moodabidri.

The region was known as Alvakheda after its native Alupa dynasty that ruled the longest from 8th to 14th centuries. The native feudatories of Vijayanagara Empire gained power towards the end of Alupa period and governed Tulu Nadu till the 18th century. Among them, the Chowtas of Ullal and Moodabidri moved their capital to Moodabidri around 1603 C.E. Their succession to the throne was as per the Bunt custom of matrilineal inheritance, called Aliyasantana.

Descendants of the Chowta rulers continue to live in the Chowtara Aramane (Chowta Palace) of Moodabidri, which is known for its ornate carvings.

Ratnakaravarni of Moodabidri was a famous 16th century Kannada poet and writer. He is known for writing Bharatesha Vaibhava which is the story of Jain prince Bharata, eldest son of the first Jain Tirthankara.

Moodabidri is very diverse culturally and traditionally. There are several rituals

dances like Hulivesha (Tiger Dance) and Yakshagana, celebrations like Rathotsava, Korikatta (Cock fight) and Kambala (Buffalo Race), spiritual practices like Bhuta Kola

(spirit worship), Maari Pooja, Nagaradhane (snake-worship), singing Paddanas

(Ballad-like epics orally passed on through generations) and many more.

Hulivesha Image source: https://nammakarkala.files.wordpress.com

Traditions and Festivals

Yakshagana Image source: Udayavani.com

Bhuta Kola.

Image Source: https://3.bp.blogspot.com

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INTRODUCTION Maps

Malabar Coast of India (Parts of Karnataka and Kerela) Image source: Wikimedia.org

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Map of Alvakheda, the region ruled by Alupas from 4th to 15th C.E. Image source: Wikimedia.org

Royal Emblem of the Alupas. Image Source: Wikimedia.org

(1861) Map of South Canara District in the Gazetteer. Image source: Wikimedia.org

Map of South Canara District in the Gazetteer Vol.18. Image source: Wikimedia.org

Satellite view of Moodabidri through Google Maps

http://www.moodabidri.com/moodabidri/map2.html

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PROPOSAL Background:

Intent: Heritage of the Now

Popularly known as Jaina Kashi, Moodabidri is one of the major Jainism centres in South India. The town is located on the western coastal region of Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka and is believed to be named after the bamboo growing in that area, from the words Mooda (East) and Bidiru (Bamboo). Since the age of discovery, the silk and spice trade routes connected the Malabar Coast with civilizations across seas. Trade ensured not just exchange of goods and people but also cultures and belief systems along with it. For instance, Islam was introduced to this region by the Arabs traders whereas the Portuguese introduced systems of merchant ships carrying guns and gunpowder. (Rao. 2015) Being just 35kms northeast of Mangalore port, Moodabidri was also a busy town of trading activities in the past.

The area was well known for spices, especially pepper and betel nut, and other regional produce like sandalwood, ivory and perfumes amongst other things. (Gazetteer of India.

1973) Despite various socio-cultural influences, Jainism enjoyed royal patronage of major kingdoms such as the Western Ganga, Kadamba and Chalukya dynasties and the Alupa, Hoysala and Vijayanagara Empires and is still prominently practiced across Karnataka. With 18 Jain Basadis built during 14th -15th centuries, 18 temples and 18 keres/water-bodies, Moodabidri simply waits to be recognized officially as a heritage site. All the 18 Basadis are living monuments, but the Saavira Kambada Basadi or the Thousand Pillar Temple happens to be the most visited and worshiped by pilgrims from all over the country. (Mudde. 2011) The richness of Moodabidri’s social and cultural past can be traced even today in details of its settlements and landscape; and in the everyday life of people – in spirit-worship like Bhuta Kola and Nagaradhane, ritual dances like Hulivesha and Yakshagana, celebrations like Rathotsava and Kambala, practices like paddanas and much more.

Tracing Places - Placing Traces project began with the understanding of places as dynamic entities that constantly evolve with its socio-cultural, political and ecological environments.

Within this context, we attempt to expand the boundaries of heritage with newer ways of seeing. This implies heritage can be looked at not just as an extra-ordinary, mysterious, static entity of the past, but also as an active entity travelling from past to present to future. In this sense, heritage is also in our daily lives, in ordinary routines – in the way we walk, the way we dress, the food we eat and so on.

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But what makes a landscape diverse? What influences the temporality of a landscape?

And how can one document it in all its dynamism?

“We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.” (Stoppard. 1993)

Hypothetically, everything seems to exist only in this moment. Our nostalgia for the past or desires for the future are all within the present, as we shed and pick. Focusing on the now, I want to understand the present landscape of Moodabidri and trace the influence of its past, especially through the Jaina Basadis. I have strong impulse to choose the Basadis over any other places of worship. First, because the Jaina Basadis, especially the Thousand Pillar Temple predominantly defines the identity of Moodabidri at this point in time, for it was once also known as a busy town of trading activities (Gazetteer of India. 1973). Second, because I have a pure lust of knowing how these identities come about. Surely nothing happens overnight, so if it is a gradual change, what are the factors and relationships that allow for change? With this intent, I position myself somewhere between creative thinking and critical thinking. I want to be critical in my process, but creative in terms of my outcome.

My methodology is anchored on a lens with which I wish to understand and document my intent. I choose to look through the lens of materials - Laterite and Granite that drape the overall landscape of Moodbidri. I want to look through these materials as they occur not just in the Basadis but also in the daily lives of people in many ways. Laterite, locally known as Moorakal is soil and rock type rich in iron and aluminum. Francis Buchanan, surveyor of the East India Company, described it first as “indurated clay” in his report of 1807. (Kumari.

2016) He describes one of the fascinating properties of laterite that it is a soft material which can be cut easily into blocks, but upon exposure to air, it becomes hard and porous. This property renders it useful as a construction material. Moodabidri happens to sit on a hug lat erite bed that extends beneath across the coast, hence most houses here are made of laterite blocks. On the other hand, Granite or Chapadi is found 18 kms away in Karkala, which is also a Jain pilgrim centre. Granite is a light-colored igneous rock that takes millions of years to form from the slow crystallization of magma below Earth’s surface. As it is hard and tough, I could only imagine the skill and effort with which the Basadis were carved. Granite is also used in households in doorframes and covering drains. It was also used traditionally in the kitchen for cooking and in utility for washing clothes.

Methodology

I intend to visualize my data under three larger broad based areas, which will help me arrive

at a tangible outcome. They are:

Reading Patterns: A study in terrain, rock formation, water bodies, climate, flora and fauna of

the landscape through textures, colours, shapes, patterns.

Tracing Rhythms: Documenting practices directly and indirectly associated with the

materials like farming, praying, trading, singing, washing, bathing, carving, building, mining, etc.

Weaving Forms: Documenting architecture, street-scapes, walls and foundations. Several

details in the built fabric is partial information of the past or style or influences. For instance,

a certain arch over the window or door frame could be a trace of the colonial influences in

that context.

To go about the study and documentation mentioned under each umbrella, I wish to draw

from the elements and principles of design. The Elements of Design includes Line, Shape,

Form, Color, Texture, Space and Value whereas the Principles of Design includes Pattern,

Contrast, Emphasis, Balance, Proportion/scale, Harmony, Rhythm/Movement. With these, I

shall also experiment with my some of my skills depending on what I am trying to communicate:

Illustration and Creative Writing– to play with text and image

Storyboarding – to curate a narrative

Tracing – to use translucent materials to trace or layer information

Juxtaposing – to draw a relationships between objects/people/spaces

Questioning – to stimulate Possible Outcomes:

The outcome depends on my abilities and thought processes with which I’ll march in this

course. But I have listed some of the outcomes as a reflection of my interests

1. Photo Essay: A visual narrative of the landscape of Moodabidri. This could only be

poetically visual or have some text as a short narrative.

2. Pop-up: to play around with the idea of shedding and picking, a pop-up of narratives

woven across the three broad areas as mentioned in the methodology, in the form of book or installation.

3. Some form of a layered installation or an exhibition on site.

Timeline:

Phase I Immersion – Week 01-05 Phase II Thinking – Week 06-08 Phase III Exploring – Week 09-11 Phase IV Making – Week 12-15

Gazetteer of India. South Kanara District. Bangalore: Government Press, 1973.

Kumari, Deepali. “An Introduction of Scientific Survey of Francis Buchanan “Hamilton”.” IRA International Journal of Education and Multidisciplinary Studies., 2016.

Mudde, Raggi. “Thousand Pillars Temple.” Karnataka.com, 2011. https://www.karnataka.com/mangalore/moodbidri-thousand-pillars-temple/ Rao, Nagendra. “Trade and Transport in South Kanara.” Goa University, 2015: 149-160.

Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia. 1993.

References

Bibliography

Bhat, P.GuruRaja. “Studies in Tuluva History and Culture” University of Michigan, 1975.

Heitzman, James. “Temple Urbanism in Medival South India” The Journal of Asian Studies,

Vol. 46, 1987: 791-826

K. V. Ramesh. “History of South Kanara: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of Vijayanagara”

Karnatak University, 1970.

N. Shyam Bhat, “South Kanara, 1799-1860: A Study in Colonial Administration and Regional

Response” Mittal Publications, 1998

Shankar, Pratyush. “Framework for Understanding Moodabidri Temples as Public Places”

CEPT University, 2006.

Suvarna, Dr. Ashalatha. “The Granary of Tulu Heritage.” Rani Abbakka Tulu Adhyayana

Kendra (R), Sanchyagiri, Bantwala. 2016.

Whitehead, Henry. “The Village Gods of South India.” Garland Publisher, 1980.

Websites:

Basel Mission Archives. http://www.bmarchives.org/items/show/100203066 http://dsal.uchicago.edu/maps/gazetteer/images/gazetteer_V18_pg250.jpg http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/in-an-ancient-land-trade-and-synagogues-in-south-india/

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SONG OF DISCOVERY

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IMMERSION Approach

Between Extra-ordinary and Ordinary

We read and visualised the Roman Image by R.K. Narayana. In the story, the

talkative man tells us about the time a famous archaeologist comes to Malgudi

and he joins him as an assistant. He discovers a statue and gives it to the

archaeologist who researches and claims the image is of a Roman King. This

discovery, they believed, will soon change the course of world histories

altogether, and soon they become famous for finding about this. But like every

story by R.K. Narayana, here’s the twist!

On visiting the location where he found the image, the talkative man meets a

local who says the image was actually a part of temple shrine. He takes him to

the temple and narrates the story of a drunken priest who stabbed the image

with a dagger and so, it had to be deposited in the river. He also points at the

hill where similar images are made for a suitable price. When the archaeologist

gets to know all of this, he angrily burns all his research papers and leaves the town.

Upon discussing, we de-constructed the narrative to see the image in two forms: One, as a static entity plucked out of its continuity, seen by the outsider and two, as an active entity woven into the fabric of everyday life as seen by the local.

After reading the text, we had also visualized and discussed our doodles. It made us aware of how we see and interpret the written word with knowledge and assumptions of our own. One can’t be sure what the image in Narayana’s narrative really is. It then, as a metaphor for heritage, makes one wonder What is heritage? Where is it? When is it?

Followed by the discussions in class, my understanding is that everything around the image is part of its meaning. Given that, I see heritage somewhere between the historic and the seemingly mundane.

Mind-maps on What is heritage? and How do we see heritage?

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Is heritage something of the past, or something being lived this very moment?

Something that is valued at an encounter in the museum or something valuable and yet, occurring in our everyday loops?

Understanding Places, Spaces and Place Making

Bohm Dialogue is an exercise in which every participant contributes to a discussion without disagreeing to the contributions already made. We did a similar discussion on places and moved towards a common understanding by taking every one’s point of view equally. In a way, this was difficult as we often have fixed notions and/or contrasting beliefs but by accepting every perspective, we arrived at deeper understanding of place.

Trace and Tracing

Bohm’s Dialogue on Places

A trace of something is an indication of its existence. Our task was to get any

images of Trace and Tracing. With the exercise, I thought of everything as a

trace; that the ‘ing’ aspect of it could only be experienced and any attempt to

capture or re-experience it would automatically become a trace again. In the

process of capturing traces, my very act of observing and experiencing was tracing.

Screening on Glass (1998) by Leighton Peirce from his series Memories of Water

motivated me to look at an indirect way of documenting. Although the screening

hit the nerves of this impatient self, it helped us arrive at an abstract

understanding of his garden, through frames of traces.

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Observing Complexity

Often we discuss places in terms of their history, geology, economics and similar other disciplines. To take the Bohm discussion on places a level further, the Qualitas exercise was an approach towards understanding a place across these various disciplines, as a complex and changing entity. We were asked to spend a day in one place, and document its change and inclusivity in terms of context, time, relationality, scale and practice. Focusing on fixed frame of a park, within and around which everything changed, I documented the place through video and later edited it to a four minute video to emphasize elements. This prepared us to deal with layers of data and information, and to imagine how study tour could be utilized to its maximum.

We also had several screening like Nanook of the North and Cannibal Tours to discuss “the other”, eurocentrism and the technical aspects of these screenings.

We discussed questions like How do we enter a landscape? How do we be less of an outsider? How do we get the essence of something but not limit it to just that?

Empathy as a tool

The overarching understanding of all the above exercises was to be empathetic and conscious of various lenses or ways of seeing, to have no/least judgement or assumption. Empathy as a design research tool, in this context, blurs the gap between the other and the local, although one could claim the definitions of ‘other’ and ‘local’ are already blurry.

Unfolding the moments in the practice of sweeping to understand scale, relationality and rhythm.

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Different methods to record data, drawn out of the Qualitas exercise.

I am looking with my skin and smell, with my eyes and ears.

I am looking at this moment of a lonely bench near a paved curve in some lush green grass.

In the backdrop, swaying eucalyptus play peek-a-boo with the sun until the earth moves and then the million stars sing with the million leaves their ancestral song of the universe.

The image carries the mind's eye beyond what is just seen like a lighthouse, but only with light traveling inwards.

Walkers come walkers go, some fast some slow I am no different than this bench lying in grass.

Witnessing events all around me, in time.

Is this moment real? Is my feeling real? until the earth moves and mind is stolen the lonely bench was never a bench, only but a fragment of readers imagination.

A short poem I wrote after the Qualitas on the frame of my video

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IMMERSION Research

Secondary Research

The immersion into the course was now directing us towards the context of Moodabidri and the surrounding region. We first heard about the communities, practices, cultures of the region, through an interview with Mr. Vasu, a graduate architect from Manipal University with whom this course came into being. This helped us note aspects that we further looked up during our secondary research, which involved a lot of reading. From blogs, websites to academic papers, the idea was to collect as much as we could and share it with our peers.

To add to this, we requested permission to access the State Archives which was eventually denied. But they helped us with some books from the State Library.

I wonder, when does a piece of information become an archive? What is the role of politics and power? Our lives revolve around it, almost knowingly and unknowingly.

Visit to State Archives, Vidhan Soudha.

Notes from the interview

A page from Sonali’s journal at the Public Library, Vidhan Soudha, Bangalore.

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Sonali and Devki making notes from the Gazetteer of South Canara, Vidhan Soudha, Bangalore.

A page from the Gazetteer of South Canara showing the townplan of Moodabidri.

Women workers at a cashew industry from the Gazetteer of South Canara.

Organising

While we were gathered some text and visuals from the State library, we combined it with what we read already. We then placed them in clusters to help each other understand and build upon it, which was effectively time-saving.

What we realised after clustering is that these clusters are fluid and overlapping.

We could imagine in our minds, how things are inter-connected.

If only I could look deeper... even deeper....

Through discussions, we began reading not just text, but also visuals. Often through these images, one could tell if these were accidental photographs or consciously constructed frames. Either way, each image had more to look for and more to tell.

(Left) Notes of processing research data. (Right) Clusters made to share research with peers

Mapping and placing information within the clusters.

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WAYS OF SEEING

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EXPLORATION Study Tour

Curry rice for lunch with majjige (butter-milk)

Meeting with Sri Bhattarak Charukeerthi Swamiji at Jain Matha, Moodabidri.

Photograph by Deepta Sateesh

Primary Research

Forming the Anchor

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Market road towards Jain Street, Moodabidri

By the half of third week, we oriented ourselves suitably in the course, gathered enough secondary research data to work with, and understood different methodological approaches through several reading and writing exercises.

It was time to actually go experience Moodabidri on our own. We planned our study tour to be of six days, from 2nd Feb to 7th Feb. Day 1: Moodabidri - Jaina Basadis Day 2: Construction sites, streets, market and Chowta Palace Day 3: Old houses, and monumental sites Day 4: Karkala, Sanoor - region Day 5: Interview with Mr. Soans, Karkala, Nandalike - craft Day 6: Moodabidri- Interview with Mr. Mohan Alva - wrap!

I was initially inclined towards trade, the Jaina basadis and influences of and on landscapes. But I was hoping the place would stimulate me and automatically lead me to my proposal. So in all honesty, I reached and spend the first day in Moodabidri with no intent in my mind.

We familiarised ourselves with some main streets and landmarks for starters.

We visited some of the Jain Basadis, some of which were locked as it was noon.

Visually, I was captured by the contrast between the greenness and browns of sloping roofs and walls. The town was dominantly warm-coloured and sunny.

To me, the town felt strangely familiar. It was as if I was a kid again, visiting my mother’s ancestral home in the Vidharbha heat. But the heat here was different, it felt more humid. Needless I say, I felt closer to the sea. We noticed snakes in many forms, as idols shrines outside temples, under trees, in carvings and on roof tops. Almost all houses had clay tiles with iron cobra figures in all corners. The land is believed to be protected by the serpent king, Nagaraja, probably also because a lot of snakes live in this region.

Of all the Jain Basadis we managed to see, the Thousand Pillar Temple was extra-ordinarily carved in granite. All temple were surrounded by weathered laterite walls, had a well and sometimes a tall carved-granite stambha (column or pillar). Based on my observations the first day, I decided to anchor on the lens of the materials Laterite and Granite, through which I would document the landscape in the next 5 days.

Gowresh showing his old house made of Laterite bricks and mud

Granite as roof with laterite brick ornamentation at Guru Basadi, Moodabidri

Forms of Documentation

Through the Anchor

Although my documentation is dominantly through photographs, I made notes while talking to people, and audio-recorded oral histories and some interviews.

Initially, I also tried tracing the material surface with pencil, to communicating the behaviour of the material through textures. But I wasn’t very happy with the results and I wasn’t carrying a charcoal piece to try differently. The photographs seemed to have captured not only the texture, but also colour. So I continued to click, in several locations like construction sites, streets, markets and temples.

Framing the Frame

During documentation, most photographs were conscious decision. I hoped to understand the landscape through the Qualitas, using laterite and granite as my anchor. For this, I shot at different angles, went as close as possible to capture the textures, stood on rooftops to get aerial views and wandered about streets with my camera.

Pencil tracing of laterite bed on butter sheet

The second day started early at six in the morning trying to find places where I could encounter the material in its diverse forms and conditions. I walked around the streets and in lanes around the route we had already taken. What was it about talking a known path and yet discovering as if it’s the first time?

Maybe because I was looking through the lens of the materials or maybe it’s just coded in the act of walking. It was now that I could connect to The Walking by Thoreau. But I wouldn’t say I was there completely, for my mind wandered like the wind as I walked.

The darkest of the laterite blocks and granite roofing at Jain Basadis were a sign of its age. What would have this place been like, and what would it look like?

Questions floated as I discovered traces of the materials in the built fabric. What is the nature of this fabric? And who weaves?

I wonder as I walk.

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Main entrance of Chowta Armane

Front view of Chowta Armane under ASI

Through the Anchor

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We returned and discussed our progress over lunch and collectively met the descendants of Chowta rulers to talk and see the family’s Armane (Chowter Palace). The family took us first to the palace portion that is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India and then, generously showed us the rest of their house. It was here that I first noticed laterite blocks in the form of stairs and even as the flooring. The wooden pillars and doors were beautifully carved, and covered with some kind of black substance by the ASI. Should I find it odd that this portion was locked away and vacated as most heritage sites are? What would it mean to experience these sites in relation with traditions and memories, something like the rest of their palace?

The family shared several photographs with us and showed us antique objects.

They also shared a book that explained their ancestry in Kannada. All in all the day was very productive and we discussed our way forward through timelines and mindmaps. I continued documenting similarly the next day, photographing newer spaces like old houses, shops and streets and visited some monumental sites near Jain Tombs (Samadhis of prominent Jain people).

In conversation with Mr. Chowta at his Armane, Moodabidri

Materials in place-making

Laterite occurred as the ground, as the iron-rich red soil. It is also a rock that gets

porous with time, so the entire landscape seemed an earthly palette of browns and

moss growing everywhere. The laterite block could be traced in constructions of

built-spaces as walls, stairs, step-wells, plinths, columns and even for ornamentation.

Granite on the other hand was transported to Moodabidri from Karkala. All the

Basadis are constructed of granite. From the plinth, to the carved pillars to the

roofing, everything is put together perfectly to create temple spaces. Granite

otherwise occurs in the city as slabs to wash clothes on, to cover drains and as rocks

to mark the boundaries of an area. Both the materials have diverse forms and

functions, and it only made me wonder how deeply man has utilised his natural

surroundings to construct spaces and places.

Pujariji K. Nagaraja Indra Arehaka at Gomateshwara temple, Karkala

Deepta translating Kannada conversations for Devki in Sanoor

Group photograph with Malini Aunty’s family and helpers, Sanoor Photograph by Deepta Sateesh

Around Moodabidri

We visited Karkala and Sanoor on the fourth day, to get a sense of the region.

Here I could focus on my second material, granite. We had a brief conversation with the Pujari at the famous Gomateshwara statue in Karkala. He narrated the story of Aacharya Bhadrabahu and Chandragupta Maurya who introduced Jainism to the south around the 3rd CE and how this eventually contributed to the formation of two sects within Jainism – Shwetambara and Digambara. He also explained that although the philosophy of Jainism remains the same, the rituals associated with worship differ from place to place.

Identities are so much about where we come from. I am a Marwadi Jain from middle India, and so my experience of Jain temples has been very different than here. As landscapes evolve in time, my own identity and association with my surrounding evolves.

In Sanoor, we visited several temples and spirit shrines, thanks to Malini Aunty.

Here, I noticed laterite again in temples and homes. Malini aunty cooked for us, and in her kitchen I noticed traditional objects used in cooking. Objects from past are more than just memories. I speak of past as if I understand time, but I don’t.

Tomorrow, today will be yesterday. I simply felt as if I am in a movie, maybe Midnight in Paris (2011) or the play Arcadia - We shed as we pick.

Alas, the mind is a small cup to fit the ocean.

Back to documentation, I tried to capture every space where laterite and granite occurred. This way of looking at a place through the lens of material helped me realise how we have connected to our land and I wondered if this connection stays just as deep, as we move forward in time.

29

Mr. Soan (centre) at Soan’s Farm, near Moodabidri-Karkala highway Photograph by Ishita Shah

Mr. Achari (left) Mr. Sampat (centre) talking about stone types with Kurush

Meeting with Mr. Mohan Alva (second from right) Photograph by Ishita Shah

Material and Practices

We began the fifth day with the yummiest Pineapple juice at Soans Farm. Mr.

Soan shared with us about how the farm started, the challenges faced over the

years, the hardening of laterite and how they keep their 100 acre farm running.

Mr. Soan tried inter-cropping and was the first one to introduce new crops like

Pineapple. He took us around to show various other species of tropical trees.

I took a bus to Karkala from there, with Kurush and Devki to meet the granite

stone craftsmen. We sourced their contact from the Swamiji at Jain Matha

Moodabidri. Mr. Achari’s son and his friend, Mr. Sampat showed us their work

space and the processes involved in carving. Simultaneously, he also informed us

about the different types of stones and tools used for carving. From Karkala, we

went to Nandalike for Devki’s enquiries and in the process I saw more of the region.

30

Each day, I encountered something new about the material and each minute, I would try to notice how everything within and around the landscape is related to these materials. After all, what is a landscape without its land?

The last day was back in Moodabidri to just wrap things up, fill gaps if any. We went again to the step-wells and found another one with carvings in laterite.

Sadly, this wasn’t protected under the ASI and I simply couldn’t understand why.

The same thoughts about politics and power revolved.

Our last interview was with renowned educationalist Mr. Mohan Alva who established a chain of institutions for education and healthcare since 1995. For over 19 years, he hosts art and literature events of international fame - Alva Nudisiri and Alva’s Virast. We saw his stunningly beautiful collection of statues, paintings and silver jewellery. He also told us about several tribes and communities in the region and their cu ltural practices.

Over these four years of study tour courses at Srishti, these were the most productive six days. I returned with thousands of images, lots of notes and spent the following few days just organising them.

Formulating

After returning to Bangalore, we reflected and tried to connect our primary and secondary research together. With this, we could narrow down our ideas to words into a draft proposal. We had a week to do so, and to create presentations: a common presentation on Moodabidri (right) and one on our individual enquiry. I wanted to understand the landscape through the material, so I drafted my proposal into three broad-based areas. These areas were formed with the help of my images and research, as an attempt to capture complexity and to see it through the Qualitas. The areas are Reading Patterns to understand the material in itself, it formation, behaviour and relationality to environment.

Tracing Movements to understand the practices directly or indirectly associated with the materials which contribute to place-making and finally,

Weaving forms to understand how the intangible translates into the tangible built fabric.

Three broad-based ideas in the proposal

31

EXPLORATION Seminar One

Laterite through textures, practices and spaces

Granite through textures, practices and spaces.

Feedback

32

During the Seminar, I discussed how I arrived at my proposal. I shared my research and field work, proposed a time-line and some possibilities of outcomes.

I made notes of the feedback I got, as follows: “park into your intuitive self” “something with your hands, use your skills to your advantage” “counter-narrative - analogy to tourism?” “threats to heritage? or tensions? how do we move from them and through them” “what ties all the three broad-based areas together?” “build a frame” “you can open a discussion with a matrix”

The seminar directed me towards two possibilities. One, I could expand the initial discussion on heritage and suggest possible threats to it. Two, instead of having an opinion, I could present the complexity of the place as it is and let the viewer interpret it.

I connected this to our earlier discussions in class on the difference between a story and a narrative, and between representation and interpretation.

I decided to present the matrix of Moodabidri as it is, because I felt an opinion or judgment would be too shallow to communicate when I don’t entirely understand the place or the relations within places. Question remains, How?

EXPLORATION Ideation

Stone-cutting craftsmen and Granite textures

Stone-cutting craft and tools

Avoiding Jumps

Experiments

During the Seminar, I had proposed a Photo-essay and a Pop-up as my possible outcomes. One of the conscious decisions I have learned to make over my time at Srishti is to avoid jumping on what I want to do.

After having collected so much of data, I wanted to stay connected with our approach methods and do justice to the information I had. I did not want my thesis project to be an extra-ordinary outcome that could flaunt my strengths, rather I wanted a pure attempt at the ideas we initially discussed (documenting complexity and temporality of places, practices, blurring boundaries, etc) with a mix of my skills and learning experiences that the DEL lab empowered me with.

So, I decided to keep all my outcomes aside and to allow my process to lead me towards an outcome.

Sketching of an old house in Moodabidri

I was not entirely sure about what’s next to do. I did not know hot to organise 22 GB of images. Without thinking much, I began producing poetry, textured patterns and sketches that I could relate back to the proposal. I even tried playing with my images to create collages and layers of visuals and materials. I printed several photographs on different kinds of papers to see what effect that gives.

Trying new things is never less rewarding, however, this was of moving forward wasn’t assuring my mind. Soon, feeling stuck and stagnant would push me to question myself.

What’s the point of doing this? What am I saying?

I realised, without a framework, I would not know what it is that I want to communicate.

33

Trials

The act of producing work involves trial and error. The act itself is a dialogue with

the medium to realize what works and what doesn’t. For instance, I silently talk with

my canvas every time I paint. Only this time, instead of the canvas I had to talk to my photographs.

I tried image-tracing on the photographs of surfaces and conditions of the materials.

An image could tell many things, like colour, texture, quality etc but a tracing marks of

a certain quality would then communicate the same in very clearly.

Tracing the holes in laterite and the cutting marks on laterite was an attempt to speak about its porous nature and the practice of making laterite blocks respectively.

Back then, I wasn’t sure how I would use these traces or if I wanted to simplify my images to one thing. It was time to use design thinking tools to build a framework.

Laterite weathering through photographs and image tracings

34

The only thing I felt confident about was the poetics of place, as it turned out to be something I deeply enjoyed. It was in the play of words and that I could fuse historical facts with my observations from study tour and my imagination. I found it stimulating because between words, there’s depth of the sea to discuss conceptual ideas.

I initially drafted a page and with constructive feedback, elaborated it to four pages.

Understanding that it was going away from my visual material, I put it to hold.

Laterite weathering through textures

Traces of cutting laterite

Poetics (Untitled - W.I.P)

It is a landscape of the kiss of the western mountains and the sea.

Submerge with me as we stand somewhere in this warmth, humidity and on red soil under our feet.

The Hindu Puranas mention this as the land of Parshurama the sixth avatar of Vishnu who pleased Shiva to earn his divine axe And as he threw this axe in the sea, Varuna, the water god, released a salty mass of land.

To make this barren land fertile, Parshurama requested the king of snakes, Nagraja to spread snakes in his land to neutralize all salt with their venom.

The sea and the Ghats mark the boundaries of this land, but we stand in-between where boundaries escape the eye; making it difficult to answer where this town begins or ends.

It has lived by many names as Venupura, Mudgeri, Mudabidre … all recorded in time Each name, a window to a story some remembered, some invented and some forgotten.

We come to this landscape with stories of our own as outsiders at first and soon the familiarity of land and people intersect with our individual self.

Never was I a local No longer will I be an outsider So who am I in this space?

Who am I in my own space?

For today at least, I am an outsider a first time traveler in this mosaic of ecologies, seeing spontaneously but also conventionally.

At a distance, I see a dry field of paddy hugged by coconut and jackfruit trees in the early morning mist.

A sloping roof house nearby of brown mud walls and clay tiles with snake figures on roof corners protecting the house from all four directions A young girl sweeps the front, collecting dirt away from the sacred plant of tulsi. click.

I froze the image before me.

With this, one can see through my eyes but what about the millions eyes of the travelers before me? the eyes of those who are around me?

And the eyes that are yet to come?

Once the paddy was green, the roof was thatched and the land was less inhabited Once the past was being lived by many in their ordinary routines traders, kings, ministers, pilgrims…

Only now I sit in the moment and wonder how rich this place must have been…

How quick would it change in the days to come?

Only now I sit in the moment as a romantic smiling at a pepper tree, for it was pepper that attracted traders across land and sea.

The eyes of one such Jew merchant, Abraham bin Perahya Ben Yiju, from the Tunisian town of Al Mahadiyya viewed life in and around Manjrur.

He was avid for poetry and a well known calligrapher who conducted trade of brass items, pottery, silk, betelnut and other spices.

Nine hundred years ago, in the last few days of monsoon Yiju fell in love with a Nair women, Ashu She was a wazifa, a captive in her own land freed and owned by her lover Yiju They lived together for the next twenty years raising 3 children.

I walk in the shoes of Yiju who perplexed and annoyed his fellow Jew traders and friends for they did not understand love or to be loved beyond the limits of ethnicity and class.

Then to walk in the shoes of Ashu, to feel what she might, to be free by this foreign man. what kind of freedom was it? what kind of foreign was he?

I swim across the greys of definition, to wonder what this place will be nine hundred years later.

Would this brown mud house survive?

Will the life of this young girl sweeping the house front be remembered?

And what would then be as sacred as tulsi?

35

EXPLORATION Design Thinking

Anchors within the anchor

36 Mind-maps connecting the everyday life in Moodabidri with its heritage.

In a conversation with Ishita, I was directed to question how and why the heritage of Moodabidri has lived on and in the process, I would find new anchors with which I will work towards an outcome. For instance, she suggested I could look at my three areas from the proposal, through changes and constants. But then, in my head change is constant and definitions are hazed. I didn’t fully understand, but I needed to find new anchors, so the first thing I did were mind-maps.

Mind-maps are easy for they are a depositary of what one knows already. I needed to use a different approach for two reasons: One, to understand with and through my material – maps, photographs, research - to build new anchors and two, to move from the generic to specific information. The mind maps seemed generic whereas I needed to communicate specifically about Moodabidri.

The lab introduced me to a new design thinking tools – The Context Panorama and the Offering map.

First version of Context Panorama

Context Panorama

A context panorama is a design thinking and research tool that helps one to see relations through visuals. An offering map is similar, and together they help in the curation of designer’s intent.

After a few discussions, I played a little more with my images to make another version.

Not surprisingly, I was able to connect it automatically with the mind-maps. Surprisingly, I could see even more through images. It helped me arrive at multiple anchor points which I then made a note of under the categories: 1. Objects/things 2. Gradients/qualities/conditions and 3. Language.

To go about this, I printed most of my images and tried to cluster them based on my proposal.

The process allowed me to think visually and to draw connection between clusters. I could relive my experience of the place, and as I did, I wondered my photographs are only a limited part of my experience. Even my experience is a limited part of the essence of the place, in the sense that there is more to what I have seen, felt or documented.

Second version of Context Panorama

37

Objects gradients languages

Objects/Things:

Composition Soil Brick Water-bodies Temples Walls

Conditions/Qualities: Porosity, friction, fluidity, softness, hardness, wetness, dryness, humidity, auspicious, holding‌

Walls

38

Language:

Geology, architecture, anthropology, philosophy

Water-bodies

At first, I arranged all the photographs that connected with the selected quality or thing. But this arrangement could be put together consciously to communicate something about the quality or thing.

While working with the porous quality of laterite, there were images with different degrees of porosity. Since porosity happens over time, I placed them in a sequence of less to more weathered. Visually, this was light to dark. This automatically formed a gradient of condition, with each condition connecting with a certain practice or space. Using this to my advantage, I created my first narrative of the place through laterite.

Porous

Flow

Friction

Craft

39

40

THE SPACE BETWEEN

41

PLOTTING Narrative

Composition

Narrative

At first, I arranged all the photographs that connected with the selected quality or thing. But this arrangement could be put together consciously to communicate something about the quality or thing.

While working with the porous quality of laterite, there were images with different degrees of porosity. Since porosity happens over time, I placed them in a sequence of less to more weathered. Visually, this was light to dark. This automatically formed a gradient of condition, with each condition connecting with a certain practice or space. Using this to my advantage, I created my first narrative of the place through laterite.

paddy

coconuts

The first narrative holds most of the primary and secondary data together through the gradient. For example, the first image of soil; it allows for certain crops and trees to grow like pepper which is related to trade or paddy that is related to paddana and spirit worship. At the same time, the soil was also traditionally used as mortar during construction of walls. Likewise, another texture describes how the moss and weeds grow in laterite due to its weathering.

I had different layers of information about practices, forms, objects and spaces all together mixed up in the horizontals and the vertical. So what didn’t work about this was the lack of orientation. Deeptha suggested this could be solved with a structure. I linked it back to my proposal to think of change, material, practices and spaces. I wasn’t sure how and that feeling wasn’t comforting.

areca nuts

soil forming the ground

the ground allows for cultivation of Condition of laterite

soil used in motar to cover walls

Gradient of conditions

Example of meaning within the narrative.

42

pepper

spice markets

trade

First attempt at the narrative of Moodabidri.

43

Time and Linearity

I draw with selfish intentions, often to calm my emotional turmoil. At that point, I wanted to find a way to move ahead so I thought to doodle traces of change in time. I used my photographs and drew elements into a time-line.

In retrospect, I wasn’t happy with this either but sketching gave me the opportunity to imagine and connect the photograph with my thoughts. The time-line did not work for me because I felt limited by the linear structure of time and also because I was then looking at past present and future as different entities of time, while time itself is a continuum. Change is a long process and in the transition, nothing really is behind or ahead. I felt everything is in-between – in a state of liminality. I connected this with the ideas of threshold and liminality that I had written about in my last semester’s term paper (see appendix)

Liminality

With these conceptual ideas of in-betweeness, I understood landscapes are temporal. One can’t answer where a landscape begins or ends or when. I used these reflections to re-draft my poetics. (page) It also helped me draft my concept note. I understood Moodabidri, as a place, to be a threshold, generating physical and psychological experiences.

Where does a landscape begin or end? As boundaries blur in the continuum of time, a landscape continues to evolve in relation to its tangible and intangible environments. This moment then, is in-between what the landscape was and what it will be, embedding change at its threshold for physical and psychological experiences.

Concept Note

44

The everyday life of the people of Moodabidri is in a liminal state of their cultural and traditional practices in its continuous progression in time. Change is embedded in these transitions that add to the complexity and diversity of the landscape and eventually define the identities of people and the place.

PLOTTING Layers of Narratives

Structure Basel Mission Archives "Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Title:

"Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Alternate title:

[translation] Devil Dancer of South Kanara. [original caption] Devil Dancer of South Kanara.

Ref. number:

QC-30.021.0012

Creator:

Krauss, Eugen August (Mr)

Date:

Date late: 31.12.1939 Proper date: 01.01.1935-31.12.1939

Subject:

[Individuals]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Photographers / Photo Studios]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state} [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state}: Karnataka {region} [Themes]: environment: botany: bast (textile material) [Themes]: anthropology of the body: body decoration: body painting [Themes]: anthropology of the body: clothing: costume [Themes]: recreation - enjoyment and indulgence: festivities: dancer m

Back to my narrative with feedback, I positioned the plot in the continual liminal states of laterite and granite. I created a new sample, thinking about spaces and practices in verticals and horizontals connected to the central gradient of condition on the material. I used my sketching to unfold practices that shape spaces. These practices change gradually, for instance, I don’t dress the same way my ancestors did or to speak specifically about Moodabidri, the practice of celebrating Kambala used to be a single track event. Now it is a two track event. Likewise, as all practices change, our relationship with the land and surroundings transform with it.

Exploration of the narrative through laterite.

45

materiality

Concepts

Basel Mission Archives "Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

temporality

Basel Mission Archives "Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Title:

"Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Alternate title:

[translation] Devil Dancer of South Kanara. [original caption] Devil Dancer of South Kanara.

Ref. number:

QC-30.021.0012

Basel Mission Archives

"Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) Creator: Date:

Date late: 31.12.1939 Proper date: 01.01.1935-31.12.1939

Subject:

[Individuals]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Photographers / Photo Studios]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state} [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state}: Karnataka {region} [Themes]: environment: botany: bast (textile material) [Themes]: anthropology of the body: body decoration: body painting [Themes]: anthropology of the body: clothing: costume [Themes]: recreation - enjoyment and indulgence: festivities: dancer m

Title:

"Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Title:

"Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Alternate title:

[translation] Devil Dancer of South Kanara. [original caption] Devil Dancer of South Kanara.

Alternate title:

[translation] Devil Dancer of South Kanara. [original caption] Devil Dancer of South Kanara.

Ref. number:

QC-30.021.0012

Ref. number:

QC-30.021.0012

Creator:

Krauss, Eugen August (Mr)

Creator:

Krauss, Eugen August (Mr)

Date:

Date late: 31.12.1939 Proper date: 01.01.1935-31.12.1939

Date:

Date late: 31.12.1939 Proper date: 01.01.1935-31.12.1939

Subject:

[Individuals]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Photographers / Photo Studios]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state} [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state}: Karnataka {region} [Themes]: environment: botany: bast (textile material) [Themes]: anthropology of the body: body decoration: body painting [Themes]: anthropology of the body: clothing: costume [Themes]: recreation - enjoyment and indulgence: festivities: dancer m

Subject:

[Individuals]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Photographers / Photo Studios]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state} [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state}: Karnataka {region} [Themes]: environment: botany: bast (textile material) [Themes]: anthropology of the body: body decoration: body painting [Themes]: anthropology of the body: clothing: costume [Themes]: recreation - enjoyment and indulgence: festivities: dancer m

spatiality Meaning within the narrative of laterite.

46

Through the structure and discussions with my faculties, I could realise concepts within my visual layout: materiality, temporality and spatiality. Materiality is about the gradient of qualities and conditions of the materials. Temporality is the state of being in relation with time so it includes scale and movements. Spatiality is the quality of being experienced as space so this includes images of spaces and the practices within those spaces.

Exploration of the laterite narrative.

Layers

Exploration of the laterite narrative.

Text and Direction To experiment with the layout, I tried to print them on different materials. My initial experiments with the opaque, translucent and transparent materials were not very effective because I did not have content for it. Now with this content, I tried printing the horizontals and verticals as separate layers on translucent tracing paper, but it made it difficult to read.

I tried to used some text but I felt I should let the viewer interpret images. Text is something, I continue to think about. As far as it was concerned visually, I tried different styles to see how that would look. Aesthetically, the line seemed to demand attention and I wanted to keep the focus on the images. So I decided to not keep lines, and continued a similar layout for granite

47

Sketch of printed panels as outcome.

Exploration of the granite narrative.

Granite turns darker in colour over time so here the gradient of condition of granite is light to dark.

I narrate the different practices linked with granite like cleaning, carving, washing clothes, grinding, etc in this sample.

48

Possible Outcomes

Scale

I proposed these narratives of Moodabidri through laterite and granite as work-in progress samples. The challenge with thinking of an outcome was the fact that I was realizing things while working so I wasn’t working towards a fixed tangible outcome unlike my peers, rather I was getting multiple ideas during the process. From pop-ups and interactive installations that I had mentioned in my proposal, I moved to imagining flip-books, to series, to gifs and playful activities. But these were just bubbles of thoughts that would explode as I would try to stick to my deadlines. Besides, the priority was not the form of content, but the content itself.

I could imagine a series of panels within the time-frame.

He also suggested that I should have a model, but given the seminar was only two days later, I made a quick model of OHP sheets and mount-board sheets.

Because in the seminar I needed to communicate what outcome I was imagining along with my plan ahead, I had a brief discussion with product faculty, Janak Mistry regarding the panels. I discussed various materials with him and he told me the advantages and challenges with every material I suggested. After discussing acrylic, glass, fabric, poly-carbonate sheets and OHP sheets, I felt it would be ideal to use acrylic to communicate layers, primarily be cause it was lighter, cheaper than glass and more durable.

Model of transparent printed panels as outcome.

As far as the content was concerned, I continued working on it. Even at that stage, my research dabbled between the generic and the specific. I had been reading about the details and finding new material along. One of the many things I have learnt from last semester is that research is never complete. One can go as deep as it is possible and still it wouldn’t seem to end. But what I also realized is that research needs to in some tangible form to be communicated. The only struggle I faced was communicating as much as I wanted through my photographs and illustrations, even when there were aspects that I couldn’t really show. For instance, women singing paddanas.

What is the visual of a poem? How does a sound look?

I continued to print different trials to arrive a decision with respect to the number of images in my gradient, and the size of the images. I decided to a gradient of twelve images and proposed the size of 8 feet by 4 feet of acrylic sheets to print. However these decisions were flexible based on my content layout, I thought about them only so that I propose my approximate plan in seminar two.

Exploration of scale for the gradient of conditions of granite.

49

PLOTTING Seminar Two

Feedback

A part of seminar two presentation with model.

50

I communicated how I arrived at the structure – to begin with ground of the materials in the horizontal, practices in the verticals that are eventually linked with objects, spaces and softer aspects of the place. But I had failed to communicate ideas of materiality, temporality and spatiality clearly in Seminar two. They seemed to appreciate the complexity of information and effort I put into it, but they were not entirely satisfied with the layout. Following are the notes from my journal “snap out of the grid”, try different things - could it be digital/3D/playful?” “exchange process with Devki and see what that gives” “create points of entry/breathing space” I jolted notes in my journals as they spoke along with some questions we all were supposed to think about with respect to our outcome: “Who is it for?”

“How will I make one experience it?”

“How many and how big?”

Direction

I wasn’t very happy after Seminar two because I knew I hadn’t explained it properly and

because I had planned to be very clear about my final outcome by that point, which I

wasn’t. I think it was normal to feel some stress because we wanted to have enough weeks

to produce our final panels and presentation.

Deviation

After the seminar, I kept thinking of ways to break out of the rectangular frame.

I drifted away from my outcome and model, and took to illustration. I tried various visual styles, line thickness and different kinds of pens, pencils and colouring styles. I began exploring styles between realism and abstract. I wanted it to look somewhere in the middle to communicate it is a fragment of my imagination but it is based on real traces of objects, spaces, materials and other references.

In a trial, I combined it with a condition of laterite on the ground. I hoped to create multiple of these and imagine a single large illustrated narrative and the gradient of conditions of laterite and granite through photographs. In the process I also deviated from my photographs, but I had been using them as references for my illustrations.

Upon finalising a line thickness, I decided to colour them in a certain style. The black bodies was not a comment on the skin (as I had seen in one of the archival images), rather it was for aesthetics and visual balance with objects and photographs. I wanted to highlight little details of the way people dress, especially during certain festivals like Bhuta Kola or spirit worship, where applying make-up is part of the ritual.

Exploration of visual representations

51

52

FRAGMENTS IN FRAGMENTS

53

COMMUNICATION Visualization

54

Illustrations of beings and practices for laterite and granite.

55

Converge

Using juxtaposition, I could now communicate a practice in relation with a condition of laterite and granite. I played with two versions of the layout to realize the illustrations in themselves were not enough. I felt, in the act of drawing, I was abandoning my photographs and all the exploration I did with it. The new layout did not work for me because it was still in a grid of another kind, only this time even difficult to read. The emptiness within the slide nibbled my insides and I decided to get back with this to my earlier structure. Although I lost a lot of time in deviating and coming back to my layout, I am glad I tried because to me, these illustrations seem richer when with the range of photographs of the materials.

Basel Mission Archives "Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Title:

Juxtaposition of photographs and illustrations using Adobe Photoshop

56

Exploration of visual representations of wetness and dryness in laterite.

"Devil Dancer of South Kanara."

Alternate title:

[translation] Devil Dancer of South Kanara. [original caption] Devil Dancer of South Kanara.

Ref. number:

QC-30.021.0012

Creator:

Krauss, Eugen August (Mr)

Date:

Date late: 31.12.1939 Proper date: 01.01.1935-31.12.1939

Subject:

[Individuals]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Photographers / Photo Studios]: K: Krauss, Eugen August (Mr) [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state} [Geography]: Asia {continent}: India {modern state}: Karnataka {region} [Themes]: environment: botany: bast (textile material) [Themes]: anthropology of the body: body decoration: body painting [Themes]: anthropology of the body: clothing: costume [Themes]: recreation - enjoyment and indulgence: festivities: dancer m

COMMUNICATION Outcome in Progress

Back to the layout and photographs: Visual narrative in process.

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Visual narrative in process: Layer of map to look at laterite at different scales.

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Simultaneously working on Granite narrative in: Unfolding some practices in time and tracing objects

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COMMUNICATION Trace: a language

Outcome

I continued to develop the layout of my idea of landscape through the material.

Together, these depictions of the landscape are fragments of the fragment, Moodabidri.

If I were to critique my work, I would question the temporal aspect of landscapes within my content. Maybe there is still scope for my visual representation and interpretation beyond its two-dimensional form and beyond its single sensory experience.

But then, it’s rather also a conceptual enquiry: Can one ever document the changing?

In time, I might know as I continue to try similar attempts at plotting narratives. I used text to stimulate conversation and give some grounding to my visuals. I realised they act as a trigger.

It is through this approach of using materials as a lens to read landscapes combined with constant guidance by Ms. Deepta Sateesh, that I have been able to visually represent my research and conceptually brainstorm.

Thinking through the text - Laterite and granite panels in progress.

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So what about this enquiry?

I discovered narratives within the landscape through its land – through materials laterite and granite without having any clue where that would lead me. It is through the Qualitas and through this approach that I developed many conceptual understandings of place and heritage.

Places are indeed, complex and temporal.

As a creative practitioner in making, my role is to narrate stories, celebrate diversity and to respond to these complexities with simple questions. So with this I ask:

Connecting it back to our project brief, I feel discovering a place through traces of its construction is a new language itself to read complexity. A foreign language at first, but as Jeanette Winterson puts it, ‘...the language of art, all art, is not our mother-tongue.’

Are we simplifying or limiting our understandings of a place to our respective disciplines?

Complex systems are like fractals – systems within systems. Are we studying these

systems at different scales and across disciplines?

What is the nature of the interaction between man and his environment?

What role does traditional and local knowledge play in these socio-ecological relationships?

Are we consciously adapting to change?

Time is by far, the most interesting concept and I wonder if it is ever possible to document

time, if not but in moments.

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Visual narrative final: Using text as a trigger.

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REFLECTION Personal Statement

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known - Carl Sagan

Attracted to the diversity of Moodabidri, I took this course to develop my understanding of heritage and landscapes. Of all the courses I have had at Srishti, this one shall me the most thrilling experiences – one that I have not only enjoyed but also pushed myself off my perceived limits. I gathered courage to use my camera to document the landscape, overcoming the feeling of intimidation that it brings to many and found a way to read images deeply and juxtapose them with illustrations to create a new meanings. I thank Deepta again, for pushing me to look for more. The initial phase of this course was very liberal and it is with that freedom, I have been able to recognize a part of me that loves to write. My work has dominantly been illustrative or conceptual, but to do the same through Qualitas has enabled me to see relations and complexities. If only for a while, I feel fortunate to be a part of the Design+Law+Environment Laboratory, for it has provided us with all the necessary resources and network. I thoroughly relish all the adrenalin rush, madness and mood-swings, days and nights of work. Four months in this course were just as overwhelming as four years at Srishti, each experience a lesson of self-discovery.

What next? I wonder.

Somewhere. Something. Incredible.

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Communication is key to every idea/concept, only then they are truly infectious. The struggles I faced with visualizing and communicating my research, in a way that it is informative and creative, might remain a struggle for a lifetime. But the point is to keep trying. In times of discomfort, I remember Ann Thomas say ‘just hang in there’ So I shall just hang onto these fleeting moments and continue to express the best I can.

REFERENCES

Bhat, P.GuruRaja. “Studies in Tuluva History and Culture” University of Michigan, 1975.

Buchanan, Francis. “A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar,” Volume 1. https://archive.org/details/journeyfrommadra01hami_2 Volume 2. https://archive.org/details/journeyfrommadra02hami Volume 3. https://archive.org/details/journeyfrommadra03hami_2 Gazetteer of India. South Kanara District. Bangalore: Government Press, 1973.

Heitzman, James. “Temple Urbanism in Medival South India” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 46, 1987: 791-826

Kumari, Deepali. “An Introduction of Scientific Survey of Francis Buchanan “Hamilton”.” IRA International Journal of Education and Multidisciplinary Studies., 2016.

K. V. Ramesh. “History of South Kanara: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of Vijayanagara” Karnatak University, 1970.

Mudde, Raggi. “Thousand Pillars Temple.” Karnataka.com, 2011. https://www.karnataka.com/mangalore/moodbidri-thousand-pillars-temple/

N. Shyam Bhat, “South Kanara, 1799-1860: A Study in Colonial Administration and Regional Response” Mittal Publications, 1998 Rao, Nagendra. “Trade and Transport in South Kanara.” Goa University, 2015: 149-160.

Shankar, Pratyush. “Framework for Understanding Moodabidri Temples as Public Places” CEPT University, 2006.

Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia. 1993.

Suvarna, Dr. Ashalatha. “The Granary of Tulu Heritage.” Rani Abbakka Tulu Adhyayana Kendra (R), Sanchyagiri, Bantwala. 2016.

Thurston, Edgar. “Castes and Tribes of Southern India.” Government Press, Madras. 1909. https://archive.org/details/castestribesofso01thuriala Whitehead, Henry. “The Village Gods of South India.” Garland Publisher, 1980.

Websites:

Basel Mission Archives. http://www.bmarchives.org/items/show/100203066 http://dsal.uchicago.edu/maps/gazetteer/images/gazetteer_V18_pg250.jpg http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/in-an-ancient-land-trade-and-synagogues-in-south-india/

https://nammakarkala.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/tiger_dance.jpg https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0yxW5HTI5LU/VwkQfvQZugI/AAAAAAAAGXY/G2Xyfyz7WDg_g9a_ng_ fKjlNveuf5Qpcw/s1600/IMG_5235.jpg

http://www.udayavani.com/sites/default/files/images/english_articles/2016/10/2/yakshagana.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/1000-Pillar-Temple-_Moodbidri Right-Side-View.JPG/1200px-1000-Pillar-Temple-_Moodbidri-Right-Side-View.JPG

http://ste.india.com/sites/default/files/2015/10/04/419340-laterite.jpg https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/laterite-texture-26979430.jpg http://mythicalindia.com/features-page/the-precious-indian-spices-which-changed-the-histori cal-trajectory/ http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/19943-kambala-ancient-sport-buffalo-racing.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangaluru/kambala-fans-plan-protest-in-moodbidri on-jan-28/articleshow/56742075.cms

http://www.umich.edu/~umjains/jainismsimplified/chapter03.html http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~poyntz/India/maps.html http://dsal.uchicago.edu/maps/gazetteer/images/gazetteer_V18_pg250.jpg http://www.bmarchives.org/items/show/100203066 http://www.bmarchives.org/browse/#q=South%20Kanara&s=5&c=3166 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.jaindharmonline.com/pilgri/ mbidri.htm&gws_rd=cr&ei=0aeRWI-0DsvvvATD0oqoCg http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/in-an-ancient-land-trade-and-synagogues-in-south-india/ https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Alupas&item_type=topic http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/British/Amitav_Ghosh.html http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.columbia.edu%2Fitc%2F mealac%2Fpritchett%2F00generallinks%2Fibnbatuta%2F07china2.html%23malabar& date=2012-03-19 https://books.google.co.in/books?redir_esc=y&id=UAFuAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvol ume&q=1444 http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/in-an-ancient-land-trade-and-synagogues-in-south-india/ https://books.google.co.in/books?id=JtWGm4E4qZIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_ summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false http://www.deccanherald.com/content/469784/invoking-guardian-spirits-coastal-karnataka.html https://books.google.co.in/books?id=dXVOXRrYQiQC&pg=PR32&dq=mudabidri&hl=en&sa=X& redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mudabidri&f=false

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=sEhJBfbhTAAC&pg=PA252&dq=mudabidri&hl=en&sa=X& redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mudabidri&f=false https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ZOlNv8MAXIEC&pg=PA888&dq=paddana+Tulu+music+of+ south+india+book&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAyZ-t9cjTAhUDgI8KHfvyBwQQ6AEII jAA#v=onepage&q=paddana&f=false

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APPENDIX Term Paper (Semester Seven) Introduction

Defining Interface

The word “interface” means “a situation, way, or place where two things come together and

affect each other” (Def.2, Cambridge Online Dictionary). By the implication of this definition,

interface itself does not communicate but creates the condition where communication could

happen. This section investigates various terminologies that create similar conditions. The

word interface was first used by nineteenth century engineer and physicist James Thompson

in his prominent work on fluid dynamics. He describes interface as a dynamic boundary

condition, created when two immiscible fluids come in contact. Thompson uses the term

“dividing surface” as an interface which immediately brings up the question of how a surface

could belong to two separate bodies at the same time (Hookway, 2014). As Hookway explains,

the phrase “dividing surfaces” suggests the opening up of a space within the surface itself.

Since the exterior and interior meet at the surface, it is possible that the surface itself could be

the interface that forms a common boundary. But is surface a boundary then? Is boundary an interface?

Interface implies the intersection or the meeting of two entities and therefore, it can occur in any context. It is defined with various paradigms since the phenomenon is ambiguous. It could be a membrane like our skin or a wall or even a space like no man’s land. The term was first used in Physics; however the concept of interface is now being studied across disciplines in architecture, economics, geography, regional planning, city planning and more.

The topic is important since at any intersection of two entities, the crossing itself becomes a third entity. This paper tries to examine interfaces in the urban context to grasp an understanding of its role in the urban studies at a very preliminary level. There is a need for this examination at much greater depth to see what possibilities it could offer for the future of cities. This paper is structured to define and better understand the term interface and similar in-between spaces, and then to discuss specific scenarios on a macro and micro level. It looks at the interfaces of the city, between natural-artificial and rural-urban spaces to enquire the role of governance involved or required in these areas. This is followed by a study of interfaces within the city, between built-unbuilt and public-private places to understand the perception of space and social-cultural relations that exist at the interface. The objective of this paper is to discuss and better understand interfaces in the urban landscape.

Perhaps these are broader and deeper terms in themselves. One could question the nature of

boundaries: What is it and why do we have them in the first place? Thomas Nail suggests, “The

border is in between”, just like a cut made using a pair of scissors separates the page in two

and create a divide that is not paper. This is unlike what German philosopher and cultural

critic, Walter Benjamin reflected. In his Arcades project or Passagen-werk (1982), he writes

that while a boundary creates a separation, threshold is “a zone of transition” (Benjamin 1982:

vol. 1, 618). He writes:

(The) threshold must be sharply differentiated from the borders. The threshold is a

zone. Change, passage and ebb and flow are embedded in the word schwellen.

Etymology can not prevent us from noticing these meanings. (Teyssot, 2008)

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While borders and thresholds may not be the same, they both create the condition for communication. Additionally, the word schwellen is German for liminal (from the Latin word limen meaning threshold). The term liminality was first coined by Arnold Van Gennep who explored the concept of liminality in his work “Rites de Passage” published in 1909 implying that the “liminal phenomena” precisely stands on some social or experiential threshold. Again, thresholds are in-between spaces. George Teyssot draws from Leenhardt (1986: 169) to explain “the form of the threshold, as a temporal and spatial figure, is that of the between-the-two, of the medium that opens between two things” (Teyssot, 2005).

Benjamin seems to be familiar with Gennep’s work but it is built upon by British cultural anthropologist Victor Turner who demarcated liminal spaces as definite experiential and symbolic transition from one phase to the next, like for instance, passing through a door opening (Fornäs, 2002). He wrote

Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial. As such, their ambiguous and indeterminate attributes are expressed by a rich variety of symbols in the many societies that ritualize social and cultural transitions. (Turner, 1964)

Rural/Urban Interface

This leads one to an understanding that all in-between spaces are symbolic of some kind of

exchange. Nail justifies “the border is in motion” as the second consequence of border theory.

Benjamin calls the threshold a zone of transition. Turner adds the in-between liminal entities

reflect symbols of transition. These terms occur in various forms. Boundaries could be visible

(for example walls, fences), visible but transparent (glass surfaces, mirrors), or invisible

(territories or political boundaries). Till Boettger defines the threshold space can be

anything - a prelude, a barrier, an intermediate space, an inside or outside. Given the case, a

boundary can also be understood as a threshold (Boettger, 2014). Irrespective of their forms,

the common thread between all these terms is that they are in-between and hold a transitional quality.

Natural/Artificial Interface

The interface between natural and artificial environments is about the threshold between nature and city. We often think of cities as separate from nature but cities can also be looked at in totality with its natural ecosystems. They do not emerge coincidently (Ullman, 1941) but are a product and influence of socio-cultural relations and environmental resources. Basic necessities like access to water and wood attracted early humans to settle along rivers and forests in small communities. For instance, around 3500 BCE in the Americas, thousands of small settlements dotted the seashores and riverbanks. This ensured trade between inland people and coastal regions. Similar patterns were observed in Sub-Saharan Africa. As technology advanced, humans were successful at tapping the water from the rivers to store and irrigate. Cities expanded and were bound together “by a common culture, trade, and a shared environment shaped by the nearby rivers” (Tignor, 2003). So the interface with natural resources has evidently fed economies and therefore shaped cities since the early times. Sadly, often the development of the city comes at the expense of exploiting the earth.

The problem is to build a future city in such a manner that the advantages of urban concentration can be preserved for the benefit of man and the disadvantages minimized. (Chauncy, Ullman, 1945)

The hopeful solution to this problem could possibly be the term ‘territory’ that has recently entered in the study of human settlements. Giovanni Maciocco suggests territory is an inter mediate space. This concept denotes an understanding of the city – not limited to political territories but rather to a landscape of cultural exchange. He best explains the connection of the term with city and architecture as an approach to urban design where one does not simply considers environmental compatibility but instead considers the environmental dimension as “the actual base of a new form of creative imagination and disciplinary innovation.” So when territory is seen as in intermediate space, he adds:

It is also a metaphor for the passage of design from disciplinary soliloquy to multidisciplinary dialogical conception. This means that evolution in the forms and methods of disciplinary construction alone can correspond to the evolution of the city, new spatial events and the change in the urban condition. (Maciocco, 2014)

The contemporary process of urbanization aggravates a rural urban dichotomy (Narain, Banerjee, Anand, 2014). Large cities become focal points for economies leading to urban concentration and eventual exploitation of the earth. This transforms the rural hinterlands around the city into semi-urban or Peri-urban areas that are neither entirely urban nor rural. They form a complex interface in itself and shelter the spill-over population from the city. Most metropolitan cities in India have continued to grow laterally and can be best described by the census term UA short for ‘urban agglomeration’ (Shaw, 2005).

A study of peri-urban interface leads one to the understanding, that with continuous expansion at the peripheries, small cities and rural areas tend to be engulfed by the metropolis. This reflects a declining growth it the core of the city itself, while the exterior continues to expand outwards. Shaw further studies growth of city and suggests the need for planning and governance in these areas. He focuses on the issue of solid waste management and argues that these tasks “can’t be left to local level initiatives as community organizations that lack the specific resources or capacity to provide such service in its entirety.” It is therefore necessary to go beyond the ordinary urban or rural planning to bring about proper development of the peri-urban interface.

Ahmadabad, the capital city of Gujarat, India offers a study addressing the issues that exist at the interface of the developing city and its environment. Situated on the banks of the river Sabarmati, Ahmadabad grew as a leading textile manufacturer in the other half of nineteenth century, attracting labor class from different parts of the continent. This expanded the city’s boundaries towards the industries. With the gradual closure of mills, the services sector and causal labors were relocated to the peripheries that created the transitional peri-urban zone.

Right next to this zone, the locals who are engaged in agriculture often complain of severe air and ground water pollution. The negative effect on the agriculture profitability drives many to quit and hunt for other occupations.

Built /Un-built Interface

Urbanization and development are often linked with infrastructure and the built fabric of the city. While the term built seems self-explanatory, it is interesting to still question space.

‘Built space’, as commonly used, means ‘positive space’ — the space contained by that

which is built. We have developed both a highly differentiated sensibility and

vocabulary for dealing with the relationship of one building to another; however,

‘space’ — the space in which we all live and interact with each other — is called

‘negative space’. (Pfeiffer, 1980)

This drives one to question the very notion of ‘space’. According to Lefebvre,1 there are infinite

multitudes of spaces (from crude natural ‘absolute’ spaces to ‘abstract’ social spaces),

over-layered or contained within the other. He conceives space as an on-going process,

produced out of spatial relations and thus, space is some form of power. One of the key

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arguments in his book is that every society produces its own certain urban space, which is fundamental to its social control. Based on this argument, he critiques that planners often fail to grasp the social relations and spaces while intervening on the physical space.

Urbanization and development are often linked with infrastructure and the built fabric of the city. While the term built seems self-explanatory, it is interesting to still question space.

Built /Un-built Interface

‘Built space’, as commonly used, means ‘positive space’ — the space contained by that

which is built. We have developed both a highly differentiated sensibility and

vocabulary for dealing with the relationship of one building to another; however,

‘space’ — the space in which we all live and interact with each other — is called

‘negative space’. (Pfeiffer, 1980)

This drives one to question the very notion of ‘space’. According to Lefebvre,1 there are infinite

multitudes of spaces (from crude natural ‘absolute’ spaces to ‘abstract’ social spaces),

over-layered or contained within the other. He conceives space as an on-going process,

produced out of spatial relations and thus, space is some form of power. One of the key

arguments in his book is that every society produces its own certain urban space, which is

fundamental to its social control. Based on this argument, he critiques that planners often fail

to grasp the social relations and spaces while intervening on the physical space.

Architecture is likely to generate social interaction – as an interactive interface between the built and un-built fabric (Boettger, 2014). It plays vital part in the sub-division of spaces. The sub-division leads to a variety of zones defined by visible or invisible boundaries. Social inter action in the space partially relies on how we perceive these boundaries. Glass, for example, suggests openness, transparency and visibility thus, extends the perceived boundaries of space. A wall on the other hand, implies partition, privacy and security. Boundaries can also be porous or mark semi-partition, suggesting transience and interaction between two sides. Just as architecture, interior design holds equal potential to create spatial transience. In Arcades Project (Benjamin, 1999) the interiors of private domestic nineteenth century apartments are seen as “a lined container – as a compass casing or shell.” Although the contents of the space are on the interior, they are projected towards the exterior “like goods in a shop window or artifacts in the museum” (Teyssot, 2008).

As well expressed by Georges Teyssot, more than categorizing eras, forms or styles,

Benjamin depicts a cartography of intermediate zone: arcades, winter gardens,

factories, railroad stations, etc. Thanks to the use of new materials (glass, steel, etc.),

these in-between spaces produced not only a peculiar atmosphere, capable of

triggering physical and physiological experiences, but also provided a conceptual

ambiguity between what is public and private, hidden or revealed. (Corbo, 2016, p.22)

Thus, a study of surface materials could lead us to a deeper understanding of the

environments it could possibly generate.

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1

Based on selected excerpts from the book. Lefebvre, Henri. “Production of Space, translated by D. Nicholson-Smith.” Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991

Public/Private Interface

Although we experiences spaces as individuals, it is also interesting to see how we collectively understand and define spaces. Patterson attempts to push forward the meaning of public spaces based on notions of authority and assertions of collective ownership.

He insists that ‘public’ and ‘private’ spaces are not limited to their political-economic definitions but can rather be more fluid. Toni Sachs Pfeiffer, examines social behavior in built spaces to under these terms better. He writes

Sharon Zukin, in his book Landscapes of Power (1991) calls the blurring of boundaries between public and private space a state of “liminality”. He studies the transience from production-based economy to service and consumption-based economy, adding as to how capitalism is driving changes in our lives. However, Patterson insists liminality need not really mean the end of public spaces:

In order to approach this ‘space’ — the context of the social interaction itself — we must attempt to observe, identify and interpret the intricate interrelation of the chains of context/action/perception/reaction/attitude/opinion which cloud the use as well as the understanding of shared public open space. (Pfeiffer, 36)

Understanding public space in the age of liminality, therefore, means examining how people understand space themselves, categorizing it as “ours” rather than “mine”, “yours”, or “theirs”, and imbuing it with special significance relating to collective identity and public life.

Conclusion

List of References:

Boettger, Till. “Threshold Spaces: Transitions in Architecture.” Birkhäuser, Basel, 2014.

Corbo, Stefano. “Interior Landscapes: A visual atlas.” Images Publishing Group, 2016.

Harris Chauncy, and Edward Ullman. “The Nature of Cities.” The Annals of the American Academy of

Political and Social Science 242 (1945) Hookway, Branden. “Interface.” MIT Press, 2014.

Fornäs, Johan. “Passages across Thresholds: Into the Borderlands of Mediation.” The Journal of

Research into New Media Technologies, 89-106, 2002.

Lefebvre, Henri. “Production of Space, translated by D. Nicholson-Smith.” Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991.

Maciocco, Giovanni. “The territory as an intermediate space.” City, Territory and Architecture

(2014) 1:1.

Nail, Thomas. “The Theory of Border.” Oxford University Press, 2016.

Patterson, Matt. In-Between Public and Private Spaces: Emerging Spaces in Cities. (Presented at

Emerging Realities: A Social Sciences Graduate Conference University of Waterloo,

Waterloo, ON, October 2011).

Pfeiffer, Toni Sachs. “Behaviour and Interaction in Built Space.” Built Environment (1978-) 6, no. 1

(1980): 35-50.

Shaw, Annapurna. “Peri-Urban Interface of Indian Cities: Growth, Governance and Local Initiatives.”

Economic and Political Weekly 40, no. 2 (2005) Teyssot, George. Mapping the Threshold: “A Theory of Design and Interface” Architectural Association

School of Architecture, 2008.

Teyssot, George. “A Typology of Thresholds” Home Cultures, Berg, 2005.

Thomson, James. “Collected Papers in Physics and Engineering” University Press, 1912.

Tignor, Robert. Worlds Together Worlds Apart, selections from chapter 2, “Rivers Cities and First

States – 4000 to 2000 BCE.” (2011) Turner, Victor. “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage” in The Proceedings of

American Ethnological Society, 1964.

Ullman, Edward. “A Theory of Location for Cities.” American Journal of Sociology 46, no. 6 (1941) Vishal Narain, Poulomi Banerjee, and Pooja Anand. “The Shadow of Urbanization: The Periurban

Interface of Five Indian Cities in Transition” East West Centre Working Papers, No. 68 (2014) Zukin, Sharon. “Landscapes of Power: from Detroit to Disney.” Berkeley: University of California

Press, 1991.

The above enquiry has stimulated me as all these terms are closely linked and worth investigating. What I understand of interface is that it always stands in a relation and can be understood as a permeable zone. It could be the space within a surface or the space between two surfaces. It could be material (wall, door, window, glass…) or immaterial (territoriality, sub-divisions, spatial/social interaction…) It could be permanent or temporal, static or dynamic. Because it is in-between, the nature of this space is likely to encounter rich interaction or tension within the interface more than at the core of the entities. The natural/ artificial interface hints at the need for development that is sensitive to the environment where as, the rural/urban interface highlights the lack of governance at city peripheries. It is vital to study these in-between city spaces to recognize their potential to build cities that are looked at in totality with its environment and to build a future that enhances urban quality of living. Likewise, the built/un-built and the public/private interface mark the importance of collaborative process in place-making. It calls for the study of surfaces and materials that blur or expand the limits of boundaries and thus, hold the potential to generate inclusive and inter active urban spaces.

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SHUBHIKA DILIP MALARA Final Thesis Project 2017 (Undergraduate Professional Programme) Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka