Thesis Dissertation portfolio 2020-21 by Manish D. Shravane

SPACE OF INHABITATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE School of Environment and Architecture Manish D. Shravane | 2020-21 1

Certificate This is to certify that the dissertation titled 'Space of Inhabitaion and its Relationship with Artistic Experience' Is the work of Mr. Manish D. Shravane Whose signature appears below as Author. The Author certifies that this is the original work carried out by the Author and is not paraphrased, or copied in whole or in parts (except for those statements and graphics mentioned along with references) or submitted in any form to any other institution for obtaining an academic degree. The Supervisors whose names and signatures appear below confirm and certify: that the above mentioned dissertation is the original work of the above mentioned Author; that it is carried out under their supervision; and that the work is of acceptable quality necessary for partial completion of the course to obtain the Bachelor of Architecture Degree. The Director whose name and signature appears below certifies that the Supervisors are appointed by the School of Environment and Architecture for undertaking the above mentioned work and based on the evaluation of the Supervisors, the above work is acceptable for the partial completion of the course to obtain the Bachelor of ArchitectureDegree from University of Mumbai.

Author

Manish D. Shravane

Supervisor 1 Rupali Gupte

Examiner 1

Supervisor 2

Apurva Talpade

Institude Seal

Director

Ravindra Punde (School of Environment & Architecture)

Examiner 2

Abstract

The thesis starts with the question how does spatiality of inhabitation shape artistic thinking? For this, one has to define both inhabitation and artistic thinking.

feel, think and then act accordingly. Therefore the question arises here, does the nature of Inhabitation affect our imaginative thinking?

For defining artistic thinking I refer to several philosophers like John Dewey and Gaston Bachelard. According to these philosophers, whatever we see and do in our day to day life is an aesthetic experience. It is the ‘experience’ that we sometimes ignore, don't grasp or blur out and move on. For better understanding of ‘experience’, I refer to the physicist Richard Feynman's "Ode to the Flower". He tells the story of his disagreement with an artist who argued about who can better appreciate the beauty of a flower: artists or scientists. To hear Feynman tell it, the artist believed that a deep scientific understanding actually removed some appreciation of the flower as simply a beautiful thing. In other words, knowing the processes that created a thing could detract from appreciation of that thing. Whereas Feyman said, “I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic?” These are questions that produce an intensity of life. An artist is one who goes through those experiences and produces art.

In order to understand this I studied four artistic practices and their inhabitations. Through the four cases I was able to extend the argument that artistic experience comes from the intensity of living. In the first case, an artistic experience is shaped through the multiplicity of the idea of home as neighbourhood at one scale and the idea of home as universe on the other, and through the multiplicity of stories that shape this inhabitation. The second case shows an artistic experience is produced through intense overlaps of spaces as the home and the karkhana intertwine to produce a density of experiences. In the third case, artistic experience is realised through intense dynamic atmospheres, where the gymkhana is kind of an extension to artistic practices that shapes the nature of space. The Fourth experience shows how intensity of experience is produced through engagements with labour that produces cities and the materiality of the art experience encompasses dust, and tattoos and powadas. The structure of my drawings that record these artistic experiences also inhabit this intensity and density. The corollary for architectural design processes, would then be what kind of inhabitation could generate dense artistic experiences?

Art need not be a mystery. Art involves thinking. Thinking is never fixed. I think ‘artistic thinking’ means the way of looking at a problem or situation in fresh perspective also as an opportunity. For many artists, imaginative thought may arise during the process of making. In this social,cultural practices and beliefs also shape artistic ways of thinking. On studying philosophers like Baudelaire and Nietsche, I further argue that artistic experience comes through the intensity of living life. ‘Space of Inhabitation’, can also be defined in multiple ways. Inhabitation may be temporary space where we spend our valuable time, example, time spent at the work space, walking on street, sitting in public space ( play ground, movie theater, market, gymkhana,neighbours house etc.) In all of these situations we go through unique experiences. Depending on the nature of the space, we learn something,

Acknowledgement

I would like to take this opportunity and express my gratitude towards all those who have contributed in making of this dissertation possible, without whom this dissertation wouldn’t have taken the shape that it has come to take. I am sincerely thankful to all faculty family of my school of environment and architecture collage, bachment, studentbody, who support me both emotionally and financially when i was suffering in difficult time of my life in Pandemic time. also they help me to concentrate on study. I would specially like to thank Rupali Gupte and Apurva Talpade, my supervisors for helping me shape and refine the dissertation project in terms of argument and explore new ways of drawings. be availabe when required, and be able to spend thire valuable time and contiuse discussion on question paper and reading helped to sharpen my argument. I would also like to thank Prasad shetty for their guidance and inputs. Helped to stay on track in process of reserch. I am immensely grateful to my family, Mother- Deepa Deepak shravane and Sister -Tejasvi Deepak Shravane for their continuous support mentally to stay focus on study. Finally, I would like to thank all my peers, batchmates and seniore especially, Herin vora, Akshay Savla, Rushikesh Hirulkar, Chinmay Redkar, Mihir Desai for engaging in constant discussions and providing me with constant support. also thanks to my school friends, Akshay Gurav and Naresh Pashte for their constant support and belief in me. at the time of interviewing, they used to come with me to interviwee's house.

Content 01 Understanding 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Research Scope 1.3 Research Methodology

02 Phase I Operational Concepts 2.1 Idea of an ‘Artist’ 2.2 Socio-cultural setting 2.3 Role of Intrinsic motivation 2.4 Perception & empathy 2.5 Creative & imaginative thinking 2.6 Role of physical environment

03 Phase II Interviews

04 Conclusion 05 References

01 Understanding

1.1 Introduction What does it mean when we talk about artistic thinking and where it originated from? How can one become an artist and who do we call an artist? Which factors help to facilitate artistic thinking? How does critical and creative thinking shape the human perspective of living and seeing the world? And why is it important?

Also artists have some space to think, have some space to practice. I'm interested in ‘the space between thoughts’.There is an idea of continuity in the thinking process. Buddha believed that thoughts are disconnected,disparate. Our mind does a lot of things without even getting noticed by us. Thoughts may come and go rapidly. The person may not be able to concentrate on one thought for very long and may be easily distracted. But where does magical thinking emerge from? How does one artist come up with that one ‘magical thought’. Our sense of emotions and thoughts are tightly connected with our perceptions of geography, and patterns of spatiality. Then the question comes into mind: what is the relationship between Physicality of space and magical thinking? Does the presence of physical space affect creative thinking? What is the role of the physical environment in creative thinking?

These questions arise in my mind several times when the word 'artist’ comes into the picture. Thinking is an activity that we continuously practice in our day to day life but when we talk about ‘artistic thinking’ we wonder what that is. Artistic thinking perhaps can be understood as that which can be imagined, and that which can be thought of as being possible. It is that thinking which makes us critical or curious about something and that which creates or discovers something new. The new solution though always has a background. Humans are affected and shaped by social experience and circumstances within the context where we inhabit. Therefore the hypothesis here is that artistic thinking has a relationship to one's inhabitation. As a child, studying in the 4th standard,I remember the day we celebrated ‘Nag Panchami’ like we used to celebrate every festival in school. That day we Worshiped the idol of Nag devta and then everyone got busy with their activities. I started trying to draw the image of Nag Devta sitting in front of that idol. My teacher came to me and said, ‘ Nice, you draw well, keep it up’.Those words built confidence in me. Those words motivated me to get involved in any drawing related work that came up in school., Due to which my interest in drawing increased day by day. And after that teacher started calling me an ‘Artist’. This was the beginning of my journey as an Artist. After that, I started to experiment with different kinds of drawings and mediums., like watercolor, oil paint, Ganpati in word, 3d drawing, portrait, caricature. I think when you draw something and are curious about it then you deeply and closely start to observe each thing and you totally get involved in it. I think the more we become involved, the more we observe and then we start to see everything from a different perspective. I also started comparing and questioning everything. How is it similar or different? And why is it like that? And slowly I realised that art had some power to communicate and engage with people. There are socio-cultural practices in the environment, community, politics, language of the place where we grow. All of these shape our artistic thinking in a different way. Our environments become generators of certain myths and beliefs.

1.2 Research

scope

1.3 Research

Methodology

1.1 Research aim Study explores the relationship between the Inhabitation, workspace (physical environment) of an artist and creative thoughts. It tries to understand how physical space within a workspace of an artist influences creative thinking. How do physical environments contribute to shape artistic thinking? What is the role of public space (It may be a workspace) and private space in artistic thinking?

In order to carry out research, I have chosen to work with 4 artists in which three are in my neighborhood including me and one is referred to by others. I conducted unstructured interviews and free flowing conversations with the artists and engaged in in depth study of the artist’s inhabitation, socio-cultural practices, circumstances along with drawing out the experience which shapes the ways of thinking and imagination of the artists.

1.2 Research objective

Experience of inhabiting an artist does not allow me to draw in a single method but seeing in multiple lenses through artistic practice. Through the drawings I also built their own memories of their spaces.

By taking an in-depth look at observations of varieties of creative, imaginative, magical thoughts produced by Artists and also their preference, perception, empathy and cognition the objective is to establish the relationship between the spatiality of an artist's inhabitation, workspace and their way of thinking. Its further objective is to understand the role of socio-cultural practice, everyday practices and politics, and circumstance within a physical environment in shaping the way of thinking. The overall objective is to reimagine the idea of home for Artists.

1.3 Research question What is the relationship between spatiality of our inhabitation and Artistic thinking? Does spatiality of our inhabitation affect the artistic thinking in people?

02 Phase I (Interviews)

2.1 Operational

Concepts

In order to answer research questions ( Important to understand ), the thesis is based on the following Operative concepts to workout the argument through. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

beauty. During the Middle Ages the word artist already existed in some countries such as Italy, but the meaning was something resembling craftsman, while the word artisan was still unknown. An artist was someone able to do a work better than others, so the skilled excellency was underlined, rather than the activity field. In this period some "artisanal" products (such as textiles) were much more precious and expensive than paintings or sculptures. The first division into major and minor arts dates back at least to the works of Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472): De re aedificatoria, De statua, De pictura, which focused on the importance of the intellectual skills of the artist rather than the manual skills (even if in other forms of art there was a project behind). With the Academies in Europe (second half of 16th century) the gap between fine and applied arts was definitely set. Many contemporary definitions of "artist" and "art" are highly contingent on culture, resisting aesthetic prescription, in much the same way that the features constituting beauty and the beautiful cannot be standardized easily without corruption into kitsch.

Idea of an ‘Artist’ Socio-cultural setting Role of Intrinsic motivation Perception & empathy Creative & imaginative thinking Role of physical environment

2.1 [ Idea of an ‘Artist' ]

(look at other references)

2.1.1 What are the definitions in a Dictionary ? Wiktionary defines the noun 'artist' as follows:

2.1.3 The current concept of an 'artist'

1. A person who creates art. 2. A person who creates art as an occupation. 3. A person who is skilled at some activity.

Artist is a descriptive term applied to a person who engages in an activity deemed to be an art. An artist also may be defined unofficially as "a person who expresses himself- or herself through a medium". The word is also used in a qualitative sense of, a person creative in, innovative in, or adept at, an artistic practice. Most often, the term describes those who create within a context of the fine arts or 'high culture', activities such as drawing, painting, sculpture, acting, dancing, writing, filmmaking, new media, photography, and music—people who use imagination, talent, or skill to create works that may be judged to have an aesthetic value.

2.1.2 The Oxford English Dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term "artist": • A learned person or Master of Arts • One who pursues a practical science, traditionally medicine, astrology, alchemy, chemistry • A follower of a pursuit in which skill comes by study or practice • A follower of a manual art, such as a mechanic • One who makes their craft a fine art • One who cultivates one of the fine arts – traditionally the arts presided over by the muses A definition of Artist from Princeton.edu: creative person (a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination).

In Living with Art, Mark Getlein proposes six activities, services or functions of contemporary artists: 1. Create places for some human purpose. 2. Create extraordinary versions of ordinary objects. 3. Record and commemorate. 4. Give tangible form to the unknown. 5. Give tangible form to feelings.

The word art derives from the Latin "ars" (stem art-), which, although literally defined, means "skill method" or "technique", and conveys a connotation of

6. Refresh our vision and help see the world in new ways.

“Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value judgments. An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man's nature.” Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

3.1.4 QUOTATIONS ABOUT ARTISTS These relevant quotations express the opinion of Saints, philosophers, scientists, painters, musicians, engravers, writers, sculptors, essayists, politicians, novelists... probably, the most exciting souls in the Humanity's history. ‘Your thinking could be our guides’. That is, really, the motive and the purpose of this choice.

“An artist's sphere of influence is the world.” Carl von Weber (1786-1826)

"My own general thesis was somewhat to this effect: that Artists have worried the world by being wantonly, needlessly, and gratuitously progressive. Politicians have to be progressive; that is, they have to live in the future, because they know they have done nothing but evil in the past. But Artists, who have been right from the beginning of the world, who were, perhaps, the only people who were right even in the beginning of the world, decorating pottery or designing rude frescoes on the rock when other people were fighting or offering human sacrifice, they have no right to despise their own past.” G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

“The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.” Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) “To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.” Robert A. Schumann (1810-1856)

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“An artist's career always begins tomorrow.” James Whistler (1834-1903)

“The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.” Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

“Only an artist can interpret the meaning of life.” Novalis (1772-1801)

“An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

“A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one.” Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

“The artist needs no religion beyond his work.” Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

“What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one.... It’s this in-between that I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one—which is really the realm of the artist.” Federico Fellini (1920-1993)

“An artist is a man of action, whether he creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of a complicated situation.” Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) “The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.” Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

2.2 Socio-Cultural setting

2.3 Role of Intrinsic Motivation

Each person is born into a social and cultural setting - home, family, community,neighborhood, social class, language, local religion, culture, belief, education system, law_This eventually develops many social connections. These social practices affect the characteristics of a child’s, how he or she learns to think and behave. And then there are children's mostly informal communication and interaction with friends, relatives, entertainment, news media, social media, technology. How individuals will respond or believe to all these influences or which influence is the most powerful to them. I think that shapes the human’s way of behaviour and thinking process. Furthermore culturally induced behaviour patterns, such as speech pattern, body language, form of humor, emotions, become deeply embedded in the human mind that also operates some form of thought process in mind because of that the individual moves or works in a specific way.

Does the nature of motivation affect creative thinking? If yes then how? When we live in a socio-cultural setting, there are two kinds of motivation that also shape or make artists more creative. That is extrinsic motivation (which is coming from outside and it is not related or belonging to some particular thing) and another is intrinsic motivation (Self-internal satisfaction_which arises from within an individual). I think, Extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation work together because the extrinsic motivation keeps you motivated in your work till yourself feel enjoyable.

Every culture includes a somewhat different web of thinking - living pattern and meanings, ways of earning a living, system of trades and government, education system, social roles, religion, tradition in clothing and food and arts, expectation for behaviour, attitudes toward other cultures, and belief and value about all of those activities.

Intrinsic motivation means that the motivation to do things comes from within. You don’t do something because you get paid for it or because you get punished if you don’t do it. Rather, you do things because you think they are interesting, you like the challenge, you want to get recognized by others or because you could learn new things. “Intrinsic motivation is defined as enjoyment of and interest in an activity for its own sake and is an important outcome of achievement goal theory and implicit theories” (Cury, Elliot, Da Fonseca, & Moller, 2006).

The class into which people are born affects what language, diet, tastes, and interests they will have as children, and therefore influences how they will perceive the social world.

“people will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself — not by external pressures.” -Teresa Amabile

There are four sources of intrinsic motivation that affects Artistic thinking, they are the sense of Meaningfulness, Choice, Competence, Progress. 1)Meaningfulness - what you are doing is important and you feel that you are contributing to something real value. 2)Choice - You perceive a possibility to influence your work. Connects to feeling of ownership and responsibility for your own work. 3)Competence - You feel like you perform your work task exquisitely and feel proud of your high quality performance. 4)Progress - You have confidence in the future and think that you are doing the right thing. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.

2.4 Perception & Empathy How does perception in artistic thinking change our world view and perspective? Why should we care about empathy?What is the role of perception & empathy in creative thinking?

are very good at understanding what somebody else wants, needs, and feels. We try to realise or understand other people's reality too. We try to understand another person's perspective.

Perception is when people choose to make decisions based on what they see, hear or feel and reality is based on fact knowledge and experiences. Here decisions are based on a presumed assumption which is a reflection of who we are and where we come from. It is the ability to understand something by processing, analysing, responding to sensory information.

Being an empathic person we actively think beyond ourselves and our own concerns. We can develop this empathy skill by practicing simple habits of being observant, honest to multiple realities, and respectful. We have to accept the fact that there is always the possibility of finding a new angel from another's perspective. We watch and wonder. Try to focus on the personal state of being rather than categorizing or labeling them. We ask ourselves what kind of day are they having, how are they feeling, challenging yourself to genuinely care about their well being curiosity. Using active listening, we open up learning more about other people's experiences. This is the key element to seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. But this also opens us up to our own feelings and experiences that we sometimes relate or encounter.Human experiences are shared experiences and that helps to expand our perception towards the universe.

Our brain is used to storing information in the knowledge bank so that we can recall it when we require it, to relate and make our decisions, tapping into our own memories and experiences rather than the experience of others. The typical process of brain behaviour is to put yourself first. Perception is related to solving the problem which is unknown. In the brain we cannot remember everything that we encounter so it has filtered out information or limited knowledge. It leaves us with only the way we perceive the world through the information that aligns with our belief and values. Perception and reality co exist to help us make sense of the world around us. Perception can distort our reality.‘We can see but we can’t see’ Artistic perception is where we see the world from different angles and continuously try to define and carve out new meanings, definitions and values from today's reality. ‘Art is not what you see, it is what you make others see’ _ Edgar Degas Empathy is part of the art of living.We are living in our own version of reality. Reality is limited by our senses, temperament and own experience. We are social animals and our ability to communicate and understand each other's personal emotion is the key to maintaining our relationships. Empathy attempts to understand another person’s perspective, their emotions and essences, their reality. Therefore we make the effort to try and experience other people as well. This is done through empathy. Is empathy something that happens individually? Can it also be a collective force? I think artists are empathic people. They tend to be very sensitive listeners. They

2.5 Imagination & Creativity Where does Imagination & creativity originate from? What is the source? How does it work together?

we think creatively there is no single correct answer, there are many possible alternatives. Then the question arises here is how do we assign value to a new idea?or preserve it? because we have never seen that before, nobody else has seen that before. Also we think if this is correct, somebody else would have done it before me. These are natural mechanisms with which we kill our own ideas. But we forget that everyone has their own paths, thinking and thought processes, directions, experiences, which they reach at that point. Sometimes our initial idea and final idea doesn’t match but maybe it solves other problems. Creative people think through their unique perspectives.

Imagination is not what we think, It is how we think. Imagination is the engine of our lives. It comes from cultural ideas, personal experiences and beliefs. Imagination is situated between our perception and our understanding. Albert Einstein also noted that imagination is more important than knowledge. Any knowledge we have come from something we previously imagined. Kant wrote in 1780, “we do not see the world the way it is; we see the world according to our instrument”. Also ‘Kant and Kahneman’ saying something much more important they said, “Our instrument of perception, our instrument of understanding that something is going to be easy for us to perceive and understand the universe around us is hidden in plain sight.” It is that which we can’t see. Here instruments become sight, hearing, smell, technology, machines,devices anything that expands our understanding and imagination. Questioning everything that we can’t understand, the habit of knowing and being curious about things could be the origin of imagination. For example, why don't I hear or smell as my dog does? Why are humans only walking on ground? Why not on sky? Can we travel with our homes from place to place? What would happen when we lived under the water or nest on a tree? What would happen when we fly like birds? What would happen if we were to read the human brain and thinking process? Albert Einstein also questioned ‘ what would happen if I ran at the speed of light?’ The questioning process, thought experiments lead us to make new connections between existing realities. We tend to combine fantasy and reality. Sometimes words also evoke experience and imagination, beyond reality. Imagination makes reality different. Sometimes fear challenges discomfort and sparks our imagination that discovers new realities. We don’t know which our idea may materialise but we need to give ourselves more freedom to write our own reality, believing in that one thought, idea. Imagination is the beginning of creation. When our mind isn’t fixated on certain outcomes, it is flexible, it is adaptable. If we keep our mind open, we perceive all the experiences the world has. Imagination and creativity has no preset direction.For associations of ideas, combinations of ideas, extraction of principles, we need to be open minded, we need to be fluent, look for alternatives, not for the correct answer, because when

2.6 Role of physical environment How does the physical environment impact on artistic thinking and imagination?

Blue and Green – evoke calmness. Therefore, a room may feel big, small, gloomy, vibrant, etc. depending on the colour palette chosen. So be very mindful of what kind of colours you choose because they certainly have a psychological effect in a given space. Light is another element that affects the psychology of space. A dim light may give the appearance of a sad and gloomy room while bright light brings in high energy and makes the room look spacious. It is for this very reason that in interior designing, designers pay keen attention to natural light in the plan. When it comes to lighting, every place has its own lighting specifications. The lighting of a restaurant would differ from that of an office or home. It all depends on what kind of vibe you want to create. Apart from the above, there are many other elements such as texture and shape that influence the emotional and psychological aspect of a space. Gaston Bachelard in ‘Poetics of Space’ and Juhani Pallasma in ‘Eyes of the Skin’, speak of the ‘atmosphere’ of spaces that create a memorable experience. This atmosphere is created by light, smells and the intimacy of space. Gaston Bachelard says a hermit’s hut is more artistic than a king’s palace. It is the atmosphere of a place that creates its poetic inhabitation.

We spend our lives in physical reality. Physical reality could be anything that we interact with objects, shape and form,space and light etc. The space we inhabit or occupy has a major role in our physiological behaviour. There are lots of things that we encounter in space: Lighting, colors, configuration, scale, proportions, acoustics, and materials address the senses of the individual and generate a spectrum of feelings and practices. Space can have a whole lot of impact on how we act or what we feel, on our mood, behaviour and physical activities. Our human relationship and behaviour always has the context of a built and natural environment. Therefore, design and creative measures should be considered according to the social and psychological needs of the occupants. Christele Harrouk wrote in 'Psychology of space’(2020), ‘While key factors that architects need to pay attention to include safety, social connectedness, ease of movement, and sensory stimulation; more concrete measures encompass light, colors, ventilation, etc. For example, some principles of design comprising balance, proportion, symmetry, and rhythm can introduce a sense of harmony. Colors, on the other hand, have a very simple logic behind them, the warmer the color is, the more compact space becomes. They can also evoke feelings of comfort or stimulate communication. Light depends greatly on the function. A dim light suggests a gloomy space while a bright light defines a bigger animated appearance. Natural light stimulates production and recovery. Therefore most of the artists choose to work in natural light.While some spaces add up to your anxiety, others provoke a sense of serenity, and you can’t seem to know why. In fact, not always evidence-based, environmental psychology focuses more on research, and on people’s interactions with their surroundings.Psychology of space is also affected by colours. The logic is simple. Warm colours create a close and compact environment. Bright colours boost the mood.’ Hamstech on ‘Psychology of space’,(2018) gives us some examples of colours and their emotional effects on human minds. Yellow, Orange, Green –encourage communication and socializing. Purple, Deep Blue, Red and Dark Green – reflect a gloomy mood but if applied in a minimal amount, can evoke a feeling of comfort.

03 Phase II

Interivewee 1 Profile

‘Neighbourhood as home’

Name : Manish D. Shravane (Myself) Intrest and profession : (Student of Architecture)

I grew up within a working class community, who provide services to build our city and keep it clean. In it sanitation workers, construction workers, housekeepers, painters, plumbers, electricians, sculptures etc. live. These are people who have the ability to build their own worlds. These people come together and build incremental housing with constant negotiation with the neighbourhood, building step by step. This is a space of deep political negotiations.

Location : Thane(w). ( Chiragnagar )

“As an architecture student I am personally obsessed with creating miniature worlds & incremental architectures practices. I am fascinated by stories attached to spaces and also obsession with sanitation and its practices.”

In this drawing there are multiplicity of stories happening in every place. The maidan is the space where everyone meets during the evening after coming from work. Children play dabba, kanche, chapri, cricket below the peepal tree some time they rest on the wall and chi -chat. Near the peepal tree there is a liquor shop, from which people collect alcohol from and come to their adda under the ‘bore’ tree where they sit and enjoy. Women from the Valmiki from the Valmiki community come for worshiping the peepal tree in the mornings and evenings and on the day of Vat Pournima. On the other side where the ground is covered with bushes, plants and trees some people go for open defecation. Some children have clandestine meetings to discuss secret things, some people go to smoke ganja, some go to attend their personal calls which they want to hide from the community. Some parts of the maidan thus becomes a place of escape and secret practices away from the inquisitive gaze of the community. Along the settlement there is a long wall which has become a garden over the years with all kinds of plants. For me the Gully is a storytelling gallery that tells every household’s story. While walking through any Gully you get to know different stories. If we have an interest in it we can pause, try to know, interfere, give our point of view or if not we can move on.

‘Home as universe’ I grew up in an 8x12 space size of room and there is a multiplicity of stories and activities that shape my inhabitation here. There is white board on the wall, on which my mom writes whatever work needs to be done for the whole day before going to work. This single small white board drive the whole home.Right in the middle of the room is a cupboard with a mirror on it. If you look into the mirror, the whole house seems to be covered in it and the reflection expands the room. Space limitations and arrangement of furniture give the place a new meaning. We keep the television on continuously, whether there is someone watching or not. The sound thus fills the home all the time. The house is always full of people. Neighbours move in and out as if it is their home. The home is always talkative. Never calm. That also affects my behaviour. Having lived for 20 years in a 8x12 size of space, but with all its intensities as discussed above, I often wonder how much space does a human being need to live? Some of my friends who live in bigger houses but confined with the 1 BHK logic, say their ways of living are also confined by the limited possibilities of the space. My home is a universe and my neighbourhood is a home. This has shaped my thinking in many ways. In Borges’s short story ‘The Aleph’, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe. It is an infinite space. My house and its extension feel like an Aleph which has the whole world in it. It holds all the intensities that make life. It shapes my artistic experience. From this I wonder can an alternative inhabitation be thought of which expands our definitions of home and the intensity of life? Can it be an Aleph?

Interivewee 2 Profile

‘Neighbourhood as knowledge builder’

Name : Avinash Padwalkar

Artists see the city through layered integrated practices that build collective knowledge to shape their own artistic practices and experiences in that place. Avinash grew up in a village in Kokan. His family’s profession was carpentry. He also had a khandani workshop for making Ganesh idols. Where he sat and watched his family makie Ganpatis. The atmosphere of the place shaped his thinking. The proportions of ganesh idols, their body language, expressions, are fixed in his mind. For some reason he had to stop working in the workshop and he moved to Mumbai in Thane, Chirag nagar area. That was a time when migrants were pouring into Mumbai. Construction demand was high and for him the opportunity of finding work increased. Then he started to build houses for them. Most of the houses around his home were built by him. One day the area was affected by jaundice. Then he started to research medicines that work on the disease. He visited villages where medicines for jaundice were made. He started making these medicines and that became his side-business. People also started calling him Vaidya. He had a hunger to learn. Later he saw that in the area, lots of people do satyanarayan poojas. In his area there was only one bhagat who was practicing. Then he learnt his methods and also started practicing as a Bhagat.

Intrest and profession : (Carpenter, Ganesh Sculptor, Painter, bhagat) Location : Thane(w). ( Chiragnagar )

“The circumstance, time and place teach us a lot if you want to learn. My art never depended on one thing, it kept evolving according to time and place.”

In Avinash Padwalkar’s case I find that his life is built through layers of experience where he has constantly built himself through new professions, The drawing is sculpted through layering of spaces and activities which for me is Avinash’s artistic experience. There are two kinds of practices that happen in one space, Where one corner of the room is dedicated to his practice of making Ganesh idols, another corner is dedicated to his practice as a bhagat. The home thus becomes half temple, half karkhana. Avinash’s house is a space with multiple layers - the space under the staircase, the upper floor that has been incrementally constructed, multiple places for storage and places to practice idol making and to practice his priestly duties. The house is a collage and to me this is his intense artistic experience.

nterivewee 3 Profile

Neighbourhood as support network

Name : Bandu khaire Intrest and profession : ( Ganesh Sculptor, Painter )

Bandu Khaire worked under maji nagarsevak Bal Nandurkar. They used to have a large factory at that time for making ganpati idols. There he started to focus on learning and then initially worked in making moulds, and then slowly started painting. 10 year ago, he thought of taking this art forward. But he did not have a big karkhana space like Nandurkar, so he started practicing in the temple of Hanumanji near Laxminagar. He had to move because of public functions happening there. Later he built a pavilion in Sahyog Mitra mandal ground for himself under the pretext that it is a monsoon shed. He started practicing on the ground. Many people came to know and recognize him. But during one monsoon season, the pavilion blew away due to the strong winds. Then the people of Sahyog Mitra Mandal came to him and gave him a rented room on the first floor of the Vyamshala letting him know that he can practice comfortably here. Right now he is working here for the last 8 years. Therefore this space is very much connected to him. Below there is a vada pav stall, If there is more work to do, then he stays up late eating Vada Pav they get from there. Young children from neighbouring homes also come here to spend time here. When ganpatis are ready they install a temporary exhibition. People keep coming to see and place orders. When he gets orders from mandals, he has to make big idols. For that he extends a temporal bamboo pavilion outside attached to the gymkhana. The gymkhana also becomes his temporary workshop at times.

Location : Thane(w). ( Chiragnagar )

'Bandu Khaire’s practice as an artist is shaped by the city. His workshop is built in the city through networks and associations he has built with city inhabitants.'

Interivewee 4 Profile Name : Amol Patil Intrest and profession : ( Artist ) Location : Parel

He always used their grandfather and father's archival material. His grandfather was a powada singer, poetry singer and wrote theater scripts, acting also. The script is related to social issues, because he lived in Crawford market in a chawl along with mill workers, sanitation workers etc. In 2015, he started to read and document those places. He went to a Grant road and interviewed people who live in BDD chawl, particularly sanitation workers. He says about sanitation workers, ‘ They work for us, they enter the sewage tank and clean our dirt without any safety or protection costume. These are government workers but the government does not look at them and give them proper costumes and safety equipment. They seem to be invisible and are treated like untouchable people in our city. Because of our dirt, lots of sanitary workers die every month. It indirectly affects their children. Because of no money to survive in the city , and no opportunities, children also leave school and join their parents' practices as sanitation workers. That touched him alot and he also started to look through that lens, and spread awareness about those people and issues of society through their artistic practice.

'Amol Patil’s artistic experience comes from deep engagements with society. His art work mixes intensities of these inhabitations by bringing in extreme materials like dust, dirt, mud, and the materials of everyday life that point to deep social hierarchies that are invisible to society that he is trying to make visible.'

04 Conclusion

4.1 Conclusion Through the four cases I was able to extend the argument that artistic experience comes from the intensity of living. Intensity of social-cultural practices replace morality. Intensity of life itself is an artistic experience. These artistic experiences are shaped by one's inhabitations. In all four cases inhabitations are formed through intense overlapping experiences which have shaped artistic thinking. In each of the cases the drawings are able to speak of the intensities of both the inhabitation and the artistic experience. The corollary for architectural design processes, would then be what kind of inhabitation could generate dense artistic experiences?

05 Bibliography

“Chapter 7: Human Society.” Accessed December 20, 2020. hamstech. “Interior Designing: Psychology of Space.” Hamstech Blog (blog), January 12, 2018. Morikawa, Merit. “Motivating Creativity - The Why and How of Intrinsic Motivation.” Accessed December 20, 2020. Popova, Maria. “Ode to a Flower: Richard Feynman’s Famous Monologue on Knowledge and Mystery, Animated.” Brain Pickings (blog), January 1, 2013. ArchDaily. “Psychology of Space: How Interiors Impact Our Behavior?,” March 20, 2020. Sullivan, Graeme. “Artistic Thinking as Transcognitive Practice: A Reconciliation of the Process-Product Dichotomy.” Visual Arts Research 27, no. 1 (2001): 2–12. TEDx Talks. Creative Thinking - How to Get out of the Box and Generate Ideas: Giovanni Corazza at TEDxRoma, 2014. TEDx Talks. Imagination: It’s Not What You Think. It’s How You Think | Charles Faulkner | TEDxIIT, 2017.

Thesis Dissertation portfolio 2020-21

Articles inside

Phase II

Understanding