The Transforming Malabar by Sanika Sahasrabuddhe

THE TRANSFORMING MALABAR

Shifting grounds of the Western Ghats

The ‘Reimagining the Western Ghats’ Project

2014 Sanika Sahasrabuddhe, Shambhavi Singh,Law Environment and Design Lab.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The working methodology of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Reimagining the Western Ghatsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; project is a part of a studio environment. It is impossible for this project to have manifested the way it has, without the help of the critical and supportive feedback of our facilitators and teachers. Collective efforts reflect more synergy than individual work. We are truly thankful to Mr. Dilip da Cunha to have given us insightful knowledge and understanding to see the strength of design as a tool of research and analysis and to guide us as we built our plot as lens to view the Western Ghats. Secondly, we would like to thank Ms. Deepta Sateesh for leading the studio and giving our project direction, and to help us shape it into a design intervention through which we can present our findings. Dr. Vivek Dhareshwar and Ms. Arpitha Kodiveri were of invaluable help with their immense knowledge about social science and law respectively.

They contributed great to our design process through critical feedback and questioning helped us ground our research in reality. Their emphasis on reading and writing has helped us think more responsibly and apply our learnings to our design practice. Our field visit to the Agumbe Rainforest Reseach Station gave us field experience and helped us shape our understanding of the western ghats as a place of richness and multiplicity. The staff at ARRS catered to our every need of food, shelter and knowledge while we explored Agumbe. We could not have completed this project without the guidance and kindness of Gowri, Dheeraj, Ram and Dheeraj, who helped us inspite of rigorous work schedules. Last but not the least we would like to sincerely thank Malvika Tewari, Bidisha Das and Stella James for engaging in our work, and being always ready to listen as we developed our projects.

CONTENTS

Introduction Process Field Trip and Methodology Interpretation of Data Final Representation Conclusion

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INTRODUCTION This project is a part of a larger body of work that entails Reimaging and Reimagining Landscapes, specifically, the Western Ghats. The objective is to propose a new way of looking, a novel point of enquiry, study and interaction with a landscape. This mode of enquiry can translate into interventions that lay ground for a more resilient environment. The project aims to use design to research, understand, interpret and represent complex environments such that it brings out the richness of its processes, forms, functions and relationships. Our project under this scope of study, reimagines the Western Ghats as a region of transformations. Over centuries, the Malabar Coast has been represented as a line, a line that divides land and sea, a line that is fixed on a map and doesn’t change, a line that lies between two ways of being - the way of the land and that of the sea. Through our interpretation and representations we establish that that coast is not just a line, but a region of flux where transformations take place. And these transformations are that of commodification - taking something ordinary and making it extraordinary. For the purpose of this study, a lens was developed. A lens is a unique way of seeing, a tool to traverse and observe the Western Ghats. Field research was located in following areas - Manipal Town, Udupi, Malpe Fishing Port, St. Mary’s Island and Agumbe

rainforest. Through our lens, ‘transformation’ (which is elaborated in the next section), various processes were observed in the Western Ghats. Certain processes are elevated as being transformative, from everything that was observed and the information that was gathered. Along the scale of time, objects and systems transform to change form and state and assume another. A significant change that is transformative in many ways is commodification. Commodification in its broad meaning is taking something ordinary and making it into something extraordinary. The commodity then has heightened value than its previous state. The Agent is one that brings about this change in state, making it extraordinary. These agents are people, birds and insects, mammals and also the wind, daylight, rain and sun. Some processes take place with movement (space) while others with time. Some processes are gradual while some fast. Commodification brings utility value to the agent causing it. With this lens, humans building a settlement and say a woodpecker carving a nest in a tree trunk can be observed as similar, rather than different. Thus building a coast with these processes renders it to be a more dynamic region than it has so far been represented as. A constant state of flux and porosity defines the coast in our imagination and coast is no longer just the line that divides the land and sea but it is something that is forever undergoing transformation.

PROCESS The process of developing a lens, and subsequently a plot, was a rigorous one. It untertook working in pairs, branstroming sessions, observation excercises, long discussions that often diverge from the point of focus. Suspension of judgement and questioning all previous knowledge was constant. A theoretical inquiry through Liberal Arts was incorporated to give design research a grounding in related matters. But mostly the building of a Lens was done through the exploration of a Particular. As the project takes on the inquiry of the ghats, a particular from the Ghats was selected for exploration.

It could be anything specific from the Western Ghats ranging from a tree, the type of soil, a practice, a song or a film. After the particular is selected, it is investigated and dissected as much as possible, in its totality as well as in its details. The particular serves as an anchor to to build a plot. A plot is a structure that enables the conception of a newly imagined landscape. Its is fluid and open ended and allows information to fill up its crevices. It is a dynamic tool that is flexible and expands to incorporate new information to show links and relationships that can go unnoticed. At the heart of all this is: the Particular.

Fig. 2,3 and 4 Ideation and mindmapping while working on the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Particularâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; i.e. the coconut tree

Fig.1 Mind Map

THE PARTICULAR Historically the coconut has travelled from India, Malaysia and Indonesia over centuries ago to other countries as well. This has happened naturally (i.e. through sea when a coconut fruit has floated away) and also been carried as a specimen of something unique from these regions by foreign travellers. There have been various travellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accounts ranging from that of Ibn Batuta, Garcia Da Orta, Marco Polo, Vasco Da Gama and so on. And if one were to map the presence of this tree one would notice how this tree grows and is found only in the tropical regions of the world. All the tropical coasts fall in the region of the coconut.

The coconut tree is highly characteristic of the Western Ghats. Also known as Kalpavriksh (the all giving tree) in Sanskrit, the coconut in all its parts can be utilised. Its leaves, fruit, trunk, roots, flowers everything. But what is even more fascinating about this tree is how it is a part of the daily routine life of the people on the coast as well as those living far inland, who use it in their rituals. The green coconut that is consumed as an ordinary fruit in the coastal regions and the brown matured coconut that is used in temples and sacred ceremonies, in northern parts of India. This contrast is what led to the development of the lens of transformation. The coconut (the particular) came to serve as an anchor in understanding the transformative processes that make it a commodity and eventually extraordinary. The oil, extracted, or the husk that is used to make coir, the leaves that are thatched and the trunk that is used for timber, are all results of a transformative process and show various moments in the journey of the coconut. The changes that happen in various states of the coconut can also be observed texturally. For the purpose of this a visual exploration was undertaken and all images were cropped in a way to bring out only the textural changes that were evident. The motive behind such exploration is to observe something for what it is, and build connections based on what the exploration shows.

Fig. 5 A map of the world, the red belt the region travelled by the coconut through the years.

Fig.6 Textural stratas of part of the Coconut tree

The coconut tree stands tall and adorns the coasts of the world. But due to the wind and its weight it never stands erect and is always bent at an angle. This angle is a peculiar visual symbol. It can be clearly observed in the coasts also and though on land the tree always leans towards the sea. This visual symbol led to extraction of what we like to call in this project the ‘Line of Transformation’. It is this line, as seen in the plot, that makes the coast. Later it shall be seen however that the coast is not one line but a number of lines or moments of transformation. This line divides the pre-state and the post-state in that moment of transformation where an agent acts upon an object and changes it.

these circular ones that are evidence of a change that has happened. The Line of transformation runs through these circular moments of significant change. The lens of transformation was developed to traverse the Ghats and observe its complexities and multiplicities, which can later be laid out on the plot and the understanding of the Western Ghats can be further nuanced.

Breaking through categories and preconceived notions about a coconut tree was possible only once it was looked fresh and new. Explorations and iterations guide and led to conclusions and not the other way round.

Fig.7 Cross section of a coastline.

Fig.8 Coconut Tree parts through process.

The plot reflects processes. The processes follow two major paths either that of natural growth leading to decay, or an intervention from an external agent that utilises/transforms it for consumption. The idea of commodification thus emerged and is reflected in the circular moments in the plot. In a long chain of rectangular moments there are Fig. 9 Arriving at the concept of the ‘line of transformation’ inspired by the slope of the coconut.

Fig.10 Plot depicting processes in a coconut tree

FIELD TRIP AND METHODOLOGY To look at something anew, it must be experienced directly and without any preconceived notions. he field trip to the Western Ghats aimed at this very experiential understanding of a space and it components. Equipped with the lens developed four keys places in the Western Ghats were visited. Manipal Town Udupi Temple Square Malpe Fishing Port St. Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Island Agumbe Rainforest In observing the above mentioned areas through the lens of transformation, various processes were observed. For example the sorting of fish in the fishing market, the making of a fishnet in an old warehouse in Manipal city, changes in soil and making of clay bricks, nesting of a sunbird in Agumbe, construction of housing colonies in the meadows of Agumbe rainforest, process of inhabitation by insects, birds etc in the forest. The methodology of documenting experiences in the Ghats and collecting data was through photography, sound, video and sketching. Reflecting on each dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience through writing, doodles and discussions and a feedback session were crucial aspects. Some philosophical introspection was inevitable. A key learning from the field was the suspension of doubts and question based on previous indirectly accumulated knowledge in favour of a direct experience and absorption of the space that was being traversed. Fig. 11 Discussing field methodology

UDUPI The journey that began with manipal at ended at the serene St. Mary’s island was the most diverse. The progression from the completely urban setting of Manipal, to the pious temple complex in Udupi to the unique geology of the St. Mary’s island, this journey was a micrcosm of the diversity of the Western Ghats. The coast is not the boundary of the Western Ghats. The life and activity that thrives on the many island in the Arabian Sea, are a part of the coast. The traverse between the mainland (Malpe fishing village) to the Island made us realise that the coast stretches to extremities beyond the coast, both towards land and the sea. The Western Ghats encompass the scattered pieces of land strewn in the sea. The Malpe fishing village was an integral place of inquiry to reinstate the idea of commodification as a transformation that adds value (monetary, in this case) to an object. The fishing village was an excellent example of a web of human activities and seeing the human as the transformative agent. St. Mary’s island is a sort of an extension of the coast. It houses fascinating basalt formations and is hence designated as a Geological site. The island has become extra-ordinary on occasion of these basalt column formations making it a tourist spot.

Fig.12 Processes in Malpe fishing village, Manipal Town, St. Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s island laid out on the plot.

AGUMBE The dense rainforest of Agumbe overflows with innumerable species. Growth in the forest is abundant and perennial. Plants grow oneach other Every strata in the forest is inhabited by a spectrum of species, of not only animals and birds but also trees and plants. Every species transforms the forest uniquely and the ecosystem as a whole goes through gradual change. All species create their own niche in the vastness of the forest. There is a constant cycle of growth and decay, as the forest regrows and perpetuates over itself. Processes of inhabiting, foraging, nesting, building, decomposing keep the forest active and dynamic.

Post field trip all the collected data was sorted and put on the plots. The processes mentioned in the previous section were laid out on the plot according to its visual language.

Fig.13 Processes in Agumbe Rainforest laid out on the plot.

INTERPRETATION OF DATA Once all these processes were laid out, their key transformative moments were extracted as lines. These represent the multiplicity of transformations for every region (Agumbe, Manipal, Udupi). The initially developed coconut plot was added on to this plot and lines were extracted from those as well. These lines were then defined by textually naming the transformative process. The change from the pre-state to post-state was defined by specific labelling. The plot challenges the idea of commodification. According to the Merriamâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Webster dictionary, to commodify means to â&#x20AC;&#x153;treat (something that cannot be owned or that everyone has a right to) like a product that can be bought and sold.â&#x20AC;? So in some sense to commodify means to turn an object into a value added product.

A commodity is something that has utility to its user, and if one looks at commodity from this perspective then everything commodifies, not just humans. The plot puts all the heterotrophs in one group. Since transformation is the lens, the conclusion from the development of the plot was that the coastline is a dynamic region that changes and shifts. Once the transformative moments were laid out and labelled, categories of those moments emerged. Some were repetitive while some collectively formed a group. It was inferred from this that the coast can be defined by a certain category of transformative moment ( process of Drying, Weaving, Dwelling), or an agent (Human, Heat, Growing agent) that brings about those moments, thus establishing that the coast is not just a line that divides the land from sea.

Fig. 14 Arranging and connecting date collected.

Fig.15 Drawing of the west coast of India shows the evolution from the porosity of 16th-century Portolan charts to the clear and distinct divide between land and sea in later maps

The plot challenges the representation of the coast as it has emerged over centuries in forms of maps. This lays ground for thinking about, and potentially critiquing, categories and divides. When transformations can be so fluid how is it that concrete and fixed categories have been assigned in the Western Ghats. Classifying something as natural versus cultural is one such example. What are the standards to decide whether a certain landscape is natural and another cultural? Classifications have implications on the environment in terms of policy making and urban planning with regard to conservation, preservation, industrialisation and development. Thus categories must be questioned.

Fig. 16 The coast (dynamic) constructed by the lens of transformation.

20 packing

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beaching Fig.17 Labelled transformation lines extracted from Udupi plot.

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Fig.18 Labelled transformation lines extracted from Agumbe plot.

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Fig.19 and 20 demonstrate different iterations after extracting the transformation lines and labelling them. The grid is inclined because of the angle of the lines of tranformation, thus giving is a unique mode of expressing shifting of the plot.

Fig.21 Further iterations of plots with processes.

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The unit field of transformation is a standard unit used in the plot. The line in the unit is the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;line of transformationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that denoted the change occuring in the state of the object/phenomenon. The agent that brings about the transformation determines the pre-state and the post state of the transformation. The pre and post states are also processes in particular cases. The agent is cardinal to the transformation interpolating the initial and final phases or processes ( practices)

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KING COBRA

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Fig. 22 Iteration of plot based on agents.

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Fig. 23 Standard unit of the plot.

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FINAL REPRESENTATION

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According to the chosen parameter, the plot shifts and takes a certain form that becomes unique to the chosen parameter. Hence, for every agent or process the plot is different and no two plots are the same form. This is to convey that the Ghats are a region layered with various elements and each element or phenomenon has its uniqueness.

The plot (in the final design intervention) is representative of a coastline that is constantly shifting and re-aligning itself according to various process and agents. The final representation is in the form of an animation that demonstrates the shifting of the coast according to

An additional representation is a set of cut-outs of the blocks of the plot, as per agents and processes so that viewers and audiences can interact with the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;coastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and device their own categories by which the coast might be shift and rearranged.

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We arrived at his representation that it would best communicate the fluidity of the coast in question. The coast in unique in its multiplicity and it is this versitality of the coast that is brought out in the shifting and realigning blocks. incubating

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Agent: Human, Heat, Growing Agent

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We are attempting to communicate that the coast, the way it is represented today (as a vast singular entity) is essentially an integration of many coasts formed by numerous practices, agents and factors.

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Processes: Drying, Categorising, Growth, Dwelling, Decay

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St. Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Island and the coast

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The coconut tree

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Fig. 24 The plot arranged geographically from sea to inland (left to right). leaching

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Fig.25 Demonstrating shift of coastline according to processes.

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carving secreting

nesting

foraging

incubating

baking

piling moving

designating

moistening

designating

baking

resettling

constructing

moistening

growing

creeping falling

piling

moistening

decaying

decomposing

constructing

resettling growing

growing

creeping

falling

creeping

falling

aging

decaying

decomposing

flowing

leaving

moving

designating

baking

resettling

creeping

aging

incubating

gathering

moving

constructing

preying

leaving

growing

creeping

capturing

weaving

incubating

gathering

feeding

hatching

secreting

preying

leaving

feeding foraging

carving

feeding

capturing

weaving

piling

foraging

hatching nesting

pecking

hatching

secreting

preying

gathering

foraging

carving

feeding

hatching

nesting

weaving

feeding

nesting

capturing

weaving

assembling

foraging

hatching

pecking

feeding

inhabiting

weaving

feeding

hatching

plucking

feeding

inhabiting

weaving pecking

flying

plucking

feeding

inhabiting

aging

decaying

decomposing flowing

flowing

dampening

flowing

dampening

dampening weaving

weaving

thatching

drying

flowering

bundling

bundling flowering

plucking

hallowing withering

withering

thickening

falling

falling hardening

thickening

drying

hardening extracting

crushing

hardening

thickening

drying

crushing extracting

liquefying

boiling

dehusking

drying thickening

birthing

drying

birthing

maturing

germinating

extracting

thickening

germinating

logging

charring

shelling drying

drying

extracting

bundling

dehusking

spinning birthing

felling

maturing

shelling

drying

logging

thickening

germinating

drying

spinning

felling

maturing

logging uprooting

uprooting

solidifying

charring bundling

dehusking

spinning felling

liquefying

shelling

shelling bundling

crushing

boiling

drying

extracting

drying

solidifying

charring

drying

extracting

shelling

hardening

liquefying

boiling

solidifying

drying

decaying

decaying floating

floating

rooting

catching

segregating (untangling) casting

casting (in use) unloading

sorting

catching leaching

segregating (untangling) infrigidating (tempering)

casting

storing

chunking

sorting

selling

casting (in use) unloading

sorting

catching

crumbling

powdering

anchoring

designating

repairing

depositing

travelling

eroding

buffering

beaching

selling

designating

repairing

casting (in use)

segregating (untangling)

unloading

sorting

catching

crumbling travelling

eroding

buffering

beaching

selling

powdering

surveying

arriving anchoring

touristing

storing

storing moulding

disintegrating

firing (baking) hardening

depositing

infrigidating (tempering)

chunking

sorting leaching

littering

building

rooting catching

moulding

powdering

surveying

arriving anchoring

touristing

storing

disintegrating

crumbling hardening

littering

casting

storing

chunking

firing (baking)

building

segregating (untangling)

infrigidating (tempering)

sorting leaching

surveying

arriving

rooting packing

weaving

segregating (untangling)

floating

rooting

rooting catching

moulding

disintegrating

travelling

rooting packing

weaving

segregating (untangling)

floating

rooting

packing

weaving

Fig.26 Demonstrating shift of coastline according to agents

plucking

fruiting

hallowing

fruiting

hallowing

fruiting

flowering

plucking

firing (baking) hardening

littering

designating building

repairing

depositing

eroding

touristing

buffering

beaching

CONCLUSION

The Western Ghats are in constant flux. It is a fluid and dynamic field that sustains itself through visible and invisible change. Resilient ecosystems become so by the virtue of transformation, that leads to an emergence of something extra-ordinary, from the ordinary nature of things. Commodification is one such transformation that, we use to view all species (including humans). Every species transforms its surroundings to make it valuable and useful. On the whole, both biotic and abiotic agents brings about transformation in an ecosystem

Through our design intervention, we see the Ghats as a field that is resilient by the processes and agents that inhabit it. The same process may be performed by two different agents, while a single agent may be capable of performing more than one transformative process. Every species’ creativity determines the manifestation of the landscape of any biome in the world. The ‘strip’ of land that is today designated as the ‘Western Ghats’ is in reality an expansive web of processes that add, subtract and multiply the layers of the region.

Looking at the Western Ghats through the lens of commodification, is insightful, so as to enable us to similarities rather than differences between species. When we view the Ghats as an ecosystem with similarities widely diffused and complex, we are able to rethink the ways in which we categorise landscapes, species and practices.

To generalise a huge portion of the Ghats under one category is to oversimplify the complexity of the field that is interpolated with infinitesimal, yet integral processes that maintain this actively resilient field of transformation. And transformation as a change that allows resilience instead of hampering it.

Fig. 26 to 29 (clockwise) Traversing the Ghats from the sea (St. Mary’s Island) to the inland (Agumbe)

April 2014, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore