VIBGYOR

V I B G Y OR A PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE

FOUNDERS EDITION | ISSUE NO. 3 | OCTOBER 2017

Artists know that diligence counts as much, if not more, as inspiration; in art, as in politics, patience counts as much as revolution.

Tony Kushner

Cover Artwork: Amal Bansode

3

VIBGYOR

EDITORIAL The name of our magazine, VIBGYOR, represents spectrum.

Thus, keeping this in mind, in this issue of the VIBGYOR we have aimed to cover the Arts as a whole. This has resulted in a massive shift in terms of the content of our magazine, and we hope we have been able to do justice to this newly formed identity of ours.

With this issue, we took to a constructive design process which spanned over six months. This consequently led to a brand new design scheme, and we hope this complements our new identity.

Through this process, we aspired to break the mould of the typical ‘School’ magazine. This has resulted in a clean and minimalist design style.

Evolving from our previous issues, we have maximised the number of images and illustrations (with an average of one image per page!). After all, being an Arts magazine, we recognise the importance of visual perception in understanding art forms.

Moving onto to the content of this issue, we have widened the scope of the publication. By shifting our focus from just performing arts, to arts at large, we have tried to cater to the variety of interests of our readership.

It is for them that we tirelessly strive towards perfection, and with this change, we hope that we have moved closer to it. The articles have gone through meticulous editing, and we hope that upon reading these articles, a spark of creativity is ignited in you, the reader. As one of the foremost minds of the human race, Albert Einstein, said “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.”

The foundations of art are made up by the people who pursue it, and with the sad demise of Tom Alter, a great loss has been inflicted upon these foundations. In this issue we tribute to him. India has not only lost a great artiste, but also a true patriot. In times such as these, where intolerance is on the rise, we need to find inspiration in men and women

such as Mr Alter. Although he was of American descent, he embraced his Indian identity wholeheartedly.

Alter’s impeccable recitation of Urdu Shayari, which very few could match, stands testament to this. It is this kind of secularity and tolerance that our society must imbibe in itself.

We started out with a blank canvas, and what you see in your hands is a manifestation of our creativity.

With this issue of the VIBGYOR, we have tried to free ourselves from the mundane; whether it be in design, content or configuration.

Each image, every negative space and the entire design motif has been through thorough scrutiny. We have challenged all preconceived notions, and we hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed crafting it.

Signing off, Editorial Board VIBGYOR

BEHIND THIS ISSUE Chief of Production & Design Amal Bansode

Editor-in-Chief Ranvijay Singh

Faculty Advisor Mr Mohammed Hammad Farooqui

Associate Editors Agastya Bhargava Ojas Kharabanda

Senior Editors Naman Agarwal Rishi Choudhary

Assistant Editors Adit Chatterjee Shourya Aggarwal

Special Thanks Late Mr Tom Alter Ms Stuti Kuthiala Mr Arnab Mukherjee Ms Aishwarya Tipnis Mr PK Nair

4

VIBGYOR

[07]

[17]

[26]

MUSIC

PHOTOGRAPHY

FINE ARTS

08 TANZANIAN BEATS 10 THE DRUM WONDER 12 RIYAZ 14 THE GREAT SHIFT 16 THE DEATH OF A MUSIC CULTURE

17 A THOUSAND WORDS

28 THE ART OF ORIGAMI 30 THE EVOLUTION TO MODERN ART

5

VIBGYOR

[34] FILM

&

DRAMA

[42]

[54]

DESIGN

LITERATURE

35 CASHING IN

44 THE EVOLUTION OF VISUAL DESIGN

55 A HUNDRED POEMS IN ONE.

36 FINALLY SERIOUS?

47 DOWN THE AISLE OF ARCHITECTURE

56 HOW RAP IS SIMILAR TO SPOKEN

38 THE RENAISSANCE MAN — A TRIBUTE

52 PRESERVING HISTORY

WORD

TO TOM ALTER Images: Pexels

[07]

MUSIC

8

VIBGYOR § MUSIC

TANZANIAN BEATS.

BY AGASTYA BHARGAVA

When I recently visited Tanzania for the purpose of a Round Square project, I was introduced to a new type of music. The local people call it “The Bongo Flava.” It is what we know as a mixture of hip hop and rap.

It is played and listened to throughout the country. What’s more is that the songs are not only in English but in Swahili, too. The Tanzanian people, like us, listen to rappers such as Eminem, Bust Rhymes, 2 Pac, Drake, Gucci Mane, Future, TI, etc, who sing in English but there are several artists in Tanzania who come up with their own songs which are in Swahili, or do Swahili covers of English songs.

their songs on the Tanzanian charts.

Apart from the “Bongo Flava” there is another popular genre called the “Taarab” genre which is string based.

This genre gained popularity in the year 1928 with the rise of the star Siti Binti Saad. This genre was largely influenced by the musical traditions of India, Middle East, North Africa and African Great Lakes. Another traditional genre of Tanzanian music is “Dansi”. Sometimes referred to as Swahili Jazz, many bands sprung up at the turn of the 20th century. They bands used western instruments with the traditional African beat thus, creating a truly unique genre .

Some Famous Tanzanian artists are Diamond Platinumz, Ali Kiba, Juma Nature, Remy Ongala. They all have

I’m sure we all know about the famous rock band, Queen, who came up with the hit songs “We Will Rock

You” and ‘We Are The Champions.”

The lead vocalist of the same band, Queen, Freddy Mercury was born in Stone Town which is in Zanzibar, which is a Tanzanian archipelago, off the coast of East Africa.

Music in Modern Tanzania Music is progressing in Tanzania.

Two prominent artists are Diamond Platinumz and Elisha Hisia Simon who have managed to organise a yearly music festival, Karibu Music Festival, which is held in different venues between Arusha and Dars es Salaam. This event has gained popularity over the years and has been able to provide a great platform for the budding music artistes of Tanzania.

9

VIBGYOR § MUSIC

Many of the modern Tanzanian music artistes have successfully been able to create a fusion of the old and new. While keeping the elements of the traditional styles of “Taarab” and “Dansi”, these artists have incorporated elements from R&B, reggae and dancehall. The fusion of these genres, that lie at the extreme ends of the spectrum, has proved to be very popular not only among the youth of Tanzania, but all over the African continent.

Tanzania also has an abundance of traditional music, which is still played in some tribes, for example the Maasai music mainly consists of rhythms provided by the chorus of vocalists (similar to an Acapella) who sing harmonies and the lead singer,

or olaranyani, (who is often the best singer) sings the melody. The lyrics are often themed based and the structure is mainly call-and-respond based.

People all over Tanzania love listening to music. Often people play it throughout the day. The people of Tanzania listen to all types of music, even though they prefer hip hop to anything else, they will still be able to provide you with some interesting music for your playlist.

LEFT: The African Maasai dance.

MIDDLE: Tanzanian recording artist Diamond Platnumz.

RIGHT: Legendary musician Freddie Mercury.

Sources: "Bongo Flava 3 - Awesome Tapes From Africa."

Awesome Tapes From Africa.

"New Music (Tanzania): Midundo Mipya Toka Bongo! - News | Mdundo.Com." Mdundo.com.

"Popular Music In Tanzania." Music In Africa.

Images: HaikuDesk, The Trent Online, The Quint.

10Buddy Rich: One of the all-time great soloists

VIBGYOR ยง MUSIC

11

VIBGYOR § MUSIC

THE DRUM WONDER.

BY SHIVENDRA PRATAP SINGH

Probably the closest Western Music can get to Hindustani Music in terms of the importance of improvisation, is through the world of Jazz. Considered one of America’s most original forms of art, the genre of Jazz music has undergone extensive diversification and evolution over the course of the 20th century. One can go on endlessly naming the people who devoted their lives to the genesis and popularization of this very art – Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and George Gershwin to mention a few. But this article is centered around a musician, who was not only a pioneer of this great movement, but also one, who solidified the presence of the drum kit in the big bands of the 1930s and ’40s.

The establishment of the drum kit as a mainstream percussion instrument, is an accreditation to this Jazz drummer – Bernard “Buddy” Rich – one of the most influential drummers of all-time and a trailblazer of his instrument.

Buddy Rich was born in 1917 in Brooklyn (NY), to Jewish-American parents, both artists of the theatrical genre of vaudeville. He was born at a time when Orchestral Jazz was germinating in the musical scene of New York City. Born to artistic parents, his passion for the rhythm and groove of jazz started flaring at an elfin age of eighteen months. He started playing with his parents once they deemed him old and capable enough to do so. Thus, he picked up the instrument and adjusted as comfortably to it as a squab would once it would learn to ascend the heights of the skies. He became a child sensation and was the second-

most paid musical entertainer in the world at that time. Having received no artistic instructions from anyone except his own muscular intuition, he advanced and progressed at a pace determined by his own will.

In 1937, Rich got the opportunity to play with one of the most accomplished clarinetists of that time, Joe Marsala. His collaborations with Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey (with whom he had one of his longest partnerships) ignited his musical career and brought him to prominence amongst the greats of Jazz music. His subsequent years went by, with him playing with a variety of artists including Harry James and all-star bands comprising musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. One of the most noteworthy of his concerting was done in his recordings with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. He began professional bandleading by forming his own big band in the year 1966. This, he did at a time when the entire culture of big bands was fading from the popular scene and what is truly remarkable about this is that he was able to re-instill into the public, the love which they had for the big bands and the fame which they received during their formative years.

The one reason why Rich left behind a strong legacy was due to his charismatic style of playing.

Jazz critics considered him one of the “swiftest” drummers to ever sit on the kit. His technique was exquisitely smooth and the emphasis and clarity on each stroke could easily be recognized whenever he

drummed. Despite his short-tempered nature (which sometimes led to his defaming), he maintained a guile which was unique to him and he kept this throughout the course of his life.

When one sees him performing in his older years, one is simply left in awe by the strength and vigor with which he plays, that too at an age when one can only imagine you as a frail man having little or no muscular brawn left in you. He is ranked as one of the most influential drummers of alltime by ‘Rolling Stone’. Although one might question his talent due to the sheer amount of fame he received, I think it is not always about the levels of perfection and mastery you reach in an art, but it is also about how dedicated and devoted you are to the very essence and existence of that art.

You might become the best at what you do, but that success will be shortlived if the art you train in is only embodied by you. This was the motive behind Rich’s music and this is why he is regarded as being ‘one of the most influential’ rather than ‘one of the greatest’. With this, I would conclude this piece of writing by quoting him,

“I THINK IT’S A FALLACY THAT THE HARDER YOU PRACTICE, THE BETTER YOU GET.” Sources: Rico, Ex-CIA et al. "Cathy Rich: My Perfectionist Papa, Buddy Rich."

"Buddy Rich." Biography.com.

"100 Greatest Drummers Of All Time." Rolling Stone.

Image: Rhythm Magazine.

12

VIBGYOR ยง MUSIC

13

VIBGYOR § MUSIC

RIYAZ.

BY HARRSH DEWAN

As he sat on the stage, he said to himself, “This is the day, that you are born as an Indian classical musician”. His hands were sweaty, he was feeling nauseous.

The usual butterflies felt like they had infinitely multiplied in his stomach.

His voice quivered as he began to sing his first note. The audience began to focus less on him and more on their conversations. He looked at his Guru for support who returned the look with one of reassurance.

Confident enough to begin, he sang, droning out everything else but the Raga and the Beat.

Improvising on the stage is a huge step in the path of an Indian classical musician. Before this, the student is given material a while before the performance which he memorises before going up on stage.

The word ‘improvise’ comes from the word ‘improve’ which means to develop, strengthen, revive, etc. In a nut shell it can be said to be, ‘to create and perform in the heat of the moment’. The act of improvising is only done prior to the composition being taught by the Guru. The student must be ready to sing the composition before he or she begins to improvise.

A student is allowed by their Guru to improvise only after they have enough knowledge of the raga which they are performing. The specialty here is that, the performer is unaware of what he is going to perform at that specific moment.

The importance is that this gives a quality of uniqueness of having something new every time and every performance. Unlike the western style of music, Indian classical performers are given nothing but the ‘bandhish’ (the main piece). The concert lasts roughly around 20 minutes out of which about 15 minutes are improvised. The skill of improvising takes the musician to a new level of expression. There is no need for him or her to memorise everything in his complete piece as the western classical performers must do in order to perform the score perfectly.

In order to improvise, one must be able to use the skills and techniques of improvisation, which are meend (glide from one note to another), gamak (quick oscillation of notes) and khatka (trills).

The Dhrupad style of singing does not give too much scope for improvising because of its rigid style of singing.

The two extremely common forms to improvise are in the medium of alaap (slow and long notes in almost free rhythm) and taan (a set of notes based on the phrases of the raga in a fast tempo). These two mediums are used in a manner such that, they are used freely as long as one comes back to the first note(sum) of the taal (beat cycle). One uses the meend, khatka and gamaks in these mediums.

The Dhrupad style of singing must be sung the same way as the way the Guru teaches the student. However

the Khayal style of singing gives the performer less restrictions comparatively, which is the reason why most performers choose to perform Khayals.

In the Khayal style of singing, the bandhish is appreciated and listened to. However, one really listens to Hindustani classical music in order to appreciate the improvisation that the performer does on stage. In order to appreciate this style of music, one must focus on the taans and the alaaps.

Some of the musicians believe that at the level of the maestros, performance with improvisation is no longer a performance, but is a way that the Almighty communicates with the people through the performer.

This is the time when God and the artist are connected as one, also known as samadhi.

Sources: "Appreciating Indian Classical Music - Sadhana's Raag-Hindustani." Raag-hindustani.com.

"Ways To Improve Voice Production In Indian Classical Music - Indian Classical Music And Raga - Surdemy." Indian Classical Music and Raga Surdemy.

"Improvisation In Indian Classical Music."

Aliakbarkhanlibrary.com.

Images: Flickr, Mr Vidhukesh Vimal.

14

VIBGYOR § MUSIC

THE GREAT SHIFT.

BY RISHI CHOUDHARY

From Jazz to Rock to Disco music and to EDM, music has changed incredibly over the years. Music styles have always depicted the society of the time and it has ever evolved due to the changes in society and the technological advancements. The technological advancements have not only allowed new forms of music to develop but also the medium through which we listen to what we listen to.

From radio to television, and records to the internet, the way we consume music has dramatically changed in the past seventy years too. In this article I am majorly going to talk about how we got here, from jazz to EDM, and what got us here.

The music of the 40s consisted mainly of jazz and it reflected the pain of World War 2 while at the same time remaining positive and looking forward to the new world of possibilities. With the change of the decade into the ‘50s and the introduction of television sets in American homes, more artists started to come in the limelight and with them they brought their different styles of music. Some of the first major superstars of music emerged from this decade with people like Elvis Presley, ’The King’, dominating the airwaves and the minds of young girls, and suddenly traditional Pop and Rock and Roll was the thing.

The 1960s was a time of change in society, fashion, and especially music.

Events such as the assassination of President Kennedy, the war in Vietnam and the escalation of the Civil Rights Movement all influenced the American mood and music of the time and led to diversity in music which we even see in today’s modern society. There were some bands and artists who emerged in the ‘60s after which the world was never the same, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Simon and Garfunkel. The 60s spurred the ‘British invasion’ in music too and most of the decade was characterised by it. With the ‘70s came the dramatic shift to disco music and the decade also served as a bridge between the seriousness of the music which came out from the late 60s and the happy songs which characterised the 80s. People grew tired of all the violence and the fighting in the 60s and sought refuge to relax themselves and their souls in the disco clubs and other dance places to have a good time. With this idea emerged the Disco movement. The 1970s was not a unique decade in terms of creating innovations in musical styles and genres, but it was unique in that it was a musical bridge connecting the hippie lifestyle of the 1960s with the characteristic yuppie lifestyle that was about to occur in the 1980s.

ABOVE: American songwriter and singer, Madonna.

15

VIBGYOR § MUSIC

The music of the ‘80s was completely influenced by MTV (Music Television) and now images and music videos which were earlier uncommon, became integral. The music of the ‘80s was never understated, not the sound, not the fashion and not even the clarity. The music of the time represented the affluence of the society and the starting of a period with great income disparity. New genres such as Hip Hop, New Wave and Hair Metal emerged all of which were to influence the music today.

Some pop stars to hit the stage during the time were Michael Jackson and Madonna The fame and popularity received by these stars was not seen since The Beatles and Elvis Presley.

While many of the adults regard the music of the new millennium as mere ‘noise’, the youth unanimously disagrees. With genres like house music, Electronic dance music, or popularly known as EDM, taking over the scene, genres such as pop and rap have also risen. The technological advancements of the 21st century and the fast beat of the songs are the fundamental reasons for the shift towards EDM and electro. While some may regard the DJ of today as a person with a beat and a laptop, the youth still considers them artists.

The music of the ‘90s saw the continuation of the teen pop and dance pop trend and hip hop continued in its golden age, alongside which rap music had also increased .The decade was very much similar to the ‘60s as anti-establishment and under produced grunge bands received as much success and popularity as the over-produced studio manufactured pop groups did. The decade was ruled by strong singers with Whitney Houston topping the charts.

"This Was The Most Radical Shift In Music Of The Last 50 Years." D-brief.

Sources: "The Latest Tectonic Shift In Music." HuffPost.

"Going Beyond The Shift." The Hindu.

Images: Huffington Post, Belfast Vibe.

LEFT: The 1981 version of the MTV (Music Television) logo.

RIGHT: Swedish DJ AVICII

16

VIBGYOR § MUSIC

THE DEATH OF A MUSIC CULTURE.

BY ARYAMAN KAKKAR

Music as art and as a form of expression, is one of the prime features that defines a culture. All people indigenous to a region have their individual lyrics, melody, and sense of beat. But our negligence towards its diversity and the roots of music is bringing their end that much closer. Nearly two centuries ago, for any man or woman to become a figure of elegance and respectable status, it was essential that they learn an instrument. It often was used as a standard depending on the quality of music they performed. Today, rap and EDM has overshadowed their predecessors which have laid the foundation of music and its history around the globe. The prime reason being that we do not know how to listen to or even begin to comprehend and understand the compositions and pieces we have termed classical. We as a society, have also lost countless generations of folk music that once dominated the diverse culture of India. We have changed what music means. So much so that everyone thinks it is only for the diligent listeners and students of the craft, when in fact anyone who can carry a simple tune and is interested can pick it up very quickly.

Most people don’t even know that music has a very recent history, especially in India. One of the most prominent examples is Rabindranath Tagore. His great literary work ’Geetanjali’ is actually only complete with a set of volumes also authored

by him titled the ‘Sangeetanjali’.

These volumes give the poetry their complete meaning by fixing them in the melody of specific compositions or ragas. Coupled with the ‘Geetanjali’, these two literary works produce one of the finest compilations of poetic melody of this age.

In terms of folk music, India has one of the most diverse selections to choose from. Each region having its own dialect, has its own flavour of songs with a collection for every occasion; ranging from the time of harvest, a wedding, to the birth of a new born baby in the family. Another historical example are the Negro Spirituals that were composed by the African – American people during the time of the Civil War. These were songs describing the hardships of slavery while at the same time imparting a Christian value. A very famous Spiritual is ‘Motherless Child’ which is a sorrowful song about how children were taken from their parents to be sold into slavery. Folk music plays a very integral role in expressing the lives and emotions of a particular people. We learn a lot about a particular region or tribe just by listening to the songs they sing. This music has persevered for centuries by word of mouth; building upon its predecessors with a few changes here and there but still retaining the essence of the songs. But we have let them fade away just because there was no new blood to teach it to.

Music which is precious to people and an integral part of cultural identity is dying across the globe because of a lack of knowledge and compassion for it. I encourage everyone to at least make an attempt to listen to such music so that over time, they can develop a taste for it.

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything."

- Plato Sources: "Open Music Theory – Open Music Theory." Open Music Theory.

"The Four Components Of Music Culture – Music In The World." Blogs.longwood.edu.

"The Role Of Music In Human Culture - Thought Economics." Thought Economics.

17

VIBGYOR ยง MUSIC

A Thousand Words.

Ojas Kharabanda sheds light on his journey through the world of photography.

18

The Lone Ranger.

VIBGYOR § PHOTOGRAPHY

NIKON D90 32.00mm f/4.2 1/4000s ISO320

TOP: Pensive.

NIKON D90 105.00mm f/5.6 1/30s ISO640

Growing up in a household where all the elders had an acute interest in the arts, be it an indulgence in ghazals or in antique art, I was almost destined to enter the expressive world of art in some form or the other. Early on in my childhood, I took a special liking towards photography. In all candour, I was just another boy with just another camera clicking everything coming his way.

Family trips became my training grounds and my father, with little experience or expertise in this field, my mentor. With whatever modest knowledge that he possessed, he ingrained in me an approach towards everything around me that was more artistic than anything else.

For the first few years of the journey, the much used “automatic mode” was my default choice, veiling me from the vast ocean of creative art that many legends have dwelt and excelled in. My meeting with my first photography book, Mastering Digital Photography, changed me and my practice forever.

Photography ceased to be what many perceive it to be: point and shoot. The book released a plethora of knowledge and methods for me to tinker with.

BOTTOM: Inquisitve Ave. Canon EOS 7D 135.00mm f/5.6 1/800s ISO1600

VIBGYOR § PHOTOGRAPHY

Man of Melody.

The next two years were marked exclusively by experimentation, giving me disappointing results, followed by even more disappointing post-shooting viewing sessions, which supplemented an obsession with seeking out evolving technology in the field of photography. With no set preference in subjects and zero expertise in the sphere of technicalities, I would capture all I could, be it the generic flower macro shots or the overly simple, out-of-focus, badly composed portraits. Horrifying midterm pictures and the switch to automatic settings over and over again seemed to become the norm for me. Gradually, passing time with over-indulgence in the art finally seemed to show some substantial results.

A quote by one of the legendary photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson, founder of Magnum Photos and the father of candid photography, in all honesty, was the only beacon of hope: Your first 10,000 photographs are the worst. Well, at least on the personal level, this couldn’t have held more truth. The only the time I began to see some refinement and quality in my pictures was when I was around twelve. The fruits of the years previous to that were simply exasperating.

19

NIKON D90 105.00mm f/5.6 1/60s ISO200

20

VIBGYOR § MUSIC

The last resort.

NIKON D90 18.00mm f/13 1.6s ISO200

Post this period came the time of experimentation with deeper technicalities. Composition and equipment, coupled with simple tools such as the “big three” (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) were now starting to be heavily supported and influenced by experimental technicalities of the camera. Over the years, I managed to learn an immense amount about the medium of art. This led to yet another phase of experimentation with different styles, genres, tricks and methods.

Astrophotography, light trails, high-low key, long exposures, and noir all became playing fields to test out this newlyacquired knowledge.

21

VIBGYOR § PHOTOGRAPHY

Somewhere along the journey, I was introduced to the photographer’s most precious gift: Photoshop.

Now, before I dwell deeper into my personal artistic endeavours, I believe a certain aspect of photography most certainly needs to be addressed: the usage of Photoshop. There exists a clear distinction between digital manipulation and basic colour correction. The immense criticism that photographers receive due to the use of Photoshop is due to the employment of digital manipulation and not due to colour correction.

Manipulation entails a change in the composition of the picture by means other than cropping and changing horizon levels. In contemporary digital photography the use of digital software’s for correction and not for manipulation is as important as the initial capture of the picture. It is important for everyone starting their journey in photography to not discard the use of Photoshop, etc. due to pre held prejudices fuelled by uninformed social stigmas, and instead dive into the world of Photoshop to not manipulate but to further better their pictures in terms of colour and definition.

Manipulation can further be taken up to explore the enriching world of digital art.

RIGHT: Gateway to Heaven.

NIKON D90 18.00mm f/5.6 1/200s ISO500

Into Darkness.

NIKON D7000 18.00mm f/3.5 30s ISO4000

22

VIBGYOR ยง PHOTOGRAPHY

BELOW: "Midnight's Children"

RIGHT: The Gaze of God. NIKON D90 105.00mm f/7.1 1/200s ISO320

NIKON D90 26.00mm f/10 1/100s ISO500

The Circle of Life.

ABOVE: City Talkies

NIKON D90 18.00mm f/22 1.0s ISO100

23

VIBGYOR ยง PHOTOGRAPHY

LEFT: Wonder eyes.

NIKON D90 135.00mm f/5.6 1/320s ISO1600

BELOW: The lady from Ushaia.

NIKON D90 35.00mm f/7.1 1/60s ISO200

ABOVE: The Enlightened One.

NIKON D90 18.00mm f/3.5 1/4000s ISO320

NIKON D90 300.00mm f/6.3 1/2500s ISO800

24

VIBGYOR § PHOTOGRAPHY

Personally, I believe that it is imperative for all photographers with considerable experience to immerse themselves in the world of studio photography if the resources can be made available. Studio photography is in and of itself an art, which, in all honestly, has the capacity to push any photographer to his technical and artistic limit. It is one of the greatest tools for learning of the workings of light and most definitely the perfect playground for surreal artistic exploits. As someone who himself is fairly new to the whole concept with only a handful of successful shoots in the studio, I believe that studio photography is an area to most aptly express artistic and philosophical emotions.

In conclusion, I, as someone who has immersed himself in the field of photography for over seven years, would just like to firmly stress on one thing.

Today, the world is flooded with cameras, mainly for point-and-shoot in the form of mobile cameras. To photography as an art, this is a scourge ruining exclusivity and its outlook. Photography today is considered to be just the act of clicking lush sceneries or a clichĂŠ macro shot, followed by the addition of a filter, and it is this outlook which spoils the refinement that photography holds as an art. I may have minimal experience, yet I urge my readers to critically analyze the printed photographs and to explore the technical spheres of photography to appreciate photography not only as representational art such as photojournalism but also as a fine art.

VIBGYOR ยง MUSIC

Crossroad of Life.

NIKON D90 18.00mm f/3.5 1/4000s ISO320

25

[26]

FINE ARTS

28

VIBGYOR § FINE ARTS

THE ART OF ORIGAMI.

BY BHAIMEER SINGH AND OMAR CHISHTI The word origami has been derived from the Japanese phrase “Ori Kami”, roughly translated as the art of folding paper. Originally the art was called “Ori Kata” meaning folded shapes. This art was started soon after the invention of paper. It was introduced in Japan by Buddhist monks in the late 6th century, though whether it originated in Japan or China is unclear. The art form origami has roots deep inside the culture of the Japanese, the Chinese and the English.

While in Japan and China origami was associated with ceremonial functions, napkin folding was a way to display nobility at the dinner table in England. This trend of the English had started to die out by the mid-18th century.

ABOVE: Origami by Omar Chishti

29

VIBGYOR § FINE ARTS

The Japanese, however, further developed the art and related it with mathematics by the 19th century. It was widely believed by the Japanese that if one folded a thousand paper cranes, one’s wish would come true.

Origami was also associated with architecture as paper was easy to work with. The first written instructions appeared in AD 1797 with the work Senbazuru Orikata (Thousand Crane Folding), which contained a collection of numerous traditional Japanese figures.

Soon the art of paper folding spread. The Arabs took the craft and introduced it in Spain. While Spain went beyond the traditional geometric designs, the Arabs indulged in the mastery of mathematics and their paper folding was a study of the geometries inherent in the paper.

The Spanish developed papiroflexia and the art still remains a trend in Spanish and Argentina. A great deal is owed to Yoshizawa Akira, credited as the father of modern origami, as after centuries of folding the same models he published multiple books on completely different models. His exhibitions introduced the rest of the world to origami. His models are used for inspiration and his techniques are unparalleled.

The art of origami is immensely different from others like painting, drawing, sculpture, and so on. It involves utilising various folding techniques to create figures, animals, and objects. While minor mistakes

can be amended in other forms of art, origami requires every piece to be perfect. Therefore, pieces with a slight error have to be remade.

Origami needs precision folding, focus, and large amounts of patience.

Many complicated modular origami designs require hundreds of the same piece, all of which have to be unequivocally precise. This may seem to be the tough part but it is not. The complications come in when many pieces have to be put together. The pieces have to fit into each other perfectly otherwise the model falls apart. There are also models which require fewer pieces but these tend to

stability of a model. If the paper is too thin it would bend while being inserted into another piece and if the paper is too thick then the folds would not come out neatly and get stuck while being fitted into another piece.

Origami is an art that has now been around for more than ten centuries, and still continues to draw curious minds to its perplexing ways.

"WHILE MINOR MISTAKES CAN BE AMENDED IN OTHER FORMS OF ART, ORIGAMI REQUIRES EVERY PIECE TO BE PERFECT." have more complicated folds. While art can be more abstract, it is very tough to make an unstructured form in origami. While to many it may seem that the quality, colour and size of the paper doesn’t matter, they all play an integral part in the making of a good-looking, stable model.

The usual shape for origami is a square though a rectangle is also used sometimes. The ideal size of the square depends on the size and number of pieces needed for the model. It is best to use smaller squares for larger and more complex models. The quality of the paper can create a major difference in the

Sources: Wu, Joseph. "Joseph Wu Origami." Origami.

"Learn All About The History Of Origami." The Spruce.

Joy, Alicia. "An Introduction to the Art of Origami."

Culture Trip.

ABOVE AND LEFT: Origami by Miguel Á. Padriñán

30

VIBGYOR § FINE ARTS

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN ART.

BY RAGHAV GROVER

When I see people around me talk about modern art, they have a picture in front of them, of art, that is skewed in nature. I see people wandering in their imagination in front of a canvas with a black line that they once saw on the compulsory trip to the National Gallery of Modern Art in C-form. That picture, rather the obscure memory of it, is their lifelong conception of art, more specifically modern art. When I see this, I reflect on what modern art truly is, and I find myself in place with a definition that suits my concepts on it. When I look around Chandbagh and see the know-all ‘Dosco’, I feel a pain in my heart, not because they do not know the meaning of modern art, but by the fact that two years of art theory is unable to teach them the true meaning of art itself.

Art is the creative expression of oneself, guided by the established medium and shaped by the artist. It is any rendition, which is the point of connection between the perceiver, the object, the subject, and the artist.

It is an invisible binding force, which has taken form, colour (quite literally in the case of fine arts) and subject matter, in order to communicate an idea, experience, or merely the artist’s mood. Modern art, as a whole, is the creative community’s response to the rationalism and objectivity of the late 20th and early 21st century, mainly guided by the progress in 'things' such as the Industrial Revolution and advances in science and technology.

This is marked by certain traits and characteristics which have their origins in history and the ruins of dead artists. After the Renaissance

and the various art movements, it has all led to the unification of art today under the banner of modern art. In the course that we are undertaking, fine art would be considered in all cases as a metric to mark progress, and would be denoted by the word ‘art’.

As other fields like industrial design and architecture went through their main changes around 1920, art was in a world of its own. Art was busy in its various fields, progressing into other fields which are now called modern from the romantic, classical forms of it. The semi-abstract state that art was rendered into was where the main components of it, i.e. colour, form and subject matter, were onto taking a life of their own. ‘Rationalism’, the term used to elaborate on the dissolution of classical 'things', mainly the tradition, from the 18th century onwards. This term can also be used to elaborate on the evolution of art, from its well-defined state previously to its semi-abstract current state.

The break-down can be described in terms of stages, which then gave rise to surrealism, cubism, impressionism, futurism, dada, etc.

Rationalism in this context is the shift in the society’s focal point from its concern of fixed things to its concern of process. That is a key factor why rationalism comes into the picture big-time. Rationalism made the complex realistic renditions of the classical period dissolve into outright expressions of variable forms, calculated random splashes of colour, abstract subject matters, and a lot of free space to think in. Rationalism

VIBGYOR ยง FINE ARTS

31

'Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, Oil on canvas.

32

BELOW: One of the greatest artists of all time, Salvador Dali.

VIBGYOR § FINE ARTS

dissolves the fact of taking works of art and defining them by the year that they were painted in. It believes that the painting is painted upon its perception. It takes perception as a part of the entire process of creation of an artwork. It was integrated in place around the 18th and 19th century, but its influence is more relative a little later.

In order to progress into any form of ‘rationalism’-based artwork, we had to free ourselves of the reigns of classical and neo-classical forms of art. This was marked by the reduction of integration of the concepts that governed this practice in art. These concepts are mainly the photorealism, heroic subject matter, rich mix of colour, among many others. The main fact was that in this style, the brush stroke was shunned and the perfection of the surface was central to all. The subject was to be the centre of attraction, and the individuality and depiction of the artist was looked down upon.

A painting is defined by three things: colour, form and subject matter. In classical art, these were controlled and moderated by the artist in order to produce a fine, photographic depiction of reality. What happened to the painting was entirely dependent upon the rationalistic interpretation of the artist, who was in this case, like a facilitator. What rationalism does is that if initially the art was a window to the real world, it makes the art the reality.

In rationalism, the reality is the artwork, rather than the subject. This gives the artist the freedom to manipulate forms in basics, use pure colours and see the side of art which is still pure and remains unexpressed. This freedom was sure to result in something.

In the mid-1870s, a new style of painting was born in the romantic city of Paris. This was marked by purity of colour and blurring of form, the subject was seen through a pure, distorted lens. Rather than mixing colours to create reality, painters started using colours in their pure forms.

This emphasized on the purity and sanctity of colour and the power that it carried. The paintings of this era were marked by the ‘million points of light’ and the colour which defined the form of the object; and that the hand of the artist was depicted explicitly in the nature of the strokes. This gave rise to blurred, fleeting ‘impressions’ of objects, and hence this was named ‘Impressionism’. This was, without an iota of doubt, the most iconic revolution in art after the Renaissance. Edouard Monet, the French impressionist, was pivotal to the transition into it. He was followed by Claude Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Pizarro, etc. By the freedom provided to colour by these artists, it was freed from the boundaries of subject and object and was able to take a life of its own.

After the Impressionist movement, some artist looked to other matter to be liberated. Impressionism had shown the world the road to a land where colour and form were

33

VIBGYOR § FINE ARTS

ABOVE: 'The Persistence of Memory' by Salvador Dali, 1931, Oil on canvas

liberated. The next step in art was taken by artists who are now called the post-impressionists. PostImpressionism was given birth to by three artists: Van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin. They are particularly important as their work can still be traced to modern art today. Van Gogh further explored COLOUR, Cezanne explored FORM, Gauguin explored SUBJECT MATTER. This, in the case of Van Gogh, led to Expressionism; in case of Cezanne it led to CUBISM; and in the case of Gauguin it led to SURREALISM. Cubism is where geometric planes and fragments are used to denote objects and symbolise the subject.

Cubism’s progress eventually leads us to Minimalism, where pure objects are kept the way they are, where art

is suggestive rather than complete in itself. This is where interpretation comes into play. Expressionism and its concern with purity and colour led to abstract art. This is where colour is, in itself, enough. The object here is a secondary thing. The subject matter was eliminated and the painting was an expression of pure colour. It is ‘non-representational’ in nature. Surrealism is the depiction of the artist’s dream, it is a dreamlike manipulation of the subject matter, where colour and form fall into place.

This gave rise to Pop art, which deals with symbols and their connotations.

Pop art closes the chapter on heroic or thematic art, as most of pop art is based on everyday objects.

By the disintegration of classical art, many different forms evolved:

Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Dada, Constructivism, Futurism, etc.

All these fall under a central umbrella of modern art. Therefore, modern art can be summed up in a quote by the famous artist Pablo Picasso: “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”

Sources: "Modern Art - Modern Art Terms And Concepts." The Art Story.

"What Is Modern Art?." moma.org.

"Modern Art Timeline 1 - Impressionism To De Stijl." Artyfactory.com.”

Evolution Of Modern Art." The Hindu.

Images: Wikimedia, Fotomag

[34]

FILM

&

DRAMA

VIBGYOR § FILM

&

35

DRAMA

ABOVE: Salman Khan in Arbaaz Khan's Dabangg 2.

CASHING IN

BY SHOURYA AGGARWAL Bollywood is the largest film industry in the world. It is the sobriquet for Hindi films made in India. It has a viewership of 300 million people.

But this industry also suffers severely from the public, which is governed by orthodox tradition.

For example, Bollywood produces more than 350 films per year. A number so high that even the biggest fans cannot keep track of the films.

Now out of a plate with so much, it is hard to choose which movies to go to. Now, the masses determine the quality of such films by their box office collection. This leads to the extreme commercialization of the cinema. This then promotes the producers to take the industry as a business. Highly commercial films are made also called ‘Masala’ films. These films follow a simple plot line and are often studded with cheesy item songs.

This degrades the quality of cinema and also blocks the way for new talent to emerge as actors who have been appreciated slowly dominate the industry. Their films easily reach the famed ‘100 crore club’ hence money minded producers cast them to produce ‘superhits’ in Bollywood.

This restricts the vast ocean of ideas

young people of the nation have and narrows the domain of the industry to a select few minds. People are free to watch what they want to, but should look to critical ratings. The media must inform the viewers about films which stand out and teach them important lessons Another archaic practice is that, often female actors are paid less than their male counterparts. This sets a bad example. Bollywood affects the mentality of the nation and hence such prejudices must be stopped to empower women in the country.

Bollywood is a role model of the masses and thus it must take some responsibility for the influence it exercises.

Another prevalent thing is the portrayal of violence, and gangsters as righteous. Glorifying unlawful personae categorizes the law as weak and gives an incentive to people to break it. This also makes some believe that being rowdy and popular is more important than being good. This cripples the great minds and films that should serve as role models to an idealistic society.

Bollywood must make up these shortcomings and have a cinema which reflects what happens in society. Media is very powerful in influencing minds. If used positively, it can fix a lot of wrongs in the world.

If people of the country can not relate to Bollywood should it stoop down to this level? Or should it pull them up to its own level and entertain them with good films? People must develop a distinction between what is harming them and what is not. The industry has influence and also a great responsibility.

Sources: "The Art Of Bollywood." CNN. "Commercialisation is the Root Cause of Decline of the Standard of Hindi Films: Om Puri" AAFT. "Bollywood Was A Creative Industry But Now Commercialisation Has Ruined It: Subhash Ghai."

News18.

Image: Masala.com

36

VIBGYOR § FILM

FINALLY SERIOUS?

BY RISHI CHOUDHARY

Comedy is arguably the oldest, most universal and basic form of humorous expression. From actors like Mehmood Ali, Kishore Kumar, Kader Khan and Johnny Lever to newer ones like Kenny Sebastian, Vir Das and Sorab Pant, comedians have always been big on the Indian pop culture scene. That said, the country has also seen a dramatic shift in the way comedy is done in the last decade. Thanks to the ever growing, ever improving online platform, stand-up comedy in India is finally becoming serious (pun intended) and finally people have an alternative to the overdramatic mimicry of people or the array of corny jokes termed as ‘comedy’ by our beloved Bollywood.

A decade ago, or even seven years ago, the stars of today, who our youth now looks up to and tries to emulate (apart from copying their jokes) , would have been just any person in the ocean of similar faces still trying to pursue their dream. But now, the likes of Tanmay Bhatt, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan Gill, Rusell Peters and Abhish Mathew have become our favourites not only on YouTube but also in concerts and pubs and bars.

Now, these are some of the many new faces who we want to see and laugh with after a tiring day of work rather than see some of our more familiar faces on screen in a movie. These are some of the people whose gigs we want to attend rather than see some of our old favourites dance on stage on some song heard a million times.

But what lead to such a drastic change?

Apart from the obvious reason of the growth of online viewership through YouTube and therefore an apt platform for unknown faces to be on top of the world through their work, the change in the clubbing culture of India came to be a big help. In the past decade or so, there has been a huge increase in the “pub culture” in the country, with now an increased number of people, especially the youth (India being the country with the largest youth population) wanting to go to the pubs and bars to “chill”.

Electronic music nights and karaoke went stale because of the increase in the number of people, and also because owners wanted something new and trendy to bring patrons through the door, particularly on slower weeknights. To their help came the exciting power of stand-up comedy which not only made the pub goers enjoy their stay but also left them wanting for more.

ABOVE: Legendary actor Kishore Kumar.

BELOW: Russell Peters, a popular comedian of Indian origin.

&

DRAMA

VIBGYOR § FILM

&

37

DRAMA

LEFT: Canvas Laugh Club, one of the many venues for performances by stand-up comedians.

BELOW: East India Comedy, a popular group of Indian stand-up comedians.

The second reason is the nature of comedy itself. From Zakir Khan’s hilarious description of middle class pride to Abhish Mathew talking about the idiosyncrasies of Indian society, the comedians of today connect to the masses. People come and see their shows and get a humorous perspective on things which they experience in their day to day lives.

Comedy also possesses the power of being able to change perspective.

The good comedians these days, just like successful social awareness campaigns, can change perspectives by holding up a mirror to society, forcing it to confront realities that it often ignores. The process gets interesting the moment a comedian gives a pause for the audience to reflect upon a topic. Making someone uncomfortable — guilty, confused, offended — is the first step to changing minds, and consequently behaviours, because making people uncomfortable forces them to think.

Papa CJ, a leading comedian who taps into issues faced by Indian college students, says, “People have limited attention spans now. Humour is a powerful way to get people to listen while subconsciously educating [them] as well.”

With the comedy industry of India growing richer and bigger with every passing day, the future seems bright.

But will the nature of comedy still be as brutally honest and a medium for social change in future is something to think about. But all said and done as long as the person on stage makes the audience laugh and makes them have a good time, stand up comedy will grow.

Sources: “Changing Minds, One Joke At A Time: Can Comedy Bring Social Change?” Youth Ki Awaaz.

Doley, Kunal. “Laugh affair: Stand-up comedy, a serious business in India.” The Financial Express.

“Standup Comedy is Finding Its Feet in India.”

Forbes India.

Manali Shah. “Why an increasing number of stand-up comedians are choosing to talk in Hindi.” Hindustan Times.

“What's booming in India? The Stand-up comedy(Ians)!!” Reviste.

TNN. “‘Standup comedy evolving in the country’ Times of India.” The Times of India.

Images: The Quint, Booth Amphitheatre

38

VIBGYOR

THE RENAISSANCE MAN. A TRIBUTE TO TOM ALTER.

If the term ‘Renaissance Man’ had to be used to describe an individual, Tom Alter would be on top of the list.

An actor, both in film and theatre, a sports writer and a commentator, a cricketer, a novelist and a social activist. There was not much that Tom Alter was not, and not much he did not do.

Early Years Born and brought up in Mussoorie by an American Missionary Couple, Alter from a young age was deeply attached to the hills of Dehradun, Mussoorie and Landour. It was during his childhood in this region that he became fluent in the local languages of Hindi and Urdu. This would prove to be great help later on when he would go on to join the film industry.

He finished his primary education at The Woodstock School, after which he went to the USA to pursue his further education at the prestigious Yale University. After a year of intense academic rigour, Alter dropped out of college and returned to India. Alter used to discuss his unusual decision of dropping out of a reputed college such as Yale and often recalled being “incapable of high-intensity study”.

He came back to India in 1969 and began teaching at the St Thomas’s School, Jagadhri.

Film and Theatre It was in Jagadhri, while teaching, that Alter had his first interaction with Indian Cinema. The first Bollywood cinema he saw, Aradhana starring Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna, captured his imagination and he was at once hooked onto the idea of becoming an actor. After teaching for two more years in Jagadhri,

Alter joined the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune (FTII). It was here that Alter was able to hone his skills as an actor and able to make friends with Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani, fellow actors with who he would collaborate with later on in his career.

After graduating from FTII with a Gold Medal, Tom Alter got his first role in Saheb Bahadur which starred Dev Anand. These few initial roles saw Tom Alter typecast in roles of a foreigner due to his colour.

Withstanding this, Alter went on to give some notable performances such as Captain Weston in Satyajit Ray’s Shantranj Ke Khiladi. Due to being typecast in films, Alter gave more focus to his career in theatre where he was able to break the mould by playing roles of Mirza Ghalib in Ghalib in Delhi, the eponymous role of Maulana Azad, and in the theatrical reproduction of William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns. He also established a theatre group along with Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani, called Motley Theatre Group. The group went on to perform numerous plays.

On of them, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, was critically acclaimed for the performances of all the three actors.

Sports Other than Alter’s acting, another life-long passion of his was sport and more specifically, cricket. From a young age, Alter was fascinated by the sport. Introduced to it by his father’s assistant, Alter took to it like fish in water. He grew up playing on Parade Ground in Dehradun and always remained connected to the sport in

Satyajit Ray's 'Shatranj ke Khilari' (1977).

Tom Alter as Lord Mountbatten in Ketan Mehta's 'Sardar' (1994).

39

VIBGYOR

Tom Alter (middle) in School on August 15, 2017 with Mr Piyush Malaviya (left) and the Headmaster Mr Matthew Raggett (right).

one way or the other. During the late 70s and 80s, when not acting, Alter would do commentary for cricket matches. In fact, for a brief period of time, he even became a sports journalist for the now defunct magazine, Sportsweek! It was during his stint as a journalist that he famously interviewed Sachin Tendulkar, when he was just 15. This is said to be the first televised interview of Sachin Tendulkar, who would later on go to become a legend of the game.

Besides his commentary and writing about the game, he continued playing it on professional level too. Alter even famously played as part of the India squad in the India XI vs USA XI match of 1984. India squad consisted of many stalwarts which included Sunil Gavaskar! Alter bowled out the opposing team’s captain in his first over and India went on to win the match.

Culmination Tom Alter stayed active till the very end of his days. At this year’s Independence Day programme, he graced the School community with his presence. Having a personality such as Tom Alter come on the occasion of Independence Day was very apt.

After all, Alter epitomised all of what India stands for. Looking no more Indian than any other foreigner, while reciting Urdu Shayri better than most native Urdu speakers, these traits (along with many other traits) of Tom Alter, made him a true Indian. A multicultural pluralistic human being — a citizen of a nation with a similar description.

Images: Arts of the Earth (India), Wikimedia Commons, Mr Vidhukesh Vimal.

40

VIBGYOR had the privilege to conduct the late Tom Alter's last inteview when he visited the School as this year's Chief Guest for the Independence Day Programme.

What do you have to say on the issue of actors and directors making movies for the sake of making money rather than for the sake of art in today’s day and age?

That has always been the case. When I joined the industry in 1974, the New Wave Cinema people were having heavy debate on the same issue.

It has always been an issue which has no real black and white. Many would say that making commercial films is a waste and it is a drain on government resources. They asked us to produce content oriented films like Raj Kapoor. Although importance was given on content, I don't see how for example, Mandakini taking a shower in a waterfall, is good content.

What would you advise modern day film makers to do in order to save the artistic aspect of film?

Art in films, I believe, will always be there. Even today there are content oriented films. Dangal, for example, was superb in terms of content.

Sultan was also a good example of a content oriented film. I am sure that at the end of his career Salman will look at this movie proudly. On the topic of dilution of art, there is no real solution to this. You have to tacitly work your way through the opposition. I think the best way to tackle this issue would be to keep both aspects, content and commercial gain in mind while filming.

VIBGYOR § FILM

&

DRAMA

VIBGYOR § FILM

&

41

DRAMA

What inspired you take up drama as a profession?

Drama is something I have been doing throughout my school life and I do drama both on and off the stage!

I started my career as a teacher in a missionary school at Jagadhri called St.Thomas. I was very young and had no experience as a teacher. Rajesh Khanna’s Aradhana was released then.

When I saw that film, I realised that, I always wanted to act on the big screen.It was a turning point in my life. Later, I joined the Film Institute at Pune for two years. The knowledge I acquired there really helped me.

Joining the Film Institute was one of the wisest decisions I ever took. I followed what my heart told me, and soon after there was no looking back.

Since you have worked in both films and drama, what are the major differences you in terms of technicality between the two?

I do not think that there is a difference between the two. Both revolve around acting. You have to present the line in front of a live audience or the camera. It is ridiculous that we have created this wall between the two. Young actors are being told to act differently in front of a camera and a live audience.

Naturally, there is the difference that you get to retake for the films whereas you can cover up while doing plays. I will share a personal anecdote. Once we were doing a play on the life of Mirza Ghalib. In one scene Ghalib was asked whether he was a muslim by a British officer. Ghalib, who was being played by me, had to reply that he is half muslim, and that he drinks liquor but does not eat pork. I mistakenly said that he eats pork but does not drink liquor. The audience picked this mistake up and being on the stage, I knew they reacted to it with a sense of surprise. Knowing that I had to cover up, I made a mental note of improvising later on during the play.

So in the scene after the particular one, to cover up for the mistake, I

said that I used to get so frightened in front of the British, that I would speak gibberish. By saying this I managed to make up for my fault. Thus while in film there is always space for error and a retake is a possibility, theatre requires you to improvise on mistakes. In terms of technique, there is no real difference. Even the great Naseeruddin Shah, who has done so many plays at your School, acts in the same way in front of the camera and while doing a play.

You have been involved at a professional level in acting, directing, teaching and writing.

Which profession gives you the maximum satisfaction?

I get satisfaction in all of them.

Whatever you do in life if you put hard work in it , you will definitely feel satisfied after it. I would advise everyone to work hard in whatever they do. I feel that nothing should come to anyone which is not well deserved by him or her. That is how life should be led.

ABOVE: Tom Alter in the theatrical reproduction of William Dalrymple's 'City of Djinns'.

Images: Mr Vidhukesh Vimal, NDTV, Bollywood Masala.

[43]

DESIGN

44

THE EVOLUTION OF VISUAL DESIGN.

BY AMAL BANSODE

Don’t both logos above appear to be ‘ironed out’ versions of their predecessors?

Much of the funkiness of graphics has disappeared to make way for more comprehensible, ‘simple’ graphics over time. This new ‘flat’ design style effaces elements that create depth and dimension, such as drop shadows and textures.

Designers, today, incline towards flat design because it leaves behind the important components of design—namely colour, shape and content. Some ‘buzzwords’ used to describe this design style are ‘minimalist’, ‘clean’, and ‘modern’. But where did this idea of ‘flat’ design emerge from?

The Swiss Style of Design Flat design bears similarity with ‘Swiss Style Typography’. Swiss design was introduced around 1920-1930. It focuses on the usage of grids (for alignment), sans-serif typography (as used above) and crisp hierarchy of graphical elements. In fact, the much-loved sans-serif font ‘Helvetica’ was created during the flourishing age of this design style, in 1957 . A note on typography: the text you’re reading here has serifs—the tiny decorative lines attached to the edges of many of the letters. Such serif fonts, as they have been dubbed, help with readability when there is a lot of text. Sans-serif fonts, as the name suggests, lack these details.

VIBGYOR § DESIGN

45

VIBGYOR § DESIGN

Minimalism The terms ‘flat’ design and 'minimalism' are often used interchangeably today. Minimalism, however, is largely a component of ‘flat’ design. Minimalism gained popularity as a design style around 1960. The minimalism period saw artists, primarily, remove everything that they deemed was ‘irrelevant’ in a piece. Several art works containing simple geometrical figures (or even none) were hailed as some of the greatest paintings of that era.

Minimalism in interface design began to gain popularity around 2012, with the release of Windows 8 and its ‘clean’ Metro design interface.

The Metro design style uses a strict grid that is composed of blocks of content with sharp edges and vertices, contrasting colours, and sans-serif typography.

Skeuomorphism From the lens of visual design, visual elements that are made to resemble real world objects (with high

fidelity) are said to be skeuomorphic.

Skeuomorphic visual content can range from shadows and textures to animations. The animation of flipping a page is skeuomorphic. Using a closed envelope to represent unread email, for example, may be considered skeuomorphic, too. However, contrary to popular opinion, flat design is not the opposite of skeuomorphism.

Flat Design Alongside the transition to iOS 7 from iOS 6, Apple introduced ‘flat design’ interfaces to its array of products. If we compare the visual design of iOS 6 to that of iOS 7, it is evident that Apple did away with elements like drop shadows, variable lighting and textures—which is the reason why such design is called flat.

However, this design style still retains skeuomorphic aspects: the phone app is still using an old phone receiver, the camera app is still using a camera and the mail app is still using an envelope.

ABOVE: The Windows 8 'Metro' Design Style.

BELOW: A comparison of iOS 6 (left) and iOS 7 (right) icons.

46

VIBGYOR § DESIGN

ABOVE: Google Inc.'s old logo (left) and new logo (right).

But Why Move to Flat Design?

There are two primary reasons why we are moving to flat design: our changing habits of consuming content, and (in the realm of technology) the increase in the number of devices with varying display sizes.

The usage of grid-based layouts is particularly suited towards visual design in the digital realm, since such layouts are easily able to be resized or rearranged to display on different devices with different screen sizes. This also allows designers to create an arrangement that best suits and showcases content, rather than squeezing content into a constrained pre-determined layout.

However, the highly detailed and more skeuomorphic design style that embraces shadows, textures, and fixed-sized images doesn’t translate too well when scaled up or down to fit different screen sizes. On smaller screens, such as wearable products (smartwatches), designers have to make use of every pixel on the tiny screen. Hence, there is no room for decorative elements.

Additionally, flat designs tend to load faster. Upon changing its logo, Google found that the size of its new logo’s file is less than half size of the original file. The old logo used serif type, while the new logo uses sans-serif type.

The reduction of visual elements in design is also associated with people’s greater focus on content. Today, we receive information in a much shorter duration—and so, this places a restriction on interfaces. Under this restriction, all unnecessary visual elements act as a burden. Hence, interfaces, too, must try to deliver their messages effectively and quickly.

The Future of Flat Design There is little opposition to the opinion that flat design ‘just works’.

It solves a number of problems, as mentioned above, that existed with older styles. However, flat design, through its wide-spread adoption appears to be getting ‘too generic’.

Design also follows its own trends, and it is likely that we may see changes in this flat design style.

However, considering the past, the present, and the future, we may be able to foresee that graphics will be as simplified as they are today.

Besides that, there also exists a crude possibility: the elimination of visual interfaces. Will we ever eliminate the visual interface altogether? Although this seems to be very absurd, it is certainly a possibility to consider for the future.

ABOVE: Apple Watch Series 1

Sources: Kliever, Janie, and Janie Kliever. "The Pros, Cons, And Future Of Flat Design" Design School.

Turner, Amber. "The History Of Flat Design: Efficiency, Minimalism, Trendiness." The Next Web. "From Skeuomorphism To Flat Design: Dimensions Of Graphic User Interfaces."

Medium.

47

VIBGYOR § DESIGN

DOWN THE AISLE OF ARCHITECTURE.

BY ADIT CHATTERJEE

“The mother of art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our civilisation.”

– Frank Lloyd Wright

In its most basic definition, architecture is the tangible output of planning, design, engineering and construction. It is the way we have shaped our environment for thousands of years; the process of building the places in which we live our lives. A result of the transition of humans from hunter-gatherers to members of settled civilisations in early Mesopotamia, we saw the rise of residential quarters, courtyards, temples and administrative buildings, forming some of the earliest permanent human establishments.

These places allowed for agriculture, religious rituals, a government system and commerce. They were, in short, the first urban communities.

Today, planning and building are still at the centre of our society, but we have now also come to appreciate the aesthetics of our constructions.

We critique their artistic attributes and admire their innovations as if they were on display in a gallery. In this way, architecture has become a massive public art offering. The tension between the need to build structures that are sturdy and safe and the desire to design something that delights us visually is at the crux of architecture’s power as an art form. Think of the Empire State Building, designed in 1931. The 102 stories on a two-acre plot in the middle of Manhattan constitute an

efficient business centre, pulsing with more than 150 tenants and 73 elevators racing countless employees to their jobs. Yet, when we pass it on the street or see it in the backdrop of a movie or photograph, the limestone and granite façade, the shiny aluminium, the magnificent rows of lights above the observation deck… it becomes something more than its function. It is one of the most iconic pieces of Art Deco; a world-recognized emblem of New York City. It is, just another testament to the power of architecture.

48

VIBGYOR ยง DESIGN

Karnak Temple Complex, Egypt

Even those simple houses in early Mesopotamia were beautifully designed. The Sumerians, their builders, took tremendous care to mould clay with their hands into uniform bricks, patiently dry them in the sun, and place them in elegant stacks. Imagine how mesmerizing those intricate, sand-coloured cities must have looked like against a clear blue sky 5,000 years ago. In good design, form and function have always lived together. However, while it might be enough for some to simply understand the nitty-gritties

of architecture, we must also realize just how the modern world chanced upon these numerous intricacies that constitute the art of architecture, how the motives behind architecture was shaped, and exactly who shaped it.

From using mammoth heads as meagre huts or building megalithic structures from stone in the pursuit of archaeological advances, we see a range of diversity in the evolution of building processes throughout the ages. In early 8000 B.C., the first hunter gatherers decided to use

49

VIBGYOR ยง DESIGN

mammoth heads filled with moss and mud as huts, and many can infer that a major cause for the extinction of mammoths may have been overhunting. As they moved on from using biomass to using resources like stone and granite, here is where we discover the transition of architecture from the simple process of settlement to being more of an aesthetics based art. Royalty in Egypt were amazed at the discoveries of limestone, the main resource used for the construction of the pyramids that now house the royal tombs of the greatest emperors

of Egypt. After some experimenting, the royalty decided to move on to newer resources, the newest being marble; an attractive new version of limestone. A simple visit into some of the greatest marble structures just shows how much detail was applied to their construction.

Soon, as the world progressed, so did design, and we constantly developed arbitrary ideas of art and architecture, building structures that awed the masses and refined the concept of architecture. Now, even simple

resources like wood and drywall were used in the construction of housing, and aspects like pant, having just entered the picture, greatly determined the kind of house one was to live in. The diversity of options was truly amazing. Now, one had to worry about material, colour, aesthetics, and a bit more, and this led to architecture turning into an occupation, as each commoner required a beautiful house, and without the expertise to design one, they would call upon these experts to design their houses.

50

VIBGYOR ยง DESIGN

Finally, as architecture was born onto our world, form, function and design took their places in the world of art, over numerous fields of art, and coexist and overlap with each other like the waves on a beach. They cannot exist without the others, and when brought together, we can find a perfect blend of what is known to be one of the greatest forms of art.

51

VIBGYOR ยง DESIGN

Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort, China.

SOURCES: "Architecture, History: Evolution Of Building Design." Visual-arts-cork.com.

Quintal, Becky. "121 Definitions Of Architecture." ArchDaily.

Wentworth, Inc. "Art Deco Style (19251940)." Wentworthstudio.com.

Images: New In Homes, A Story-telling Home, Agape Voyage.

52

VIBGYOR § DESIGN

PRESERVING HISTORY. AN INTERVIEW WITH AISHWARYA TIPNIS

Aishwarya Tipnis is an architect renowned for her work in the restoration of monuments and living heritage buildings. She led the restoration project of our buildings in Chandbagh.

Consequently, her team's work received an Honourable Mention at the UNESCO AsiaPacific Heritage Awards 2016.

How did you get interested in Architecture?

As I grew up in Delhi, architecture is something that has always been predominant in my life. Delhi is known to be a seven layer city, having different types of architecture from each of these seven periods. One can go to Connaught Place to see colonial architecture, Lodhi Garden to see medieval architecture. With so much architecture from various time periods all around me, I naturally found an inclination towards and soon it became a way of life.

Often on our subcontinent, most historical monuments and infrastructures are in a state of decay. As you specialise in the restoration of these structures, what measures do you think should be taken up by the Government?

I think more than it being the Government’s responsibility, it is ours as we too, our the custodians of this heritage. I feel that the Government is doing its part by protecting these monuments by categorising them as Heritage Sites. We, as the people who go to these sites, often do not respect them. For example, most of these sites have a chronic case of vandalism taking place. To preserve these monuments, we have to make

them relevant to today whole keeping their identity intact. We often see these monuments just being kept for the sake of being kept. I feel that this is wrong. Monuments, which are possible to be kept as living historical buildings, should be kept like that.

A great example would be your School’s Main Building. Although it is now more than a 100 years old, it has a purpose in the lives of many people. We need to aim to make these structures adapt to the needs of people, and not leave it to just exist.

So I feel there is a lot more we have to do as responsible citizens, rather than it just being the Government’s.

This would lead to my third question. How would one make these historical structures relevant to today’s needs, while still keeping its identity intact?

There are multiple ways to approach this. Firstly, many of these heritage buildings are designed on principles that are still relevant today. For example, most of these buildings have been designed ti enable cross ventilation and natural light. As far as technology is concerned, I would like to take the example of your Main Building. The classrooms were built in the 1920s to cater to a different kind of education system. A master would come in to the room, give lectures, and the students would

The Dutch enclave of Chinsurah, West Bengal.

53

VIBGYOR § DESIGN

LEFT: The Maidens Hotel, Delhi.

RIGHT: The French Colonial Town of Chanernagore, West Bengal.

only listen and write. But today’s education system is completely different. Education has become more technology friendly and the overall way of teaching has changed. It has moved from just being a one way interaction, to being an interaction between all members of the classroom. So we had to adapt your building to meet these needs. While we modernised to accommodate these new facilities fir teaching, we kept the whole essence and design this of the building intact. So, although you now might have smart boards and the like, the classrooms still feel like you are in the Main Building of The Doon School. This seamless integration between the new and the old, I feel, is the way forward in terms of the restoration of these historical monuments.

What would you consider your most challenging restoration project till now, and why so?

I feel that every project comes with its own set of challenges but I think the one that kept making us go back to the drawing board, was our project at your School. I think this was the case due to the fact that all of you have a perception of what your living space should be like. We were given an initial brief by the Headmaster after which we made the first draft plan.

We got feedback from the students

on those plans and thus, this process, although time consuming, is essential for restoration work in a school as this space is going to be shared by all. We were constantly reinventing and trying it to be more suitable to everyones needs.

What would you advise students who want to go into the field of architecture to focus at?

The thing about architecture is that you have to be very observant. You have to open your senses and just observe all the things that are around you. By doing this, you imbibe in yourself a sense of taste and then when you actually come to the design stage, you are far more sensitive to what you are doing. As a designer, you are not trying to change the world at the first go, but you are doing a service to the person your working with. You have to give paramount importance to the need of the person you are designing with. For inspiring architects, you have to be more open minded and be able to experiment.

That is the only way forward.

Images shown on this spread are that of historical sites that have been restored by Aishwarya Tipnis.

Images: Aishwarya Tipnis Architects.

[54]

LITERATURE

55

VIBGYOR § LITERATURE

A HUNDRED POEMS IN ONE.

BY ABHIRAJ LAMBA

Every word I pen down Ten hide behind it For behind every line of verse Many deeper levels sit The beauty of poetry lies in how simple it looks but how complex it really is, for in poetry there is always more than what meets the eye. Several layers lie beneath the superficial literal one we see when we first read it, and how one interprets those layers changes from person to person. In my opinion, no art form is as flexible as poetry, where sometimes the artist him/herself may interpret the final piece differently than what he/she had initially done. In fact, over time the artist’s perception can change about what a particular poem by him/her represents. This talks a lot about the power of the art. It shows how independent of the artist, the art itself is. Two people interpreting an artwork differently is nothing new, but the same person interpreting the same artwork differently at two different occasions is absolutely amazing.

Being a form of literature, it goes without saying that one of the main components of poetry is its wording but that alone is not always enough.

What usually distinguishes prose

from verse are rhyme and rhythm.

Of course this is not always true (I’m looking at you, blank and free verse!). The way different poets add rhyme and rhythm to their poems differs from poet to poet. Some poets use rhyme and rhythm to support the message or story they are trying to tell, some use them to establish their style while others just go with what feels right. Despite the fact that different poets use them differently and for different purposes, I think they would all agree that their poetry would be incomplete without them.

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword – well then, poetry is probably one of the best attacks that can be made with it. A poetic license gives people more power than they can imagine. Poets are not bound by rules of grammar, style or sequence. They make their own rules.

They manipulate language to suit themselves. A wise man once said, “If one has control over any language, there is nothing that he/she cannot do.” Well, I would like to put forward one simple question, ‘Who has better control over language than a person who can manipulate language well enough to suit his/her own needs, i.e. a good, experienced poet?’

All these factors: rhyme, rhythm, the wording and the usage of the poetic license (or even its abuse), together contribute in making the poem so flexible that no two people read the same thing. All these factors together give way to so many different interpretations, such that every person who reads the poem changes his/her viewpoint every time he/ she revisits it. When a poet writes a piece, it is not the only piece that is written. The poet hides, intentionally or unintentionally, various stories, messages and ideas within it. In fact, the poet hides one hundred poems in one. Since I began this article on poetry with a verse, I see it fitting to end it with one as well, so here goes: I wrote one poem, I thought But some saw in it the moon and some the sun.

It was then that I realized that My poem indeed had one hundred poems in one.

Sources: "The Art Of Poetry With Robert Pinsky By The Editors." Poetry Foundation.

"The Art Of Poetry." University of Michigan Press.

"For The Sake Of People’s Poetry By June Jordan."

Poetry Foundation.

Image: Huffington Post.

56

VIBGYOR § LITERATURE

HOW RAP IS SIMILAR TO SPOKEN WORD.

BY AGASTYA BHARGAVA

Spoken Word, also known as Performance Poetry or Slam poetry, is closer to rap than it is to poetry.

Even though poetry has a lot in common with Spoken Word, it is not quite the same. Spoken Word is the oral performance of poetry where expression, tone, spacing, and modulation of the voice plays an important role. In the written form of poetry these things don’t play as much of a role as they do in Spoken Word. There are also several different types of poetry for example Visual Poetry, Button Poetry and of course the written form of poetry, in which there are also different types of forms such as a ballad, a sonnet, an ode, a haiku, etc. But Spoken Word does not have sub parts like poetry does, even if it is known by different names.

Rap is a form of music where the words are recited rapidly and rhythmically over an instrumental backing. In Spoken Word too, words are recited rhythmically, and at times rapidly, which more often than not produces a mesmerizing effect on the audience. Spoken Word can at times, also be recited in the presence of some background music. The rhythm of the words play an integral

part in both rap and Spoken Word as the rhythm that is created by the rapid recital of the words often gets engraved into our minds.

More often than not Spoken Word and Rap talk about issues that are prominent in society. Rap is said to have come up in Africa during the time of slavery. It was their way of protesting, of telling the rest of the world that slavery is not okay.

For example, in early 2016, the song “16 Shots” was released by the artist Vic Mensa. The song is explicit, in that it talks about the shooting of Laquan Mcdonald which took place in October in 2014. The video that was released in November 2015 gave rise to protest in November, December, January, February and March. The song “16 Shots” played its part in motivating people to join the protest against police brutality.

The famous Spoken Word artist Shane Koyzcan addresses the problem of bullying in his video “To This Day.” The video of the poem is accompanied by a cartoon and background music. The unfortunately realistic lyrics take our breaths away.

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, popularly known as 'Eminem'.

57

VIBGYOR § LITERATURE

Throughout the performance, Shane Koyzcan talks about several cases of bullying, each case holds a little more than the other, and in the end it achieves its desired effect. To spread awareness.

There are Spoken Word performances and Rap songs that address personal problems. Rappers such as Kanye West or Eminem refer to personal experiences, which people can relate to.

Shane Koyczan once said “My experiences with violence in schools still echo throughout my life but standing to face the problem has helped me in immeasurable ways.

Schools and families are in desperate need of proper tools to confront this problem. This piece is a starting point.” He used the emotion from his first-hand experience to help people who are going through something similar to what he had gone through.

become someone important. To do something big.

Both Spoken Word and Rap songs aim to motivate and/or to spread awareness. Sometimes it is debatable whether a performance is a Rap song or a Spoken Word performance, like in the case of the works of Andre Lauren Benjamin.

Although Rap and Spoken Word are similar, they are different from each other, in Rap rhyme is necessary, where it is not in Spoken Word.

Rap may be explicit at times but it carries a similar message of the not so explicit Spoken Word. In most cases both Rap and Spoken Word talk about problems that prevail in society.

Eminem in his song “Guts Over Fear” said, “This is for every kid who one day dreamed of getting accepted.

This is for him or her, anyone similar, you are the reason I made this song.”

At one point of time, he was not accepted. In his song “Legacy” he talks about how he wasn’t accepted but how he used his creativity to

Sources: "How Are Hip Hop, Performance Poetry, Spoken Word, And Slam Different?." ThoughtCo. "What Is The Difference Between Spoken Word Poetry, Rap And Poetry?." WORD UP 411.

"With Spoken Word And Hip-Hop, A New Generation Of Poets Has Taken The Stage."

Columns Magazine.

Images: Rolling Stone, The Chicago Defender, Kelowna Community Theatre.

ABOVE: Vic Mensa in the cover art for his song '16 Shots'.

LEFT: Shane Koyczan

SPECTRUM A showcase of Performing Arts events in School in the year gone by.

Inter-House Popular Band Competition.

LEFT: Oberoi House.

BELOW: Tata House.

BELOW: Inter-House One-Act Play Competition.

LEFT: Tata House's "Uski Maa".

RIGHT: Kashmir House's "Ek Tha Gadha".

Inter-House Dance Competition.

LEFT: Kashmir House's "Around the World in 8 Minutes".

BELOW (LEFT): Oberoi House.

Inter-House Music Competition.

LEFT: Hyderabad House.

ABOVE (RIGHT): Jaipur House.

Images: Mr Vidhukesh Vimal.

Š The Doon School, 2017.

The Doon School is not aďŹƒliated with any other institution with the word 'Doon' in its name.