Clockwork

CLOCKWORK By Shyamolie Kate Sohini Mukherjee

Clockwork symbolizes the mechanization of people in their surroundings. The gears of a clock define its working; one gear directs the motion of the following gears, one leads to another. But at the end, the gears perform a specific funtion and can work only in the manner that they are designed.

Our journey and exploration of Hampi and JSW led us to the observation of humans in the spaces and how in our eyes these people seemed mechanical in their surroundings, based on their function and time constraint.

C l o c k wo r k o f P r o c e s s In our visit to Hampi and JSW, we observed a similar process of behaviour in the people, of both the spaces. The tourists in Hampi, the workers in JSW and us as photographers of the space, all had a specific agenda, limited time and guidelines to be followed. The people, in general, had a fixed task. As tourists one would visit the main tourist attractions, as workers one would complete one’s job in the given amout of time and as photographers one would photograph the space visited and interpret it in a way individual to oneself.

The people were in a way becoming victims of their spaces and thus their behaviour seemed more robotic and mechanical than the space itself. Like robots are task specific, the people were being governed by the task at hand. Like the motion of the gears of a clockwork are dependent on one another, similarly the people were governed by time and task in the space.

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The Herd Tourists and workers are like a flock of sheep. They don’t know where to go or what to do unless instructed. They tend to follow another person going in a specific direction or doing a task in a particular way. When you look at them from a distance, they look identical and mechanical in their actions, postures and mannerism. There is always a heirarchy of the people who deliver the instructions and guidelines. This heirarchy is blurry yet distinct. Sometimes, heirarchy comes with the knowledge of a task or space, and sometimes it is just because of position in authority.

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T h e O n l o o ke r s The groups of tourists observing their surrounding space were being observed by smaller groups of people and in turn were being observed by us. Thus forming a chain of observations of the observers and the ones being observed. The subject of viewing sometimes was directed by a person with a higher authority (in terms of knowledge about the space) than the others, for instance, in the case of the tourists a guide would show them around and in our case, as photographers, we were being guided by a guide in Hampi or a supervisor in JSW. Page 8: The Onlookers Series 1 Page 9-10: The Onlookers Series 2 Page 11-12: The Onlookers Series 3 7

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Chains The workers stripped from their surroundings show a hierarchy in function and authority forming a continuity between themselves. The composition leads up and then down through an invisible link. Even though the people have different tasks, eventually their work is connected and it is interdependent. The people are bound together by their functionality, space and time. They thus become victims of their surroundings attributing to their mechanization.

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C o nve yo r B e l t Observing tourists and workers leads to the conclusion that they are evidently aimless when not under some kind of authority. They look like they lack identity and purpose. When guided by a higher authority or a tourist guide they follow them blindly and put all of their trust in them. This often leads to them getting misguided (especially in the case of tourists). They believe the things that they hear and associate them with what they see, based simply on what they are told.

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