Reality Transcends As Madness

Remake the audience, please!

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:11:00 +0000

And I finally am on my first assignment for the video piracy class here at Umich!

I finally embark on a journey to hunt down found footage and then using it to say what I'm trying to say!

I wasnt sure what I wanted to work on, but I knew it had to do with the media. Lately, my views on information gatekeeping by the media have been becoming more and more fierce. Media and news channels, that are one of the most fluent ways of getting information across are getting more and more influenced by different political parties and that's adversely affecting the kind of information that we, citizens, are receiving.

So after a decent amount of brainstorming, I narrowed down to the entire concept of re-making movies. :)

Why do we re-make movies? Is it because Bollywood is running out of ideas? Or is it because they're trying to preserve classic stories? Or maybe even trying to "educate" the next generation about a classic movie? And maybe the latter two are curtains to hide behind, so we don't have to admit to the former!

How do audiences change? What causes this change and what influences it to take the shape that it does? What effect does this change have on classical stories and the idea of re-makes??

There are so many re-makes- and different kinds of re-makes; bollywood re-makes of older bollywood stories, bollywood re-makes of hollywood movies, bollywood mash-ups of many hollywood movies, and director's takes on older movies.

Now there have been soooo many re-makes, there was far too much to choose from. So I came down to a classic novella, that's been re-made more than a few times. Devdas, was first made in 1928, and since then, has been re-made, 9 times! The tenth version of this movie, (well, it's not really a version, but Anurag Kashyap's take on the story- he's adapted it to be far quite modern), is Dev D., that scheduled to release this year!

What's really nice when we look at these 10 different versions of devdas,that span over 5 or so different languages (including Tamil, Asamese, Hindi, Telgu and Bengali- the original book was in bengali), is the treatment. One can clearly see how the (visual) idea of romance changes, how the sets change, how the delivery of dialogues and the choreography of dances have changed. More than to do with different people, I think it has alot to do with people, society and the way society thinks. The concept of rich and poor, of humiliation, love , sacrifice, promise, alcoholism, anger, dressing, fashion, hierarchy all changes with time, influenced by perception. And it's this perception and re-construction that follows that ignites the spark of curiosity. The older generation that has long loved Dilip Kumar as Devdas, PROBABLY would like to contrast Shahrukh Khan in the same role! And time, technology and audiences have certainly changed from the Dilip Kumar period to the King Khan's reign. And the questions that cause much debate remain- has the charm been maintained? Has the story been preserved well? Has justice been done?

Contributers at Wikipedia were nice enough to put out a list comprising of all the devdases that have ever been, and are to be in the very near future! Here goes:

•Devdas (1928 film), directed by Naresh Mitra, starring Phani Burma as Devdas, Tarakbala as Paro, and Niharbala/Miss Parul as Chandramukhi.

•Devdas (1935 film), directed by P.C. Barua, starring himself as Devdas, Jamuna as Paro, and Chandrabati Devi as Chandramukhi.

•Devdas (1936 film), directed by P.C. Barua, starring K.L. Saigal as Devdas, Jamuna as Paro, and Rajkumari as Chandramukhi.

•Devdas (1937 film) (in Assamese), directed by P.C. Baruah, starring Phani Sharma as Devdas, Zubeida as Paro, and Mohini as Chandramukhi.

•Devdas (1953 film) (also known as "Devadasu") (in Tamil and Telugu), directed by Vedantam Raghavaiah, starring Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Devdas, and Savitri as Paro.

•Devdas (1955 film), directed by Bimal Roy, starring Dilip Kumar as Devdas, Suchitra Sen as Paro, and Vyjayantimala as Chandramukhi.

•Devdas (1979 film) (also known as "Debdas"), directed by Dilip Roy, starring Soumitra Chatterjee as Devdas, Sumitra Mukherjee as Paro, and Supriya Choudhury as Chandramukhi.

•Devdas (2002 Bengali film), directed by Shakti Samanta, starring

Prasenjit Chatterjee as Devdas, Arpita Pal as Paro, and Indrani Halder as Chandramukhi.

•Devdas (2002 film), directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, starring Shahrukh Khan as Devdas, Aishwarya Rai as Paro, and Madhuri Dixit as Chandramukhi.

•Dev D (2009 film), directed by Anurag Kashyap, starring Abhay Deol as Dev, Mahi Gill as Paro, and Kalki as Chanda, Anurag Kashyap's version of Chandramukhi.

And along with this, I though I would put out a couple of you-tubers, that propped up in my research!

I'm not sure if this one is the telgu version of devdas, starring "superstar krishna"- can someone please confirm it for me??

And last but not the least, P.C. Barua's version, i think the 1936 one;

loud and fun

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:29:00 +0000

There's not much for me to say today! Obama took his presidential oath! yay!! Once again, his speech was full of promises, I hope he doesn't let us down. It was good fun the way he spoke of pettiness and all other such things in the time of bush's reign, if I may put it that way, in such an indirect and political fashion! We got to watching the entire thing in our class "Society", at the stamps auditorium, and for the love of god, I could not stay awake! I tried, but I would doze off! I think the music peice "Air and simple gifts" did it for me, I was sleeping like a baby! Lucky for me, I woke up just before obama took his oath!
And now I need to go attend this discussion class based on today morning's polsci class, (I dont know why, but I'm auditing that class anyway! Not to mention, sittting with a bunch of freshmen! :P) And I have no clue who my GSI is, or where the discussion is, what time, yada yada.I'm going to wait till 2:45, till the time I have to return a bok at Shapiro library, and if I get no news, I'll end up missing it!
LSA's really huge, and there are so many sections, that you barely get time to talk to the prof, almost like being on the sets of a talk show- yeah, the prof, prof. alan stam, is ridiculously funny, but that works, he makes a boring subject interesting!
I'm trying to finish this HUGE burrito I got last night, and unsuccessfully again! Aaahh! it's going ot be my midnight snack, and I've been wanting to buy a UofM coffee-sipper., and I just cant seem to lay my hands on one! aaah!!!

More till later, I have classes till 10pm, and I could really do with a small power nap and a coffee! grrr!

the awe in all the slobbery!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:36:00 +0000

So I am in the land of the big brother and the big apple. While I am living off it, pardon me if I may critique it at the same time. While the systematic way of life does awe me, at the same time, some of the trends, do disgust me. Every space has it's pros and cons, right. Start from the sugar. I need to pour in double of my usual intake. It just isn't sweet enough! And it's probably made less sweet so that people use more, therefore need more, therefore buy more. A not-so-surprising capitalist way of developing a false demand. GMO'd food, and it's immense availability makes me pull my hair out at a kroger's - "CAN I PLEASE GET GODDAMN REGULAR APPLES AND ORANGES??"
Makes me ask myself a question; Do I really need that much choice? Do I need to differ my juice-oranges from my salad-oranges from my regular fruit-oranges? While the central air conditioning system may work beautifully, the system of offering choices does not! I'm sure I can do with having my oranges, simply oranges. Pure oranges that taste like the sun, the way they're supposed to. I should be able to peel them using my fingers, and eat them, and spit out the seeds that later on are used to grow more orange plants. It was the way of nature; our human hands were made in such a way that we can peel oranges, and orange peels were made in such a way that they can be peeled by bare human hands. Our tongues and lips endow us the ability to spit out any seeds in our mouth, and seeds were made bitter and hard and weird so that the human could spit them out into soil, and help them grow. You know, like the nature-balance kinda thingy?? Like when, like one thing is dependent on like, another thing, to like, regenerate and stuff??!!
Then I don't exactly fancy having to watch a video which starts with a girl sitting on a couch, cross-connected, and her mouth wide open, and hand in the air. No, I'd like to navigate immediately away. Maybe a silent smile into the camera would be more inviting than an over-excited teen! Calm down, we all love energy, but energy in the right places. And some of the advertisements- sheesh! Whatever happened to good advertisements these days? While the consumer may buy into certain things that you say, the consumer IS NOT DUMB! They dont need to be spoonfed! Isnt the whole idea of advertising supposed to be "food for thought/thought-triggering", to get the audience curious about a product or service so they may try it out. Whatever happened to the sensuality of mystery and the thrill of drama? Is the consumer really that dumb and lazy?

A funny thing that happens around the house is weird noises- moans, groans, farts from the garbage system, the central vents, yada yada yada. In all this weirdness, there's fun, and there's a lot of awe and respect that I have for this system here! Cars stop for pedestrians, and pedestrians for cars *Yayyy!!*

*sigh*

And today, I got a pillow, a bulb, cola and a burrito, and some goodies from bath and body works ! Yayyy!! *content*.. I think I touch 75$ for the month. And I need to spend another 73 on a book tommorow morning. And I just got a computer. Ahh! I think after the book, I stop! I need to LIVE ALSO! aaah!!

WHITE-OUT!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:57:00 +0000

Yayyy! Finally I'm in Michigan, and the University is absolutely brilliant! I'm loving UofM, and I'm already feeling bad that the next 4 months are going to fly by! I've got absolutely fantastic housemates- Manisha aka Mommy, Komal and Sophia, and a bunch of absolutely crazy neighbors- Alap aka Aaloo, Jay and Prasad (aka Sadman- for his sad jokes). And there's the crazy engineer gone nuts Sameer, who, btw, is also from Bangalore, and ou can make that out almost immediately; his accent is still very very Bangalorean (READ BISHOP COTTONS, even though he's not from there)!

I got a bunch of amazing classes; and while I'm still trying to convince MAIS to promise to buy a book of me (only then it's worth buying the book, really.), I got a Mac Book Pro 15"- it's called the spoilt apple, because I'm going to SPOIL and PAMPER it no end! And with it, *evil, wicked grin* I GOT ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE MASTER COLLECTION F-O-U-R!! Buuuhuuuhahahahaa! I'm probably the first person in Srishti to have got it, and guess what, it's my very own edition! (it's registered with this computer, so only I get to using it!) So lots of new things, even though I'm missing something far beyond what I could imagine- Jigglie!!

The craziest thing about michigan- is wherever you go in Ann Arbor, or A-square as it's fondly known, is YELLOW AND BLUE! yep, the varsity colors, the colors of the wolverines, and the way it's pushed is CRAZY! The patriotism that the kids here have towards this place is immense, only to be heightened by the football season! The place is huge. Sadman and Jay think probably more than 50K. I dont know for sure, I've only seen one smaller part of campus!

It's freezing here- today's high was -5 degrees celcius and today's low was -9 degrees C. Luckily, even the buses here and centrally heated (and free for UofM students), and very frequent. So getting around becomes really easy. And contradictory to popular belief, I'd like to believe that you dont need a car with such a system in place. Free cabs to take you home at night after mindight or 1 am or something like that. Why cant srishti have that??

The campus is split into three- south, central and north. South being the mainly the athletics area, central is the biggest, and has all the "cool places" and north is the quite abode of the artists and engineers! I actually have a special corner for north, I though I would be dying to go to central, but north is just fine. The duderstatd library is really inviting, and the best thing is that most of the buildings are connected in weird ways- it took me a week to get to know some of the routes, not all of them, and for someone with a very good sense of direction, it's all messed up for now! They have microwaves all randomly places, so you can heat your food! And bagel toasters, and grills! And coffee EVERYWHERE! Oh, it's glorious. Srishti could do with a couple of those; even though I do think we have a microwave in New Campus, in the kitchen. I'm not sure.

The best part about america- PEDESTRIANS do NOT walk on highways and busy roads. They love thier lives, and there's a certain respect between pedestrians and drivers! The indian fraternity is huge here. Lots of Indians. And I've learned so much in this one week, i'll probably come back a full library down in my tummy!!! Practically all the information you could possibly need is available online, through various sites and networking setups.

It's insane, but it's fantastic! Srishti could learn a thing or two about michigan, and michigan could do with a little bit of srishti! :D

And as for me, I could do with both anyday- only, a little less snow!!

Brute Force Limited Edition Shirts!

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:53:00 +0000

Onseed now loves Brute Force as well!! :)

Soon after Tu and I managed to crack the Brute Force Logo (it's turned out fantastic, but I'm not going to reveal it till the end of this post! :P), Onseed announced that not only would we have submerge shirts at the flea market at sunburn 08 (which, I WILL NOT BE ATTENDING! :@), but also a limited edition Brute Force Series!

So i jumped up, booking myself one, and asking ryche if he knew the ninja story; he didn't, just like u guys!

When we were figuring out the font, Tuhin wanted a certain font called "Hirosh" which looks like what's on your left, which would make Brute Force look like an oriental restaurant! Not that I have anything against Hirosh, it's a perfectly nice font, only, not for Brute Force. This is how it was looking! :D Imagine Tuhin, in a ninja outfit, mixing hakka noodles instead of music on the console! hahahaa!!

So yep, we came up with a ninja artwork for the shirts! And guess what, ryche wanted me to design a tag which would have my name on it, and would go on the shirt, stating that it was my artwork! How cool, how sooper cool of onseed! So this is what I quickly put together: a happy griffy, and the pugo! :D

I thought I'll make it funny, and all wobbly, like a balancing act. And to go with the illustration, I picked the font brouss for my name! (font courtesy: www.dafont.com - do i get something for advertising them on my blog?? :P)

So make sure u get your Limited Edition Brute Force Shirts at sunburn before they run out, and DO NOT MISS SUNBURN- it's on, just as planned.. ALL of the artists have been very supportive, and have not canceled their gigs because of the Mumbai Shootout. I guess the only thing that got delayed was Markus Schulz, same dates, next year!
And as I promised you guys, a glimpse of the new Brute Force Logo from a flyer:

Tell me what you think about it! Leave your comments behind!

*In a formal tone*
Your feedback will be deeply appreciated!
:P

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:33:00 +0000

leaves! During raghu's drawing studio... I didn't have the time or patience to finish this, but looking back, I prefer this particular piece unfinished!

I was terribly bored on a flight to Delhi, and the nerdy bloke next to me was reading Bridges of Madison County... such a co-incidence, my favorite book, but the guy simply didn't see the beauty in it! *jackass!*

My first encounter with Julie Fairless- an illustration for a class "Hierarchy" she took with us sometime in 2nd year, 2nd semester.

Paper I made at Visthaar! :) Always makes me happy, getting myself messy!
Unfortunately, I can't find the paper that Aastha and I had made, and forcefully stuck an ant in that paper. Boy, are we sadists!

For "Hierarchy", again, even though it wasn't used in my book, I was just having fun, lazily doodling around, wasting my time in class.. I think someone had used the word juxtaposition, that's all. It isn't supposed to reflect the meaning of the word either!

paper I made at visthaar, in december 2006!

This doodle comes from Avy's course- communication theories; I was trying to decode a coded message as a part of a class assignment on codes!

Once again, rahgu's studio!

Once again, Raghu's studio.. this was actually the plant (RIP) that had grown in between the granite slabs at the amphi-theatre.. such plants always catch my attention!

Raghu's studio.. it's actually this red flower, I might use it for a digital mixed media artwork soon.
Everyone was drawing it in color, I got a little adventurous and tried to interpret it in black and white. Charcoal!

repair

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:49:00 +0000

when the lights go out
usually the start of a celebration in marked

a young life reacts to schizophrenic lights
the old repairs it with a candle

some show duality
some oblivion

HONGUSKYIE!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:23:00 +0000

Yes, that dreaded word! ;)

We had three weeks with Mahendra Bhai Patel, this absolutely fantastic type designer, who also teaches at SCOD, Pearl, IDC Powai, and a whole lot of design institutes, and has been around at Srishti since forever.. We finally got to having him as our facilitator, after two years of listening to our seniors go on and on raving about him!

We covered alot, from the history of letterform design, to working with quill pens, reed pens (not to mention making them as well- only the quill pens were makeshift!) and brushes. Rustica, serifs, san serifs, decorative, geometrical, humanist, what all we covered! And guess what, we actually (well, almost) designed out own fonts, and in matching vernacular scripts! I'm not excatly sure if I should be using the term vernacular, but yes, local scripts! Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil and English were my main languages - not in that order, and I also to experimenting with Arabic! As it turned out, the font I had designed *can i call it HONGUSKYIE PETRIFIES! :P* would look best in arabic as a matching font!

Another assignment made us experiment with our initials and serifs, of course, we were free to do whateva-the-hell with them, as long as the height remained the same! And guess what! I managed to crack a logo (till I find a better one) for myself!! :D :D

While developing our own fonts, we had to use the letters H, O, N, G, U, S, K, Y, I, E.. not a magic word that means anything, really.. but magical! At times, annoying and exasperating! oh! the moans and groans in New Campus from our batch, post 6pm! :D Honguskyie, is mahendra bhai's signature word- only for the reason that it's the perfect combination of vertical (H, I, E), diagonal(N, Y, K) and curvilinear letterforms (O, S, G, U)! put in that order, it's easy to tell how well the letterforms work as a font! There are so many intricacies involved, everything needs to be looked at, questioned, put in place, corrected.. joints, curves, drops, angles, width, height, consistency in style, visual centers, baselines, caplines... everything needs to have a reason, but then again, that pretty much happens everywhere when you're a visual communicator! :D

Coffic Disasters

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:37:00 +0000

At a point of time, we as designers keep on talking and do nothing. Sitting in class and just talking can get to one's head. This is during conceptualization. I nearly fell asleep. 3 coffees down and my stomach's hurting. I need my bed. Or I need to get out, I need a change of workspace.
This is where I go overboard and become an artist.

The coffic disaster comes into being. Using a paper cup I just drank my 3 coffees out of, I create my art piece. Not the best, not a master piece. Just a bit of art.

Tags for this one??

Escape, Zone out, Disappear, Mental absence, Emotional Presence and Release.

चाय या काफ़ी या फिर एक धमाका ?

Places I've been

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:12:00 +0000

Lately on facebook, I've been coming across these applications tha tmap out where all where one has been. By where all, I mean the number of countries.

I'm not saying don't go abroad at all, but I do encourage seeing one's own country before heading out.

So I decided to map out where all I've been;

View Larger Map

Returning to Love

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:00:00 +0000

My computer had been unwell for quite some time. Infected- with a Trojan horse- you know, the one that floats around the internet, spreading from one comp to another via Messengers.The virus managed to ruin closure of my first set. It killed my morally. I was unable to mix, not because I can't but because my computer was acting up.
Today, it started working again. Yes, I got my computer formatted, handing it over to the computer man as nervous as a mother handing in her one-year-old-baby to a doctor so that he/she may perform a life-saving operation on the baby!

My comp's working beautifully now, all that's left to do is figure out the make of my graphics card and install the driver- I do not have the CD.
I got my internet working, and started chatting with Bluey (as I fondly call my favorite minimal tech submerge DJ) . Our beloved music-digging sessions started, and soon we were discussing sets while tripping on Ricardo Villalobos.

We're discussing what will possibly become of the next set I decide to churn out, and suddenly I want to mix. I manage to dig out my VDJ installer files from somewhere ( mind you, I'm a complete bedroom/ bathroom DJ), and install it- it's working, no need for the dermatologist (there was a skin error previously)!!!

I don't record the set, but I play just for the fun of it.. I thought I would mix 5-6 tunes and be done, and I go on and on and on and on mixing. A loyal submerged. It felt so good to be mixing again! Not that I mix very often, but it felt wonderful. Like falling in love all over again and again and again. Sheer happiness!

I cannot thank submerge enough for bringing me o who I am, for resurrecting my dead dreams of jockeying!

One thing I was reminded again of today- that when you want to do something, even if you have what it takes or not- just go ahead and do it. It's a wonderful feeling. It's satisfaction and content no words can explain. It's Shakespeare, it's Robert Kincaid, it's Beauty and the Beast, it's everything one cannot explain, but exists... :D

Global Warning

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:56:00 +0000

My dream as a child has finally come true. I've become a planeteer, crusading against global warming trying to save our world. Come on guys, face it, if the water levels increase, Goa, Mumbai and Chennai and New York will be submerged, and probably Ibiza as well.. I can't imagine a world where there's no Ibiza!

Back to topic, I must resist diverting attentions.

As we went into this project, we spoke, spoke and spoke more. Had heavy discussions, defined terms such as "sustainability","ecological efficiency","growth of limits","culture" (and the list will never end) and determined their values and positions in our daily life.

What a beautiful word, "culture"!!

But in a country as diverse as India, it is our social responsibility (as designers, many may differ, go right ahead, this is just my belief) to look at everything in a detailed, micro format, and pull back and look at the larger picture, and most probably, generalize. Based on this generalized research, we design solutions that everyone can reap benefits of! But how the fuck do we generalize one trend for 35 different cultures? That's Assignment 1.

CERTAIN NOTIONS AND ARGUMENTS FROM "The ecological footprint"

The Growth of Limits

So we have the solution. Presenting NUCLEAR ENERGY! A clean resource of energy, that neither pollutes, nor depletes. We use it for electricity, for water systems, to run cars, for every possible act- after all, the sun is also a result of nuclear reactions. So why worry about depleting resources.

Contradiction that spills: we're already taking our non-renewable resources for granted. With the coming of a resource that re-generates itself in the wink of an eye, we shall soon choose to take this resource also as granted- as a result, we'll use the non-renewable resources at a faster rate than we already are. After all, we have nuclear energy! Then what about eco systems and cycles? And who's gonna look after nuclear waste? My grandfather?? I don't think so, he'll just sit up in heaven and laugh at us earthlings gone mad, and going madder still.

The Optimists

Whatever will happen, will happen.. everything will fall into place, the earth has it's own way of fixing things. Smell the roses, enjoy your lives, why bother about the future??

the argument: KNOCK! KNOCK!

whatever happened to realism? You want to leap without looking ahead and assessing the depth of the well? Go right ahead, and soon, there will be no roses to smell!

How about figuring out a sustainable way of living, rather than simply crossing the carrying-capacity of the earth? Quality of life on earth vs. Quantity of life on earth- that is my question. What do you want?

True, every system undergoes various processes to attain a state of balance, equilibrium, lowest energy, blah blah... But what are going to be the consequences of these processes? and are we giving the earth enough time to fix itself before we bring out our weapons of damage again? Clearly, NO!

I heard that the main "thought" at the space arts synopsium *where i saw some of the greatest sciency fellas chills* was:

DUDE, OUR PLANET'S FUCKED.. WE HARDLY HAVE ANYTHING LEFT- LET'S GO COLONIZE OTHER PLANETS, THAT'S A SOLUTION.. *read "let's go fuck them up as well* AFTER ALL, WE ARE IN A STAGE OF UNIVERSALIZATION!
*this was clearly, a bias on my behalf.. but dude!! GET A FREAKIN LIFE!- or loose ur, what freakin difference does it make??*

I've reached a complete stage of frustration, and I beg to differ from Zack when he says we're 3 minutes to midnight. I say, we're 5 minutes past midnight. But we'll realise it only late!

Let's do this, let's just get rid off all our problems, lets just eradicate the root cause, us humans! VOILA! SOLUTION!!

how about simply each one minding their own business, but doing their own small, teeny weeny bit for this planet, and turn off lights that aint needed, walk as much as possible, use local transport, dont waste resources.. do whatever you can for this planet, ask me for a solution if you need one- small solutions, ONLY RELATED TO GLOBAL WARMING- I AM NOT AGONY AUNT!..

Let's take advantage of having a culture, and let's just start this lil bit in our homes, on our own, for ourselves...

Cuz as Priyam (PID 301) put it "It's like, we all know that the earth is gonna get affected by global warming, but not our own houses." So where do you live?? On mars? Won't you also be affected???

सुर्य कि किरणें

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 17:09:00 +0000

The sun's rays. Surya ki kiranein.
Zack finally put up 2 of the audio clips i had produced. That's some good news, in between walking 8 km up and down a day. Hopefully, i should be able to figure out a way to publish my website soon. Or perhaps I'll go get myself a domain name and jazz it up. Yashas liked the initial stuff he saw. I hope he like the final web page as well.
I'm anticipative of tomm. It's a long day ahead, I have to finish 2.5 projects tomorrow and hit the bowling alleys and fuga.

HAPPINESS!!

Therein lies my happiness, and hopefully, my professional future. It's really nice when someone puts up your work, when you are a student, especially in a big, introductory and documentary web page such as cema's. Perhaps this is the specialization I've been searching for, for so long! It's a hybrid of other forms of design and art. And I can always be a visual communication designer, if nothing else. I can't even imagine what all I can learn in experimental media arts!
:D

Pictionary in Symbols

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:18:00 +0000

I started my assignment to convert Dmitri Siegel's Please CARE article into symbols with trying to search for the key words in the article. Eventually, I decided on the following words/phrases- Expansion, Design Education, Structuring, 4-step process. Conceptualization, Articulation, Research and Execution.
We had already discussed in class that the human brain finds it easier to recognize preset patterns, and that what may appear as a pattern to me, may not hold the same meaning for someone else. I decided to deviate from the process of generating my own symbols, which I was initially doing, to trying to put familiar symbols into this context. This would make it easier for others to understand the basic keywords of the article, and hopefully that would get the concept across.
In my final composition, I created a hierarchy in which the first 4 phrases- expansion, design education, structuring, and 4-step process fall under one another vertically, in the order stated above, the order in which they are mentioned int he article. I did this to create and introduction- the reason for the need of a 4-step process such as CARE. The fifth level I created was by placing all the terms which form care at the same level under 4-step process, in order to signify thier equivalent importance and to visually show that together, they form CARE.

sunshine at midnight

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:42:00 +0000

my latest set.. a few bloopers, and an end that was attacked by the trojan that lives in my comp...

http://www.mediafire.com/?c9di3rz29zq

Who stole my Unicorn?

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:30:00 +0000

Why I'm proud to be a designer

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:46:00 +0000

Katherine McCoy promotes the idea of students developing "content matter" in their design projects. Rather than simply being passive to what we are giving to our audience, a-taking-from-client-giving-to-audience deal, we have a social role to lay that is far more important. I agree with her. On one hand, one must keep his/ her economic interests in mind, but the message we, as designers, give our audience, must also be kept in mind. Design is a very powerful tool, which we all, as designers and student designers are equipped with. It's almost like a biological virus, which can be a boon or a bomb. How we use design as a medium to communicate, what to communicate, is in our hands. I may choose to promote fair-and-lovely, as a complete passive in the entire project. On the other hand, I may choose to promote beauty within all, in whatever form, knowing that it matters to me more at a personal level. Accepting beauty withing themselves is more important for all of us, rather than a cream that "promised" a fairer tone of skin, but actually delivering a face that has had an allergic reaction and an individual who feels cheated. When I use the phrase "developing content matter", we start at level 1. Choosing content matter. What is the use of the project? How does it affect me, another individual in the masses? Is it making a difference for the good of it, or is it just there? Step 2. How do I effectively communicate my idea? A graphic I create, what will be the effect of it on the masses? What will my audience interpret this advertisement/film/graphic as? Do they get my idea with ease? Is it making them reflect upon what I'm trying to bring out of them?

Design is a two-way process. It can't be purely designer-oriented or purely audience-oriented. As designers, we are privileged to be free thinkers. We are trained to think for ourselves, and have a heavy sense of reasoning and logic. To a certain extent, we control the masses, the way they think, act, their choices. On the other hand, we are people workers, we work for them, for their benefit. We are heavily dependent on the masses. We are their servants.

Design is a complex thing. It is embedded at every layer of our thought and action. Even though I'm capable of ruffling a few feathers, and might end up doing so in the future, I'm proud to be a designer, even if I'm still just a student designer. I'm proud of being one of the many masters of a powerful tool, such as design.

Why did the CHICKEN cross the road?

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:37:00 +0000

Perhaps even I don't know why the chicken crossed the road. The motive is clearly more than just crossing the road. I'd like to delve into the question of why the chicken WANT to cross the road.

Was there some chicken feed on the other side?

Were it's chicks on the other side?

Was it simply confused, where it's pen lay?

Or did the egg tumble down the road, onto the other side?

The possibilities are endless. We're faced with challenges and choices everyday.It's upto us to choose. Happy, Sad.
Yes, No. Bus or Car?

I believe in minimalising my options to successfully make a choice. Sometimes it's worked, sometimes it's not.
In this picture, it worked. I chose the car, and I got lucky. I got the bus also!

The irony, I believe there's no such thing as luck.

Copying Is CooL

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:14:00 +0000

Life is almost all about piracy, isnt it?

This is a soundscape, made out of hours of recording local "kannada" radio.

It's a collage. Of bits of what our ears pick up on the radio.

We call them
RADIOscapes

DJuploads.com Download Link

imgs from:
http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2004/11/hough_waves.php

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 India License.

Juice in the mixer

noreply@blogger.com (Mahima) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:01:00 +0000

There's still alot of fruits left in the fridge. Perhaps they'll begin to rot if none of us start hogging on whatever's left of them. Bull- I think the papaya's gone.
I was used to really really dumb professors. But not anymore. For the past two years, we srishti students have started looking at our professors more like really senior colleagues, when not on the job, people we can chill with.

Aastha and I went to the kade to grab a snack between class. And la di da! Ashwin, our dehydrated boob, is there. (Question- how come almost all ashwins are associated to boobs??) He parks the bike, and the three of us are jumping about- what a re-union!! and
WHAM!
The driver chose not to honk, but simply reverse. Aastha and the bike could have been tipped over. and our dear professor lady enters "I am a professor. I have yet to meet students like you. I have been driving since god only fucking knows when. You don't respect people. It was your fault. I will ruin you lives. Let me speak i will give you a chance to speak. blah blah blah blah...."
I felt instantly transported into class 9. When all was theory, and there was no questioning. When logic never existed, the world depended on late night cramming sessions. When all that mattered were marks, and who stood first in class, regardless of what was understood. When the competition was not based on who understood what better, but on who was better at mugging and cramming, and then re-producing the text books assigned to us in school...

After 8 minutes of wasted blabber and wasted time, aastha and I walk off, having sent off ashwin from the scene long ago. As I turn my back, least interested in what the lady was going on ranting about- it had stopped making sense to me nearly 25 seconds into the conversation- i hear her talk about behaviour. My mom would have been so proud my temper control and politeness at that point of time. Lady, you need to upgrade ur brain processor and operating system to the mac leopard.
Signed,
with love
STFU!