As I approach the end to my second immersion as part of Mine
of the City project, I thought it would be a good time to retrospect my activity. The project started as a consequence to the first immersion,
which dealt with exploring a specific area through text.
As a rule we were barred to use all the
conventional mediums that we had used in the previous assignment like photography and videography. The idea was to
challenge our engagement. It was a struggle to think how to approach the assignment without the conventional forms and made me realize how restricted I had become.
This assignment is called Commute in the city.
My initial destination was from Yelahanka to Benarghatta
National Park. So I made the first journey after doing research on what to
expect, which bus to take and when would be a better time to visit. I had very
specific outlines of what output I wanted even before the trip started. But it did not work out. Lesson learnt. I told myself never do any work with pre-conceived
ideas especially when the subject/project I am not attuned to. With the hope of
looking for things that I had in mind, I missed out on seeing things that were
already present.
This led me to take another trip. And this time the journey
was quite adventurous, in the literal sense. I will put the highlights briefly.
The journey started at 11 a.m. and ended at 10:30 p.m. The mode of
transportation was BMTC. Also I had a daily pass, so that saved me spending
extra bucks when I diverted from my route. The first trip between Yelahanka to
Majestic was long. The only incident that stuck out was this ‘weird’ (I don’t
know what else to term him as) guy who tried touching me. From Majestic, a bus
called 365 goes to Benarghatta National Park directly. The frequency is
moderate. But I stood at the bus-stand for more than hour and finally gave
up. I decided to look for other routes. I took a bus till Mekhri Circle. On
asking for directions, due to language issue, I took the bus from the
wrong-side. Instead of reaching M.G. Road as planned I was on my way to
Yeshwantpur.
(Please read the previous post to learn about the journey details.)
I take my concept from this point of the journey as where
and how space changes and the experiences associated with it.
It was a struggle to begin with. I never realized that
documenting a personal experience could be such a mammoth task. (Read the next post
to see the process.)
The final output is in the form illustrations. The process
is still on to find a relevant form that will reflect on the content.
How I came to final content will be elaborated in the upcoming posts. What I can say is that at times the easiest
could be the most deceiving. Illustrating, as I later find out has not been a
cup of tea. I have struggled at every level of this assignment. But I also
learnt a lot.
Anyways this apart, I am on my way to work on another
project. It would involve extending the research done in the first assignment
and creating a new project. Things are still at an early stage. Lot of homework
has to done before anything could start. Today in fact I had my first
discussion with my project tutor. Few essentials need to be worked out like
writing the scope of the project, synopsis, timeline and finding another mentor possibly
from my department. This though is just the beginning is also teaching me the
importance of planning and approaching a large-scale project. I am sure there
will be more to this, so keep checking as I post the experiences from my time
at Srishti.
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