Experience is all there is.

So, do blind people really dream? As per a research done by the class we came to a unanimous decision that those who have been blind since birth can only dream through auditory signals. Whereas people who have lost the sight after a certain age can dream, but, dreams will consist of images from the years they were able to see. We also learnt that images don't grow with age. Images can only grow with visual memory. Thus even at old age a blind person who lost his eye sight many years ago will dream of images only in that time span before he became blind. We connected this to design how? We realized that there aren't many products today which are designed for the old age especially for people with physical handicaps. Today's design's purview in terms of age is only between 17 -25 years, which on a little introspection into the matter will turn about to be true. Let alone products, there aren't many spaces dedicated to these people. As the class progressed our facilitator shared an incident in his stay in Ahmedabad as a teacher. He told us about a heritage walk for blinds. During the walk the blind people were identifying places with respect to humans only. Not saying that they didn't know about places where people wouldn't go but they always had a human connection with a space. For them the experience was the only way to interact with the surroundings. The experience defined the surrounding for them. Also the people for them were a huge connection to the space. 

From there we picked on a more art related topic. We started to look at the importance of performance. What is it about a performance that makes it different from art forms like painting and sketching. In my opinion a performance is like a direct dialogue. A message that is unadulterated and meant for the viewers. It makes an impression. So immediately our assignment was to perform. We had to look at a few examples and formulate a concept around which our final performance would be based. 

For this performance I teamed up with Rhea and Tushar. We looked through a few pictures of performance art. They looked intense. The best part was that performance art is a personal statement. 

Our entire performance was based on the concept of lies. Once we begin lying we need to tell more lies to cover up the previous lies. We reach an epitome when or conscience wants to get rid of all the lies and we start shedding them one by one. To actually show this transformation we used three people. Tushar is a person who lied. Rhea and I are his conscience while and after lying. Rhea kept on wearing more layers of clothing symbolizing the accumulating guilt in the mind. I on the other hand was the conscience that wanted to get rid of the guilt and the lies. So I had to open all my layers of clothing down to the my last layer. I was not prepared to go nude. I'm sorry....

Overall the experience was great to be surrounded by people. They constantly try their best to get you to laugh. This was also the reason that the performance didn't realy feel like performance. It felt more like a show. It felt very theatrical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj04OiuCoSg&feature=youtu.be'

That's the lnk to a video of our first performance art.

Later again during class we looked at some eminent personalities in the world of performance. We looked at the work of Marina Abrahamovic. We also looked at the anti art Dada movement. Yoko Ono was also an important name especially for her artwork 'Cut Piece'. We also looked at some more familiar names like Lady Gaga and her dressing sense. Ultimately we arrived at the conclusion that madness is important for man to survive.

The second day of exploring installations.

What you see depends on where you stand.

This was the topic on which all the talks we had pertained to.

  We were discussing the word spectacle and it's meaning in the context of art in India. We discussed how all forms of art in India are spectacular. Not just in terms of the visual experience but also the spectacular scale on which it is done. We spoke about different regions of India and their respective traditional colors. We also looked at the reason as to why only certain colors are prevalent in few places. The reason as told to us by our facilitator was the varying intensity of sunlight in different areas. He told us that in the hilly regions of India the bright sun does not allow us to see certain colors in their true nature. Whereas in the city of Bangalore (where the college is located) colors can be seen in their true form because of the right intensity of the sunlight.

 We later progressed class by looking at a documentary of Ai Wei Wei. The movie was named "Never Sorry". It in all aspects described the character of the artist. The movie gave insight into his personal and professional life. The movie showed many of his artworks. They ranged from photos to various interactive installations.

Ai Wei Wei is an artist from Beijing. He is known for designing the birds nest stadium for the Chinese Olympics in 2008. He is also known for showing the middle finger to the White House. He is also known for breaking a Ming dynasty pot in one of his artworks clearly trying to break away from the rigidity of his culture. He loves his country and in some way or the other his artworks have been proof of that.

The Bird's Nest Stadium.

 His works have always been open to cultural, political and social criticism more than anything else. His curiosity doesn't just stop at artistic level. It rises beyond that and also reaches the social political level. He was the sole reason because of which China came to know about the number of children who died in the earthquake in the year 2008. He faced many obstacles during his survey but he could not be stopped.

               

                     The installation was put up on
                  the first anniversary of the earthquake
                     to remember the departed souls.

We saw a few of his other works including the installation which he made as a tribute to all the children who died in the earthquake.

                                                                                 

After the movie we had a small discussion. The whole class was divided into 3 groups. Each of these groups received a question which they had to answer. Group 1 answered the question,"Who is an artist?" Their definition was this: 

"An Individual who consciously expresses him?herself with a motive, medium and methodology."

Group had to answer "Is it essential for an artist to be an activist?" I belonged to this group and our answer was this: 

"No, an artist is not essentially and an activist but an activist is an artist."

Lastly group had to answer "Who is a non-artist ?" They answered:

"A non artist is one who does not express with the intention of expressing."

To conclude the class, Narendra, our facilitator asked the whole class a question. The question was ,"If an artist's work fails then is that person an artist from that point on ?"

This question was playing with my head throughout the week and frankly I don't have an answer. But I was thinking that people have always looked at art as something that should look good. Art to these people is a product and this product should be able to look good in any surrounding. It was only later artists incorporated the essence of the art in the art. Art at this point art became about what happens rather than continuing with the same old look good and fit anywhere. The most common example of art failure is Vincent van Gogh. During his lifetime he was never able to sell even one of his works. It was only after his death that his artworks began to sell. Today he is known all over the world as a pioneer of art. His works have gotten his soul millions. 

Two of his works.