Student
Name: Surabhi Singhal
Year of
Enrollment: 2012
Focus Area/
Program: Advanced Diploma Program (Open Pathway)
Program
Advisor/ Mentor: Smriti
1. PROJECT
TITLE: Why did you choose this project and what was involved
in the decision making process?
MEMORY LAB:
I chose this project because the aim of this
project was to represent memories in any medium of one’s own choice. I could
relate this representation to my own practice of Interior Design where we have
to inculcate feelings in a space. I thought that if I will find the way and
develop the process of representing memories in a physical form, I would
definitely develop my creative and concept development skills to incorporate
certain set of feelings in a particular space. Moreover, I was free to choose
the medium for execution and I chose to use 3D medium.
2.
SUBJECT: Reflect on the subject matter of your chosen project and the breadth
of research that you have conducted on this subject?
While working in
the memory lab, we have been constantly working on presenting memories.
Although these are personal memories every time, we relate our memories to
specific subjects.
The most
challenging part of the memory lab while working throughout was to decide which
memory to choose and above that which memory should be exposed and executed.
The other most challenging part was to represent the memory altogether.
For the first
movement that we worked on, we had to present either a happy or traumatic
memory from our lives. We had to link our memory to an archival object which
reminded us of that memory.
For this movement,
I worked on my memory of a trial/changing room in a garment shop. I remembered
how in a changing room the mirrors were placed parallel to each other and
reflected infinite images of myself when I used to try a cloth on. It became
difficult for me to understand which part to look at. I linked this memory with
a new T-shirt as an archival object because it was a garment which reminded me
of the changing room. For execution of my memory, I created a trial room with
mirrors placed on all its sides. To make the space more interesting, I used a
prism-like structure. The viewers were allowed to enter inside and try on the
clothes that were kept inside. This set-up in the gallery, made the viewers
feel what I intended them to feel. I received feedbacks that mentioned that the
space triggered their own memories. The suggestion that I received was to
increase the wardrobe options inside the changing room.
For the second
movement of the memory lab, we had to work with our memories in a way that we
link any political history of the nation/world to our memory in a way that it
shows our identity.
For this movement,
I really had to think hard about the memory that I might or might not have.
After thinking a lot and talking to my relatives, I recalled a memory. This was
about the stories that my grandfather used to recite in front of us telling us
about his experiences. I remembered how I used to paint while listening to him
while sitting in the veranda and slowly leave the canvas and join the rest of
the group to listen to him.
I remembered one of
his stories which were directly related to the history of the nation. In 1984,
when Indira Gandhi was assassinated, there were huge riots in the country among
the Sikhs and the Hindus as a retaliatory violence. My grandfather had a few
Sikh friends who were in danger of losing their lives. He thus, gave them
refuge in our house for a week and looked after their food and shelter.
Listening to him, I
had various images of him and his friends in our house. For representing this
memory, I painted the image of my mind on canvas. I decided to portray the
difference in the inside and the outside atmospheres at the time of the riots.
I thus crated a room symbolising a house with a dining space in it. I placed my
canvas in that room in the same position as I used to leave it while listening
to grandpa. On the outside, I projected the video of the violence that was
happening outside that house.
The viewers who
visited my installation in the gallery, saw the video and experienced the
violence outside, and as soon as they entered the inside they could feel the
comfort and fear of the surroundings.
I was successful in
achieving my desired output as received appreciation from the viewers. It was a
wonderful experience to create the human-scale space myself with wooden frames
and thermocol.
The third movement
of the memory lab was a collaborative work with the art students of University
of Rhode Island, USA.
I had
paired up with a student of that school and my peer and friend, Vyoma. We went
about clubbing the memories of the three of us and producing an artwork.
Philomena – our URI partner, had decided to work with the memory associated
with her childhood toys. Likewise, my peer here derived her inspiration from
the winning and participation in sports events at school and state level and my
memory was inspired from a small game that me and my cousins had set up as a
part of a ‘fun fair’ when I was a kid. My memory inspired me to think of the
overall concept of our work – to peep through the memories.
Peeping for the reason that whenever we trace back a memory or think about an
event of the past, we never have a clear and complete picture about that event
instantly. We always think about specific aspects of that memory. I intended to
use the form of my memory as peepholes for viewing the memories of the past of
my peer’s and Philomena’s.
Well,
after the work was installed in the gallery space, I encountered and concluded
certain things about our work.
First of
all, I liked my idea of peeping through the memories but felt that the
structure that we had created could not justify the action of peeping. If at
all the holes would have been smaller and lesser (opened), the action of
peeping could have been achieved. It would have made the viewer more curious
and inquisitive to peep into the memories.
Lastly, I felt that if at all we would have got some quality time to discuss our collaboration with the URI students, things must have been better.
3.
AIMS/OBJECTIVES/CONCEPTS: How and to what extent have you achieved the aim and
objectives of the project? Describe the main concept driving the project.
The main objective of this project was to represent
memories. I have always worked for all the projects in this lab in a way that
the viewer is able to experience exactly what I had experienced in that memory
and I can proudly say that I was very well able to achieve what I intended to
achieve. The viewers laid their feedbacks and confessed that they recalled their
experiences and could very well get the feel of the spaces that were created.
4.
AUDIENCE: Are you addressing a specific audience with your work within this
project? For example, a specific community, your peers, members of your family,
a corporation or business, educators, patients of a hospital department,
government agencies?
Although we have always had audiences who are
artists and designers, but I, personally have always made it a point that a
person who is not an artist also easily understands and experiences the feel of
my work.
I have always thought about the audiences in a way
that whatever I am doing or will be doing won’t be limited to the people of
only my own field. A common man who is not capable enough to grasp and
understand the concept should still be able to connect with my work
5.
CONTEXT: What is the context of your project? Is it going to be viewed in a
gallery space, on the Internet, within a community space, in the public
domain?
Well, so far we have had two main projects and we
are working towards the development of the third project in collaboration with
the students of University of Rhode Island.
My current projects are produced for a gallery
space and we have had two exhibitions so far and working towards the third one.
6.
FORM/MEDIUM/PRESENTATION: What are the forms and methods of presentation that
you are working with? Have you chosen these yourself or were they a part of the
project requirements? From the work you have done so far, have you gained
any insights on your approach to making, doing and documenting?
In our
project, the liberty of choosing medium of presentation lied with us. I had
been working with human-scale installations and creating spaces. In addition to
this, I have learned to edit videos and have been working with sound and
videos. Sound had been a mandatory medium for our projects.
From whatever I
have done so far I have realised that I have to work on improvising the quality
of my work. Although I have been very clearly able to achieve my objective but
the presentation is not self-satisfactory. Documenting whatever I have been
doing has helped to know myself in terms of my interests and desires better.
7. RESEARCH
METHODS: What kind of research methods are you using to research the project
work in depth, and how has your research informed your process?
For taking the project further, I read the texts
that are relevant to the topic. I try to understand the topic better and what
is it that it exactly calls for.
This is worth mentioning, having the Qualitative
Research Methods course for the semester has really helped to understand the
need of research and its benefits.
8.
REFERENCES: How useful were the references you explored so far- the artists,
anthropologists, designers, writers or other practitioners?
Some of the references were really helpful and gave
a new insight for looking at the problem. These references made the objective
clearer. The others though seemed a bit irrelevant for the work which was to be
done, but were interesting to read.
9. POSITION
& RELATIONSHIP: How do you think your project would function in, or be
positioned to contribute to, similar contemporary fields of production?
I
feel that whatever work I have done so far had a new element in terms of the
output and execution. Even though I had been using references to understand the
topics better and browsed some of the works that have been done related to the
memories, I felt that my intention of adding a feel to my work stands out. As
my work is not only meant for interpretation but also inculcates some kind of
feel in the viewer, it adds a new dimension to the field.
