aiyyorama

2007-06-09T09:48:00.000-04:00

This is what I'm doing for June, before I head back to the motherland.

The blog
photographs
The new nom de plume I have decided to adopt, now that the whole world associates and has adopted ~dangermouse~ with the DJ and not the original, awesome, amazing cartoon, is ~p-a-n-i-c~.

What is M? Well M is basically Graphic Design meets social cause. Added on the side is some networking. Throughout the month that this workshop is Its like the Rural Studio, but instead of architecture, it's graphic design.

Rural studio
check it out, its amazing.

So we're trying to do something epic, and legendary. 8 of us, in Greensboro Alabama.

John Bielenberg heads it and guides us.

my 'epic' photograph of him.

So yesterday was our first real brainstorm. We'd been brainstorming over dinners and wines and beers and food before, but yesterday was our first time in our new studio, with sheets of paper and a process. It was a really great process. We threw out all our main ideas onto the sheet and then voted. And prioritised in this way.

We live in a house that the Rural Studio renovated, we call it the 'Bunkhouse'. 8 of us in one room on bunkbeds. I think the last time I lived like that was Rishi Velley in 8th grade.

But it's fun, so far. John expects someone to crack, that's cos this happend at least once every year. But so far it seems like there's a really good vibe between us all.
but we have about 3 more weeks to go and you never know what may happen.

Today is Saturday, we've been here exactly a week. I think we're on schedule in terms of how much we've accomplished. well, truth be told, everyone else thinks we're on schedule, I think that when we work, we need to work a little more intensely. And not go for a bazillion breaks etc. etc. But then again maybe this is the way I work. I like to work for short periods but very intensely.

2007-04-23T18:26:00.000-04:00

aiyyiyo. i sound very pretentious in my Where I am in design post. I'd like ot take it off, but I like to belive once Ive blogged Ive blogged, so. Just so you all know, I'm not always that obnoxious.

I think.

2007-04-19T11:25:00.001-04:00

my latest obsession.

Skywire

Take control of the cable car and get the passengers to safety.

Play this free game now!!

2007-04-06T13:55:00.000-04:00

Some beautiful images from my a 'playing with light' elective my friend Vinu was involved in. I think they ifnally made films.

I wish he would upload the film on youtube, then I could link it here and we could once again take part in supporting the wonderful world-information-exchange revolution.

Ask him questions at vinu.chaitanya@gmail.com

(I'm trying to do this in the ~inclusive-information-share-n-care-blog style)

2007-04-06T13:20:00.000-04:00

Work and Workspace.

I took this picture of myslef a minute ago. Yes that is how I look like while I am writing this. No I didn't get a face-job, scroll down, sillies. My good friend Umar from London says I look like a hooker/junkie, but unfortunatly this is the way I look when I wake up in the morn. So my aim was to work hard all day so I can enjoy turning 21 tonight. I got distracted and decided to bloggit. My next week is going to be hell. Lots of work. I need to phase it out so I dont roll over and obliterate.

I have too many indoor pictures. I will get you some of the outdoors, special for your viewing pleasure only.

2007-04-06T13:00:00.000-04:00

(I know I look a little silly y' all, but I like the picture. Me and my brother, Anjan, in San Francisco)

Wrote this a few days ago -

Being a designer, in my opinion, involves the training of one’s skills and applying them to increasingly challenging situations. I sense that I am at one of these points in my learning curve, where I am ready to take my design experience to a more meaningful level.

While in design school, focusing on the micro has taken me away from my eternal Big Question, which is simply, how can I change the world? This is my next goal.

I am excited at the prospect of being involved with creative, motivated individuals and building something concrete with them. I am also excited to interact and be guided by people I respect. I want to peep into their minds and observe how they think. I look forward to how these encounters can impact not only what I will bring to the table, but also my design process in the future.

I am in America for six months. I am trying to make my adventure as rich and varied as I can. My experience at MICA has enabled me to move many steps ahead with my work. I have also savoured the experience of immersing myself in a new and oddly familiar youth culture. My 8000-mile long journey has proved to be unimaginably richer than I could have ever envisioned when I first set out.

ps- have you noticed my new hillbilly accent thing? Drew, my roomate from West Virginia, is giving me lessons.

2007-04-06T12:29:00.000-04:00

yee haw folks* im back

I have so much to say.
It's been tough to blog lately, and Ive realised that Ive missed out on documenting some of my very cool and unique brushes with American youth culture and American design.
So I'm gonna do a quickndirty photo-post so you can quickly catch up with me.
Heres some of my work. Im wokring on an 'alphabet book' for publication design. My strcutures are inspired by the Eames' house of cards. The structures are modular, as you can see and comprise of units.
The books gooing to be published through www.lulu.com, and going to be sold for, if i remember right 14$? Anyway it's going to be in bookstores for real! I dont know who will buy my book apart from me, but hay! I'm not complaining, I think it's an awesome project.
While my pics load, I'll give you the lowdown on my life.
I am having an awesome time. I feel like I've come so far in terms of my work, so I imagine that impact that this experience has made on me is even greater.

2007-01-26T10:41:00.000-05:00

this is very irritating. My blog has been attcked by some lame viagra sales pitcher, so if you see posts advertising the stuff, pls ignore them. It happens about once in two days. Ive writen to blogger help, but they havent responded..yet.

2007-01-25T23:53:00.000-05:00

Here's a list of links that lead you to my faculty

Brands and Branding>Mike Weikert
Publication> Kristen Spilman> She works with Abbott Miller
Typography>Kevin Auer for the first half of the sem and then Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. They also have a band, Double Dagger
Fashion Graphics> Zvezdana Rogic and Nancy Froelich. At this last link you'll also see pics of Kristen, Mike and Zvezdana.

2007-01-25T23:40:00.000-05:00

The Brown Centre where they have
- animation and interactive media floor 2 (which is equivalent to floor 1 in all other places outside of usa)
- graphic des floor 3
- video floor 4

it's a gorgeous building which actually reminds me of NID a lot. They have that whole exposed cement pillars and floors happening, glass and instead of wood, it's metal. More pictures of the inside coming soon.

I'm a little depressed today. It's largely having to do with starting life from scratch so many times. Its very charcter building and all that but also very hard. Though it is a very unique opportunity and I'm grateful for it. It just takes a lot of energy to keep readjusting and rebuilding.

2007-01-23T17:01:00.000-05:00

My sketch book, slightly larger than an A5 ( I'm fond of that size) with schedule on the back. I think I need one per class cos all except one require workbooks to be submitted at the end of the sem. Some ppl have fancy schmancy hard-bound sketch books but i got this great one for cheap from a Rite-Aid. Which is like a 7/11, like a magazine/junkfood/stationery/cosmetics/all-in-one sort of store. And I covered the front with some brown paper to make it look non-unsightly and stuck a holographic roaring shiv sena tiger from my cool new india-sticker-collection that I brought with me.

2007-01-23T11:29:00.000-05:00

so here s what I did for my t-shirt modification assignment. I bough a tee shirt form the thrift store for 2$. I made dye with turmeric from my kitchen in my newly bought pressure cooker pot. I did bandhini in the places and pattern I wanted and soaked the long sleeved white shirt in the dye for thrity minutes over the flame, stirring continuously.
I then washed and dried the tshirt, untied the thread and cut off the ugly sleeves. i didn't like the way it fell so I stiched some darts onto the sides to make it fit better with my neon yellow thread and needle with a fat hole, both from Walmart.

I was unsure about when to stop, I contemplated adding neon yellow embroidery as more surface detail but decided not to in the end. I also wanted a pocket on the stomach but that ruined the mutant nipple compostion on the chest.

Since I couldn;t wear the now sleeveless garment to class (cold) i wore my blue shirt underneath for contrast. It sounded very excotic when I said, "a traditional Indian technique called bandhini, bandh means to tie, and I used an Indian spice, turmeric, from my kitchen" it's very cool how they respond to all this everyday stuff for us.

Some people came up with some really cool stuff. This guy made this really high men's collar. One woman made ballet flats, another made a shirt that could be turned into pants (unfortunately this sounds better than it looked), many ppl made bags, many ppl screen printed, some only used cuts to make skirts, this guy learnt how to knit from his grilfriend and cut three tees into strips to use as yarn for a scarf, one made ties, one girl made this very cool multi buttoned shirt which you can mix up the order of buttons in order to change the way it falls every other time you wear it. So all in all very creative, some were lame "pretty" screen prints but most were exciting.

2007-01-23T11:26:00.000-05:00

My room, kitchen and and and....snow!

2007-01-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

so i just went grocery shopping yest and am feeling very complete. after eating at the MICA dining hall twice I am very happy that I don't have a meal plan there. I find that I feel compelled to make my 8$ meal (!) worth it so I eat all I can and feel not good afterwards.

So I have been cooking at home and here are some samples.

This is dal and tomatoes in my new pressure cooker. I didn't put enough water (I'm learning)

So the dal turned out really brown after setting the smoke alarm off. In all this commotion my toast got a little crunchier than normal. In order to salvage my meal I quickly made a big bowl of (very yummy) tomato raita.

call me captain cook. here's my wonderfullest creation of the season. Its lightly toasted bread with avacado on top. sprinkle some mustard seeds for that interesting texture in the mouth, a dash of butter and oven it for a bit. et voila. its delicious btw.

2007-01-16T15:42:00.000-05:00

hey everyone!

Unfortunatley I don't have an image to liven this post up, I'm not posting from my own computer.

SO I'm basically going to give you the lowdown on America and MICA

Everything in America is in straight lines. Neighbourhoods don't sprawl organically, instead its built on a grid system. It makes more sense, but being away from home I'm beginning to be hit by the Indian-abroad disease, a symptom of which is to romanticise home.
I missed home food on the second day of my being here. This is very odd, I often go weeks in India eating pasta and other foreign food. I bought a pressure cooker yeasterday, to cook dal. yum-yum. I'm being very conscios of how I eat, I try and eat some leafy greens+dairy+protein+carb everyday. My breakfast is usually lettuce+hummus+bread+olives+feta cheese and some toasted bread. Today this was my lunch, being my first day of class I was in a hurry. I also drink green tea out of a bowl every day. It makes me very happy. Think not that I'm on a health spree, I ate two packets of chips today, my daily dose of junk.

I've made friends but not so many that I have plans every night. Anyway I think I'm going to be super busy..

My courses: ADV Graphic Design II- This was my first class ever and it sounded so cool. Its fashion and graphics together. My first assignment is to modify a tshirt and wear it to the next class. So I can spray paint/cut it up/stcik stuff/ sow it up, basically do anything. Last yr a girl brought in underwear. I'll update you abt the course as I go.

I think it'll be be information overload if I tell you all my courses so I'll describe them as I have them.

I miss so many poeple! I miss my parents and Simon and Lamiyah and Anu back at NID and so mnay ppl!!

On this note, I sign off.

2007-01-13T08:52:00.000-05:00

first post from America!

Hi everyone,

Things are going ok, my room, although the smallest in the house, is very cosy. The girls, Rose, Leslie and drew are very very sweet. Funny and helpful as well.

Today is orientation. I hope my fellow exchangers are fun and smart.

Everything in america is big.

more (plus pictures) coming soon!

2006-11-28T15:40:00.000-05:00

thatha, patti and ma. (translation: grandfather, grandmother, mother)

2006-10-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

MOMA new york. 2005. It was this rectangular case of these super reflective bottles. i love museums. i 'do' museums. like to look at their floorplans and weave my way through them so i dont miss out. ii like to read every little sign and want to go on every free guided tour. though on one guided tour, this was at the Tate Modern, she said that the curators believed that one should only go in for the kill if the actual objet d'art was interesting. i rem she said this while standing next to these semi-perverted paintings by this german man after the 2WW.

anyway, i disagree. i like to look at everything. interesting, uninteresting, everything.

i put this random pic here because i hate having image-less posts. so boring, so uninviting. it s so damn hard to read on screen. so i figure ill just keep putting up interesting things i see/have seen and talk abt em.

this poto shoot last month. i like this picture because:

1. im looking away, element of mystery
2. interesting way of displaying a bag, not to be braggy, but my idea.
3. i dont look fat. yes yes as aforementioned, i am a product of the mental force-fed-ization of the image of the modern woman. at least im honest. not that im honest always.

---------

aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MY JURY S TOMORROW. so today they didnt finish up on time, so instead of being first in the morn ive been pushed back to what i suppose will be late morning.
i will be screwed:

1. for my incomplete AGD (advanced graphic design. i dont beleive we still have a course with a name like this. wtf?) i have an incomplete cos i ran away to bbay to shoot the dabbawallas. and missed a week of agd. my only reassurance is that 10 yrs later im not going to remeberthe incomplete, but i am going to remeber climbing over stacks of dabbas to get that picture. (how romantic, no?)

2. for my late submission of photography. which i will get a complete in touchwood.

3. for handing out my portfolio and networking intensely at the goa design conference. hey i had fun. (they reason that its too premature for me to hand it out. EVERY other faculty ive talked to disagrees, not that this is going to prevent them from hammering me)

aiyyorama, i say.

ps- hi shivani, tanks for the comment!

2006-10-29T04:07:00.000-05:00

my jury's on tuesday.
im the first one in the morning.

im really tense. its weird, im fretting for what will be an hour of my life.

i want it to be over and done with.

i need to read some Krishnamurti. He really destresses me.

Im feeling so uncertain, unstable. I guess that ll change once my jury's over.

Reading Orhan Pamuk's The New Life. Im having to nudge my way through it a bit. I hope it gets good.

I wish I could defragment myself like a computer.

The thing is I need to dealwith it entirely on my own. NO one can help me. I feel fake asking for advice, support, a shoulder to cry on. Doesn't work. Gosh
I wish it was Tuesday this time right now, I'd be a happier person.

2006-09-30T12:33:00.000-04:00

She kicks ass. Totally ignored me so that was great for the photographs. Laxmiben, one of the six women dabbewallis.

Love that sari.

2006-09-30T10:06:00.000-04:00

hanging around with them was fun..hot dusty sweaty exciting turbo-accelarated-breakneck-blistering speed stuff but thats right down Dangermouse Ave. One day i was eating lunch with a bunch of them in the BCR (boys common room) in some dumb-ass medical college and got thrown out by this loser who told me i was supposed to be in the LCR (three guesses). I dont know why he had a problem, we were in this partioned off place sitting on top of this loooong table eating where the Dabbawallahs i was with eat everyday.
well he basically told me to fuck off after which i basically told him to fuck off.

This old keymaker who used to hang out w the DWs, id made friends with him the day before, in the BCR stood up for me, what an angel, and give him a nice private scolding. i was thereafter left alone.

goa was great too. i drew the speakers while they spoke and emailed them a scan. most of them were quite charmed by it, so im pleased. peter bilak (the thin man in the pic) said he was impressed with my wide variety of skills. yay!

---------

A private word with Mr. Melbourne Fan: Thank you for you kind and funny words, could you possibly tell me who you are?

---------

ants are pouring out my keyboard. red ants. why? why? why? die die die!

COMING SOON TO A BLOG NEAR YOU: *The Dabba Project*

2006-08-09T19:00:00.000-04:00

the quintessential japanese tourist group. i love the way mr. photopgraphers standing.

cracked up when i saw this. whipped out the camera (call me QuickDrawMcGraw) and recorded a moment in time.

2006-08-09T18:49:00.002-04:00

i did leave my mark on melbourne..

2006-08-09T18:40:00.000-04:00

i like this picture.

well, yeah we faked it. its at this student protest at RMIT.

but we did play the damn things for real for eg, when everyone clapped whooped and cheered we when *bam bam bam bam*. good fun. he offered me an apple in thanks, and i accepted.
i bumped into him again when we were at Fed Sq watching the big match on big screen and were glad to see each other considering we'd shared such a rich history of apples and drums.

2006-08-04T16:39:00.000-04:00

i guess youcan only dance like that amidst hay and sun if you have a body like that.

AND i found who stole me card. shocker!