Future Prospects of Movement (Transportation proposals)

Proposal : Future modes of transportation

INITIAL APPROACH: What one could save time by traveling through time dimension? Although I am not talking about the grandfather paradox where a man can travel back in time and kill his biological grandfather before the latter met the traveler's grandmother, it is the simple concept of moving against the earth’s rotation.

What if there was a train that could allow one to travel from India to Russia and back, in half the duration? There have been researchers who have thought about moving against the axis of the earth in a speed greater than it’s rotation. I think it is possible that the train would catch fire even if the body of the train were made of the strongest metal that exists. But what if, there were train lines that could signify timelines. Alternate paradoxes would fill the space that the earth provides. Spatial interventions would boom, allowing the scope of research on Meta physics as well. Space-time travel would also be possible, preventing any clashes of history.

I think the possibilities would be endless. Allowing us to explore parallel universes and learn more about humans in an instant. We could live in era of mutable and immutable timelines.Based on physics, the train passes through tunnels (wormholes) on the tracks (cosmic strings) at the speed faster than that of light.

FINAL: After doing intensive research on time and its capabilities, I realized most theories are just hypothetical. I figured my initial approach was very vague. Although it consists of facts, it still lacks a clear-cut direction, leaving all the possibilities of metaphysics, time dimensions, etc. wide open. Considering I am designing for the near future I shouldn’t rely on things such as cosmic strings, because they haven’t been entirely proven as a possibility. But keeping in mind my interest in public trafficking and transport, I will still proceed with newer advanced methods of transport.

Movement in masses is common. We live in a world where humans walk side by side with machines to travel in city spaces. One concept I thought of was the possibility of a Segway with artificial intelligence. A.I. is very unique and there are immense possibilities of its usage in vehicular movement. Even in planes, autopilot might just be an obsolete feature in the near future. Mark Safford says, “Transportation is one of the most important, yet also one of the most overlooked activities within modern society.”

My project would revolve mainly around pre-existing modes of transport modified in accordance to the new changes in the world. Population explosion is inevitable hence serious action must be taken to avoid the demise of well-maintained spaces. Cities will get more advanced but we should try not to invade cultural territories.

The outcome of this project will vary from future prospects of modes of transport to the possible city structures in the not so distant future. I will try to perceive the future with perspective drawings and design strategies. I will try to conceptualize movement of people within a given locale. Humans and artificial intelligence are the main factors in this approach.

I will also mention that 50-100 years down the line, the possibilities of a new TOE (Theory of Everything) is discovered. Hence, maybe an iteration of the string theory using a train and a tunnel also.

I have taken references and research materials from many people. Here are a few of them :

Michael Talbot: The Holographic Universe, David Bohm: Wholeness and The Implicate Order, Mark Safford: Thoughts on The Future of Transportation

Modern art and its ways.

Art has existed for many years now and it has been evolving ever since it was termed. So has modern art. The art form is constantly moulded like a chunk of clay.

Modern art denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art. More recent artistic production is often called Contemporary art or Postmodern art.

I’ve spent days disliking modern art, with no reason whatsoever. So I took up the challenge of studying it in a deeper level. Trying to figure out where it stands in our country. The art in our country is defined and fleshed out by its rich culture. Modern art pushed its way through with the help of political controversies and the cultural sphere was highly politicized. In my opinion if its going to thrive with the support of politics, its going to last long. At the same time while many stuck to indigenous methods the others practiced ways of artists outside India.

As long as art is used to pass a message and drill it into many narrow minded heads I have a good feeling about it. Now looking at modern art and seeing how it might thrive in the coming years excites me.

I want to see what would last in the longer run. People are made of emotions and needs. Art is the expression of suppressed and embossed emotions. But in our country not many people even bother understanding the art they’re bidding on. It’s rather sad.

Study states that most people think owning art is something that would enhance their status in society. But that is not the true meaning of art. In my opinion I would call it dying art. Not because it doesn’t exist but the true value of it cannot be measured by people who just “own” it. 

Within the burgeoning art scene, artists introduced themselves as modern and secular practitioners. Were they trying to fit in? Or were just trying to adapt to changing times and art forms.

Most of the modern artists focused on erotic and religious paintings that were informed by a variety of styles including cubism, expressionism, surrealism and primitivism.

Upon first looking at the work of a number of modern Indian artists, there seems little to differentiate their imagery from art made in other parts of the world. Yet their cultural heritage does affect their work, even if it is not apparent.

Photography wasn’t to far behind. Photographers like Ebrahim Alkazi and Raghubir Singh proved that modern photography was all about a keen eye and how you place things in a picture. They published books and made modern photography something that every Indian could now experience.

Modernism itself is a very voluminous subject that it thickened by layers of theories. Which makes my opinion different from anyone else’s.

I am also looking the work of artists like Maqbool Fida Hussain and Jamini Roy. When I compare this to the work of artists like Raja Ravi Verma for example I see how they have tried to make sure that there’s no similarity. But if you go closer you realize that even Raja Ravi Verma was highly influenced by the European methods of oils.

My definition of modern art in India would be- when art is influenced by art from other countries and the reduction in the use of cultural references from their own country it becomes modern art”.

At the end I want to see how people would react if I combined both modern art forms with traditional Indian art. 

Are we prepared?

ALL agree that the crisis is inevitable. In fact, the Oil crash may have already began.

I will be predicting the future without fuel/gas energy and building various fiction scenarios from facts. I will be talking only about the energy which is related to car/motor transportations.

My final outcome will be a 20 pages illustration book with a few lines to explain.

After researching and covering up most of the perspectives like money, political, scientific cars, I narrowed it down to the following points:

1.       Population and demand: the amount of fuel that we predicated was enough for a certain amount of population. If population was controlled we all could have lived without facing crisis.         
(My illustrations would explain the statistics using symbols)

2.       Hypothetical alternative sources for fuel:

Run you car on water:  This famous hypothetical concept I will be taking it forward. OR

A whole new process of using homemade bio fuels for your own cars. An underground factory for making bio fuels. OR                                                                                                                                                               Use our friends to run. The future generation will return back to horses, cows, and bulls.
(20 people on one horse going to office)  OR                                                                                                                                  By then in 2050, we will definitely learn to fly.

3.       The poor will change it.

Because of the changing modes of transportations, I fell there will definitely be a change in the use of old cars. Society consists of the poor and rich. The poor will definitely get affected if the new resources don’t reach them. They will build their own world of existence.

E.g. My prediction is there would be carghar. The zopadpatis will be migrating to car houses. In Mumbai, will get to see a huge pile of cars stack to form houses.

As my research is based on facts, the illustrations will have a lot of symbolism to support the facts.

Reference for my illutartions:

From the artist Lucinda Rogers.

Below are some of the links for my research:

Water hybrid cars:

http://www.fuellesspower.com/water2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car

For bio fuel alternatives: (From a book)

1. Cooking oil/grease

The by-product of much of home and restaurant cooking can be converted into biodiesel.

2. Human/animal waste

Using cloth diapers as a way of keeping poop out of landfills? This waste can actually be used as renewable energy. 3. Tires

According to the U.S. EPA, 45 percent of disposed tires are shredded and used as  tire-derived fuel. This fuel is used to power cement kilns, paper mills and numerous other manufacturing plants.

4. Packing peanuts

Consumers may know these peanuts by the Dow brand name Styrofoam. These foam peanuts are a challenge to recycle. Luckily, packing peanuts can be dissolved and turned into biodiesel.

5. Coffee grounds

Coffee grounds have a valuable disposal use outside of the compost pile. They can be turned into biodiesel.

The trick here is that used coffee grounds contain a fair amount of oil, equivalent to the amount of oil in soybeans or rapeseeds.

And many more links.

I want to start by identifying the different types of wood used for making different products and the change undergone in different countries.
Simultaneously, I want to look up different kinds of sounds or musical sounds that different materials produce.
At the end I will be making an interactive product where the sound and the material are combined to make an interior appliance interactive. At present I am planning to make a table which will be interactive with the help of sound.
I have got some ideas and a basic structure from a designer called Tor Clausen who makes instrumental furniture. He works mainly on the musical aspect of the product.



Iner Souster is another person whose work has influenced me on the instrumental side. He experiments with different kinds of materials and makes weird looking instruments.

Stanislav katz is also a designer with experimental furniture works and he makes furniture using different kinds of principles which I find is very good for resonance and amplification.


My focus will be on space and interaction of the product. The main objective is to bring a personal touch for the product using sound as the interactive tool. Giving people a different purpose to use furniture would be a very interesting and helps people use it more often.

Electronic Wallet

The use of mobile phones has increased exponentially in the last couple of years. 70% of the world population has a mobile phone. It is easily available to a wider public. Now with 3G technologies available, connecting to the Internet has become much easier.

I started my project with an idea of creating something that would make it easier for the mobile user to access the Internet. The idea of doing so was difficult as the area was quite broad. Looking to narrow down I started looking at different aspects of the mobile web and started concentrating on the financial part of it.

My project will be looking at a different medium of payment by making use of the mobile. It will be an application and will be able to make payments through your mobile. It will do so by making use of the camera and will scan a black and white code like a barcode or a QR code. The code will contain information like the bill amount, in whose name the bill is in and so on. The information will then be displayed on the mobile and there will be an option of payment. So you can make direct payment using your mobile. The app will be linked to the bank account so it will have all the account information.

For example when you are in a restaurant and you get your bill. The bill will have all the standard information but along with this, the code will also be printed. You scan the code using the mobile phone camera and all the information in the bill will be displayed on the mobile phone screen. You can then just press pay on the screen and it will make the payment hence eliminating the use of money or credit card. In a way your mobile becomes your electronic wallet.

Along with this, it will show you where one is spending and what different areas is he spending money like leisure, work, monthly expenses and so on and in a way helping you budget your spending.

There will be a website relating to the app that will display all this information in a better graphical way which is easy to understand for the user. It can also link up to your Facebook or twitter page and could show your places of interest in a way of how many times have you visited a restaurant thus making it your top interest and this could be possible for many other places you visit.

The rulers of the screen performance art

The subject of my reserch is screen performance art clubbed with pop music. Performance art in itself is a new revolution in the next coming years. It is ruling over all forms of art these days including film making.
As I went through the screen performance artists, my two heroes are Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson. The third hero is yet to be decided. The life story, art form singing style as well as potrayal of these artists is almost the same. In today's entertainment industry, everybody wants to be a hero. Everyone wants to survive. through all ups and downs. But in the rush of the fame, there is no scope for anybody else to become the devouring monster of fame. The arist will cry, potray, voilence, subjugation of the identity as a significance of the hero. The material danger is balanced with vulnerability.

Connection of dance with music, and then it is connected to fashion, culture, religion and most importantly theatre and acting. Which sums up to the inclusion of a diverse audiece.
The role of the audience is just an audience. The audience is never a hero. But the artists of the screen performance potray themselves as the victims of the society and its structure. They show themselves as the victims of the cruelty, cry and struggle, surrounded by the matrix of Blades. But in the end of the day they are the heroes. By combining vulnerability with the potrayal of victimisation they show the most intimate feelings of the human biengs, which everybody wants to escape from. And thus, in the end of the day they become the heroes of their lives.

I see screen performance art as a new canvas of  potrayal of emotions by the artists. Clubbed with theatre, into bits and pieces of movement, fashion, instillation art, as well as literature. I believe it will be a new revolution in the field of art with the iniltration of the other revolution of art happened in the past like mordenism, postmordernism, surrealism etc.
In the end, I would like to make a video as my own screen performance depicting different artists as well the ideology and the style.

Fetching from future.

Fetching From Future…

Textile has been my passion for a very long time. Textile has a very large spectrum. The branch of textile that I would be concentrating on is Hand weaving, Hand knitting so on and so forth that are related to production by hand.

My mentor is Lima and she is a NID Textile Design alumnus. She is working with grannies as entrepreneurs. ‘Granny’s Love’ is an initiative to revive the art of hand-knitting and to rekindle the pristine love of grandmothers in this nuclear world.

The abundance of energy coupled with their zest for life is simply amazing and inspiring to say the least. While juggling between family responsibilities, grandchildren, socializing and catching up on the recaps of their favorite soap they still have time to knit! She and her troop specialize in clothes for infants and toddlers and intend to expand and introduce organic cotton/wool as the knitting yarn.

She also is looking forward to making accessories with the same technique for infants and expanding to other products according to demand. She is taking young students to intern and will be encouraging younger designers to work on such skills and will bring their work into the public.

Basically, my final outcome will be a few samples of crochet and knitting and one product with either one technique. I am concentrating on knitting and crochet for now as I know the basics of the skill and I want to refine my knitting skills.

Concept Art

Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for

use in films, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product"

The ability to visually represent ideas of the future is very important. I want to explore the evolution of digital art from the use of traditional medium, to the digital ones. In this age, concept art can be utilized to successfully illustrate concepts for the future. Using different combinations of different software, new forms of illustration can be developed.

The work process involves a lot of experimentation with the various tools and options available, and then selecting a few to create the final composition. It relies heavily on imagination and the ability to visualize it. The most possible outcome from this project is a cityscape or landscape that shows a scene around 20-30 years ahead in time. Creating that involves a lot of thumb nailing, conceptualizing the location, props, and then starting the final composition. The skill of traditional drawing applied with the new technology can be used to create brilliant compositions.

Major inspirations for this project are:

Dylan Cole: He is a famous concept artist who has worked in the development of a lot of major Hollywood productions like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. He combines the ability of matte painting with hand drawing to create unique compositions that have defined the look of all the projects he has worked on.

Daniel Simon is known for his work in the field of industrial and vehicle design. His style of work involves blending the use of 3d software along with 2D software. His book Cosmic Motors showcases his work of future vehicle concept art, which is a big source of inspiration for creating a futurescape.

Scott Robertson is considered a legend in the field of concept art. His work varies from industrial to entertainment design. He has been a major inspiration for a lot of famous concept artists out in the industry at the moment.

Space Travel

Space Travel

Space exploration has become one of the most important studies in scientific background. Travelling in space in long distances is the greatest challenge faced by NASA. Space holds unimaginable things that people are yet to discover. It can help us find alternative fuels, faster mode of transport and maybe even get in contact with other species from different planets that could help us learn better techniques to survive. All of this is just prediction but for it to happen is only possible when we discover a better mode of travelling in space so we could explore our vast never ending universe. The possibilities of travelling in space faster and more efficiently is something that is under study and is only possible in about fifty years from now and I am assuming what will exist in the future for us to travel faster so as to explore and learn what is yet unknown to mankind.

Antonio Ereditato working on Neutrinos, which are particles faster than light, Arthur C. Clark, the inventor of space elevator and Michael Minovitch working on gravitational pull are the three scientists who are looking at a bigger picture and even though they are working on different projects, they all in the end benefit travelling in space in the future. NASA’s space study has also benefited people’s lifestyle on Earth and in the same way can find a better way to travel on Earth as well.

I expect to create visuals that would show how I predict the transportation system in the future based on current facts and the speed in which it is developing, will develop and has developed in the past fifty years.  The assumption of how the future transportation system would appear will be shown in a form of a book of illustrations.

   

Capital Punishment

Topic of Research: Capital Punishment

I feel that death penalties across the globe over the years have been a subject of immense change and controversy. Technically Capital punishment is in direct violation of human rights, but when is it necessary? And how is it implemented in different countries, communities and societies? I’m looking forward to explore the ever persistent debate on the topic. I personally believe that there has to be a more effective solution to punishment and reform of such criminal acts as homicide.

Everyone has an inalienable human right to life, even those who have murdered, sentencing a person to death them violates that right. The counter-argument to this humanitarian approach is that a person can, by their actions, forfeit human rights, and that murderers technically forfeit their right to life. The death penalty doesn't statistically seem to deter people from committing serious violent crimes. The likelihood of being caught and punished could be seen more efficient in deterring crimes such as these.

In 1988 a survey was conducted for the UN to determine the relation between the death penalty and homicide rates. This was then updated in 1996:
“Research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment. Such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole still gives no positive support to the deterrent hypothesis. The key to real and true deterrence is to increase the likelihood of detection, arrest and conviction. The death penalty is a harsh punishment, but it is not harsh on crime.”
-Amnesty International

Keeping the debate on the sidelines for now, I plan on organising the collected research material and looking through the legal point of view, come up with an animated info-graphic.
I am not fully portraying that the death penalty is absolutely wrong, instead, I’m trying to inform my audience on everything they know and don’t know about the subject, and how there could be more reformative and appropriate measures to violent crimes.

Apart from researching through articles and cases and collecting statistics, I am getting in touch with Criminal Lawyer, Mr. Nigam Shukla for a more reliable source of information, as well as talking to law students, particularly from the Jindal College of Law. There are also a couple of readings I will be touching upon about K. Balagopal, who was an influential Human Rights activist who had a lot to say on the subject.

Autism in the future

Topic: Autism in the future

I had a course with Mr. Koshy in the starting of second year in which we had to build an Autism Village. That was the first time I interacted with Autistics and I got interested in it.

Autism is a developmental brain disorder which leads to impaired social interaction and communications skills. Most children with autism have a limited range of activities and interests and they have repetitive behaviour. There is no one definite method for all children because each child is different. It is not a disease or mental illness; it’s a developmental disability and typically appears in the first 3 years of life. There are various therapies such as Behaviour, speech language, Applied behaviour analysis, occupational, physical, physio therapy that might help the child.

Here are my initial ideas:

Idea 1: The biggest problem they face there is the fact that all the applications on the I pad is Americanised, and Indian children aren’t able to relate to it. From there came the idea of making an app that has Indian culture imbibed in it. For instance if we take something as simplistic as breakfast food, right now there are food items such as bacon, spaghetti, croissant etc which we don’t eat, instead we have simple things such as idli, dosa, vada.

There are existing apps on which you can take photos and add visuals and text. But if I do this I’ll be creating already existing images which can be used.

Problem that I can face: Affordibility. Most people cannot afford an Ipad so I’ll be eliminating a huge group of people. Also since it’s slightly fragile if a child throws it in a spurge of anger, repair cost will be expensive as well.

Idea 2: I have been teaching illustrator and thought of making a handbook/manual which will be easily accessible and affordable. All the assignments that I will be giving them now onwards can be compiled together using pictures sinc most of them have a photographic memory. So it will be a ‘How to learn Illustrator’ using pictures and colours and minimal text.

Problem that I can face: Will people want to buy it and learn Illustrator?

Idea 3: Allanah is a student from Srishti who made sensory toys since the biggest problem Autistic children face is communication and interaction with people of their own age. She is halfway into a ten week research with Asha, a school which deals with Autistics.  I was thinking of joining her and seeing where the research takes me.

3 Places I’ll go to:

1.       Asha Special Needs school (Mrs. Jayashree Ramesh)

They provide education and training to children with special needs.

Aim: To integrate children successfully into mainstream by training them to hold regular jobs.

2.       Prayas, Spastic Society of Karnataka (Mrs. Kavita Sharma)

They provide indigenous technology based solutions using the Ipad.

Aim: Enhancing learning, communication and meaningful occupation by using Technology.

3.       Communication deal

They provide intervention across several domains such as motor, communication, cognitive and social skills.

Aim: Integration of these children in regular schools subsequent to intensive preschool intervention.

People I’m in touch with/will get in touch with:

Dr. Koshy

Allanah

Mrs. Kavita Sharma

Dr. Nandini Mundkur (Bangalore children hospital)

I plan on meeting with these people and then understanding what the need is once I work out a questionnaire and then focus on one thing.

A list of movies that I want to watch:

Adam

My Name is Khan

Mozart and the Whale

I Am Sam

The Other Sister

Mercury Rising

Forest Gump

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Little Man Tate

Backstreet Dreams

Change of Habit

Run Wild, Run Free

House of Cards

Killer Diller

Rain Man

Silence (also known as Crazy Jack and The Boy)

The Boy Who Could Fly

Autism: The musical

Temple Grandin

Fly Away

A mother’s courage: Talking back to Autism

After Thomas

Silent fall

Molly

The black balloon

Snow Cake

Movies and Time

The idea is to look at movies that seem to deal with time either in the way the story is told or if time is a main subject of the movie and categorize it accordingly.

Idea is to continue to categorize and recategorzie it to create an info graphic.

The info graphic would also contain why time plays an important role in each movie. How they use time to tell stories and involve the viewer.
So far they all seem to have an emotional motive.

Also to look at how over time, movies have started making the viewer figure out the story and having constant hook by playing with time.

The list of movies right now is:

Midnight in Paris

Donnie darko

Back to the future

Time machine

Time traveler’s wife

Prince of Persia

Time bandits

Prisoner of Azkaban

Dejavu

In time

Memento

Wicker Park

Source code

Eternal sunshine for the spotless mind

Fight club

The prestige

The atonement

Mr. Nobody

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