Ballet of thoughts a project on visual and space design
By Kanchan Dhankani, PG Graphic Design’08 batch NID 1
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Visual design- ballet of dreams Process documentation Kanchan Dhankani Semester IV PGDPD Graphic Design NID 2008-2009 batch Guide Betty Vollmar
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CONTENTS summary
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overview project plot
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a. visual language
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process group Common interest topic Deriving own route Interpretation Thinking on paper Idea selection Design development b. space design
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what is space 3d interpretation concepts constrains realization in 3d after thoughts
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Installation & exhibition
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Learning
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Summary This project was executed in Germany. It was the first time graphic design student of NID was a part of exchange programme in Fachhochschule Hannover (FHH). The overall experience in foreign country influenced the direction of the project. Visual design is a class room project consisting of 2 parts (a) develop a visual language on a specific theme (b) design a space with the same theme.
Hannover
GERMANY
NID-FHH Exchange students 2009-2010
Snehal Pawar
Shipra Singh
Cira Evers
Martha Srieler
Rohit Parmar
Matthias Lauche
Kanchan Dhankani
Kristian Groth
students of NID students of FHH 2
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Structure Brief Visual design
a. Visual language Theme Derived route Exploring & understanding Synthesis Develop design criteria Design development
b. Space design
Evolved form family
Understanding space Seeking 3D characteristics Concepts Possibility & feasibility
After thoughts
Select approach Material Place Execution
Re- thinking
Photographic documentation
Merging of ideas emerging connections Realized the play of unconscious mind
Presentation & installation venue
concept execution
Documentation
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Overview
Project plan
VISUAL DESIGN Topic a. Visual language
b. Space design
Process
Group Common topic Exploring meaning Mood board Derive own route Day dreaming Self understanding, research and analysis Thinking on paper with key words Drawing lines
After thoughts
Connections Insights
Core ideas Exhibition and installation Design development
Space selection Understanding dreams
Installation
Deriving elements Form development Evolving a series of forms Space design
Understanding space Deriving 3D qualities Materializing Concepts Constrains Realizing 4
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MY STATUS
• exchange student in germany • taking up project • overcoming language barriers • passive working method • I was more of a visual listener and observer • making sense, analyzing and interpreting • many thoughts coming up together • the flow of thoughts took me in another world of daydreamers
From fall to winter seasons changed and I became more comfortable and confident with working environment
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a. Visual language The class was divided in 2 groups. I was a part of group with 7students including me. We were looking out for a common topic within the group so that all group members would have interested and can relate to it. After we come up with the topic we take our individual routs to work ahead with.
Group 3 Chinese 1 German 1 Swedish 1 England me Indian
Guide: Prof. Betty Vollmer
FHH
Misburger StraBe
HOSTEL
Connection from Hostel to FHH
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Common interest topic To kick start the thinking about a common interest topic we had a group discussion. It wasn’t surprising that we spoke more about different Places and the contrasting cultures. The next day we got a few pictures of the place we would like to visit often. After placing all the pictures together we derived a few alternates for our theme ie. water, sky, colours, contrast, roads, light etc. But then we thought travelling is about all these elements together and so we need a word that could comprise of all this including a feeling that is ‘calling’ like as if the place is calling and pulling you towards it. ‘Fernsucht’ is the word we all agree with. This means opposite of home sick.
Discussion
Travelling
Fernsucht
Being a group of people from different countries we spoke more about different places.
Next day every one brought pictures of a place he / she likes to visit.
We came up with a word Fernsucht meaning of this word is close to Cabin fever
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What is fernsucht ? There is no exact translation of the word ‘fernsucht’ in English.To find out its meaning I put up a chart on the hostel door & asked people to define this word in their own way. Below are a few of the words people came up with.
Vibes Far-of-land
Travel obsession
Looking away Pull
Travel freak
Fern+sucht = far + addiction
Attraction towards a place
Desire Craving to travel
Opposite of home sick
Deutsch Class
Learning a new language We started learning Basic German. It was fun learning a new language and to discover the similarities between Deutsch and English. These classes helped me in day to day life in Germany. Yet it was too early for expecting me to speak or understand fluent Deutsch.
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Mood board After understanding the possible meaning of the word frensucht I came up with this mood board. In the mood board you will find the memories of places and their textures like sand, earth, grass are layers like we store colorful beans in glass bottle. Migrating birds & a paper plane conveys our desire to fly like birds.
Passive working method
Understanding & observation
In university at beginning it was difficult for me to adjust with language so I adopted passive method of attending class. That is at the end of the class professor or a few students who are good in English give me a brief summary of what was discussed in class.
I was more of a observer and listener through visual clues. From my end there was a lot of analyzing and interpretation done as an attempt of sense making. This was altogether a new way of learning. It felt like I was listening through all my five senses.
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see-through roof, FHH
Wonderland Silent, noisy at times empty at times full with thoughts my mind went through fluctuating modes. These variations of thoughts were boundary less for my mind there exist no walls no sealing. For thoughts infinite sky is the limit.
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Pick one idea
Derived concept
From the mood board I picked one idea that I felt strong about and started thinking in its direction.
It is not always feasible for man to go on a long voyage like the migrating birds. When people travel they usually need to do prior planning. The restrictions of a county, crossing borders, visa formalities, currency differences, all these factors come in the picture. Mind is like a free bird and going on a trip mentally is the quick way of escape. Day dreaming is some thing that we all do and has a lot of potential to explore the experience.
The migrating birds leave behind many mysteries and questions to my mind along with the desire to fly and enjoy freedom like them. I wonder how migrating birds, at the same time of year, fly every year at the same place. I believe there must be some force that creates this craving in all the birds at the same time and the place it self calls them towards it. This force I have shown in the form of a swirl and which gives open and close sense both at the same time. birds are in flock yet every individual bird enjoys its own space and feel satisfied and quenched
Daydreaming • Travel boundlessly
• A quick escape from reality
• Mystery of migratory birds
• The Road-less travelled
• Swirl of energy generated • Isolated bird enjoys its own space, quenched & satisfied
• To
disconnect from the real world and
connect to another world • Physically present but mentally absent
See through The university and the class had mostly glass used in its structure. The transparency and reflections had its own game which played a role to divert and deflect my thoughts.
“Can ‘Together & isolated’ occur simultaneously ? May be it does only occur wile daydreaming.”
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Explorations in form
Taking the key words ‘Connect disconnect’ & ‘present absent’ I did some of explorations
Overlapping of thoughts Many thoughts overlapped, came together and took me to another world
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Drawing a line I realized, due to the key words ‘connect-disconnect’ I am coming up with some mechanical & rigid forms. These are certainly not expressing day dreaming and so I separated them into emotional and mechanical category. At this stage it was sure that this way of working is misleading and so I went back to look for a overall idea that justify daydreaming.
Day dreaming are continuous flow of thoughts, the transition from one thought to another are smooth and gentle. They are random and have a potential to play with your moods with its fluctuating nature. The subconscious mind is at full swing while we day dream. These are a few qualities I would like to translate in visual design.
Irony & contrast “Strangely I enjoyed being coexisting in both the worlds or say exist physically in reality and mentally in dreams” A state that can’t be justified as ‘present’ or ‘absent’ alone.
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Looking for big ideas
Tracing Daydreaming state of mind: whistling, scribbling, star gazing, scatting, sitting by the see shore, or throwing stones in a pond all these are ways we ponder in thoughts Below are the two strong ideas I could connect with daydreaming.
Scribbling: “Skating with a pencil in a blank space. People call it ‘scribbling’... I call it ‘traces of daydreaming’.”
Star gazing: “The Day is over, but daydreaming goes on, Stare at stars, until pictures are born...”
Free flowing thoughts The flow of thoughts took form of scribbles in my books. These were not attempts of drawing something, they were just a way I enjoyed day dreaming
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Finalizing concept
I choose ‘Scribbling’ over ‘Star gazing’ concept because scribbling is more effortless and therefore takes less conscious effort, where as, while gazing star and making images in sky takes a lot of concentration and involvement of conscious mind. The other reasons influencing my decision was my own experience with the foreign environment and my mind which got inclined to ponder on minute observations. Due to the given conditions I my self caught the habit of scribbling every time my mind took me away from real world. Therefore I recognized that scribbling has a strong connection with the way we think.
“Yes I am present in the class
• Scribbling is like tracing unconscious mind • More natural & more from within • Scribbling in books is something every one can relate
yes I hear all what you say are you saying what I am thinking ?”
• Addictive habit • Spontaneous flow
“Scribbling gave me addictive & mesmerizing feeling.”
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Analyzing dreaming
To analyze daydreams I started maintaining diary in which I use to write series of thoughts that took me away from reality. Parallely I was reading articles on ‘subconscious mind’ and ‘dreams’ online. They gave me an understanding and insights on how we think and how thoughts influence our dreams. With this exercise I found that though thoughts are random they do have a pattern i.e. • One thought links to another thought forms a connected cluster of thoughts • There are a lot many twists and turns in the direction of thoughts • Thoughts always loop back to the present from where they started
‘Visualization is daydreaming with a purpose’.
Design Criteria From the analysis I picked the key points to form a design criteria The forms must form loops which are made up of contrasting and connecting clusters. Key words:
Loops • Connected • Counters pace • Contrast
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Form development Loops • Connected • Counters pace • Contrast
In the grid of scribbling I started filling masses to develop form. I realized that forms can have some variations within the maintained consistency so as to look like a series or clusters of thoughts. The patterns of dreams observed in the analysis became the criteria of form development. So keeping in mind the key words of analysis I started filling masses in grid of scribbling again. Below you will see a few initial attempts of developing forms from scribbles without using the criteria of form development. The synergy is missing and therefore they do not appear from one family. In the next page you will find the difference it made after defining and using ‘ design criteria’
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Design decision According to the design criteria I started experimenting with forms in grays and solid both. I chose using only solid colours, because initially when I used grays it gave more depth and 3D visualization but while using solid colours I am keeping the 3D visualization more open for the reader to see. This in a way creates more curiosity and solid form and leaves one to ponder and gaze more.
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Form Family Like font families I saw these forms as alphabets of my visual language. I see these forms dancing and every form is giving different dance pose I named my form family ‘Ballet of thoughts’.
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Ballet of thoughts
Few terms from the glossary of ballets which very well connects to the form family are listed below
An artistic dance form or theatrical work performed to music using precise body lines and gestures. It is characterized by light, graceful, fluid movements and the use of pointed shoes.
In song,Adagio means “slowly”, and in ballet it means slow, enfolding movements. Attitude Balancé
Ballet as a musical form refers to musical composition Ballon Main article: Ballon (ballet) intended for ballet performance. Ballon means to bounce, where the dancer can show So ballet refers to both music and dance and music the lightness of the movement. It describes a quality, comprises of words & alphabets of a language and not the elevation or height, of the jump. Even in small, quick jumps (petite allégro), dancers strive to dance form is a visual language. exhibit ballon. Classical ballet is defined by three rules : - everything is turned-out - when the feet are not on the floor, Barre they’re pointed - when the leg is not bent, it’s Warm up exercises may sometimes include stretching and various ballet position that relax muscles. stretched completely.
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Attitude and balance
Flow & lightness in movement
Stretching & relaxing with slow unfolding movements
Graceful body lines
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Part b Taking the same theme forward in 3 dimension
SPACE_DESIGN
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What is space ? Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Understanding of the experience of space became more crucial with rising questions on space and its relationship with experiences.
Questions like: In which space do you feel suffocated? Which space inspires you ? On which particular time does a space interests you ? Which abstract / virtual space you find interesting ? Which space you want to experience once ? Why? In which space you feel safe? Is there opposite of space?
Seasons changed With seasons colours changed from green to yellow orange. Fall brought emptiness which was filled soon by white snow. And by this time every thing was fare clad in snow. I first time witnesses the change in colours of trees with change in season. The sun sets at 3.30 -4 in the afternoon and in the night moon light gets reflected from the snow and creates a beautiful milky white ambience. 26
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In the first week when I reached Hannover I thought of doing an exercise that will record the thrilling reality of changing weather day by day. When I reached Hannover, I thought of engaging into an daily exercise of clicking one picture of the same place at a particular time to record the thrilling experience of changing weather. Every day from my room window I clicked one picture in morning around 8 o’clock. I kept doing this for 5 months &made a stop motion movie. With this exercise I was now able to connect to the questions that were asked about space. I learnt space and time both are related factors & the experience of space & time together is the moment now.
Through these photographs I tried to capture how the same place gave a different feeling with change in time and seasons. The time and environment makes the space look absolutely different and brings out a different mood all together.
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3rd dimension of the forms I was looking out for 3D qualities that emerges from the form family. The first 3D quality I could see in all the forms is the ‘material’. They look like one flexible material that has been twisted many a times in different ways to give birth to these series of forms. The second one is the ‘Movement’. They all appear dancing and has soft floating movements. • These forms give a feel of flexible material • Contrasting proportions gives a sense of push & pull within a loop. This sets the form in motion and they appear dancing to me
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Alternate concepts
I could visualize flexible material as thoughts which comes from different directions and the movement is the way we twist, turn, play or deal with it.
The line represent the two way interaction with thoughts “Where I am moved by the thoughts and the thoughts are moved by me� I wanted to materialise this core thought by creating a space where I let one experience pull & push of thoughts & let them deal with the situation in their own individual ways.
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Alternate concepts
Lines in space From the line ‘scribbling is like scatting with pencil on a blank paper’ I thought I could draw lines on ice/snow by skating or skiing. This will be an exact extension of scribbling in 2 dimension to scribbling in 3dimension.
While skating the body language and movement has hidden meanings which directly connect to subconscious mind. For example skating with both the legs apart would mean that you take time to decide in which direction you want to go next. It will be interesting as there is a scope for meanings and different levels of interpretation to emerge. To tract the lines better and add more fantasy, I thought of sprinkling different colours on snow and track how colours mix with skating lines.
River Elbe and the Port of Hamburg, Germany on 6th January, 2010 By this point of time though there was heavy snow fall the lakes were not yet frozen. Thus the idea of skating became difficult to explore. 30
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I laid my idea on snow by walking on it instead of scatting to visualize how would my idea will be rendered
Heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures killed at least 290 people across Europe. Temperatures fell to as low as −33 °C (−27.4 °F) in Germany, suspending and cancelling flights and stranding thousands of Christmas passengers. As many as 40% of flights from Paris’s two airports, Orly and Charles de Gaulle, were cancelled. Berlin Tegel Airport, Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport, and Frankfurt International Airport were forced to close due to ice on the runway.
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Translation of idea in material
Elasticity
Infinite Contrast colours
Proportions Twists & turns
Natural lines on walls
Shooting session 1
In the first attempt I visualized few people together. But lost in thoughts, stretching thoughts to go as far as possible. But then I thought that every individual has their own baggage of experiences and thoughts. These thoughts are personal and are in context to individuals knowledge. The thoughts isolates a person to an extend that he/se feels no one is around or watching them.
To justify this real expression I thought in the next attempt I will give this space experience to one person at a time.
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Shooting session 2
My intent was to experiment in different spaces. These are my first few explorations in outdoor. I chose snow and woods to enhance the effect of loneliness and to build some drama in the compositions. My imagination was actualized with the help of “vertigo effect”. This effect was first used by Hitchcock in his film Vertigo to represent the sensation of a “falling away from oneself feeling” or a feeling of illusion. This effect brings in sudden shift of thoughts.
While doing the shoot I observed that the masculine moves were quite rigid and restricted. I had imagined more live and free flowing movements. I realized that feminine features and moves can do more justice to my imagination. I found them very close to the twists and turns of my doodles.
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Heavy snow fell in Denmark on the 8th. By the evening of January 8, the Rügen Islands off the northeast coast of Germany was covered, on average, in 30 centimeters of snow while the capital Berlin was carpeted with snow and ice. Autoclub Europa warned that chaotic traffic conditions could potentially leave large parts of Germany completely paralysed as the country prepared for further freezing conditions as forecasters warned that temperatures would drop below −20 degrees Celsius (−4 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. German officials had also acknowledged a shortage of grit and fear that high winds and drifting snow had closed may German auto routes and roads, along with parts of Frankfurt airport. As shortages in road salt and grit were already being feared, while the authorities recommended that people consider stocking up with a few days’ worth of food and water. 36
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Cycles Of Season
Suddenly an unexpected heavy snow occurred here after 20 years. And with that survival became difficult. This situation was not only new for me but for the local people too. We were living a caged life with restricted mobility and limited interaction. Difficult yet distinct experience.--
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Shooting session 3
When it started snowing heavily we got confined in indoor spaces and the feeling of being trapped and restricted conditions were dominating. Considering the circumstances, I defined my interaction with the space in closed areas. I did my first shoot with a classmate of mine. But she couldn’t express the feelings. Her movements were very loose. Then I did my experiment with a theatre person. She was expressive but there was lack of spontaneity and natural looks. She was pretending to fit in the mood. Looking at both these experiences, I did shooting with another classmate of mine who was very natural and genuine in her moves.
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Shooting session 4
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Shooting session 5
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Selection process Out of many pictures clicked during the explorations, I categorized them as full shot, mid shot and close ups of all the three models. In this process I re-looked the compositions and the relationship between the background and the model. The staircase was too loud and contrasting. It was taking away all the attention, so I choose the pictures in neutral background and took only the pictures which gave a feeling of model being in her own world .
The selected photographs can be still further enhanced in photoshop and given same colour temperature and treatment.
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As daydreaming never stops......
After thoughts
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I discovered that, forms drawn by using two different mediums as in pencil on paper and light on film shares strong resemblance.
I continued looking in the same direction and the connections became stronger and clearly visible
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My whole design process also formed a loop Graphic forms >> Photography >> graphic forms
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Is this the game played by the Subconscious mind ?
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Presenting & installation
At the end of semester when the projects are over, all the classes put up a final presentation and display. This is like jury for individual projects. So for the final presentation I had to choose a place best suited for my project and put up an installation as an extension of the display. The area given for our class presentation and installation was on 4th floor. But for my project I was looking for a huge space which gives an illusion of infinity. To me day dreaming is an quick escape from real world/ situation, it is infinite space and you can go as far as you can stretch your thoughts. This was only possible in the fire exit where I can use the counter space formed in between the staircase and connect different levels and the display would be at the 4th floor as told. The chosen venue fire exit could justify all these thoughts and give an illusion with one point perspective of never ending space. An additional benefit of this place was that many displays were going around in the university at that time and almost at every floor there were exhibitions happening from other disciplines. The installation connecting different levels were also connecting to the other semester ending exhibitions of other disciplines happening on every floor. All the thoughts are linked and connected.
Where
(Venue)
The place I choose for the exhibition was Fire exit in the back side of the university building
Why
(Scope)
Fire exit is used to evacuate the building in case of emergency. Daydreaming is also like escaping from real world
Installation Levels were connected with the same stretchable material in the counter space of the spiral staircase
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Learning During this exchange programme in Germany, a new way of understanding developed in me. I became more observant. I learnt to see and analyze the influence of environment on people and their thinking. This project took me to a journey via vague imagination to concrete conceptualization. I learnt to deal with visual representation in different mediums. This project has initiated an inward journey for me where I started questioning and listening to my self. I learnt to translate my intuitive ideas in 2D and 3D forms. I dealt with line in different forms and learnt to create similar forms with single line in digital space. I explored possibilities in space design and experimented to enhance it through expressive installation. This project made me understand the process of arriving at dynamic visual which shares similar features and ultimately leads to a form family. With this I experienced the power of sub conscious mind and influences of external activities on it.
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‘Visualization is daydreaming with a purpose’.
Thoughts & Design by Kanchan Dhankani
THANKS TO NID, FHH, Guide Betty Vollmer Anna, Laura, Loreen, Ivars Pilips for Modeling & every one who supported and helped me in the exchange programme 58
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