Storytelling through space

There is no science without fantasy & no art without facts.

Storytelling through space Inspired by the likes of Perfect Plum, Hide and Seek, Meow Town, Escher, Salvador Dali, Giambattista Piranesi, Carceri (Monumental Art), Film Noir, Visual styling (animation), Architecture (7 elements), Interactive installation, theme parks (Warner bros, disneyland), The Museum of Innocents, The Jewish museum in Berlin, Libeskind, Circle of Life (Lion King) and Form, Space & Order.

Embryo of the Story The script is also the result of various influences.

Some of them include The 3rd level, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Alice in Wonderland, The Catastrophic Theory, The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore, Sixth Borough, Gulzar, The Fall, 2046, Waiting for Godot, The Science of Sleep, 12 Monkeys, Brazil, The Big Sleep.

The story is set in Japan

As the script was written, I gathered information on Japan through the internet, books and movies.

Keeping the medium in my mind, I started writing the script. The only thing I was clear about in the beginning was that I wanted a person to create spaces reflecting emotions and situations.

Here is a diagram showing the approach of storyteling used in connecting the space and the story.

PROTAGONIST’S MIND

Hikikomori is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. The term hikikomori refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to the people belonging to this societal group.

OBJECTS

This condition raised the question of what it is that these people do to pass their days. The story is about a person suffering from hikkikomori, and his creation of unreal worlds inside his locked room to survive the years.

STORIES

1984 Moved to tokyo for higher education.

SPACE

1970

Since Japan is the only place where hikkikomori is recognized, Tokyo became the backdrop for the story.

Born

EXPERIENCES

1991 2013 Kofu

1985

The three types of space and time created in this story are: real time space (2013), imaginary space (his & visitors) and his memory.

1990 IMAGINARY WORLD Death of his wife and unborn baby.

REAL TIME

Content plotting Worked as a manga arstist

Marriage

MEMORY SPACE

The storyline Here the script is condensed and plotted on a timeline. This gives relevant information about the plot. This storyline has events which have happened in the protaonist life before the condition of hikkikomori, which is the story we are narrating, sets in. This back-story validates his present condition.

His first symptoms of bipolar behaviour Born in Kofu, Japan

Parents had a unstable relationship

Meets Lana, his girlfriend

Loses his wife and unborn baby in car crash

Locks himself up in his apartment After 13 years, he calls Get a job, in manga industry his old best friend to come visit him

Struggle for job

Moves to tokyo for higher education in arts

Gets married to her

The space which tells the story This is the final layout for the space, spanning 4 acts and 9 spaces + Transitory areas .

Space:5-8

Space:1

Space:2

Space:3

Space:4

Act 3

Act 2

Space:9

Act 1

Act 4

Ofcourse it’s happening in your head, but why should that mean it isn’t real?

Chapter 1 Location : Tokyo Year : 2014 Time : 9:30pm Still alive; Blinded by the blazing headlights and shooting street lights, I watch tiny beings make their way home after work. Caught in the mob, in the tangled web of the world, they continue to clockwork their way through the day. Mundane and drained; but still alive, still breathing. And in this heavily-lit scape of Tokyo, in the midst of the flock of humans, I’m here to tell you a story about loneliness; It’s not only about loneliness though, it’s about love, separation, happiness, fear, sorrow and everything else that makes us human.

13 years, 4 months, 26 days, 14 hours and 6 minutes and the seconds are ticking by.

That’s how long he’s been in this room.

Today he gets his first visitor.

13 years. No other relatives, no other friends. The last time I spoke to his mom, she ended up in tears. She was concerned about his health and longed to see him. But she wasn’t allowed to travel. His brother didn’t bother to respond. I don’t blame him though. After all those endless calls, mails and ways in which he’s tried to contact him. He even tried visiting once, but he didn’t get beyond the doorstep. Huiski was as good as dead to him.

It’s easy to turn into a virtual being these days. Even easier in a city like Tokyo, with a population in millions. I wondered what his neighbours thought. Thirteen years is a long time. But then again, buried in the crowds of the city, one hardly turns around to see or feel anybody.

I recalled the day I received the letter from Huiski. I don’t why he didn’t just inbox me, that would’ve worked just fine as well. Anyway, it was a Sunday, and I was reaching home after church, when I saw the letter at my doorstep. One of those bills again, I thought, or maybe mom; Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed it was Huiski. Why me though? He could’ve called his brother. Maybe he did, and did not get a response?

I left the hotel and boarded a taxi and showed the address on the letter to the driver. “Oh, sir I’ll take you till sector 2, Sector 3 is a non vehicle zone”, he said, in his heavy Japanese accent.

“Sir, we’ve reached”, he shouted. “Oh” I said. Suddenly waking up. I must’ve slipped into a quick ’but’ deep nap. The jet lag, I guess. “Walk straight up this lane, you’ll reach Sector 2” I started walking mindlessly down that road after paying the driver.

The lane was as busy as any street of Tokyo. I wondered whether the people of this city ever get any sleep. The alley was just like any Mumbai gully, without the stench. I could hear utensils falling, loud conversations, dogs, flapping pigeons. It was one noisy street.

Building 4013.

Yup, that’s it. It looked better than many of the other houses I’d passed on my way here.

I pressed three on the elevator and re-checked the address sheet. And just as the lift stopped at the third floor I could see 319.

I felt my throat choke. So many things to say, so many questions unanswered. I could feel my pulse throbbing as I proceeded to ring the doorbell.

Act : 1 Theme: Zoom | Geometry: Cone Chapter 1 gives us an overall perspective into the character’s life. It also establishes the location of the story that is Tokyo. It uses a macro to micro approach in telling the story - zooming in.I thought the one form that symbolises the concept of ‘zoom in’ the most apt way is a cone.

The cone was intepreted in terms of content, and thus a street gully becomes an apt space for plotting the scene - where the perpective starts resembling a cone.

The streets of tokyo were studied for their peculiar characteristics and spatial properties; The space is an introduction to tokyo - calibrating the visitor to the backdrop of the story.

Tools and Techniques: Colour, materials, textures, smell and even the climatic conditions of tokyo are re-created for the first act - which is situated in real-time and space.

Keypoints An old friend’s visit Introduction to tokyo Introduction to the protagonist People around him (friends, family, neighbours) Slight hint of other worldliness Friends’ expectations/Questions

Tokyo 2013

Soundscape: The sound decreases as you move into the streets, almost touches silence towards the end of it.

Content mapping.

Lock Tower

People around

Act : 1

Space : 1

Zooming in | Cone

Introduction to Tokyo

Through a door the visitor enters Tokyo city 2013.

A gully is recreated in the given space giving a hyper-realistic feel of Tokyo. The visitor can move into different rooms and interact with various people and objects. The entire street is recreated with houses, offices, and even shops with people enacting their roles. This gives the viewers a chance to revisit the space for something new everytime.

Spatial Approach The space reveals itself slowly. As you walk through the narrow street, the converging walls and the fluctuating building heights play a part in slowly revealing the second space. The curiousity of the visitor is aroused by not revealing the end of the path at first go.

Tools and Techniques

Entrance

Light The Title in neon light sparks up as the viewer approaches it

Spacing

Smoke

Smoke is released to enhance the character of the space

Title (confined escape) Mid way through the path, the viewer comes across the title of the story.

Graphics Relevant up-to-date posters and signages

Exit

Circulation path.

elevation

Current location

Space:2

The buildings of the streets start with three-stories height and gradually decrease altitude - adding to the principle of the cone geometry.

Act : 1

Space : 2

Zooming in | Cone

Introduction to the Protagonist

The journey through the streets of Tokyo ends at the lock clock. This is the gateway to the locked world of the protagonist. The lock clock is a tower which records the time for which he has imprisoned himself - an introduction to the theme of the story. The Architectural Structure of the tower blends into the language of the street while maintaining a slightly surreal presence.

The tower is designed in coordination with the other buildings of the city. It also uses a few out-of-the-world elements to give a slight surreal feel to it, so that the transition to the next unreal imaginary space is easier.

Materials used ranged from aluminium ducts to titanium and steel blocks for the lock and stainless steel gears to make the clock work.

Tools and Techniques Clockwork mechanics - intricate gear shifting sounds provide a metaphor to the mechanical lifestyles of the industrial century.

Air Ducts with air passages indicate movement from one space to another.

13 years 12 months 36 days 16 hours 34 minutes 4,5,6, sec

An entry point to the imaginary space.

The clock tower and number lock are integrated to form the idea of the lock clock.

The details of the glowing numbers of the dial.

Current location

Act : 1 Zooming in | Cone The real space of Tokyo breaks down into simple geometric forms. The story is from the protagonist’s point of view from here on. This approach is inspired by Escher’s deconstruction of complex objects into simple geometry.

Space : 3 The People around him The content of this space includes the thoughts of everyone around the protagonist. The real opinions of people are never completely visible and evident, therefore they are intepreted into walls that appear to be whispering.

This area is called Whispering Walls since the walls appear to be talking to the visitor. It is inspired by the likes of architectural monuments where the acoustics reverb in an unpredictable manner.

Tools and Techniques The city sound is almost nil at this stage. People can walk around the walls and hear the wispering sounds through the walls. These whispers talk about the protagonist .

The material used is highly sonourous and reflective, thus causing internal reflection giving a mirage like illusion of rectangles - adding an overall depth to the space.

Elevation options Current location

Chapter 2 Location: Building 4013 Room 319

“Hope you liked the house. I know you have a lot of questions bugging you. Why did I call you here? How am I doing? Where am I? To be frank, I’m not really here (where you are) anymore. I’m in a place which accepts me the way I am. A place that cries when I cry and laughs when I laugh. So don’t look for me there, you won’t find me. I’m sorry.”

The door opened on its own. It was well lit inside. Now how would one imagine the room of somebody who has locked himself in for thirteen years? Dusty?

Dungeon like? Probably Stinky?

But the house looked as good as new. Comfortable, cozy and clean. But I still didn’t find Huiski.

Hui !! Hui!! I screamed.

A chill ran down my spine as I heard the voice of an old friend. The words numbed me. I wanted to say a lot things, even scream, but I couldn’t catch hold of my voice.

“Coming to the point. These thirteen years weren’t easy for me - locked in here. Seconds become slower in solitude. Exaggerated moments, the unbearably slow and weighty present.

Three monitor screens of different sizes were staring at me. There was sleep mode displayed across them. A super comfortable couch lay opposite the screens.

The view through the window was nothing great, though I did notice the plants growing on it’s sill. Well, he wasn’t all alone. There were couple of photographs on the walls - of his dad, mom, wife and oh, one framed picture of us from our school days.

Suddenly, I heard a voice reach out to me. It was that monster head of monitor screens. “Hello, my friend welcome home!” .And it’s the head of the guy I haven’t seen in thirteen years, inside the screen.

I have something to show you. Something I’ve never showed anyone before.

To pass these interminably long years, I’ve created something. Perhaps you could call it a world of my own. I’m not bonkers, don’t worry, but there are places I’ve longed to visit, but I couldn’t. Things I wanted to see, experience again, but am afraid to.

I lost her in 1991. And a lot has changed after that. Allow me to take you through those happy, overwhelming years of my life, when I was still breathing, still alive. She took along a huge part of me along with her.

Act : 2

Space : 4

Boxed | Cube

“Welcome home�

A semi-real set of his house is created - it reflects a typical japanese apartment. Except that the ceiling is of double the height. The space also has sliding doors - which remained closed till the next act begins - boxing you down.

Tools and Techniques Using dual microhpones, the voice of the protagonist is recorded, which is a monologe about where he is, and why his friend has been called upon. This medium makes you feel the presence of the protagonist without him being there physically.

This chapter is about the thirteen years that the protagonist has spent in his house and the worlds that he has created for himself. The story proceeds to reveal him - who is absent in person but present in the form of a audio recording.

Keypoints

ACT:1

ACT:2

ACT:4

Digital Screens (opens to ACT 4)

ACT:5

Walk into the room Unexpected house His lifestlye

couch Memory wall (opens to ACT 3)

ACT:3

His absence

Automatic Kitchen All three doors close , after the visitor is inside

There four main areas/objects in his apartment are the multi screen television and computers, a semi automatic kitchen, a memory wall and the couch. These artifacts are interactive in their own ways.

Current location

Sliding doors This act is a junction between his imagination and memory. Doors are used as architectural gateways to these worlds.

Chapter 3 Scene i.

Location Yogo (Cherry blossom garden) A door opens to darkness. Let me take you through my story. A Yogo garden, saturated with the aroma of those native sakura flowers. A canopy of clusters of cherry blossoms blocked out the sky. It seemed like a cloud of pink clouds were reaching out to the ground. The river scooped its portion of the earth, meandering through, blissful and ignorant, carrying with it the flaky petals of spring. The whole atmosphere whispered in poetry and songs of love. Everybody in the garden knew that this fleeting blooming season, was a miracle of its own kind.

As I crossed the small bridge across the river, something else caught my attention.

Something beyond beautiful. I’ve seen nothing like it before. I could literally feel the breeze through her hair, and feel the beating in my chest. I knew she was the one, the only one.The rest of the world came to a silent stand still. Only the branches danced to the orchestrated music of my heartbeats.

Time had frozen. The laughs of the children running around were mute and the people moved in slow motion. I could feel every molecule move in that moment. I was one with the universe, and the universe was one with me.

It was a regular flower gazing day, and I was here with my friends from college.

They were calling out to me, and I could see that, but I couldn’t move or respond to anything but the sparkle of her eyes as she smiled.

Scene ii.

It was a regular crowded evening. Shopping always made her happy. The roads and people got me thinking about how miniscule we really are in the time and space grid of the universe. Our worries and everyday affairs - so tiny, so insignificant. I felt like an ant, squirming through the earth, making it’s way, one inch at a time.

The tall buildings looked down at us as, and I was feeling very aware at that moment.

Aware of the metro station, the voices that drowned the thoughts in my own head, the wheels of the cars, everything seemed magnified in that moment. My head was all over the place, thinking about our little misunderstandings and fights and everything else.

As I held her hand and walked along the marketplace, I felt I had a place in the world - with her. All my anxiety simmered and I tried to focus on the moment. She was busy evaluating dresses and what not, with her eyes sparkling. I don’t know if it was the shopping that lit her up or me, I was wishing it was both. We rushed to the metro station after she was done. And all of a sudden, I lost sight of her.

I looked around and panicked a little. She could be anywhere I thought. And all the overpowering sounds of the city filled took over my mind space again. Did she already reach the metro? My gut said no. I went up the stairs, against the flow of people pushing in. I started to run all over the place, panting like a crazy person. Then my phone rang. She said, ‘I’m boarding the train home.’

Scene iii.

We’re at my parent’s home in Yogo. There’s nothing like the quiet countryside and hot tea. My mother enjoys her tea ceremonies, and this was her first with Lana. Tea parties are no joke in my home. It is a tradition taken very seriously indeed. My mother puts her heart and soul into the tea, and I know that because some days in the city, there’s nothing I crave more than her green tea. There’s my aunt, and two neighbours I grew up with who have come over as well, and they’re gushing about Lana’s lovely peach kimono. I told her it wasn’t necessary to wear that since my parents are fairly forward thinking, but she insisted, saying that she’d never miss the opportunity to wear one. She looked beautiful anyhow.

The chakai is over and I’m sitting at the window side mindlessly watching the birds peck the ground, while listening to Lana and my mother laugh at something my father just said.

It feels like only yesterday that I got Lana to meet them for the first time. I was so nervous, yet my heart was filled with pride and joy. My father gave me the look he used to give me when I’d do surprisingly well on a test and my mother, well she just gave me her warmest hug in the world. That was two years ago. And it feels like no time has passed at all.

Act : 3

Space : 5

Complete | Circle

Across the Bridge

This chapter is a love story narrated in 4 sequences their meeting, budding love, their marriage and her death. We learn that her death is the main trigger for his current condition. The Circle depicts the circle of life - a wholesomeness - the sense of completeness for the protagonist.

Inspired by a scene in the film Amen, I wanted to freeze a sequence in the script and move the visitor. The water spilts in the middle to make way for the visitor to pass through the space. The visitor is treated like a camera, moving through the split path.

The cherry-blossom trees and the lake mark the essence of this space.

The area of focus here is the meeting of the two main characters at the bridge. The split in the water is not immediately visible - the path is walled with glass - but as you walk towards the centre, it is revealed.

Entry from act 2 Space: 5

Space: 6

Space: 8

Space: 7

Tools and Techniques: As is evident, this space has a very cinematic treatment, so to add to that flavour, there is a background score and even dialogues from the chapter in the form of audio clips.

Cherry blossom trees

Exit to space 6

Bridge

Current location

Cherry blossoms are an integral part of Japanese culture. Since this act is about love, this location was apt to show the protagonist meeting the girl for the first time.

Chapter 4 Location: In his head The creaking swing of wood. It comes back to haunt me on my lonelier days. I’m not one to be easily frightened, but that rocking chair only brings back the worst of my fears.

My grandfather was a content and large hearted man - so I’ve heard. But I’ve known little of him, and the only memory that remains is of him sipping tea on that rocking chair.

It was my first encounter with death, and I didn’t know how to understand what was happening. He was there one day, and the next day, the chair stood by itself.

As if it were quietly staring at me, and following my conscience. I was only five years old, and I cried and I cried on that unfortunate day; but only I knew that I was crying because I was terrified. Everybody left me in the house that evening, and I shut myself in my room, and hid under the blanket, aware of the rocking chair in the next room. And I felt loneliness in it’s entirety for the first time.

I’m afraid of being alone, yes I am. I cannot bear the silence. These thirteen years have been therapeutic to me, in more than one way. I weep like a child sometimes when I miss her presence, and on other days, I simply pretend like she is right here with me. The oblivious clock ticks by, just the same, whether you’re happy or sad. It’s unconsoling and terribly apathetic. There are days I’m completely dead on the inside. I’ve blurred the lines of reality and dream far too much to return.

But I’ve also pondered the meaning of the universe behind these doors. The days that I’m still alive, still breathing and awake, I wonder if we serve any purpose to it. What is the meaning of love and life and anger and family and sorrow and happiness if it is only to be taken away at the end. At the end, life becomes an act of letting go; And that wooden chair embodies all of these endless griefs and fears of mine in its being.

Our deepest fears become our greatest learnings sometimes, and thirteen years is only a number to me now. A hollow apathetic number. Time has lost all meaning, and I’m not lonely anymore.

Act : 4 Loneliness | Triangle In this chapter, Loneliness is interpreted spatially as a triangle. Here, the dark corner looks back at hiding your fears. The pyramid structure reflects confinement and isolation and high stabitily within itself. This is where he fear to come and it has the things thats he fears the most.

Chapter 4, Isolation, Fear, Childhood. The backstory of his Grandfather.

The process of going through and finally out of the situation.

Space : 9 The Fear Within Tools and Techniques: Light: There is one halogen light at the apex of the pyramid, which highlights the objects of fear, one of which is the rocking chair.

In order to represent the idea of escaping loneliness, we need to move out of the space. By delaying the echo of the sound of the footsteps, the viewer is made to believe the space is larger than it is in reality. The idea of overcoming loneliness is tackled in this act.

keypoints His fear His past The Lonelinesss he faced Reasoning Introspection Over coming loneliness

Current location

A Special thanks to the following people who helped me make this project possible Immanuel suresh Tanishka kachru Tenzing Nyentsey Shivani singh Pranab pk Sreenihal pouka And all my exhibition design batchmates Copyright 2014