Heritage One

This post is coming after a bit of a gap, I am aware. The field trip to Arakere, Banavara and Belur being mostly responsible for it. The project, introduced to Srishti by Dr. Jyoti Hosagrahar, aims at promoting the vernacular as well as classical heritage of the Hoysala region on behalf of UNESCO. The aim of the trip, from what I gather, was to  quantify the Hoysala heritage materially. Given the focus of the project on the vernacular cultural landscape of the Hoysala region that encompasses many towns in present-day Karnataka, we set out to document the objects and their stories from the region. Apart from the fact that the plan did not fructify, it raised many crucial doubts about what heritage actually stands for.

Ditionary.com defines heritage as something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth; an inherited lot or portion. Now, the sensitive approach would require one to go to people and get a perception of what the local perception of their own heritage.  Classical heritage, namely, sculpted buildings like temples and tanks, were immediately and exclusively perceived as heritage. The real trouble surfaced with the request for exhibits of vernacular heritage.  How old should an object be? How does one work towards framing a limit on validity of history for heritage?

Unbalanced Voices

Scholar; Columnist, New York Times

An interesting post that I found online yesterday on a blog that had references to the NYT’s (New York Times) columnist, Paul Krugman’s piece, A Socialist Plot. He has drawn analogies between the dual nature of health care and education policies in America. A rather twisted piece to present a simple argument forward that in the end seems a bit pointless for such lustrous an academic. Also, he seemed to get a bit defensive, at places. But, he seems like an interesting man enough to follow weekly. Perhaps, I can have a better opinion of his work and ideas when I have read more of him.

I am indebted to the blogger for having exposed me to Paul Krugman. The post on this blog itself is highly charged and faulty, according to me. It does merit a comment, however small, that I will be posting soon enough.

Baby Boom(s)!

A few reasons for the emergence of this blog.

Since the past academic year, I have noticed that my growth has been least evident to me. I feel I have grown, but then one does grow given the sheer virtue of time. I, within my capacities, have tried to better myself in numerous ways. I guess enrichment perhaps would be a better word. I have consistently felt a deep void in an effort to gauge my own movement. I am hoping this blog would help me do this more constructively and practically.

I owe this largely to a certain inertia that held me back. This reflects at times in my work, too. So, in a way, I am trying to plug all loop-holes that would finally get me to pen my reflections and at times, reflect better.

Geetu expects me to maintain one as this blog will be graded. (!!)

Went to Chikpet today. The tour was a part of my Studio elective, ‘What Can the Matter Be?’ The aim of the studio is to come up with a way to raise a materials library for Srishti. Today, we went to gather samples of materials available in the main market of Bengaluru.

The material hunt was overwhelming, at times, but we managed to get our work done successfully in time. Time here is a very crucial issue as i have been battling to whip myself in shape in order to get better at crunching more within my given time.