The Aesthetics of change.

i was going thru my google doc archives, and found this piece i had written for a real estate magazine about 3 years ago... cant remember why i didnt post it online earlier, or why i am doing it now... just one of those things where i like to put thigns out again after a long. its like trying to bring back a joke no one thought was funny then, and seeing if they find it funny now....

The
Aesthetics of change.
 
 Karthik Natarajan

Architecture has always been about expressions. Through Pyramids, we reflected our desire to be remembered. The Greek took great pains in forming an architectural aesthetics system so as to get building aesthetics to reflect a sense of grandeur. The buildings they built in function also reflected their ideas of culture, class, politics, religion and leisure. Architecture then was a privileged art and an extension of sculptures skill and talent to make sculptures with spaces enclosed. The cathedrals that came about in the later ages also showed a strong sense of visual character so as to reflect the standing that religion held, or was expected to hold in its days. Architecture then moved on from becoming just a means of external expressions, but through spatial order within the buildings as well, hierarchy of use, the ideas of exclusion and elite were reflected. Not just in western cultures, even in ancient India, we started building larger campuses around temples, with layers of exclusion and order, which would reflect our class distinction system prevalent through ages. Richer the community, larger and grander the scale of buildings.

According to architect Lebbius Woods, the French revolution failed in its intent of drastically changing the society as it did not accompany with a stronger architectural expression. In his words, “the French revolution failed because it installed itself in the buildings of the royalty it overthrew”. With a promise of new social order, a new architectural order must ensue, or the ideas become incomprehensible.

Each time that a successful shift in social systems has occurred, architecture has reflected the change through change in style. When there was change from the Greek social culture to a Christian culture, the style and nature of expression in built form also changed visibly. We moved from an ordered system of design, to a more imposing, decorative and layered system. The church became the center of the society and not the kings. Through renaissance, the age of logic and reason, architecture started taking on a closer to classic order again. During the industrial revolution as well, architecture and planning became more transparent and approachable, as opposed to the previous systems which were more exclusive. The modernist changed the aesthetics according to what they felt best reflected the needs and ideals of a progressive society. The post-modernist then reflected what they felt was the change needed. Each order of building aesthetics, thus has contributed significantly towards its function. Form follows function is only half true now. Function also significantly follows form.

Working towards larger goals of a sustainable future and how architecture can bring about change, it is worth reflecting upon the visual language that these buildings have, and how what we do as design measures are expressed to those who inhabit the space within. May be the sustainability of a new design methodology also requires a considerable change in its aesthetics as well for it to be widely accepted. A reflection of the design intent of the built environment, which lends the building the character it needs to express, not just make pretty pictures, but also bringing about change.

Quoting Philip Johnson, “All architecture is shelter, but all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts or stimulates the person experiencing it”.

so Mr grasshopper, whats your story?

there was once a grasshopper named bob.

now bob had is ways with the world. he would do what he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted. all things that he wanted he did and all things he did, everyone wanted. now bob keeps doing things, good things bad things, new things, but all different kinds of thing. hopping away to glory. eating what he finds when he finds, no saving for rainy days no burrowing thru the grounds, no making homes or nests. just living it up each day, grasshopper style.

same time there are these ants. millions of them. running around toe to tail, one after the other , in sync, in style all with the same dreams of one day being the queen bee, sitting and eating, hatching eggs at the heart of the hive. the good life they said. with the big rooms, the sweet honey, the friends, the admirers, the jealous onlookers the evil empires. everything under the sun and behind it to make us happy.

but every once in a while the ant would glance a shady glance at the grasshopper. dancing till his shoes hurt, doing his thing, the grasshopper thing. being himself smiling dancing making merry, doing the joke and poke thing. everyone watches him and so does the ant. part in awe part in envy and part wondering why hes not that guy? why is he doing this in the line on the floor thing? why cant he just leave this all and take up the violin and play the strings to oblivion. he knows he will be happy that way. it may not be all honey and empires, but he would do it for the happiness and stories. the guns and glories. the small town man with the big time dreams, making it in the big city without losing his chee.

but then he marches on. he get back in line, dons the helmet that his predecessors did and soldiers on. hoping, nay knowing one day, he makes it to the top, get the girl, the house, the sweet nectar of gods and all that. and resolving under his breath that one day he shall meet the grasshopper, watch him play the songs do the dance from high up above in his silvery throne. and tell the next generation as to how the grasshopper stayed where he was, while he moved up and moved on! the grasshopper froze each winter, the ant stayed warm, moral of the story work for your happiness nothing is for free. the end.

but no one asked the grasshopper, sir, what is your version of life? are you happy making merry or is there something to look forward to? dont you want to do the queen grasshopper thing? the life of luxury, shiny objects and fresh cut leaves? dont you want to be at that place? be that guy who everyone wants to be, who everyone either envies, or talks about? i think if someone did ask him these question he would reply in the most lost voice of all...

hell yeah. i want to be that guy that you all want to be. but i want to be happy first. and i cant make up my mind what i want to do about either of them? i cant commit to a life on the path, i think its just too slow, and too tedious. i want to do what i want to do and i want to have what everyone wants to have and i want it all now. i cant wait till the end of my life to do what i want, wait for my parents to pass on the mantle to me, wait for my kids to take on the mantle, wait for the birds to leave home the bees to go out hunting before i go out and play the fiddle the violin and become the traveling one piece band i want to become. but what can i do? can i stop being me for an indefinite period of time and then keep who i want to be for later? i dont think i can refrigerate desires?

we are all born at the crossroads. the fiddle in one hand, and a shovel in the other. you can find your time to do both, or bury one with the other. most make their choices early on, some have them made for them. i am still staring at both my hands, trying one, and then trying the next... still at that cross roads staring into what lies ahead. i am still the hopper i was the day i hopped in. and guess what.. i think i shall be happy hopping for a while.... and not cos i am happy doing it, no, and definitely not because i want to do it all my life, hell no. i will be hopping because that is all i know how to do, and if i stand in one place long enough, may be i would miss out on all the other places i want to be in. so there's this and thats that. now can i go please? i see something new i havent done before and i want to get done with it.

death of a drive.

today i lost something.

something valued. something irreplaceable. it was my years of hard work, collecting, saving, swapping, and creating little bits and pieces to put it all together there. it was my hard drive. 320 gigs of portable entertainment. all gone in one single drop of my bag. one careless/carefree gesture and all is gone.

to the untrained eye, it is like a watch being broken, or a favorite tshirt with moth holes in it, but to me, and i am sure to a lot of others to whom half the fun is in the amount of space it occupied. but to me, is the 1900s equivalent of having a big fire in your workplace. or a california wild fire of the 2000s, or losing your own hut in the haiti earthquake. no matter what you get after this.. your life can never go back to being the same. you may rebuild your fortunes, you may work hard enough to make all of this seem like a bad dream, but that day you change. you become someone you were not before and someone you will be for the rest of your life.

the hard disk was fairly new and it isnt that i lost the drive or that i lost money today that i am sad, its a lot more. it is that today i am reminded of my helplessness against all things that i thought i was using for convenience. i cant go without my phone, my ipod, my laptop, the hard drives i own, none of that. its almost as if i am slave to it. and thus the unbearable loss.

almost reminds me of the matrix reloaded dialogue between the council man and neo about dependencies. and he ends with... 'are we truly free?'

and so shall i.


(alright may be just a little foot note.

i know i know. i am a day late. but in my defence, i was a day early last time so there that and thats that! plus i am a grieving man this week. i am allowed a day off aren't i? i mean 320 gigs of movies, music, may be a few bits of work too all gone. never to be gotten again. i am allowed a day off!


i also have to do this..

happy birthday sister.

she thought this would make up for a good excuse for a post. may be she was right, this does seem more intelligent and mature than crying over a dead drive. but then... i dont want to seem what i am not. )

suicidal planet.

why do none of us believe in a long and happy ever after anymore.

why is 2012 so deeply imprinted in our minds that we almost believe it will happen. why is everything we do today doesnt seem to be with a sense of where it will be 50 years from now. why cant we look at the future, straight in the eye and feel happy/hopeful about it? why are we focused on doom so much?

hindu mythology calls this period as the 'kalyug' or the time of instant redemption. it is a period where all actions are punished/rewarded almost instantaneously. it is also known as the dark ages, or the time when the truth and the righteous have to struggle for recognition and existence. the sins rule the game and all that exists around us is bad influence. it only gets better, the next phase according to the legend, is 'pralaya' or destruction., the end of the world. a mercyless reboot.
then there is nostradamus. he was pretty scary too. he predicted that the world would end this millinea. we have all been sitting at the edge of our seats waiting for the other shoe to fall. almost certain that the other shoe will fall soon. believing in our hearts that the world is going to end. and we are going to be around to see it.
the bible also predicts the end of the world soon. and not just the end of the world as a destruction of the planet, the end of the world as in the end of all that we know as creation. i wish we are wrong. i hope and pray that the world has a longer life than i do. i sincerely pray (if i have to) that the world will be a better place once day. that utopia will not be a bad thing and that the zeitgeist will cease to exist as a thing to be addressed, but will become as a statement of pride. that today we make tomorrow better.

i tend to quote the matrix on this one 'we see reality in misery' we ourselves dont believe that the future will be bright,


but can we change this obsession with the dark side? i dont think so. for two primary reasons.

one, we are short sighted, we dont dream of the future, we dream of a better today. better standards of living. better cars, better homes, better education, better vacations, better everything. not new, but better. i haven't, in a while heard of any significant breakthrough that we weren't genuinely surprised by. pluto is NOT a planet, or better yet, almost a planet. but have we found something beyond that? have we even begun with the idea of a possible USS enterprise? have we actively made progress in finding a new one, or a new solar system. i don't know. the last time we put a man on the moon was in 1972. what happened then? have we found out everything there is to find out about the moon? does the moon hold nothing of learnable value for us?
we are so busy waging wars and protecting territories, that we forget to look beyond. we are going smaller and deeper while ignoring the wider and farther.
what i do know is that we have become unimaginative. we cant imagine beyond 10 years. our goals are shorter, more attainable. i don't remember the last time a kid said that he wants to be an astronaut. i cant remember a time when a kid didn't want to do what his dad was doing.

secondly, research shows, that we are at present going through the most unhappy phase of our evolution. this after the holucast. our society and culture is ridden with holes. we tend to look for the cloud in the silver lining. once we start looking for holes, we look for the fixes, once we find the fixes then tend to capitalize on the fixes, if we dont find the fixes, we tend to shop... if everyone will be happy, who will buy the fixes, or the replacement to the fixes? the capitalist system will collapse and money will be of next to no value. and this cannot happen. we cannot let people get happy under any circumstances. happy people are just bad for business. what if we change the assumption? what if we say, happy people make better consumers, only if the consumables are made better, then the question of quality comes into play, as long as you make quality items, happy folks will buy it. a good car will get brought, advertisements or not.

and therin lies the tragic flaw, we then have to innovate, we cannot reproduce, we have to invent. get off our lazy behinds and make something. until now, the shortsighted version had been paying off pretty well.

low quality + investment + demands (or short supply) = high returns.

but since everyones happy, the consumption patterns will change, they will no longer be linked to the happiness index but to the quality index. which means that people will no longer look at flash value, or street credits, but for quality of goods, environmental impact, because we have enough, we only need replacements not additions. everyones happy with what they have, they want new when they want better. zen all over!

the flipside: by making quality = returns we are adding the risk of failure to the whole equation. making manufacturers nervous... rejected again.

so is there a solution. i would like to believe so. i would like to think that at some point we all truely acknowledge that chaos will exist, we are all ok with being miserable from time to time and that good time are always around the corner as opposed to the other way around. we dont live on a linear chain of consumption but on a cyclic one. hand me down is the new cool and such... like the schoridingers cat experiment, where we are assuming that the solution will be one or another. and hence both simultainously exist for a finite time, and then it shall go back to an absolute (the cat is either dead or alive...). that the final solution will always be absolute. but i think that is where the problem lies. there can never be an absolute. it will be 2 things at the same time, waxing and waning in importance but present and accounted for at all times. we need to focus on a better today, and a future that we never thought of. we need to bring back the use of imagination as a need and not a sign of insanity, we need kids to paint more than sunsets houses and ducks. we need imagination and we cant need it sooner!

(a positive outcome of me being lazy, and being too egoistic to give up so soon, added with the difficulty of coming up with something new each 3 days is that now i can start finishing all the bad ideas i dropped with good reason. this is the first of many back up plans i have for me to get thru my 106 post this year. people of the world... one at a time please....! )

my digital is too analog.

look at the things you use today. your phones, computers, the softwares on the computers, the things those softwares do, the internet, blogs, social media everything digital. now think of a time before these, the time before you had any of your digital realities. think of how people used analog things to do what you do with your digital. the watches, the word processors, the drawing tools. even the things you use the internet for. like communication, publishing, photo sharing, ideation, collaboration, everything that you do today, was being done then. slowly, none the less, but surely. now you have blogs, then you had news letters, now you have websites for designers, then you had bulky portfolios, now you have a mobile phone, then you had telephones, the text messaging of today, is the direct lineage of the telegram. and i can go on. but what am i rambling about here?

what i really mean to say is... we havent changed anything. we made the digital do analog things are satisfied with them. architects use autocad for 2d drawings, and are happy with it, only a few push things to their full potential. how many architectural firms think of computers and digital techniques as more than tools that replaced the drawing board? we call them design drawing. not designing. Word replaced the word processor or the typewriter. books written on the type are like books written on a computer, no change there. just the convenience of a select few. i am not one of those shun your computer, nature is the right way to go preaching hippie. i love my macbook. more than the people around me, but its just a sad realization that since the time someone invented the printing press, we havent moved much, and since the time of the telephone we have moved even lesser.
the mouse simulates a pen, the screen supposed to be paper, digital watches with needles, mp3 players that look like cassette tape players, bluetooth headsets made to look like Bakelite phones. we even had mobile phones with jog dialers,
all new technology at some point simulates and if we are lucky just about replaces old technology.

now forget what you know. think of something that has never been done before. like the multi touch track pad in the macbooks, and the new apple mouse since the beginning of the mouse/trackpad usage, no one thought of more than two fingers and 3 buttons. or google wave, first time ever, we got a system that is built on the internet, not on the postal service! social networking broke the mould to some extent, orkut, facebook, linkedin all these did move out of the general already existing since adam and eve.

now lets look at what work we do. day in and day out. time and time again, do we do the same things that people have been doing since for ever? or are we doing something new? is your digital too analog?

food for thought. and action. :)

(i know i got preachy on this one... but i was sick of the autocad interface when this one came about :) too bad you got the wrong end of this stick)

the list

things about me a list i made for some other time but had so much fun that i went on and on about it so here is a list of things that people who know me know and the ones who dont will.

1) i was born. not found.

2) i dream. a lot. a looot.

3) i wish to die soon, but with no intentions of killing myself.

4) i love things more than people.

5) i have a secret wish to suffer from a really rare disease.

6) i can go without food for 5 days. but haven't gone without a computer since 1996.

7) i need people around me. and i hate that.

8) i know my sister is a better person than me.

9) i love escalators. when i build my own house, thats the first thing that i put in it.

10) i need the movies. i cant live without them.

11) i am a comic book fan.

12) i am like superman. i need the sun. i am like batman. i live in the dark. i am like both. i try to hide my true nature. i am like neither; my underpants are on the inside. generally.

13) i suffer from a perpetual identity flux.

14) i think an exclamation mark is the most amazing symbol ever invented. i wish i had had something to do with it.

15) i am a closet realist narcissist. i know the world revolves around me. i just dont boast about it.

16) sweet is my favorite taste. i can have deserts for all three meals. a wise man once said. life is uncertain.. eat desert first. i live by that rule.

17) i have the answer to all problems in the world. i just dont have all the questions.

18) my left foot is a size and more bigger than my right foot.

18)i hate shoes. i love buying them.

20) i have to pack my things thrice over when i go travelling. i am a packing perfectionist. i can fit the world in a suitcase given the right time and conditions.

21) i always over prepare for trips, but forget one important thing, always.

22) i am bad with money. and everything else that needs to be saved.

23) i see awkward questions and have an urge to ask them. how ever inappropriate, i just have to.

24) i hate people that love the news. if you think it makes you smart to know, sucks to be you!

25) i am the most uninformed person i know. but i am a trivia buff.

26) i am orderophoebic. i am afraid of ordering food at restaurants. i get nervous while deciding what to order because i think that that will be the one dish in the whole menu that the chef will screw up and i would never step into that place again. i always ask someone else to order for me. that way, if its bad, its their fault.

27) i have to have the largest tub of soft drink at the movies. how ever large. (1.5L was the largest at last count. thank you sonycenter berlin.)

28) i swear. a lot.

29) i am a chocolate addict.

30) i am a coke addict. but regular coke. i am leading a campaign against diet coke. i think principally nothing that is sweet has a right to be sugar free. plastic sweetners are just rude!

31) i have a speech ready for both the oscars and the nobel prize. i have been working on these for the last 25 years.

32) i like children. just dont like what they grow into.

33) i am at peace in filth. cleanliness is next to sickness.

34) i believe in lucky underwear.

35) i am chromophoebic. i am afraid of wearing colors.

36) i am a reluctant freeloader. i want everything for free. but i feel guilty for it afterwards.

37) i am the laziest person alive.

38) i love postit notes. all sizes and shapes.

39) deadpool is my favorite superhero.

40) i love making these lists.

41) pheew! i am done

tagged!

/riya brought this upon me... a looooooong time ago.. adn i finally got to writing it...!
some day i shall remember to thank her for this. :)

life ten years ago:
Odd, awkward, aimless.
i wasnt born that way, they made me like that, full of dreams void of directions. another cog in the wheel destined to become a spanner in the works. one way or another. fresh out of high school, I dreamt of becoming a research scientist, which got lost somewhere in the transition between the child and adult. the glorious future replaced by the multi flavored present. the rude shock that i am now at the crossroads that would lead to i-know-not-where. into architecture by chance, not sure if belonged. they were weird times.
music: the birth of the metal junkie. introduced to it by an acquaintance trying to showoff

Life five years ago:
angry, smitten, determined.
it wasn't over night but it was somewhere now. from the reluctant entrant into the world of architecture and design, i fell in love with it. no longer a design virgin i was hooked like an addict. my friends took up alcohol i took to fantasy for kicks. angry at the system for keeping me in the dar about the wonders that design brings. angry that i didn't know then what i know now. determined that i would better what they ruined. make up for lost time. load up on junk and get the show on the road.
music: deep into nu rock. heavy metal, death metal and all things that sounded rebellious, introductions were made with classic rock too... U2, rush, lynnard, DT were made...

Life tomorrow
certainly uncertain.
music: metal still rules, right besides, house, electronic and classic rock...
Five locations I would run away to
i dont think places are special. its what we make them with the things that we do that make them special.
my top 5 hideouts:
my imagination, alone, with characters, and the things they do.
a road trip to nowhere, dirt sweat, caked mud on a throbbing head has its own charm. this i would do alone, no baggage, emotional physical or otherwise,
a movie theatre, the matrix trilogy, kshitij, dey and a lot of coke.. not snorts, liquid, not diet, the stuff that real men drink!!
the beach at pondycheri, friends, food and fights....
bangalore, friends, food and ram to take shots at! (sorry ram but u are the best part!)

5 bad habits:
y top five, i leave that to you...
this is what came out of an exercise on a very long and cramped plane journey...
(axe, elle and the short lady!... you know who u are!)
fear of responsibilities
confused
short attention span
push over
aimless
talks crap
lazy
indifference to attire
no tact
spendthrift
inconsistent
emotional
afraid of women? (i dont know what made them say this.)
restless
no sense of belonging (root less) (drifting)
spells horrid!
disinterested
non prioritizing
childish
immature

Five things I will never wear:
under normal circumstances:
deep purple/red/yellow
head gear made out of another animals head.
a suit
the emperors new clothes.
a shirt that says britney rules!

Five biggest joys at the moment
ravioli in walnut and cream sauce.
the macbook 13" black.
motorbike and an open road
good movies
new music

Something to achieve by next year
c l a r i t y! would give anything for it!... absolutely anything. just show me what it is that i want. a definite answer to anything. but ya otherwise, a new bike, a longer ride, a faster run, a smoother road, a cleaner beach, and someone to understand why! if not ride along :) and a million bucks... any currency.

Something that impacted me last year
18th march 2008, the maiden concert and everything that happened around it!, (you know who you are)
What I will miss about 2007
everything and nothing. it changed my life in more ways that i know and more ways than i would like to... its was the best and the worst year of my life, this phoenix burnt brilliant in 2007 !

Five things I want to do before I die
World domination.. and wont take no for an answer.
waken festival
road trip on a bike that i hand built across all 5 continents
skinny dipping in the Antarctic.
and stop a speeding bullet... just once!

and now to inflict this on to the next breed of suffering bloggers... I would like to introduce ... Sam , sister and r3fluxx, may you feel what i felt while writing this post. :)

cheers!