photo.graph.art.design

 Visual analysis is a systematic approach to examining and interpreting visual materials, aimed at understanding their underlying meanings, functions, and contextual influences. Study the PDF below (for academic use only)   VISUAL ANALYSIS: An Introduction PDF Seeing is an active Decision, says John Berger. The process of seeing a visual is less spontaneous and natural then we tend to believe. Large part of the seeing depends upon habit and convention (a way in which something is usually done). Seeing needs efforts. The way we see visuals has been manipulated by a privileged minority to preserve their social and economic dominance. Everything that you see hides another thing, says, Rene Magritte. Visual analysis is a systematic approach to examining and interpreting visual materials, aimed at understanding their underlying meanings, functions, and contextual influences. In our visually saturated world, images have become a pervasive language that shapes our perceptions, attitudes, and

Chipko Chipko A non-violent forest conservation movement that originated in India in the 1970s; where v illagers, particularly women, opposed commercial logging and government deforestation policies. Protesters used non-violent tactics, notably embracing trees (Chipko means "to hug" in Hindi), to impede loggers. The movement aimed to protect local forests, which were vital for their livelihoods and the environment. It emerged in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand (then part of Uttar Pradesh) in 1973. Legacy includes increased environmental awareness, empowerment of local communities, and pioneering ecofeminist ideas.

  A privileged, relaxed man would never want to change anything. 

 Today is Sunday. I began my day with my usual Catholic Sunday service; standing in the middle of a church, filled with faith filled, convinced, and uncomplicated people, praying, singing, sharing, and celebrating. There was energy, there was vibe, there was devotion, and nothing lacked from the usual Sunday services. But from people walking into the church, to the entrance hymn, to the recessional hymn to people walking back home; everything looked and felt like being in an automated mode. Nothing unexpected happened, and nothing unexpected was even expected. Nothing unanticipated was heard, no one was expected to listen to anything that is unanticipated. It was a ritual performed and participated in the most ritualistic manner as possible. It was a kind of implosion into once own faith, certainties, and, age-old practices. Nothing is neither further clarified nor challenged. Later in the day I was at Chitra Shante (Art Fair) by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath , which had artworks by

 I love Kaziranga; because here they are not caged or fenced as an exhibition item for the homo sapiens . The rhinoceros, elephants, wild buffalos, deer, the occasional tigers, and many other smaller animals roam free in this 430 square- kilometre expanse across the flood plains of Brahmaputra. Kaziranga lies between the Brahmaputra and the Karbi Hills. Much of the park is marshland interspersed with large pools fringed with reeds, patches of elephant grass, scattered trees, and thickets; inhabited popularly by the great Indian one-horned rhinoceroses. I took an early morning walk around the park with my lens, and the woods there is bustling with birds, both resident and migratory. Sighting rare large birds, like, wooly-necked stork, grey-headed fish eagle, the lesser and great adjutant, which
are declared vulnerable and threatened by International Union for Conservation of Nature, is very satisfying. Kaziranga and its one-horned rhinos We took a safari in a private Gypsy into the cent

  Behold powerlessness, here is humanity: trafficked, used and made to overwork for profit, left unemployed for greed, dominated and muzzled by authoritarian and patriarchal regimes, and desecrated in the name of religion. May is hot; not just because of the rising mercury levels across India and elsewhere, but also because of the elections in Karnataka, which is arguably, an important state for the existence and rise of BJP in the South, because of the ongoing ED raids and political arrests, and of course, because of May Day –the day we appreciate the constitution of the eight-hour working day. The workers today, as in every age, are in a permanent revolution, lest the bosses take advantage of their powerlessness, and make them machines.  There has been no other movement as the workers movement, which made the world take notice of people and their struggles. May is a month to notice humans, look at powerless humans more genuinely, more seriously. I borrow a conversation from Bobby Jos

  Work is not just an economic thing, it is also existential; it gives meaning to human existence. Man verses machine is an age-old conflict archetype. Since the emergence of this conflict archetype machines have been growing in power and intelligence in all directions. The evolution of the thinking machines now stands at the threshold of a quantum leap, breaking completely with the past –the Open AI is here. We have heard of automating repetitive tasks, but that is not the question today. Instead of automating repetitive tasks, technology today is climbing the cognitive ladder. Is it too fast? Or is it that for doing the repetitive jobs we still have the cheap human labour around? Automation Anxiety The stress one goes through because of the fear of losing ones job to automation is real and happening. Work is not just an economic thing it is also existential; it gives meaning to human existence. Money could be provided and found, what about meaning? With infallible machines around the

  Though art is endlessly changing, its ability to make worlds meet is constant: the worlds of the artist and the art consumers break into conversation, the subjects in a piece of art and the audience pause to converse. Initiating conversations is perhaps the greatest modern virtue. Our world, in this era of alternative facts, propaganda, thought control, and post-truth, is more polarised and divided than ever before. Most are stuck in their own petite filter bubbles and echo chambers. We are diametrically opposed to each other on virtually every issue that matters -climate, citizenship, refugees, racism, caste, gender –you name it. Exclusive black and white, left and right, for and against is the new mantra for political success. The rest of the population, in between the poles, is ignorantly comfortable and indifferent. To be in a state of being talkable, or people to be in a position to converse is made tougher by people getting offended by the slightest of disapproval. Of course, t

 Sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave. It is a kind of energy.  To make a sound, something has to vibrate — whether that’s the string of a guitar, the larynx (voice box) of a person, or the loudspeakers of your radio.   Sound waves consist of vibrating particles , which knock into other particles, causing those particles to vibrate and knock into more particles, and so on and so forth; this is how sound waves travel away from their source.   We hear sounds because the vibrations in the air cause our eardrums to vibrate , and these vibrations are converted into nerve signals that are sent to our brains. Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Understanding Sound for Media Elements of Sound The amplitude: The amplitude is the height of the wave on the graph from the middle to its highest point. The amplitude determines a sound’s volume — sound waves of higher amplitude are louder. The frequency: The number of rarefactions and compressions that occur per unit time

 A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike, is a transducer (a device that converts energy from one form to another) that converts sound into an electrical signal. Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Microphones PDF Kinds of Microphones A cardioid microphone has a unidirectional cardioid polar/pickup pattern. It is most sensitive to on-axis sounds (where the mic “points”). A hypercardioid mic has a tighter pickup angle and offers more side-rejection than a cardioid pattern. It is, however, slightly sensitive to sound sources that are directly behind the mic. Omnidirectional microphones are microphones that pick up sound with equal gain from all sides or directions of the microphone. A bidirectional mic , sometimes called a figure-of-eight, is equally sensitive to sounds coming from the front and rear of the mic and least sensitive to sounds coming from the sides. Shotgun polar pattern is exceptionally narrow and focused. This makes it flawless at recording a sound

 Stories are Character/s, imaginary or real, aspiring and moving towards a need/goal through adversaries (achieving it with a big idea / super powers) will make one a hero). More elaborately, Character/s, imaginary or real, faced with a conflict/problem/issue/situation and trying to understand/overcome/change it in spite of difficulties / limitations / oppositions from within or without (overcoming/changing it with a big idea / super powers) will make one a hero). Please study the PDF below (only for academic use) Stories and Film Scripting PDF Stories have Shapes Storytelling is an art form that has captivated humans since the dawn of civilisation. Whether through oral traditions, written literature, or visual media, stories have the power to entertain, educate, and inspire. At the heart of every great story lies a carefully constructed narrative that engages the audience and conveys a meaningful message. According to Kurt Vonnegut, stories have shapes, the main ones are Man in the ho

  Art is never finished, only abandoned is a famous saying of Leonardo da Vinci. His life and work bear witness to this fact. His great Mona Lisa took 16 years to become what we see as Mona Lisa today. He was never satisfied, he kept drawing over it time and again. Finally he in fact died without completing it; or it may be more right to say, many times completed it but without finishing or perfecting it. Apparently the renaissance masterpiece Mona Lisa was commissioned by a businessman to paint the picture of his wife. Perhaps the businessman was never satisfied by what was painted. Whether Mona Lisa was a real woman is still a mystery by itself. Mona Lisa When most secular women in paintings had a stiff appearance, Mona Lisa has a relaxed appearance. Mona Lisa has a triangle composition to bring the gaze of the audience directly to her face. And I guess Da Vinci had reason for it. He wanted us to see her face and its features. Most women up to then in secular paintings never looked

 Though the world knows Leonardo da Vinci as one of the greatest artist, he had not considered himself as an artist. Considering his stature today, he did not many art-works to his credit. In a letter to the duke of Milan da Vinci wrote a letter to consider him for a job. In that he explained his skills in engineering, building bridges, and military equipment, etc. Only at the end in the 11 th paragraph of the letter did he say that he also could paint. Leonardo's Notebook What reveals Leonardo to us is his famous notebook. He had a habit of writing and sketching his ideas on a notebook. Even the great work Vitruvian Man is an image from his notebook. His notebook writings and scribbles had around 13000 pages. On his notebooks he wrote in mirror script. Nobody could easily read it, unless a mirror is placed against it. He did it that way perhaps to hide his initial thoughts from others because most of them were from his fertile imagination, and were not tried and proved. But today

  The western coast of India is a range of mountains and their valleys embraced and washed by the Arabian Sea. The western coast runs between Kerala and Gujarat and extends from the Arabian Sea to the Western Ghats. Its total length is 1400 km, width ranges from 10 km to 80 km, and the elevation (mountains) ranges from 150 m to 300 m above sea level. It includes the Konkan , which is the Northern part of the coast that includes Goa and Mumbai and extends from Daman to Goa; Kanara , which is the central stretch of the coast that comprises three coastal districts, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi district (South Canara), and Uttara Kannada (North Canara); and the Malabar Coast , which is the southern stretch, a long and narrow coastline that extends from the South of Goa to Kanyakumari. Western Coast: Photo Story For the people of inland India the sandy beaches of Western Coast is a haven of entertainment and rejuvenation. Take a road trip from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu to Bhuj in Gujarat: you wi

 Travelling through Vedaranyam, Nagapattinam, at the eastern cost of Tamil Nadu, I was suddenly taken aback by the sight of the vast ex- panses of salt evaporation ponds. A salt evaporation pond is a shallow artificial saltpan designed to extract salts from sea water. I could not drive on. Seeking permission from my co-traveller, I took a walk through the salt fields. I met Bala, a worker at the salt fields. He spoke to me about the salt fields, owned by large companies; though working for them for years, and for meager wages; he had no much idea about the company that gets the benefit of his hard toil. Bala was very articulative about the tough nature of their work. The hardest is the heat. Scorching sun is beating on them directly; adding to it the white salt fields reflect light and heat back to them: like getting cooked in a slow fire. Salt fields: Photo Story It is the year of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav . My thoughts went back to Gandhiji, his companions, and the great Salt March to