Design/ Brink

One’s world view of doom and despair can be corresponded with the comprehension of apocalyptic events like erratic weather conditions, hurricanes, forest fires, floods, drought, viruses, respiratory diseases, destruction of ecosystems and the evident signs of the sixth mass extinction that , humans have invited to their doorstep as a result of their anthropocentric actions. Urban migration and other actions for economic development have been the cause of humans claiming and over-using resources causing a significant negative impact on the environment. The topic of climate change has been reiterated multiple times in an urban person’s life through education media and art and yet there seems to be a gap between knowledge and behavior. This project aims to explore this gap through stop motion animation made with prints to further reiterate the message of less consumption.

As seen previously, in the first phase of this project I explored eight print-making techniques to understand which technique would resonate with the idea of climate change and less consumption. Print-making requires chemicals, multiple trials and excessive use of material. The constraint of print making brings out an interesting yet conflicting paradox between this consumption heavy practice and the need to consume less

Artist Study - THEODORE USHEV: He is a fine artist and an animator who used print making as the basis of his animation called Blind Vaysha. The animation is created digital but it attempts to recreate the effects of linocut print making. It is interesting to see print-making as the inspiration behind the medium and I wondered about why he chose such a labour intensive medium. The idea of an animation after viewing this stuck in my head as it best described change according to me.

Images and information from:

https://www.awn.com/animation- world/past-and-future-torment-present-theodore-ushev-s-blind- vaysha

Why Animation and Print-making?

Print-making is considered to be a traditional process and I wanted to find an intersection between traditional and contemporary which would increase the reach of my exploration.

According to me, Print-making highlights impressions of the world from the artist’s point of view through actual impressions of the plate. This connection was almost poetic. I too, wanted to put forth my views and fears with regards to Climate Change and the Coastal communites. After watching Blind Vaysha, I saw how animation would be a good way to reach larger audiences as a very large population now owns smart phones and has access to the internet. My idea of migration resonated with a moving image.

I also wanted to explore the paradox between creation and consumption and understand how to actually be realistic and unapologetic when it comes to consumption. Using a reduction technique with relief print seemed like a viable option for my animation.

In this experiment, I attempted a stop motion animation using a reductive wood cut technique to create prints. I used a circular MDF (Medium Density Fibre) piece to create a plate. The basic idea for this animation was to understand the interaction of colours, and how the reduction technique would work.

I went back to using MDF as my material to create prints because of it’s relatively less harmful impact on the environment, the aesthetics of the printed outcomes as well as it’s availability in Mumbai where I had to print without the access to a studio space.I chose to work with oil paints for the same reason of accessibility and availability and found that I was not restricted to using only a limited number of colours. The acquiring of material was more economically viable!

The devastating string of events starting from the Australian Bush-fires has made me look at Climate Change as a topic which cannot be ignored anymore. Ever since I was a kid, I have been drawn to natural landscapes, especially seascapes as I have grown up in Mumbai, with very close proximity to the beach.

For me, Climate change is topic which I have learnt about since childhood and it is something I have prior knowledge of. Therefore, it seemed fitting to explore climate change by first laying out everything I knew about it, using the brainstorming method suggested by Ideo’s Designkit (https://www.designkit. org/methods/brainstorm) for about 30 mins and laid out all my thoughts related to Climate Change. These have been displayed on the next page.For this project I started off with a simultaneous process which switches between secondary research and research through practice to navigate through a topic as dense as climate change.

My personal inquiry is about how the business hub of India - Mumbai has been fabricated out of the sea, houses over 22 million people and bears the burden of migrator’s dreams of prosperity, their over-consumption and abuse of resources will eventually sink into the same sea. It has been built, torn down and rebuilt over and over again to keep up with development and prosperity and in turn, the residents have caused immense damage to the sea, beaches, public health care, air quality and uprooted local communities – Koli fishermen. The sea was made to recede and land was claimed. However, in this power struggle between the residents and the sea, the shorelines have receded and it seems like the sea will take over this city eventually. Having lived in this coastal city myself, I fear the loss of Mumbai, a home to me and many others.

An Artist whose work really spoke to me was Gaurav Ogale who creates looped moving images with a handmade aesthetic to them. He has created many such moving images highlighting water bodies, local people and their activities in an unusual manner and has recently collaborated with many artists from the bollywood industry to create audiovisual poetry. By studying his work, I was motivated to alter my own approach to creating A stopmotion animation where I printed each complete frame. Instead, I decided to use the advantages of technology that I had my disposable and create a combination of hand-made and digitally compiled works. This in turn helped me consume lesser material than I had speculated earlier!

Amidst the early months of COVID-19 Pandemic I got a chance to watch Wade by Ghost Animation (written and directed by Upamanya Bhattacharya and Kalp Sanghvi), a short film which is about “a version of Kolkata, India rendered unliveable by sea level rise” as the undertone of the narrative displaying the struggle and fight for survival amongst the Climate change refugees and Tigers of the Sundarbans. This 10 min animation made me realise that Climate Change can be taken as the undertone of narratives, the setting of it or even the subject of it like seen in Amitav Ghosh’s Book : The Great Derangement. I also understand how sound can be a very impactful component of an animation and I planned to incorporate that as well.