PORTRAITS & BODY STUDIES

Presence is a Gift
the mind is restless & impatient
never in one place or time
at least not for long

we are essentially trained
to cultivate our intellects
some of us also build muscles

the body and mind, however,
seem always to be in conflict
traversing their unrelated paths

we perceive space when divided
and see time as past & future
but isn’t the body only here & now?

Siddharth Singh

INTENT

While the larger trajectory of the studio is aligned to remembering the sense of inhabitation embodied in ourselves and eliciting our associations to others and to spaces, the Visual & Spatial Representation sessions are aimed to evoke forgetfulness and the sense of being in the present. VSR, scheduled as the beginning of each day, is intended as exercises in centering ourselves: bringing our mind & body together through an undisturbed engagement of an hour in sketching/ drawing and making models.

TEACHING-LEARNING STRATEGIES

There are three exercises outlined within the scheduled fortnight-long brief. While two of them – Portrait & Self-Portrait– are impressions & observations of faces, the third exercise – Body Studies – is the recording of observed bodies.
The process will be interspersed with conversations with tutors and peers and iterations of the work as per feedback and insights.

The brief will be close in its lone Unit Review (UR2) on the Monday following the first month of the term.

Work created for the hour every scheduled day is to be submitted at 0930 hrs on the same day – before the studio session with the tutors’ begins.

Regular update of the Reflective Blog is a mandatory requirement of the studio. You may choose to blog daily or weekly or with respect to briefs or exercises; however, stick to a chosen schedule for at least 4 weeks or through a module.

Reference outputs shared in the brief are only suggestive.

EXERCISES & ASSESSMENT ELEMENTS or DELIVERABLES

Observe and attempt to represent the following (though not at once, if you are a beginner):
a. features, shadows & texture
b. expression & character
Encourage yourself to practice patience with your skills & kindness with your self.

1. PORTRAITS
Format: A3; Nos.: 4; Medium: (1 – Color, 1 – Monochromatic and an iteration or two of each)
Draw up-front, slightly turned or side-profile portraits of your family members or co-habitants.

2. SELF- PORTRAITS
Format: A3; Nos.: 3; Medium: (1 – Color, 1 – Monochromatic and an iteration or two of each)
Draw up-front, slightly turned or side-profile portraits of yourself. While one method portraiture is to draw from observing one’s face in the mirror or camera phone (not in photograph), the other method is to draw an impression of what you see yourself as or how you feel others see you or, as is most often the case, a mix of your image of yourself and how the world seems to perceive you. Please attempt both methods.

3. BODY- STUDIES
Format: A3; Nos.: 3; Medium: Monochromatic
Draw your family members or cohabitants in diverse gestures, postures, stances and bodily dispositions while engaged in daily chores such gazing at the phone, reading, cooking, eating cleaning, conversing and so on. The objects and furniture essential to the subjects gesture/ posture and your composition need to be drawn only in minimum outlines without details.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The exercises defined in this brief are intended to elicit responses to the questions:
+ What is the relationship between body, memory, emotion and space?

Drawing and model making are skills that are not only essential to the architects’ tools of communication, but they are also vital to inculcating patience and presence necessary for observation and inhabitation.

Besides documenting the processes and recording its highs & lows, it’s necessary to reflect on these aspects and note the consequent deliberations in the Studio Blog.