'SYNCYTIUM / COSMOPOLIS' An unrealized project from 2008
Conceived in March 2008, this is a partly realized project, which I was not able to realize in its full potential due to various practical constraints. From lack of funding, to not having the facilities to visit all the major cities of the world, and getting to know at a personal level any two professionals who share same work space and then to engage them into the project. These two hurdles turned the idea of the work into an unrealized project. The only part – chapter one I was able to realize as I got the opportunity to spend some time in New York and to get to know two beautiful and friendly individuals who were kind enough to be the subject of my unwelcome scrutiny. Both of them are from different parts of the world – one from India , the other from UK, but working in a shared space in the cosmopolis called New York
I was not that successful with some others I tried to include in the project, though I did collect data on one more set of individuals (Male) who are both architects in New York and share the same work space but originate from and displaced from different geographic locations. One of them from Japan, while the other from India.
The project is an attempt to suggest that 'identity' is not a monolithic immutable asset, but a very granular and dynamic feedback system, a ceaseless process that continually emit and absorb traits, views, thoughts, ideas etc.
Methodology: Syncytium/Cosmopolis is a processed photography based installation project exploring inter-subjectivity and identity. It is about inadvertent sharing of ideas, ideology, and identity among the floating populations of cosmopolitan/urban spaces and environments consisting of individuals originating from different geographic locations as well as displaced individuals.
The project aims to present identity as a fluid feedback system, literally off the grid. Which of course is contrary to the prevalent notion of identity as something that needs to be preserved after granting it the false status of being monolithic and immutable.
I have chosen subjects who are contrasting pairs of individuals either within the same gender definition or from a mixed peer group, but belonging to differing ethnic, national, and cultural matrices sharing the same interactive operational space in large metropolises. The key defining feature is that these individuals interact and operate within a common/shared work environment on a daily basis and have been doing so for a prolonged period.
The project is divided into chapters, each consisting of two individuals. The work that is presented as a sample is Chapter -1 ' Ms.Mathew & Ms. Wille ' Along with images, short biographical texts, interview fragments, as well as short stream of consciousness passages from each subject as well as voice samples will be displayed. The intention is to suggest and bring in the sense of an evanescent presence rather than solidify and objectify the subjects.
Process- Portrait -images of the subjects are annihilated / sliced along a tight grid, the resulting slices are then mapped onto 3d primitives to generate image spores, the image spores are algorithmically arranged along tonal values to resurrect the original image.
These image spores are also presented as a mass of process animated entities acting along to collision and response software routines on large scale displays alongside each chapters that represent these two individuals.
Setting:-
All the above mentioned elements are presented in a circular installation space with one central spotlight highlighting a multi- tone floor piece ( Adhesive vinyl print/walkover ) depicting evolutionary biologist David Hillis version of the circular phylogenetic "tree of life." to suggest that from simplicity may arise infinite complexity.
The tree of life diagram also provides the vision of the larger canvas of life and and works as a reminder that though we are just one among the members of this vast biosphere, we are the only ones who seem to have the unique capability to step back and contemplate on our locus in the larger picture and attempt to comprehend it.
Baiju Parthan Mumbai India www.baijuparthan.info baijuparthan@gmail.com
Bio-note
Baiju Parthan Born in Kerala in 1956, Baiju Parthan has an eclectic academic background.
Along with degrees in Painting, Botany, Philosophy, and a Post-grad diploma in Comparative mythology, he has done studies in computer game level design at the Pratt Institute Manhattan USA.
Baiju Parthan describes himself as an inter-media artist, working simultaneously with the traditional media of painting as well as digital technology based installation art. He is one of the early exponents of new media art and mediatic-realism in the Indian contemporary art scene, and has exhibited extensively in India as well as major art centers across the globe.
Essentially, his work is about world views or cosmographies that are on collision course affecting and transforming each other, and the resulting ontological fallout felt and lived by us all. Parthan's specific area of interest is the overlap or collision between scientific/technological description of the world and the traditional/metaphysical description of the world.
The artist lives and works in Mumbai, India
'SYNCYTIUM / COSMOPOLIS' An unrealized project from 2008
Conceived in March 2008, this is a partly realized project, which I was not able to realize in its full potential due to various practical constraints. From lack of funding, to not having the facilities to visit all the major cities of the world, and getting to know at a personal level any two professionals who share same work space and then to engage them into the project. These two hurdles turned the idea of the work into an unrealized project. The only part – chapter one I was able to realize as I got the opportunity to spend some time in New York and to get to know two beautiful and friendly individuals who were kind enough to be the subject of my unwelcome scrutiny. Both of them are from different parts of the world – one from India , the other from UK, but working in a shared space in the cosmopolis called New York
I was not that successful with some others I tried to include in the project, though I did collect data on one more set of individuals (Male) who are both architects in New York and share the same work space but originate from and displaced from different geographic locations. One of them from Japan, while the other from India.
The project is an attempt to suggest that 'identity' is not a monolithic immutable asset, but a very granular and dynamic feedback system, a ceaseless process that continually emit and absorb traits, views, thoughts, ideas etc.
Methodology: Syncytium/Cosmopolis is a processed photography based installation project exploring inter-subjectivity and identity. It is about inadvertent sharing of ideas, ideology, and identity among the floating populations of cosmopolitan/urban spaces and environments consisting of individuals originating from different geographic locations as well as displaced individuals.
The project aims to present identity as a fluid feedback system, literally off the grid. Which of course is contrary to the prevalent notion of identity as something that needs to be preserved after granting it the false status of being monolithic and immutable.
I have chosen subjects who are contrasting pairs of individuals either within the same gender definition or from a mixed peer group, but belonging to differing ethnic, national, and cultural matrices sharing the same interactive operational space in large metropolises. The key defining feature is that these individuals interact and operate within a common/shared work environment on a daily basis and have been doing so for a prolonged period.
The project is divided into chapters, each consisting of two individuals. The work that is presented as a sample is Chapter -1 ' Ms.Mathew & Ms. Wille ' Along with images, short biographical texts, interview fragments, as well as short stream of consciousness passages from each subject as well as voice samples will be displayed. The intention is to suggest and bring in the sense of an evanescent presence rather than solidify and objectify the subjects.
Process- Portrait -images of the subjects are annihilated / sliced along a tight grid, the resulting slices are then mapped onto 3d primitives to generate image spores, the image spores are algorithmically arranged along tonal values to resurrect the original image.
These image spores are also presented as a mass of process animated entities acting along to collision and response software routines on large scale displays alongside each chapters that represent these two individuals.
Setting:-
All the above mentioned elements are presented in a circular installation space with one central spotlight highlighting a multi- tone floor piece ( Adhesive vinyl print/walkover ) depicting evolutionary biologist David Hillis version of the circular phylogenetic "tree of life." to suggest that from simplicity may arise infinite complexity.
The tree of life diagram also provides the vision of the larger canvas of life and and works as a reminder that though we are just one among the members of this vast biosphere, we are the only ones who seem to have the unique capability to step back and contemplate on our locus in the larger picture and attempt to comprehend it.
Baiju Parthan Mumbai India www.baijuparthan.info baijuparthan@gmail.com
Bio-note
Baiju Parthan Born in Kerala in 1956, Baiju Parthan has an eclectic academic background.
Along with degrees in Painting, Botany, Philosophy, and a Post-grad diploma in Comparative mythology, he has done studies in computer game level design at the Pratt Institute Manhattan USA.
Baiju Parthan describes himself as an inter-media artist, working simultaneously with the traditional media of painting as well as digital technology based installation art. He is one of the early exponents of new media art and mediatic-realism in the Indian contemporary art scene, and has exhibited extensively in India as well as major art centers across the globe.
Essentially, his work is about world views or cosmographies that are on collision course affecting and transforming each other, and the resulting ontological fallout felt and lived by us all. Parthan's specific area of interest is the overlap or collision between scientific/technological description of the world and the traditional/metaphysical description of the world.
The artist lives and works in Mumbai, India