Mirages of the Past

MIRAGES OF THE PAST Appreciating Bangalore Through Speculative Histories Diploma Project Documentation Surasti Kaur Puri 1 MIRAGES OF THE PAST Appreciating Bangalore Through Speculative Histories 2 3 MIRAGES OF THE PAST Appreciating Bangalore Through Speculative Histories Typeface used Brandon Grotesque, 12 point Printed at Diploma Project Documentation PrintXpress Bangalore Surasti Kaur Puri Paper Used Natural Evolution, 100 gsm July - December 2013 Designed by Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology Surasti Kaur Puri 4 5 Writing Stories 66 PART THREE EXPLORATION Moodboards 68 Style Exploration 72 Finalizing Medium 89 CONTENTS Stencils 93 Color 101 Re-Working Scans 106 PART ONE Layout 110 PROJECT PROPOSAL Typeface 112 Aim 8 Legends 113 The Design Brief 9 Research Questions 12 PART FOUR CONTENTS Approach/Process 14 FINAL MAPS 117 Learning Outcome 16 PART FIVE PART TWO END RESEARCH Acknowledgments 125 Bangalore History 26 Sources 127 Alternate Timelines 30 The Reasoning 32 Modern Bangalore 34 British Bangalore 38 French Bangalore 42 Understanding Maps 46 Things to Consider 48 Creating the Maps 50 The Labelling 64 6 7 PART ONE PROJECT PROPOSAL 8 9 BLVR: It’s an argument, like you said. DW: It sure as hell is. Maps are just nude pictures of reality, so they don’t look like arguments, they look like, “Oh my god, that’s the real world.”That’s one of the places where they get their kick-ass authority. Because we’re all raised in this AIM THE DESIGN BRIEF culture of, if you want to know what the longest river in the world is, look it up in an encyclopedia; and if you want to know Creating ‘What if’ scenarios of Every place has a past, each city a where some place is, go to an atlas. These possible trajectories Bangalore history and each one of us has born are all reference works and they speak history could have taken and and grown up in the context of the “the truth.” When you realize in the end creating a fictional world and a environment we live in. With this that they’re all arguments, you realize this guide to that world. understanding, histories of cities seem is the way culture gets reproduced. Little overlooked. When I travel I tend to kids go to these things and learn these These maps are completely unnecessary. bring back a map of whichever city I things and take them on, and they take The world didn’t ask for them. They aid happened to visit, and after that point, them on as “this is the way the no navigation or civic-minded purpose. after returning, that map becomes a world is.” They’re just for pleasure. They laugh at souvenir, a tangible piece that excites Denis Wood in an interview with the stupid Google map I consult five my memory. A map is something that Believer Magazine. times a day on my phone. They laugh fulfills not only function but creates a at what a square that map is. At its desire to discover and explore. It also small-mindedness. They know it’s a sad, is a tangible form of a city, which workaholic salaryman. extends beyond regular social hierarchy, Ira Glass on Denis Wood’s new book much like a phone directory, its a “Everything Sings” singular source of information that requires you to return to it time and again and caters to an audience not limited by access to technology. 10 11 Cartography is the study and practice on the basis of its unique new culture One of the powers of maps: to make of making maps, combining research, and IT boom. It has been forgotten for graphic, and at some level unarguable - technique and aesthetics, it builds a its gardens and lakes. Its history has some correlative truth. We all knew that representation of a city or place to been limited to the twentieth century people go to and from work. But to lay communicate information spatially. and late nineteenth century, beyond the two things together reveals something By connecting history with a cities which it has been deemed irrelevant. horrible. spatial development, It allows one to But bangalore once was geographically Denis Wood get a basic understanding of that areas important for dynasties and empires, historical importance, transition and for the ancient Indians and the colonial development over hundreds of years. British. What if there were different A map might show you a city you know outcomes for each war, each dynasty? nothing about, and you wander through How can one revisit the past, by a mere the city, ignoring street names and image, and a series of words, how can a house numbers, its the experience. The map bring out a fantastical experience, purpose of the map becomes limited by and tell a story about cities that were, its function as well, it can be used when and people that lived? you need and know where to go, when you need the information it might have, I have always been intrigued by but how can the map be more than its histories of cities and how they shape labels and directions? different trajectories of its growth, and it feels almost immoral for that to be The words are so taken for granted that not only disguised by development, they become melted onto the landscape but to be forgotten entirely. like cheese onto bread in a frying pan, History is what shapes us and has for and then people can’t take them apart generations. Information might be anymore. available, but is seldom accessible. A Denis Wood map gives the graphics and the words but to combine the two is what A city like Bangalore, a growing makes the viewer connect with that *Denis Wood is an artist, author, cartographer and a former professor of Design at North metropolis, whose popularity has spread piece of paper. Carolina State University. 12 13 developed and promoted? 14. What is the user experience I am aiming for? ETHICAL / PERSONAL 15. How do I distinguish it from 5. How can I connect personally to a regular mapping techniques / city and use that information to create visual approach and fantastical stories a product that provides information and that work with maps (Lord of the Rings, an experience, and is appreciated by an Narnia). RESEARCH QUESTIONS external audience? 6. How can I justify my traditional use of print medium over its digital CULTURAL / CONTEXTUAL / counterparts? HISTORICAL 7. How can I make this project 1. What is the significance of functional and layered without Bangalore’s history? superficial understandings and 2. How and what history has shaped assumptions? modern day Bangalore? 8. How will this project stand in an 3. How was Bangalore a larger part of already existing sea of maps? different dynasties/empires? 9. How do I distinguish between 4. How do I pick up the key moments experience and function? Can they in Bangalore’s history and form fictional work in conjunction? alternative outcomes that would create 10. Will this become an elitist project? a new modern day bangalore. How do I avoid that? 11. How do I create a guidebook about TARGET AUDIENCE a fictional universe that is so rooted in 1. Who is this project aimed at? the past of Bangalore, yet make it seem 2. How is it beneficial to their already believable and experiential. existing lifestyles? 12. How can each alternative scenario 3. How can I make my research seem plausible? interactive and intriguing and? 13. How can a map be significant in 4. How can this project be further graphically showing a fictional universe? 14 15 and who can guide me through my personalize a piece of print. research. 3. How can I have additional 5. Visiting Bangalore archives and merchandize based on this product? collecting information from old maps 4. Exploring a possibility for a digital and other documents. version based on this product. 5. Also experimenting with paper, print, TARGET AUDIENCE and scale to finalize what would be the APPROACH / PROCESS Material research that would help me MATERIAL most optimum execution. understand my audience. 1. Photographs of sites. The first step would be to define the 2. Interviews for forming and During the entire research period I key moments I would like to work with, understanding a target audience would be exploring and experimenting and then assimilate information, maps, (primary and secondary). with: images from that time period and/or 3. Iterative sketches and graphics. 1. Layering / Print options. cities that might have gone through a 2. Exploring typography. similar process. EDITING AND APPLICATION 3. Exploring illustration styles. 1. Editing the stories and converting it 4. Forming color palettes for different CREATING CONTEXT / WRITING into a graphical map. maps which are suitable yet exciting. STORY 2. Defining a distinction between a 5. ncorporating and experimenting 1. Collecting my key historical points map and a guide. with mixed mediums and how it would and creating fictional outcomes that visually add up on a digital art board. reach modern day Bangalore. 2. Writing a story that has historical I am extremely excited by how a basis but takes on a new path that is traditional visual medium can be distinguishable as fiction yet believable. converted into an interactive and 3. Research and testimonials to validate attractive map. the fictional content. 1. How the map can be a visually 4. Meet persons who are knowledgeable attractive and draw in an audience and in matters of Bangalore’s growth, hold their interest development and historical information 2. What visual elements can help 16 17 and criticism. 7.

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