Manifestations of Monotony

Journeys in Narrative & Space

Taarika Ravi John

Manifestations of Monotony
Journeys in Narrative & Space

DOCUMENTATION BOOK
Taarika Ravi John
PDP 501

Contents
Personal Statement
Introduction
Engaging With The Bangalore Metro
Monotony On The Metro
Mapping Peenya
Working In Peenya
Development Of Concept
Initial Project Proposal
Further Research In Peenya
Preparation For The Exhibition
Creating The First Map
Finding Connections
Reflections Post Exhibition
Final Project Proposal
Changes & Way Forward
Places Of Interest In Peenya
Exploring Narratives
Reflective Statement
Acknowledgements
Bibliography

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Personal Statement
The allure of illustration is one I have had a longstanding relationship with, from a childhood spent
poring over picture books and finger painting to
adulthood, which has been pretty much the same.
For as long as I can remember drawing has always
been my fundamental tool for expression. It allows
for the translation of what the eye sees onto a surface,
with the freedom to add, subtract and rearrange.
I enjoy telling stories through illustration and find
that often the most interesting sources of inspiration
can be drawn from what I observe around me.
The way people occupy space, gestures, body
language and expression all feed into the building
of narrative and character. It is the little details that
tell the most interesting parts of a story.

Introduction

Engaging With The Bangalore Metro

The Art in Transit project is a collaborative

effort between the Srishti School of Art, Design
& Technology and the Bangalore Metro Rail
Corporation Limited. The Namma Metro is a
recent introduction to the city and an addition
people are still adapting to.

Our initial interaction with the Bangalore Metro

began with the familiar Purple Line where we used
sketching and observation to familiarize ourselves
with the space. Despite having commuted through
the M G Road metro station countless times I had
overlooked the intricacies of interaction within the
space.

The project aims to transform the metro station at

Peenya, an industrial area, into an art station,
thereby creating a sense of value and ownership for
the people of the area and also increasing footfalls at
the station. Art in Transit provided an opportunity
to create for and occupy a public space, thinking
beyond the station and exploring the potential uses
of the building to serve other public functions.

Monotony on the Metro

Our first visit to Peenya left me feeling vaguely
disappointed.
We embarked the metro at Mantri and the view
from the window highlighted the visible change in
the urban landscape, as we got closer to Peenya.

Creating public art at the metro station also provides

an opportunity for place making in Peenya. Place
making is the act of collectively shaping the public
realm to maximize shared value and strengthening
the connection between people and the places they
share.

Boxy little buildings and quirky colour palettes

replaces the tall columns of glass and grey, and
we disembarked at Peenya to find nothing of any
particular interest. At first glance Peenya is a dusty
industrial town and nothing more.

The story of a place and the people occupying it and

the nuances of everyday life have been a constant
source of inspiration in my work. In this project I
want to push this process further and explore using
narrative to evoke a sense of space.

The next group exercise was to develop metaphors

from our initial engagement with Peenya. Our
group worked around the themes of Linearity and
Sequence and the monotony of the daily commute.
We created a satirical take on Monopoly with our
own board game, Monotony.

Sketches at the Peenya Metro Station

We chose Monopoly because of the sequential

process of playing which we compared to the
mechanical movement of the commuters in the

Sketches at the Peenya Metro Station

station from one point to another.

The currency of Monotony was time rather than
money and the players objective is to collect as
much time as possible while commuting through
Monotony.

Players pick a Yellow Card when they land on the Yellow Line tile
in the Monotony Board Game
M G Road Metaphor Exercise: Monotony seemed ever present on the Namma Metro and it left me in panicky self-doubt;
would I ever find anything interesting in Peenya?

Testing the Monotony Board Game

Mapping Peenya
The first mapping exercise was carried out in
Yelahanka, the brief being to map what Google
Maps did not show in the area. I approached the
exercise from a more conventional perspective,
mapping commercial spaces in the market area.

Mapping Yelahanka: Final Map

Mapping Yelahanka: Process

Monotony Game Board

Peenya Mapping Exercise: Process

Over subsequent visits to Peenya I spent my time

exploring the area on foot, documenting my
observations in sketches, photographs and notes.
Old men smoke beedis in quaint garden nooks,
tractors sprout plastic flowers and stone benches
create idyllic nap spots under shady trees on the
streets of Peenya. Repeating themes were people at
leisure and things of beauty and Peenya began to
form a visual identity.
Visualizing Peenya as an industrial planet, I drew
inspiration from Hevelius Selenographia. This
atlas of the moon was a collation of Hevelius
extensive observation and study of the moon in the

1600s, using a refracting telescope through which

he could only view a part of the moon at a time.
The map I created paints the face of Peenya at
rest. I decided to create a walking map of Peenya
where the user was at liberty to peruse a self-guided
pedestrian experience of the area. The mapping
exercise was my first attempt at creating a narrative
from my visual documentation of Peenya and I was
keen to explore this process further.
Mapping Peenya: Process

Working In Peenya
My exploration of Peenya thus far had been a chaotic
jumble of dodging through incessant traffic, the drone
of factories and a Highway-Flyover combination that
made crossing the road a fifteen-minute ordeal.
The only reference I had for Peenyas geography
was Google Maps so instead of deciding my route
beforehand I would set lenses of enquiry through
which to study Peenya and pick a lane to explore
at random. Armed with a camera and notebook,
my visits to Peenya primarily consisted of aimless
extensive walking.
While a large part of my engagement with Peenya
was carried out alone, I also explored Peenya with
my group. We often showed each other places we had
found on our independent walks.

Peenya Mapping Exercise: Final Map

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This sharing of places and ideas was immensely

helpful in gaining a better understanding of Peenya
and we soon found ourselves navigating the streets
with ease. The longer we spent there the more familiar
the different faces of Peenya became.

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Development Of Concept
Having spent some time in Peenya we began to
think about what our intervention in the space
could be. The first draft of our project proposal was
a collection of ideas through which we would like to
intervene in the Peenya station.
I wanted to pursue the mapping process further and
explore the possibilities of creating an experience.

Initial Project Proposal

Across all my engagement with the metro I often
experienced difficulty identifying the correct exit or
locating myself in unfamiliar areas. The only maps
available at the Peenya station were a street view
map of the area outside the station and a topological
map of the metro line.

and others working as a guide to an area, and

encouraged my enquiry on the opportunity maps
posed for shaping a place using ones imagination.

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A self-guided tour also opens up the opportunity to

play with the subject of the tour and what people
see or look for. It allows Peenya to adopt different
identities based on what lens you study it through.

A map is defined as a symbolic depiction

highlighting the relationship between elements
of some space. They are a universal medium for
communication and can help you to locate yourself
within a place.

By creating maps that locate an individual and aid

him in self-navigation of an area, I hope to instill a
feeling of independence and curiosity in the user.
By highlighting elements of Peenyas landscape,
the maps are aimed to encourage people to have
an experience.

But a map can also take you on a journey, to

discover new places or simply to see a place through
someone elses eyes.

Character Study in Peenya

There is insufficient information available to the

commuter about where they are located in the larger
surrounding area or how they could navigate their
way through it. These roadblocks in self-navigation
in a public space directed me towards thinking
about the possibilities of what a map could be and
how they could aid the user in locating himself.
Another source of inspiration in my engagement
with mapping was The Artists Tour of London by
Tube, a series of artwork presented by the Art on
the Underground in 2012 that invites the user to
explore the city from a different perspective. The
maps act as each artists personal tour of the city,
some of them requiring physical movement

Through creating walking maps I wanted to

explore Peenya through the pedestrian experience.
A walking map can provide a self-guided tour of
a place. The map can utilize visual and auditory
experiences to aid in navigation.

Some of the aims and objectives of my project

proposal were:

Character Study in Peenya

To investigate the role of maps in shaping a public

space.
To identify and represent areas of interest in
Peenya.
To create maps that aid in locating oneself and
show the user the area in context to their location.
To create walking maps that explore alternate
perspectives of Peenya.
To create maps that are engaging and easy to use
and also beautiful to look at it.

Character Study in Peenya

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Further Research in Peenya

After writing the project proposal we worked on
extracting connections from our work thus far
and reflect on our individual positions as artists.
We considered why we chose to work with certain
themes as opposed to others. Across my engagement
with the project I worked with creating a visual
identity of Peenya.
We shared our reflection as a group and began
grouping responses together where we found
overlaps of ideas and thoughts. Each group had a
central theme they identified with or were interested
in. I worked with the Sensory Group, as I was

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Giliyal Industries, Peenya

interested in exploring how other senses could be

engaged in walking maps and how that would feed
into the overall user experience.
Our next visit to Peenya was as a group, studying
the area through the points of enquiry posed by the
group. I was keen to explore the realm of sound in
Peenya and walked through some of the industrial
area, recording factory and machinery sounds. It
was interesting to observe how sound could often
bring an image to mind before one actually sees the
source of the sound.

Ksana - Finding Interludes, Exhibition at the Peenya Metro Station

Photo Credits: Aroushka DMello

Preparation For The Exhibition

Our first exhibition at the Peenya metro station was
a work-in-progress display of our projects thus far.
This would be the first time that we were presenting
our work to the public and potential investors.
The exhibition was titled Ksana Finding
Interludes, as the Art in Transit project aimed
to creating pauses in the daily commute (Ksana
meaning a moment in Kannada.)

I had built a resource pool of stories, characters

and sites from my Peenya visits and decided to map
one of the sites for the exhibition. In the Peenya
mapping exercise I tried to recreate the idyllic
mood of a late afternoon walk in Peenya. For the
exhibition however I wanted to attempt mapping a
single space in more depth.

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Creating the First Map

The first time I visited the abandoned plot was on an
overcast morning and it proved to be an appropriate
destination for the scenic route we took to get there.
There were giant anthills, snake holes spotted the
ground and a single storey building stood in the
middle, smothered by tall trees and wild grass.
The caretaker was a solitary man who barely
seemed to notice we were there and left us to poke
and prod around for as long as we pleased. Over
subsequent visits I took a number of people along,
each time I would say Hello and gesture at the plot
for permission to look around and he would nod his
assent.
Time appeared to stand still at the plot yet the
caretaker seemed perfectly at ease. He had occupied
the space in his own way; he had books on the
shelves and his shoes were placed on the floor under
clothes that hung neatly on the wall.

Projection of the Peenya Mapping Exercise at Ksana Exhibition at the Peenya Metro Station
Photo Credits: Aroushka DMello

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How many maps, in the descriptive

or geographical sense, might be
needed to deal exhaustively with a
given space, to code and decode all
its meanings and contents?
Henri Lefebvre
The Production of Space, 1991

Some days he would be lost in thought and other

days he would watch in curious fascination as we
exclaimed at bizarre things like crumbling walls and
wild flowers. On particularly long visits he would
offer his cardboard sheet carpets for us to sit. He
is a man of few words and quiet smiles and always
generous in letting us share his space.

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While visiting the plot I had also befriended an

army jawan who was sometimes on surveillance
duty in the tower at one edge of the plot.
I mulled over what the daily life and routine of the
two men the caretaker and the army jawan was
like, looking over the same view day after day.
Monotony and routine being constant themes of
interest in my process, I wanted to work with the
mood of stillness and lingering in the plot. I decided
to map the space from the perspectives of the two
characters that inhabited the space.
To try and evoke a sense of space through the
characters I introduced an additional character, an
elusive rabbit. In a place where time appears to be
frozen the rabbit is the only reminder that time is
moving.
Character Study in Peenya

Character Study in Peenya

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Exploring Comic Book Panels For Mapping

Comic Storyboard Iterations

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Iterations in Exploring Movement & Composition

Comic Storyboard Iterations

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Map Iterations

My narrative was centered on the perspective of the

plot as seen by the characters and I was struggling
to map this transition of views.
This led me to exploring the comic book form and
the use of panels to break down the passage of time.
I decided to elaborate these shifts in perception in
my story using comic book like panels.
The narrative further extended into an accordionfold comic book that followed the rabbits movement
through the plot and the characters interaction
with the space.

Finding Connections
There were several points of enquiry through which
I made my observations of Peenya. A constant task
had been to observe and document elements in the
physical environment that reflects and builds its
conceptual history.
I was also toying with the idea of creating alternate
perceptions of a place, and the role that a shift in
perception could play in the subsequent experience.

Map Iterations

I wanted to incorporate my narrative for

the abandoned plot into my map and began
experimenting with composition and style ideas.

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Character & Style Exploration

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Comic Storyboard Iterations

Comic Storyboard Iterations

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Comic Storyboard Iterations

Map of the Abandoned Plot

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Middle Page Spread from the Abandoned Plot Comic

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Aims & Objectives

Representing Peenya through stories and spaces.
Exploring urban narratives in Peenya and how
these stories can evoke a sense of place.
Creating sequential narratives in Peenya that
create a sense of pride and community presence.
Points of Enquiry
How can fictional narrative remain true to the
place it represents?
How can space become a character?
How can I use narrative to reflect the humdrum
ambiance of the environment?
As an artist, how do I create narratives rooted in
space that also serve the public?
What ties the three sites together? How do they
contribute to shaping a visual identity of Peenya?

Reflections Post Exhibition

The exhibition provided an opportunity for us to
present our work to others and receive feedback,
letting us step back from our projects to examine
our process critically from the eyes of a stranger.
Using shifting viewpoints as transitions and the
story not being dependent on language were
well received. I was encouraged to explore other
forms than a book and it was mentioned that the
illustrative possibilities of a large space get lost in a
small book format.

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Final Project Proposal

The mapping exercise in Peenya was the beginning
of my journey of documenting Peenya through
drawing.
There is a continuing feeling of leisure and
monotony streaking through the dusty industrial
town of Peenya and my area of interest lies in
mapping the nuances of what makes a place.

Approach/Process
Exploring Peenya to find places and stories.
Choosing the final sites for creating narratives.
Creating stories that are rooted in the chosen site
and give the audience a sense of the space.
Exploring illustration styles and mediums.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Developing a better understanding of creating
sequential narratives and comic books.
A better understanding of public art and creating
art for a public experience.

Through this project I hope to create a visual

identity for Peenya, using narratives and mapping
to evoke a sense of space.

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Changes & Way Forward

Having discussed the possibilities of maps and
narratives in other spaces we have explored in
Peenya we agreed that the form of map and comic
complimented each other in the telling of the
narrative of a space.

I decided to maintain the characters of the caretaker

and the rabbit, and the interaction between them.
The caretakers persistent conflict of whether
the rabbit is real or imaginary poses itself as an
interesting tool to narrate stories within which to
choose spaces, thereby providing the audience a
lens through which to perceive each space.

Character Sketches: The Caretaker

Character Sketches: The Caretaker

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Iterations for Alternate Rat Character

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Another intriguing site was the abandoned blade

factory, discovered on a hunt for lunch on a windy
afternoon. The old factory loomed menacingly
overhead with its tall walls and padlocked gates.
After several minutes of cajoling the caretaker
reluctantly agreed to let us look around and we
stormed the building excitedly, oohing and aahing
the entire time.

Places Of Interest In Peenya

Group walks in Peenya served as a tool for sharing
our observations and reflections with each other.
One of the first sites we visited was a cement waste
site with a massive rubble mountain in the center.
From the top of the pile one can see the Metro
scrapyard.
The Metro scrapyard itself was a vast plot of
land strewn with every conceivable kind of scrap.
Navigating through the vast scrapyard is rather like
exploring an industrial wasteland, with rows of
towering piles of sand or junk.

The factory was huge with light streaming in

through some windows, but felt cold and sinister, as
abandoned spaces are wont to do. A ladder on the
side led to an office room with an explosion of old
books and documents strewn over the floor.
All along the walls were hand-painted signs
proclaiming motivational quotes such as Presence
of mind is the essence of safety and More Work
More Money, all depressingly cheery and not
particularly inspirational.
Cement Waste Site, Peenya
Abandoned Blade Factory, Peenya

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Exploring Narratives
The sites I chose to document in this project are
linked by a consistent sense of monotony and
lingering. Monotony is defined as the lack of
variety and interest; tedious repetition and routine.
The caretaker is a symbol of the unchanging nature
of the sites, and the rabbit a break in the monotony.
The caretaker, so wrapped up in routine, is
desperate to break repetition and chase the rabbit.
The appearance of the rabbit in a space that is so
familiar to the caretaker poses the endless dilemma
is the rabbit real or a figment of his imagination?

Storyboard Iterations: The Scrapyard

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Storyboard Iterations: The Scrapyard

Storyboard Iterations: The Scrapyard

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Storyboard Iterations: The Scrapyard

Storyboard Iterations: The Scrapyard

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Reflective Statement
In the last four years I have constantly leaned
towards projects with a visual communication
outcome. I enjoy incorporating a narrative element
in my work and exploring the possible forms of
telling a story.
Across my engagement with Peenya I found myself
using drawing as the primary tool for documenting
my visits. Character sketches of people seen
around Peenya soon scattered my sketchbooks and
my margins were crammed with anecdotes and
observations.
The mapping exercise in Peenya allowed me to use
this material in telling a story of my time in Peenya
and paved the way for understanding the area
better.
The abandoned plot provided further inspiration
for story telling and was the starting point in my
journey of exploring the possibilities of creating
narratives for a space.

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The story I created for the abandoned plot largely

revolved around the point of view of the characters.
I struggled to find a way to map the shifting
perspectives I wanted to use in my illustrations,
which led me towards using the comic form. The
panels of a comic book lent themselves well to my
narrative.
My time in this project has helped me step out of
my comfort zone in every way. I always gravitate
towards developing narratives from the familiar but
working in Peenya forced me to really dig for stories
in a place I didnt know at all.
Creating the map and comics also aided in a better
understanding of illustration and visual narrative.
Making illustrations that evoke a sense of space was
a new and exciting challenge.

rapidly followed each other. I have worked with

visual narrative before but this project provided an
opportunity to develop a better understanding of
time and movement.
Watching animations became a large part of
my research process. Since my stories involved a
combination of fast and slow movement, animation
gave me a better grasp over drawing human form
in motion.
Another significant learning was breaking down the
story frame by frame. An animated film is composed
of frames that string together in a sequence to tell
a story. While working with comics it was both
exciting and challenging to work with fewer frames,
selecting which moments in the narrative to freeze
on to best tell the story.

The narratives I was working with focused on the

theme of breaking monotony, transitioning from
moments that never seemed to pass to scenes that

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Acknowledgements
Four years ago the diploma project was something
we envisioned, a distant dream for a Foundie.
Today it is hard to believe that I am far from a
Foundie and my diploma project has come to an
end. It has been a long compelling journey full of
learning and adventure, and at the end of the road
I would like to thank everyone for their support and
encouragement along the way.
My parents, for being constantly motivating and
available whenever I needed an opinion, proofread
or a reassuring word. My brother Mihir, for always
remembering to wish me good luck before a review.
My faculty, Amitabh Kumar, Samir Parker,
Agnishikha Choudhuri and Arzu Mistry, for their
encouragement and invaluable feedback and always
being a phone call or email away. I would also like
to thank Alison Byrnes and Narendra Ragunath,
and my tutor Supradip Das.
And my friends, Sagar Saple, Prisila Netalkar,
Rahul Chacko, Ayushya George, Tushar Satyanath,
Vinayak Nagesh, for all their heartening support
and constructive criticism.

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Bibliography
On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert
Eyes, Alexandra Horowitz
Selenographia, Johannes Hevelius
The Moon
http://astronomy.edwardworthlibrary.ie/
The%20Moon
Public Art & Placemaking, Jon Spayde
http://www.wabashvalleyartspaces.com/
Public%20Art%20and%20Placemaking.pdf
NYC Wayfinding
http://new.pentagram.com/2013/06/newwork-nyc-wayfinding/
Project for Public Spaces
http://www.pps.org/
Conceptualizing the City: Historical
Mapping, Spatial Theory & the Production
of Urban Spaces, Keith D. Lilley
h t t p : / / w w w. a c a d e m i a . e d u / 1 6 9 9 4 5 1 /
Conceptualising_the_City_Historical_Mapping_
Spatial_Theory_and_the_Production_of_
Urban_Spaces?

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