PRE-THESIS PROJECT 2018

PROJECT TITLE
Temporal Terrains

STUDENT: KYRA PEREIRA

PROJECT: Thresholds in Tapestries

SPONSOR: Self initiated

PROGRAM: Undergraduate Professional Programme

AWARD: Information Arts and Information Design Practice

GUIDES: Deepta Sateesh, and Shalini Iyengar

Copyrights 2016-2017

Student Document Publication

(for private circulation only)

All Rights Reserved

Final Thesis Project

(Undergraduate Professional Programme)
Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology
Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka

No part of this document will be reproduced or transmitted in any form or

by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, scanning,
photography and video recording without written permission from the
publishers namely KYRA PEREIRA and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and
Technology, Bangalore.

Written, edited and designed by

Kyra Pereira
Printed at
V Prints, Bangalore
 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PLAGIARISM STATEMENT
I, KYRA PEREIRA, hereby declare that the content of this student documentation and final design/artwork submission is my own
original work and has not been plagiarised in full or part from previously published/designed/manufactured material or does not even
contain substantial propositions of content which have been accepted for an award of any other degree or diploma of any other
educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in this thesis project. I also declare that the intellectual content of
this Thesis Project is my own original work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in
style and presentation is acknowledged and that this thesis project (or part of it) will not be submitted as assessed work in any other
academic course.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
I, KYRA PEREIRA, hereby grant Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology the right to archive and to make available my
Thesis Project in whole or in part in the institute’s databank and website, and for non-commercial use in all forms of media, now and
hereafter known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act.

Name: Kyra Pereira

Signature:

Date:
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to sincerely thank my facilitators Deepta Sateesh and Shalini Iyengar for being the most supportive, motivating and encouraging people
to work under. I am ever grateful to have been mentored by them under this project and will be ever grateful to all their efforts in constantly pushing me to do always
do my best, and challenge the world around me. They were a constant support throughout these 3 months and the two of them make up a rather intersting duo (com-
ing from two different fields of study) and giving us their valuable perspectives and critique along the way.

I would also like to thank other guest lecturers , namely Mohan and Naveen Namboothri that took time out of their busy schedules to come and provided us with some
very valuable insights and thoughts to dwell on. Mohan gave us some very interesting pointers regarding change and the landscape while Naveen provided us with
newer insights on the reality of marine ecosystems and the community dwelling around such ecosystems. Both these sessions gave me a lot of valuable points to think
of and help me formulate my idea during the process of project.

I would like to thank my entire class for being like a family to me and supporting one another without ever any hesitation. And finally I would like to thank my group
members who called ourselves the “Mangrove” group, namely Vibhav SIngh, Nimish Jha, and Vikram Pradhan. I was lucky to have been able to work alongside such
talented peers, who made this experience one that was full of fun and learning.
 TABLE OF
CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION..... 1 DEMONSTRATION: Creating design interven-
tion..... 51
IMMERSION: Developing lens..... 3 Ideation using new form 52
Threshold 4 Interactive picture installation 52
Mangroves as an existing threshold 5 Production 59
What is knowledge 8 Reading & interacting with visuals 63
Crafting field & constructing lens 10
Conditions and gradients of wetness 11
SCOPE AND EXTENT..... 65
Re-imagining the PBR 66

EXPLORATION: Traversing field..... 13 Method of documenting landscape, species 68

Field trip to Western Ghats 14 & practices

Wetness blurring boundaries 25 Issues of sustainability 68

Language of wetness 30
Construction of Field using previous plot 34 PROJECT PROPOSAL.... 70
Experiments with wetness 38
Ideation of new form 48 CONCLUSION..... 75
 INTRODUCTION

What does nature mean to you? Does nature exist within the city?

The first thing that comes to our minds is something that exists apart from us, or as a seperate entity on the outside, far away from our cities
or any kind of habitation. We tend to draw lines and create boundaries around ourselves that further disconnect us and everything around us
from one another. But we humans and our practices are very much a part of nature too. Nature is seen as something wild and untamed, some-
thing pristine, untouched and uninhabited. Depending on own personal views, we way view nature as different things. Some may view it as sa-
cred, while others a ground for resources. A third person may have come to this same spot to unwind and and indulge in a certain kind of recre-
ational activity while a fourth may be dependant on this same spot as a means to sustain their livelihood. But the reality of such a situation are
the conflicting views that arise hence and a need to better understand such a situation. The Bio-doversity Act of 2002 was formlated in the liight
of such conflicts, conserving bio-diversity, ensuring the sustainable use of resources, as well as fair and equitable shares to all it’s stakeholders
including forest dwelling communities. These communities have found their homes in “nature” and what seemingly might look unibhabited, has
been a home for generations and houses numerous other smaller ecosystems that comprise of various other species that help make up this
larger ecosystem we live in. When we reserve such forests, who are we really reserving them for?

The Western Ghats that stretches across the west coast of India, is home to a large number of species of flora and fauna making it rich in it’s
biological diversity. It is also a region of heavy rainfall that recieves it’s monsoon rains from the Arabian Sea. However, there has been a major
decline in the forest cover due to deforestation and hence recrease in the amount of rainfall too, and hundreds of these species are now endan-
gered, making the Western Ghats the 8th hottest hotspots of the world. The species and landscape here are under serious threat of destruction
due to unsustainable acitivties, that can be owed to the way in which one understands the landscape. When documenting landscapes along
with their inhabitants, we tend to define them to an extent of confining them into specific categories instead of elaborating on them, making
them more disconnected from each other.

This is seen in the way in which the PBR (People’s Biodiveristy Register) documents things too. The PBR is a document which is to be implement-
ed by the by the BMC and made in accordance with the local people, whilst inculcating local knowledge. There has been a need to categorise
knowledge into seperate categories of traditional or local knowledge and contemporary knowledge, where the former is passed on by infor-
mal means through word of mouth and the latter, through book and other formal media. Local knowledge is often considered inferior to that
acquired through formal means as it does not depend on numerical stats and factual data, but rather a keen sense of observation and a deep
rooted sensorial experience of living in the landscape. In this sense, the knowledge that is acquired comes to them through embodied experi-
ences that better help and shape their understanding of the world around them.

1
i
IMMERSION: Developing Lens
 Threshold

What is a threshold? How can thresholds be a new way of understanding?

Imagine holding a rubberband in your hand and pulling it at each end. At some
point, the rubberband can withstand only upto a certain force, or threshold before
a certain change is initiated and the rubberband snaps. Using this logic, the point
prior to which any change or a series of events is initiated can be referred to as a
threshold and seen as a sort of in-between moment. It is a point of liminality and the
Western Ghats can be viewed as a terrain of multiple thresholds.
When something is recognised at a threshold, it implies a certain dynamism to it,
that talks about a change or a transition occuring. We are then referring to it as an
ongoing process, or a series of process leading to another, instead of observing just
one solitary event. There are multiple different element in the Ghats that can be
looked at as thresholds, and our group decided to study the mangroves as a thresh-
old in Dakshina Kannada.

Level of experiencing change Neither here not there

Stage pf effect Capacity/holding

THRESHOLD

Liminality Breaking point/Entry point

Minimum energy/ force for Trigger point/ point of initiation

transition

4
 MANGROVE AS AN EXISTING THRESHOLD IN THE WESTERN GHATS

The mangroves in particular in the Western Ghats act as a threshold in numer-

shelter for terrestrial species
shelter for aquatic species
Protects shoreline from soil
erosion and reduces impact of
storms and tsunamis.
ous ways. Due to the location in which it exists, that is in between land and sea, it
almost blurs the boundary between the two and the existence of these amngroves,
allows for numerous other activities to take place thereafter. It becomes a whole
ecosystem in itself that sustains multiple specie and performs various activities of
ecological importance. The roots of the mangroves are such that it allows for the
breeding of fish and forms a perfect habitat for them to breed. However, this has
led to the setup of fisheries around these mangroves, thus disrupting this breeding
process due to a growth in commercial benefits of such naturally occuring re-
sources. The mangroves are seen as an excellent source for natural resources and
a way of reaping all it’s commercial benefits, but by some, as having religious sig-
nificance. It could be the reason that constributes to the preservation of the man-
groves in this location.
COMMERCIAL USES OBSTAINED OUT OF MANGROVES

The mangroves have recently been recgonised for all their environemental
benefits in reducing the impacts of storm and art as a carbon sink, absorb-
ing carbon from the air and storing it in it’s leaves. The leaves that fall to
the ground thus act as a natural fertilzer and oxidise the water, making it
more suitable for habitation by aquatic species. However, initiatives such
as the Green Wall Project that were set up, led to the inititaion of other ac-
tivities such as eco-tourism in the mangroves, in these Dakshina Kannada
districts of Ullal, Hannovar, and Byndoor.
5
6
 ECO-TOURISM IN MANGROVE FORESTS
Boats situated near a mangrove tree in Padukere beach
Ecologists have claimed that the mangroves are a rather ecologically sensitive zone to
conduct such activities and such human activities could disturb such ecosystem and
disrupt breading activities, but nevertheless continue anyway for multiple reasons, one
being a certain kind of unawareness. Ironically, a little further away where mangroves
were recently re-planted in the district of Karwar, the fishermen refer to the man-
groves as ‘Devara Kadu’, or ‘sacred groves’.
It is only a matter of time before it reaches the point of becoming a mainstream tourist
activity in this region eco-sensitive region too. The Green Wall Project that was initi-
ated in 2011 was an initiative taken after realising the damage we had caused to our
mangrove forests and what this meant for the environment. However, it has only im-
pacted in the growth of tourism, which leads to a whole lot of unsustainable practices.
7
 What is knowledge?

Knowledge can be understood as certain facts, information, or a skill that lead you to a better understanding of something. It is a level of understanding that is acquired by
means of a certain level of engagement with the subject. And so knowledge can be gained through experience, or through education in a more formal setting. In that sense,
knowledge does not necessarily have to be gained through books and other “scholarly” means, but can be gained through a certain level of engagement with the subject, wit-
nessing certain visual experiences, or having any other real-life experience that gives you a better understanding of the topic.

For example, a fisherman who may not have recieved a formal edu-
cation, may have certain knowledge about his own fishing practice
through years and even generations of experience. He may even have
a certain level of understanding and knowledge about the sea and the
tides, about when it is safe for him to take his boat out to sea, and at
what spot in the vast ocean must he locate himself. He has no access to
a GPS location or coordinates that are telling him where to catch his
fish. To think of local or traditional knowledge as that which is primi-
tive or unreliable in nature is rather common in a world that is bound
by concrete facts and strict numerical data sets. But certain understand-
ings of the world we live in move beyond this structured nature and
require a certain level of understanding of reality, which will help in the
way we document our landscapes, as well as species and it’s processes
taking place in them.

8
 WHY IS THERE A NEED TO DOCUMENT?

Documentation can be used as a way of recording the past to undertand the present and help move formward in the future. Only in understanding our bio-diversity and where
and how they exist, can we proceed with protecting it and accounting for sustainability when it comes to protecting such species. It is a way of spreading awareness and knowl-
edge. Knowledge cannot flow without a certain evidence of an event taking place.

The means through which the documentation is carried out however is the most important part, as often the documener itself comes with his/her own set of bias’. It is impor-
tant for the documenter to be as inclusive of multiple truths in order to get a better understanding of the ecosystem, society, community, etc. As a documenter, it is essential to
documenter as an insider and not an outsider to get a more realistic perspective. By doing this in accordance with the local people and their knowledge, by understanding their
story, their origins and their lifestyles, this documented knowledge can be used to better formulate policies in the law making process.

Documentation also helps keep a record of certain events, practices, species, communities, landscapes, etc. in order to form a more holisitic understanding of our world. The
challenge with documenting dynamic data however comes with adocumentaing in a way that shows change and represents a dynamic data set instead of just freezing it in time.
While two landscapes that are frozen in time may look the same, two people from these different landscapes might also look the same, their histories are vastly different and it
is essential to understand that before moving forward with further implementing anything, including certain laws that are imposed. Thus documentation plays a vital role in
the way knowledge is spread and understood, and can be used for multiple different purposes.

9
 Crafting field and construting lens

In trying to understand and find a

more inclusive way of documenting
the species in a certain location, we
decided to arrange them based on
conditions of wetness, which even-
tually became our lense for looking
at the field. In the constructed plot
on the left, the species are placed
according to different conditions
in which each one is found, going
from least wet to most wet. Con-
ditions of wetness are constantly
changing and so much the location
of species and their everyday prac-
tices. These everyday practices are
what play their own roles in con-
tributing a part to a whole.

10
 CONDITIONS AND GRADIENTS OF WETNESS

Wetness can be found in multiple different states and various conditions, all owing to a certain kind of species along with their activities. Water forms an essential part in any
landscapes and cannot be seperated from it. The Western Ghats is an location that recieves heavy rainfall and forms an imporant part of the lives of the species inhabiting the
ghats. By documenting species based on a particular condition of wetness, we are in fact doing away with documenting and restricting it to a particular landscape, but rather
a kind of wetness that forms a gradient throughout the landscape due to the nature of water itself. The species in the constructed plot on the previous page can thus be rear-
ranged according to the level of wetness at various different times. By coming to this certain understanding of wetness, we decided to document the field using this lens of con-
ditions of wetness which allowed us to document wetness in various different landscapes.

11
i
EXPLORATION: Exploring Field
 Field trip to Western Ghats

Going into the field using the constructed lens allowed me to see different kinds of wetness that I would not have otherwise recognised. I started to see wetness of all kinds,
including wetness that existed inside species such as humans, plants, fruits, flowers, and other animals. We visited Udupi, Manipal, Padukere and Moodbirdri during the
course of our five days.

While traversing the field, although contained into multiple different boundries that are either constructed by imaginary lines portrayed on a map, or physical objects such
as walls and roads, we traversed the field as if it were one continuous landscape. By walking around and documenting, it gave me the chance to have a more experiential
view of the landscape and all it’s in-between moments. It allowed us to move through the landscape, as inspired by the writing by Henry David Thoreau, which talks about a
constructed road and how our paths are constrained within these constructed pleasure pathways, when in fact we may come across the most interesting locations where the
walker enjoys a certain kind of freedom.

I was inspired to write this piece on the second day of being in the field at a place called End Point in Manipal, which is a constrcuted walkway that is surrounded by green-
ery. It reminded me of the pathways that Thoreau refers to constructed as a certain kind of “narrow exclusive pleasure ground” that is taken by a few while I was walking on
this road, which led me to take a path that went off road instead.

Photograph by Rahul V Matthew, End Point, August 2018

14
 WHY FOLLOWS PATHS?

Paths were created to follow

But by who?
Perhaps the generations of people
That walked through
And to question it were very few.

So you walk and you do

Till you turn your head
And there lies in front of you
A seemingly untaken path instead.

Looking back back at the carved path

Water collecting due to the rain flowing in the terrain at End Point You find yourself back in natures heart.

15
 SPECIES DOCUMENTED AT DIFFERENT CONDITIONS OF WETNESS IN MANIPAL

A dog sits under a temple structure durin the rain at the Hasta Shilpa Foundation’s Heritage Village. Moss growing on a tiled rooftop of a structure in the Heritage Village.

A dog is seen at a particular wetness just after the rain at End Point in Manipal.
A lizard is seen at a particular kind of wetness on a plant that is growing on the side of the road.

16
 SPECIES DOCUMENTED AT DIFFERENT CONDITIONS OF WETNESS IN PADUKERE FISH MARKET

The fisherlwomen at the market cleaning and sorting crates of squid, where the squids ink and ice forms a Crows and humans coexisting in the same indoor market space at a certain condition of wetness during the
particlar kind of wetness. rain.

Practices in the fish market at certain conditions of wetness during the monsoon. Crows eating fish from the same crates that are being used to transport the fish.
Crows perched on the hull of the fishing boats.

17
On the same day that we visited Padukere, we went to the beach to continue our documentation and field research. I was observing the way wetness had allowed the sand to
cover a bark of a coconut tree in a certain kind of way, and I found myself framing pictures that portray the the beach in a rather pristine manner instead of documenting all
the plastic waste and other kinds of garbage that was on the shore. This suddenly struck me and I wondered if people just chose to not care about all this waste that had been
thrown on these shores and chose to exploit it as a tourist site. A newly constructed bridge over the river going into Padukere beach was like a threshold into this new connect-
ing these two locations.

I was inspired to write another piece of poetry after this incident and sudden thought that came to my mind
while I was at Padukere beach.

Waste materials thrown at Padukere along the river where the boats are docked. This is also where they build these large fhisging boats and is all done manually.

18
 PLASTIC BY THE SHORE

As I walked towards the sandy shore,

What seemed like colourful shells
Lies plastic galore.

Yet as you walk past,

None will stop to ask
How long will this plastic last?

On this once prristine shore

Padukere beach strewn with plastics and all kinds of other wastes. That existed many many years ago.

19
 SPECIES DOCUMENTED AT CERTAIN CONDITIONS OF WETNESS AT THE BEACH IN PADUKERE

An oyster shell found on Padukere beach without the oyster. A dragonfly sitting on a piece of plastic at the beach.

An eagle sits perched on a branch of a coconut tree. A fly on a leaf behind one of the houses at Padukere beach
20
 SPECIES DOCUMENTED AT CERTAIN CONDITIONS OF WETNESS AT SRI KRISHNA MATHA IN UDUPI

A dog sleeps on the drier part of the ground in the Temple compound. An eagle sits perched on a branch of a coconut tree.

A man feeding pigeons at the SRi Krishna Matha in Udupi A milipede captured on a leaf of a plant inside the compound of the Temple
21
 SPECIES DOCUMENTED AT CERTAIN CONDITIONS OF WETNESS IN THE CITY IN UDUPI

Wetness causing paint to peel off and planrs to grow Water dripping onto plants as well as railing causing metal to rust

Moss growing on a wall in Udupi Butterfly captured near plants growing in the city near a mossy wall

22
 SPECIES DOCUMENTED AT CERTAIN CONDITIONS OF WETNESS IN THE TEMPLE IN MOODBIDRI

Man cutting coconuts at the Temple in Moodbidri Dog cpexisting in the same temple space occupied by other people

Milipede spotted on a damp surface of a tree on the other side of a wall in the temple Cat spotted on other side of Temple wall

23
 SPECIES DOCUMENTED AT CERTAIN CONDITIONS OF WETNESS AT SOANS FARM IN MOODBIDRI

Snail found crawling on the shoot of a bamboo tree

Milipede curled up onto a small part of the branch of a tree

Milipede on a tree that has moss growing on it Lady using the bamboo shoot as a tool to conduct her planting acitivity
24
Wetness blurring boundaries

THE IDEA OF A BOUNDARY

At certain moments, the landscape is being blurred due to wetness. For a bird, an ani-
mal, an insect, a plant, or even the clouds, it’s movement acorss a certain “boundary”
cannot be restricted amd remain non-existant to them. However, wherever we presume
there to be a line of division, wetness allows for this to be a place of intersection and
constant blurring. Although marked by a line, water cannot be traced and reduced to
a mere outline, as the state of wetness itself is in constant flux and is shifting from one
state to another, or getting absorbed into the landscape causing all sorts of changes.

How maps have shaped our percpetion of the world:

Instead of imagining our world as a complex ecosystem, a map is a reductionist view of
the world we live in. It restricts it’s various dynamics to a planar surface defined by lines.
Lines on a map cannot and should cease to exist as it provides us with a false perspec-
tive that negates the dynamic and changing nature our our ecosystems. To mark a river
on a map with a line defies the lofic that water acts as a sugnufucant force in initiating
change, both in it’s unpredictable nature of movement, as well as it’s effects in shaping a
landscape and it’s own course.

25
 WETNESS BLURRING LINES OF SEPEREATION BETWEEN TWO MEDIUMS

While documenting different kinds of wetness, especially at the beach, I started to look at the way wetness seeps into the sand due to the nature of both the water and
the sand. The nature of the surface was such that it allowed the sand to remain wet for a certain amount of time before it seeps into it and over a short span of time,
changes it’s conditions of wetness. The nature of the tides too are such that they are constantly changing and although we draw a line that marks a coast, this line
seemed to be constantly getting blurred by wetness.

It is almost imporrible to draw a line that marks the point where sea
meets land, as the waves are continuously blurring this line snd neither
can we assume a mean line as it can change due to the rain or another
kind of storm, or even global warming.

The idea of a flood still keeps into account that of a line draw on a riv-
er’s bank beyond which the water is seen as an ancroachment, but is
only flowing to fill up any space it can when the water exceeds its regu-
lar volume.

Is there a regular volume?

26
 At End Point in Manipal, the
monsoon had a certain affect
on the climate, casuing large
amounts of humidity or mois-
ture in the air. When it starts
to pour, the land that you
can see far off in the distance
which can be marked with a
line that seperates it from the
air, gets blurred due to the
moisture in the air. I observed
this phenomenon at Padukere
beach too due to the crashing
of the waves against each oth-
er causing these smaller water
droplets to blur this line be-
Rain blurring boundaries at End Point, Manipal tween sea and air. Sea blurring boundary and Padukere Beach

Moss and mushrooms require a damp surface at a certain condition of

wetness that retains a apecific amount of moisture allowing it to thrive.
This is why you will not find moss and spores growing in rather sunny
locations as this dries up all the moisture that is needed for it’s growth.
I documentedthese two species growing on various different surfaces
such as between paved tiles, on the roofs of houses, on walls, on the
barks of trees, etc. The Ghats being a region of heavy rainfall has a cer-
tain amount of moisture that constantly present in the air, and the rain
too provides enough wetness for the growth of such species. When wet-
ness seeps into smaller cracks on walls, in the ground, and other ddif-
ferent surfaces, it allows for plants and moss to grow inside these cracks
or openings, making it look as if the plants are quite physically blurring
this boundary between two elemenrs. .

27
Wetness has an effect on different man-made structures depending on it’s material. It
may cause it to rust, parts of it to peel off, or cause the growth of another species co-
existing with it.

28
 WETNESS AS A MEANS OF COEXISTENCE

Condtions of wetness, their inhabitants, and their practices are all initerdependant on one another. Certain conditions allow for the
coexistence of species in a singular part of the landscape in a certain space. Their practices that are exhibited here, although seem-
ingly mundane in nature, play a vital role in shaping and changing the landscape in their activities. Water is a threshold for such a
space of coexistence for species and their practices. For example in the Padukere Fish Market, the fish who inhabit underwtaer eco-
systems become food for both birds as well as humans. In the pictures below, we see instances in the market of crows ineracting with
the fish, as well as a human transferring a crate of fish into a truck. The practices of people are constantly affecting the ecosystem
they live in and may be connected to through multiple
fractals.

An assemblage process describes a

world that is open, porous, mobile,
and changing and so an assem-
blage would be able to describe a
territorial whole. The elements in
the Ghats too thus function as an
assemblage and play it’s own inde-
pendant roles while constantly re-
maining free to arrange themselves
in multiple ways.

29
 Language of wetness
The movement of species across landscapes can be related to that in which water flows. Water flows in a certain landscape following it’s own path and avoiding all obstacle..
Species too move across a landscape following their own route having a certain effect in the landscape as they go. However, upon further understanding, I started to under-
stand this seeping nature of water that allows it to blur boundaries between water and another secondary material, due to the nature of water. We tend to use certain words and
visuals that reduce our understanding of water and so I decided I make a list of words and visuals that would help me understand this better.

Instead of imagining water flowing, we can imagine water overflowing. When it rains, water gets re-
tained in a certain part until it exceeds the capacity of that holding, or in other words gets saturated.
Depending on the material of the surface or soil on the ground, the rain forms a series of multiple
overflows due to the rainwater falling simultaneously.

30
 “To mark boundaries in a fluid and dynamivally shifting zone such as a sea or ocean, displays our failure to account for such dynamism.”
- Philip Steinberg and Kimberley Peters, A Wet World

In a similar manner, demarkating boundaries on land, we cannot account for the movement and dynamic nature of species and water moving through a landscape.
Reading the article Wet Ontologies and A Wet World by the same authors, it gave me a new perspective on the way we view and represent spaces. Can changing our
understanding of water help us reinvent the way we talk about geography and hence structure our civilizations? Reformulating my understanding of water, I started
to think about it in terms of it’s verticality, its materiality, and it’s temporality. The volume of the Earth moves beyond it’s surface, and into it’s correspondiing atmos-
pheric, liquid, or subsurface layers, i.e. above and below the surface of the ground too.

As mentioned earlier, our un-

derstnading is often reduced to
a mere outline or a representa-
tion of a flat surface, instead of
a voluminous space that shows
dynamic process undergoing
adaptation.

Water can exist in the form of ice too and plays a different role hence. While the volume remains the same, the physical state in which water exist all impact things
differently. It’s volume is able to shift spatially more easily depending on the state in which it is in, whether facilitated by planetary (winds, jet streams), or
extra-planetary (gravity) forces. This does not allow for the preicse marking of a location.

There is a need to understand the landscape not as discrete grids, coordinate points or boundaries within which objects move, but as a dynamic environment of
flows and continuous recomposition, Thus in acting as an assemblage, each elements materiality exists and is reformed thorugh constant processes of “arranging”,
“gathering’, “mixing”, and “turbulence”.

31
 HOW HAS GEOLOGY SHAPED THE WAY WE VIEW OUR LANDSCAPES?

Geology is thes study of strata where both time and verticality are divided
into distinct layers. Geology studies our Earth from the point of view of land,
as the name suggests, and does not take into account that majoirty of the
Earth is covered in water. Movement through space and time of liquids (wa-
terbodies), solids (ice) and gasses (wind, water vapour) are responsible for
the deposition of materials that form strata and ultimately these geological
concepts of time.

However, when these strata or layers are formed, there isn’t a discrete line sep-
erating the two as represented to the right. These layers while arranging them-
selves upon each other form a gradient instead at the point of intersection,
where one seemingly isolated layer blends into another.

32
During the process of precipitation, evaporation causes the formation of water vapour that
form clouds which are temporal in nature but an essential component of the ecosystem.

WORDS THAT CAN BE USED TO DESCRIBE WETNESS

Drench Saturation
Soak Damp
Seep Permeate
Sogginess Fluid
Humidity Absorb
Moisture Mushy
Water (rivers, rain) physically blurs boundaries due to the nature of it’s composition. It allows Vapour Drip
for absorption, fluidity in it’s movement, as well as unpredictability in it’s course as it flows Condesnsation Mist
through unoccupied or permeable spaces. Water permeates theough the soil as well as thorugh
any kind of cracks and other small crevices.

Thus when water permeates, it allows for the emergence of species in these moments that temporarily exist due it’s conditions of wetness. The conditions of wetness act
as a catalyst in bringing out animals and insects according to different degrees of wetness. However this wetness gets absorbed back into the atmposphere due to evap-
oration and thus changes the degree of wetness. Hence, this degree of wetness on the ground is conatly changing along with the emergence of species and their
practices.

33
 Construction of field using previous plot

Usinf the previously constructed plot, I decided to arrange my pictures to form a field of pictures. I wanted to arrange them from left to right, ranging from most wet to least
wet. However, in doing so, I realised that both in this plot and the previous one, I assumed that the landscape would gradually form this gradient of wetness moving from the
saw inland. I falsely presumed this, thinking that since the monsoon winds come in from the dea, that must be the conditions with the maximum wetness and slowly trnasi-
tioning into the other various landscapes before reacching the rain-shadow part of the Ghats.

34
By arranging my pictures in a plot that looks like this, I am able to see how all the different kinds of wetness as well as the species and practices that take place around each of
those conditions of wetness take place in the Western Ghats during the duration of the field trip which was during the monsoon.

35
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

And so I went back and reconstructed my field using the same idea of a gradient of wetness from most wet to least wet Once I started to arrange my field, I first wondered how
I was going to approach this as a phenomenon such as rain has the ability to wet almost everything. And so at this point, I started to wonder how this wetness exists at different
levels due to it interacting differently depending on the material.

36
3 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

My idea for constructing this field was to show how wetness acts as a threshold in the Wetern ghats, in the way it facilitates certain changes in the landscape, allows for the
growth of species, blurs certain boundaries, and also acts as a means of coexistence, This field can be read from top to bottom as if looking at the landscape from a certain point
of view.

37
 Experiments with wetness

I decided to conduct two experiments that revolve around wetness affecting landscapes and ecosystems, based on a certain understanding from the field as well as my field
work. By using the lens of conditions of wetness, I was able to document all kinds of wetness and not just wetness that you can physically see in the form of a puddle or any
kind of physical collection of water who’s form could be traced by an outline. Water or wetness is present in so many conditions and in so many states and forms. While ob-
serving these different kinds of wetness in the Ghats, I started to notice the wetness that was above and below the ground too. I also started to think about how these states of
wetness are constantly changing. And so I wondered if I could construct an ecosystem of my own in the form of a *paludarium. I started to think sbout how the formation of
clouds were a certain kind of wetness, and how wetness need not even necessarily have to be associated with water itself but that of any liquid. However, the nature of water in
all it’s momentary states is what intrigued me to want to want to document these in-between conditions by constructing my own ecosystem.

So after having seen how the

rain plays a certain role in a
landscape in inducing change,
I wanted to see if these same
phenomena would occur
on a smaller scale inside my
paludarium. I observed this
seeping nature of water and
wanted to see how materials
and species are affected by
these conditionss of wetness.

*paludarium: Type of *vivarium incorporating both ter-

restrial and aquatic elements.

*vivarium: An enclosed area used for keeping animals

and plants for observation.

38
I wanted to construct something using these similar concepts while conduct-
ing my experiments. I wanted to play with the idea of invisible boundaries
as those which can only be seen at a certain power of knowledge. I initially
though I would construct this like a diorama, however dioramas are frozen
in time and so I moved past this idea to try and creating something more
dynamic.

39
 SCANNED JOURNAL NOTES WHILE CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS

40
SCANNED JOURNAL NOTES WHILE CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS

41
 SCANNED JOURNAL NOTES WHILE CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS

42
SCANNED JOURNAL NOTES WHILE CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS

43
 SCANNED JOURNAL NOTES WHILE CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS

44
SCANNED JOURNAL NOTES WHILE CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS

45
 SCANNED JOURNAL NOTES WHILE CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS

46
SCANNED JOURNAL NOTES WHILE CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS

47
 IDEATION FOR NEW FORM

Source: Shebeko, Shutterstock Source: Grafissimo, Getty Images

While thinking of forms that tesselate and fit into one another, I was inspired to use the hexagonal shape as it is one that is found in nature too, and is used for it’s efficiency.
Although there are speculations as to how these bees actually form their honeycombs into such a shape, the hexagonal structures are the most efficient shape for doing it’s job
in terms of storing maximum volume in the least surface area (when it comes to tesselating forms, or else is a sphere).

Another example of such a phenomenon in nature is that of soap film patterns, which are essentially the hexagonal pattern seen when bubbles of a uniform size are formed be-
tween two glass plates. This formation is proved mathematically by the honeycomb conjecture. And so I started to visualise how my ecosystem would look if I constructed it in
a hexagonal shape that was made of a transparent material.

48
While visualising this from in my mind, I wondered if I was going against my
own understanding of nature being contained inside something, by containing
these elements inside my own structure in a very literal sense. Althhough the
lines only exist on the outside, the idea of containing my ecosystem seemed to
go against what I was trying to show through such a visual.

Besides that, I feared I was falling into this same category of simplifying the
landscape to much to represent such complex data that is isn’t open to inter-
pretation and is empirical in nature, almost like predicting a certain result and
expecting it. Non-emperical data sets however can be read each time with a new
perspective while reflecting.

49
i
DEMONSTRATION: Creating design Intervention
 Ideating with new form

MAKING AN INTERACTIVE PICTURE INSTALLATION

My idea behind rearranging my field of pictures this time was to show how each element can be connected to multiple others in an ecosystem, and how then does wetness play
a role in this connection or sort of blurring that takes place. I connected similar elements in each picture,to form the larger structures that I have. I initially placed my pictures
according to five different locations, i.e. The Sri Krishna Matha and a little of the surrounding city in Udupi, SOANS Farm in Moodbidri, Moodbidri temple and it’s surround-
ings, Padukere Fish Market as well as Padukere Beach, and Hasta Shilpa Foundation’s Heritage Village.

While I was arranging the pictures I realised there were multiple ways in which these connections could be made as there were a lot of recurring elements that make an appear-
ance in different parts of the landscape. These elements are presenet due to it’s conditions of wetness. I decided to make one such connection using each place individually, and
then joining them all together to make an entire field of the different locations we wisited in Dakshina Kannada.

Since all the images could be re-arranged in multiple different ways, I

started to think about how I could implement this in my final outoc-
me and thought an interactive piece of some sort would fit perfectly.
I imagined it to be a sort of picture installation that was interactiive.
I initially imagined it would be made of 3d hexagons, i.e. truncated
octahedron.

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PADUKERE FISH MARKET AND BEACH

53
 END POINT & HERITAGE VILLAGE, MANIPAL
54
SRI KRISHNA MATHA, UDUPI

55
 MOODBIDRI TEMPLE
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SOANS FARM, MOODBIDRI
57
 A possible way of arranging entire
field of pictures together to make up a
terrestrial whole of an ecosystem.

58
 Production of final outcome

IDEATION OF 3D FORM

Since I initially thought of making a 3d hexagon structure, i.e. a truncated octahedron, I went ahead and started making the shape, however only realising after making it
that once again, was I falling into the trap of showing a disconnect between all of the elements subconciously by placing them on seperate faces of the hexagon.

TRUNCATED OCTAHEDRON

- 8 regular hexagonal faces

- 6 regular square faces
- 24 vertices
- 36 edges

Fish Market Beach Temple Temple City SOANS Farm End Point Heritage Village
Padukere Padukere Moodbirdi Udupi Udupi, Manipal Moodbidri Manipal Manipal

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 IDEATION OF 2D FORM

Since I realised the three dimensionl hexagons were not going to work, I started to ideate how the hexagons would look in 2D itself. I de-
cided I would stick to it being magnetic pieces that could be re-arranged but along a planar surface that was made of a magnetic material
too, i.e. GI wire mesh. The hexagonal pieces could be arranged according to the viewer and can be a sort of picture puzzle that has multiple
ways of solving, each time understanding newer connections with each new perspective of connection.

Representation of what hexa-

gon pieces would look like once
placed on the wire mesh board.
This form however will keep
changing and so hence can be
re-arranged because of the mag-
nets behind each piece.
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By referring to number behind piece of puzzle, and
corresponding with images in field of wetness (Page
36-37) it can be concluded that these species must exist
within a acertain range of wetness and hence changes
location, or does not allow for it’s growth, as and when
the specific conditions of wetness for inhabitation do
not permit.

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 PLACING PIECES ONTO WIRE MESH TO FORM CONNECTIONS

The above series of pictures shows one example of connecting the pieces together, each time by adding new ele-
ments from another location into the entire form. This can keep extending and keep re-arranging as and when
required to join as many hexagonal pieces as you can to construct an entire view of the ecosystem. Each side must
connect to it;s adjacent one and in this way, you will start to recognise how certain species exist across landscapes
in multiple locations, how water can create a transition or gradient in the landscape, how water can blur bounda-
ries between two elements, and even how it can act as a means of coexistence.
6 ft

62 3 ft
 Reading and interacting with visuals

INSTRUCTION MANUAL FOR INTERACTING WITH INSTALLATION

INTERACTING WITH THE INSTALLATION (USER TESTING)

The interactive installation I created was made such
that there is no one way to arrange the pictures, so
as to create an non-empirical data set that is open to
interpretation and giving us new insights each time
in the way we draw certain connection. The installa-
tion also informs us about the place that each element
holds in constructing a fully functionioning ecosystem.
Flipping the pieces over, we can look at the number on
where each elemet is present to see what condition of
wetness they inhabit, where 1 denotes most wet and
40, least wet.

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i
SCOPE AND EXTENT...
 Re-imagining the PBR

In trying to define a certain category or group of species or ojects, we oftend tend to demarcate them
based on certain categories. We tend to document species based on a particular landscape, not taking
into account the multitude of species that may exist in between these apparently bounded landscapes that
“PEOPLESCAPE” we define as urbanscapes, forestscapes, coastal scapes, peoplescapes, landscapes, waterscapes, etc. Our
way of documentation is evdience of us disconnecting nature from man, and we often assume species to
be defined to a certain landscape or particular habitat. By doing this, we assume a species to a particular
territory as it’s assumed habitat in a certain location. Our view of nature has been reduced to one which
solely looks at nature for it’s materiality and it’s commercial uses, and never it’s environmental one. This
GAPS can be seen in the way in which the tables in the PBR are formatted for documentation. By disconnecting
each species from one another and documenting it’s uses other things such as means of hunting, we fail
to understand it’s larger role in an ecosystem, except to that of humans. Upon first look, the PBR seemed
to be like a catalogue of resources, stating exactly where, when, and how I can acquire such natural re-
sources as well as traditional knowlede. We live in a arather consumer driver society, and to hand this
“LANDSCAPE”
same society public access to a register of places, animals, plants, and even people that could very well be
exploited, could may as well be a step in the wrong direction after all.

The Earth’s landscape is constantly changing, and so are all of it’s elements. Nature is in constant fux and
always has been long before any human intervened in this change. Change is often regarded as something
GAPS which is negative and must be restored to an original state, assuming a state of resilience instead of one of
an adaptive nature. The PBR does not account for any kind of change that is seen in the way the elements
are documented inside the register, freezing them in time, inside a tabular column. The PBR hence that
is meant to hold such data regarding local bio-diversity and community and “traditional” knowledge, is
“WATERSCAPE” bounded by so many categpries and subcategories that confine them to their own niche instead of elab-
orating on them. Local knowledge that belongs to a certain group of people or a particular community
must be given due credit and access in benefit sharing when it comes to using their knowledge to attain
certain commercial benefits out of it. Conflict thus arises in such cases where due credit and benefits are
not shared and can be seen as a certain kind of violation and exploitation.

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67
 Other uses for project

METHOD OF DOCUMENTING LANDSCAPE, SPECIES & PRACTICES

Using my constructed lens, i.e. conditions of wetness, I was able to find a new mothod through which I could document wetness in a landscape, and how of our under-
standing of wetness can shape our understanding of an ecosystem. It provided me with a new perspective of seeing things in a way that had no prior judgements and
and categories within which the species and their practices were meant to fit into. I was able to document how species inhabit different conditions of wetness instead
of particular habitats where they are presumed to be found. By doing this, we understand then how the emergence of species is dependant on such temporal aspects in
nature and not necessarily according to the time of the year. These processes that are exhibited by species which in some way have an impact on one another, may not
necesarily occur in linear time or in real time. Some may happen simultaneously while others may take place over a space of certain geological epochs of time. Time
however is an important factor to consider in documentation which is something this lens allowed my to understand, by understanding the temporality of water and
wetness itself.

ISSUES OF SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability is the practice of using our resources wisely so as to maintain a certain balance in the ecosystem. It is a highly talked about term nowadays, yet a step in
that direction seem so far off to many. It is impossible to understand how to use our resources sustainably if we do not understand the role it plays in affecting a larger
ecosystem. The practices of species are all connected to one another through a series of fractals, either by the food web or in having a certain affect in changing the land-
scape they live on. The depletion of a certain species can have a domino affect on the other species that are next in line on the food chain, and so can lead to a threshold
of adverse effects. My project helps one get a more hollistic understanding on an entire ecosystem, instead of disconnected fragments of it, while teaching you how to
see these connections yourself.

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 Project Proposal

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 CONCLUSION

REFLECTIVE NOTE

This project has given me a chance to explore new methods of applying design thinking to understand the world around us. Following the process while engaging very
deeply with the subject of this project and watching it unravel at every step to give me new kinds of information was the most thrilling part of this journey. I refer to it
as a journey as it truly was in every aspect. I was urged to want to take up this project upon hearing the words “bio-diversity” in the project brief, and was only more in-
trigued as the months went by. I have always wanted to use my work to help a larger purpose, especially when it came to working around our own enviroment and oth-
er species, besides humans, that are responsible for making up a space. The field trip to Udupi and Manipal in the Western Ghats gave me a chance to engage my work
in a real-life situation and locate myself within a larger context, knowing that my way of thinking was going to have a larger meaning to it. I believe that as artists and
designers, it is our role to give non-creatives new perspectives of seeing and experiencing. For the first half of my project, I wondered why we were made to go and do
our field research in the second week of the project itself, but this helped us go in without too much of a prejudice, and learn through first hand experience itself. Upon
coming back an engaging with all the readings and articles that offered new ways of seeing, it provided a certain joy in making connections between these reading and a
certain experience in the Ghats. So this helped me gain a better understanding having already experienced these things.

After doing this project, I do believe that following a certain process helps you develop a certain level of work that comes with a certain level of engagement, and can be
used beyond the art and design world and have a bigger social relevance. I hope to continue making work that inspires a certain change in the way people think about
certain things, providing them with new ways of seeing, understanding, experiencing and learning. This project has definitely shaped certain ways in which I view the
world too, and have come to understand it as a truly ‘temporal terrain’. It changed my perspective on the way we view nature itself, and how each one of us have such
varied understanding of what nature means to us, as well as every other person, species and thing, that interacts with it. I came to understand how nature and species
are exotified and how everything is a part of nature. Things are made out of resources found in nature. Humans are a part of nature. And everything if left untouched
will return back to the ground, back to nature.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thoureau, David Henry (1862) Ghosh, Amitav (2008)

Walking Wild Fictions

Debjani Bhattacharya (2017) Dacunha, Dilip & Mathur, Anuradha (2016)

Soaking Ecologies Waters Everywhere

Steinberg, Philip. Peters, Kimberley (2015) Raghuram, M (2016)

A Wet World: Re-thinking Place. Territory and Time Mangrove trail new addition to Coastal Karnataka travellers’ delight

Steinberg, Philip & Peters, Kimberley (2015) Sulochanan, Bindu

Wet Ontologies, Fluid Spaces: Giving Depth to Volume Mangrove ecosystem and its impact on
through Oceanic Thinking.” fisheries

Ball, Philip (2016)

Popova, Maria (2013) Why Nature Prefers Hexagons
Wild Ones: What an Obscure Endangered Butterfly Teaches
Us About Parenthood and Being Human McGrath, Alister (2014)
Conflict or Mutual Enrichment? Why Science and Theology Need to Talk
Popova, Maria (2012) to Each Other
Richard Feynman on the Role of Scientific Culture in Modern
Society

Elden, Stuart (2013)

Secure the volume: vertical geopolitics and the depth of power

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THESIS PROJECT 2017 Examiner 1 (name and signature):

Examiner 2 (name and signature):

PROJECT TITLE
Temporal Terrains Examiner 3 (name and signature):

Date:
STUDENT: KYRA PEREIRA

PROJECT: Thresholds in Tapestries

Academic Dean (name and signature):
SPONSOR: Self initiated

PROGRAM: Undergraduate Professional Programme

AWARD: Information Arts and Information Design Practice

Final Examination Panel COMMENTS:

KYRA PEREIRA

Pre-Thesis Project 2018

(Undergraduate Professional Programme)

Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology

Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka