Sem 05 / Form and Space Studies
Orientation
Inhabiting Noise Devices

Apurva Talpade  

Folded into this module is a series of lectures titled The World and the Self, where the concepts that govern our life are historicised and  examined, that we understand, or are able to appreciate how these govern our lives. For most students, this is a difficult module to wrest with, simply because the fundamental nature of our relationships with our selves, our families, our institutions and our governments have never been analysed or called into question before. It leaves one on unstable ground, which happens to also be fertile ground from which to launch into the Orientation module, the very first course that a student at SEA passes through.

What then does one make of a brief that asks you to imagine, draw, and then build a musical instrument that can be played by a group of people? From the very beginning, students were asked to shed what they knew about sound and more particularly, music.

They were briefly introduced to the works of John Cage, Philip Glass, among others, that the conceiving of the instruments not be limited by the prettiness or the pleasantness of the sound - chimes, bells, string instruments, even traditional percussion based sounds had to be rethought and remade - the forms had to emerge from a bodily engagement that shunned learned assumptions about the kinds of movements that could make sound. Therefore, the instruments became large skeletal trumpets that you could walk through, a thick collection of flotsam about the body that jangled agitatedly when one jumped, a field of fairground objects, huge extending limbs, a swinging seat with wooden tentacles that clattered, and an undulating frame which caught and trapped the persons who then could yell or ring a bell, and a quivering, tense, beginning-of-a-Hoberman-sphere which produced only the faintest of rings.

Following is a photo essay of sorts that holds together the trials and processes of the studio. The Orientation module is a short course, running for two weeks only. It is intensive and highly energetic, requiring students to be fully present, pass through and grapple with difficult ideas and many new forms of working (such as with building materials in a carpentry workshop), and most importantly learn to be with, and struggle with, and resolve with a group of peers, developing friendships as a means to tackle an endeavour.