Reference – THE NEW CONCRETE- Visual Poetry

• Visual poetry in augmented realty/ visual songs in augmented reality
• making people sing in augmented reality
• Common meeting space for people interesting in susun and durang
• Want to participate, learn, have fun, socialize
• Place based publishing
• A digital glossary of songs and dance

Using augmented reality – a play of what is there and what is not there.

Any place can become an akhra if you’re there.

( digital space where you learn mundari songs)

Multi platform AR experience

How to track others in AR space –

Using there devices – Tracking their movement through footsteps, moving (tracking movement of the handheld device) / grooving to the jadur beats tracked by graphics inspired by munda instruments or ornaments.

Visual Language System

Fonts:

• Maku

• Kalam

• Gryphius for digital medium to give handmade bleed texture

• Garamond for print – it will naturally bleed

• Final six

Visual language:

• Materiality in visuals

• Digital vs real

• Digital textures / material

• What is the difference? How are they different?

• Pixel vs particles

“It is from the space between languages that images emerge.”

‘Each sentence is a way of looking at things, crafted by its speakers in a very particular way. Each language sees the world differently, inventing its entire vocabulary from its own perspective and weaving it into the web of its grammar in its own way. Each language has different eyes sitting inside its words.”

Visual, tactile, sound, and movement

All elements intertwining with each other to create meaning. In this, the graphics act as the visual elements, the textile as the touch intertwining with prompted movement to the beats adding an extra layer of meaning to the meaning of the words. Adds the element of community storytelling/ experience

How GCD can expand the realm of reading by embracing visual auditory and performative elements in storytelling?

OR

How can the convergence of graphic design, sound and movement (sensory) in storytelling expand our understanding of what it means to ‘read’ ?

Type of storytelling –

Susun Durang ( Dance and Songs )

SONGS ~ KNOWLEDGE ~ LANGUAGE + SOUND

DANCE ~ READING ( embodied interaction ) ~ MOVEMENT + INTERACTION WITH SOUND

Language + Sound + Movement

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            SPACE

( susun + durang in akhra )

Akhra – Physical Space

Digital Spaces ?

Print Space ?

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What new questions arose through Projection1 that need to be explored further?

How could this new project help triangulate your practice? Consider how it could explore and articulate a different—but related—perspective or position on the question you’ve been exploring in your work.

How might a change in context deepen your work? Can you identify a new public or network for the work to engage with? What change would this new context require of the work? Would a change in medium allow you to make a meaningful shift?

How could a change in scale advance your work? Expand or amplify your work through a change in actual size, a change in the level of focus, etc.

• Audience? who will interact with this?
• Intersections of digital and print publishing
• Interaction Design
• Activation (Interaction, participation) of a “space” ( In Dance and singing context, space is activated by the community. In the context of a book, the reader interaction activates it)
• “Idea of an Akhra” – Space activated by interaction
• Idea/ narrative/ observation – Migration has caused these spaces to go extinct, and individuals (specially belonging to a minority community ) fail to find social spaces like these, triggering loneliness and naturally disintegration of a culture.

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DURANG ( Mundari Songs )

Characteristics :

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20019187?searchText=&searchUri=&ab_segments=&searchKey=&refreqid=fastlydefault%3A3d41b3cd6e197bc6c86a2113923f31bc&initiator=recommender&seq=8

Some of the features of Jadur song construction :

• The four-line stanza as two parallel couplets, the second derived (sometimes mechanically and ‘illogically1 ) from the first.
• The line repetition, and recycling of lines in successive stanzas.
• The nearly universal subject matter of the songs: love, marriage, the passing of youth, hard times.
• Other characteristics of the songs, e.g., the pervasive onomatopoeia, seems impossible to convey in English poems, although in one song here (maran gara . . . ) I have tried to put across some of the effect of the expressive – visual – verbs bijir-bijir here translated as ‘to glitter’, and biyal-boyon ‘to shine’.

Onomatopoeia in munda songs/ language / poetry

Concrete Poetry (Visual Poetry)

A play of visual poetry of songs + interaction of dance mimicked in a book?

Recap:

References :

1. Moniker’s “Dance Tonite”
2. “Spatial Practices” by Melanie Dodd
3. Yvonne Rainer’s work

-Carol Babiracki ( ‘Music and the History of Tribe-Caste interaction in Chotanagpur’ Ethnomusicology and Modern Music History )

–ttps://eyeondesign.aiga.org/the-inclusive-world-of-multisensory-typography/#:~:text=The origins of typography are,cold through visuals of ice.

1. https://meaghand.com/myportfolio/shakespearesgarden
2. https://tinanded.com/projects/kaleidoscopic-home-ar
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6uf1EPDAsI&t=241s
4. Neuroaesthetics

-munari libro illeggibile

1. Eva Weinmayr – ‘One Publishes to Find Comrades’ A Visual Event: An Education in Appearances
2. Bell Hooks – Belonging: a Culture of Place.
3. Sona Gahi Pinjra – Bijju Toppo
4. vr dance dash

–https://www.tate.org.uk/research/in-focus/walls-paper/eat-live-work

methods to activate urban spaces, decay and renewal

“Taken together, the paper notices enact the idea of a wall, as described by landscape architect Thomas Oles, ‘as a place of truck – of interaction and exchange’”

Song as Knowledge & Dance as Reading

Reading is traditionally understood as an act of decoding text, yet it is, at its core, an act of active interpretation. A reader does not merely absorb information but engages with it—assigning meaning, forming connections, and bringing their own experiences into the narrative. Hence forming knowledge. This project seeks to (How GCD can) expand the realm of reading by embracing visual, auditory, and performative elements in storytelling.

As a person of indigenous descent, I grew up with stories. In indigenous traditions, many stories are expressed and experienced through song, dance, and oral recitation. Indigenous communities, such as the Mundas, have long held and shared knowledge through seasonal festivals, songs, and dance which are acts of storytelling that pass down wisdom about farming, history, and community values.

Historically, “Akhra” was an open space in the village for community meetings and entertainment where knowledge was transferred across generations through storytelling, performance of songs and collective participation in dance. However, due to political and economic changes, such spaces are becoming extinct.

“Communal dance makes real and physical the values of communality and equality that are central ideals among Mundas. These ideals do not always find expression in political, economic, and social realities of Mundari life today….But these ideals are the reality of communal dance event in the village akhara, a commonly owned arena in the centre of every Mundari village or hamlet.” — Carol Babiracki ( ‘Music and the History of Tribe-Caste interaction in Chotanagpur’ Ethnomusicology and Modern Music History )

If “Akhra” is considered an institution for indigenous education, how can its function be revived?

Inspired by projects like Moniker’s “Dance Tonite”, a collaborative dancing experience in VR, and concepts of “Spatial Practices” by Melanie Dodd, we can use graphic communication design to serve as the bridge between tradition and innovation, creating “spaces” both literally and figuratively for revival and engagement of these storytelling mediums.

This digital akhra could serve as a dynamic archive of indigenous storytelling, where songs and dance are preserved not as static records but as interactive experiences. Using animations in augmented reality influenced by Yvonne Rainer’s work, audiences could engage with these traditions in ways that maintain their performative nature.

As a designer, the responsibility lies in crafting interfaces that honour and extend these traditions. As readers, participation in these interactive formats becomes an act of cultural perpetuation.

Ultimately, storytelling becomes a communal act, reading—when viewed as active interpretation—can be an equally collective experience, and GCD becomes a bridge between movement, sound, and text by reimagining reading as an immersive and communal act.

https://gcd.studio/pages/song-as-knowledge-and-dance-as-reading

Looking at the “act of reading” as an “act of active interpretation”

Can we extend this to other forms of storytelling – like audio/ music, cinema, or movement/ dance?

Use the experiments for the purpose of archiving/ open source publishing for indigenous stories while incorporating the lively experience of it’s performative storytelling.

Can reading extend beyond just text?

How can new technologies and interfaces create more accessible forms of reading and storytelling?

OR

How emerging technologies can expand the possibilities of text beyond static formats,

making typography more interactive, immersive, and multi-sensory.

OR

How can graphic communication design facilitate new forms of storytelling or reading?

OR

How can oral or performative storytelling traditions, be archived and reimagined using new media?

“song as knowledge and dance as reading”

Outcome: A visual and interactive archive of storytelling medium.

Impact: This project seeks to expand the definition of reading by embracing visual, auditory, and performative elements. By questioning accessibility in publishing, it promotes inclusivity in storytelling, offering new possibilities for graphic communication design as a storytelling medium.

“akhra” used to be a gathering space which also was a way to transfer knowledge among generations.

Akhra traditionally has been an open space in the village for community meetings and entertainment; in the old days it was basically a seat of learning.

Due to migration, spaces like these are becoming redundant hence extinct.

if akhra is considered as an institution, this means there’s a need of indigenous education .Just like a lot of indigenous communities, Mundas hold and share knowledge in the form of songs and dance.

Seasonal festivals and corresponding songs holding knowledge about the practices of farming and agriculture.

naachi se baanchi – Dr ram dayal munda

will recreating it in a virtual space keep it alive even though we’re not in the same space?

a digital “akhra” space—- inspired by moniker’s dance tonite

How can graphic communication design create “space” for revival of a culture which in turn perpetuates the preservation of it.

As a designer – my intention is to preserve the culture.

As a reader – their participation is an act of perpetuation.

How do I use GCD to preserve songs and dance, a medium that is oral and led by movement?

Can GCD be a medium that is oral and led by movement?

grafik – written or drawn ————- can songs and dance be written or drawn, written songs, dance

written movement, drawn movement

reading spaces and communal engagement

stories through dance and singing?

how do you publish something intangible as dance and singing

how can you make reading a community activity?

How do you document a performance? —— Yvonne Rainer ———-written movement

Learning through reading and interpretation ——— Munari’s Books

she calls literary material / references as papyrii

hieroglyphs ——— notes of movement , verbal and visual renderings of movement, documentation, diagrams

petroglyphs —— photographs of the performances

and calls herself an archeologist

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How emerging technologies can expand the possibilities of text beyond static formats, making typography more interactive, immersive, and multi-sensory.

• How can text be multi-sensory?
• How does reading interact with language and culture?
• Can storytelling exist beyond linguistic barriers?

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New line of enquiry:

How do I use GCD to preserve songs and dance, a medium that is oral and led by movement?

How can I use GCD to create reading spaces that encourages communal engagement?

stories through dance and singing?

how do you publish something intangible as dance and singing

how can you make reading a community activity?

REFERENCES :

1. Eva Weinmayr – ‘One Publishes to Find Comrades’ A Visual Event: An Education in Appearances
2. Bell Hooks – Belonging: a Culture of Place.
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-0aHMyh8CI – dream log
4. The Queer Arab Glossary
5. Sona Gahi Pinjra – Bijju Toppo
6. Prisencolinensinainciusol -Song by Adriano Celentan

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———— PROJECTION_2

How can I use GCD to talk about hidden inner social discourse by representing or talking about something like dance and songs

How can graphic communication design create “space” for revival of a culture which in turn perpetuates the preservation of it.

akhra used to be a gathering space which also a way to transfer knowledge among generations.

will recreating it in a virtual space keep it alive even though we’re not in the same space?

social engagement – to learn – destress – create a sense of belonging – awareness – archival

tangible and intangible

comparison of the mediums of documenting

VR

Print/Book

One ——— mimics the culture, could be ever evolving, encourages social interactions, can be living medium

The other ———— could be an archive, a glossary, a record of the past, a reference

^ two ways of reading the same thing