Environment As A Practice of Care

Sitting by my window and intermittently looking outside has been more gratifying these days. I simply  like looking away from the laptop screen often not with the intention of finding something, but simply looking. Just being by myself and looking at things that I would generally ignore has gradually built my curiosity. It turned out that without seeking any answers for any questions I was more appreciative of having a dialogue with myself but initiated by some or the other ‘non-existent’ or otherwise ignored object in my proximity. The Moringa tree outside sheds its tiny white flowers every day. However, it is always beyond its canopy that more sheds are seen spread on the moist ground. Being caught in action, I discerned that it is the wind and its direction that spreads the white on the earth. Just behind this tree is a 3 storied apartment building that has a long pipe with a vent cowl on the terrace that lies just within my vision. It appears as is every day but one fine day while it was raining I spotted this crow taking refuge on that vent cowl. And I saw it sitting exactly there every time it rained. I believe it is the same one every time. The crow just sits until it stops pouring and chats with its mate that also takes refuge a little distant apart. Every single time I find myself only wanting to confirm its appearance but return with a small addition to what is already familiar between us. More such encounters and the eventual associations over time have made me realize that looking is also conversational; not separate from listening. The associations were not only with the tree and that crow but also the revolving chair I sit on. It chooses to swing between the laptop screen and the outside. Also the window shutter that is often open but to my strangeness shuts covertly, then wailing it to be opened and wanting me to look out. This relationship will be personal in experience but characterized by other objects and events. Care means the process of protecting someone or something and providing what the person or the thing needs. But here the operational spectrum to define care will include but will not be limited to care as admiration, ignorance, calmness, confusion, fear, nostalgia, disgust, confusion, amusement, anger, anxiety, awkwardness and more. The choreographed journey will include the cognitive as well as the affective components to construct different ideas of care. This will require bringing the ‘non-existent’ or the inanimate objects to life and further discerning how they identify themselves with their environment (each student will choose one ‘non-existent’ object from their mundane every day). To arrive at care as environment (as deed) more than care of environment (of need), the studio will think of the environment beyond literal empiricism and scientism. In the course of the studio, the students will develop large landscape drawings. These will be landscapes of care. The references for these would include landscape drawings from miniature paintings, folk paintings and Chinese paintings. These will be bio-cultural maps that will help the students to not only develop a personal and experiential attitude towards the environment, but also articulate their understanding of it.