Hallo

Hello Anhaltens. Hoping you are doing well and been warm. The onset of winter is pretty brutal eh? At least for me it is. I come from the coastal city called Mumbai where it is currently just a shy below 30° celsius. ö

This is my first Incom Project upload. Technically it should be my second as the first project was…. Oh wait! I wont give you any spoilers. It’s still a work in progress and probably a good reminder for me to complete it and show it to you.

A little heads-up: this text in this project is a wee-bit longer than I expected. So please bear with me, prepare some coffee/ chai or lemonade and join me on a short journey. I’ll try to keep you entertained. Promise.

It is also crucial to tell about the context for you to relate to the work as best as possible.

So, a bit about me. Ich heiße Harsh Pandya von Mumbai, India. Ich bin Kunstler, Architekt, Athlete und Collaborator. Ich illustriere sehr gerne. Und thats just about the level of my German :) Well, I’m working on it and I hope to devote more time to catch up with the basics.

I’m excited to present my MAIDen project on Incom. I’ll begin with the introduction, inspirations, process and the end result. Ready? (P.S- The answer is always Ja(aaaaaaa)!)

Why Poetry?

Isn’t it surprising how many of us have really explored a new, “never-explored-before” form of expression or activity during one of the most challenging phases of our time?

What I am about to present is part of a series of poems I had written during the pandemic. The poem was written at a time when I too was struggling in many aspects of life, too often finding myself blank or burnt out from constantly being indoors.

These poems were primarily written to inspire children with diabetes, specifically Type-1 Diabetes. In the entire process, these poems inspired me too.

_„But Harsh, why diabetes?“ - _Because I have been living with type-1 diabetes for over a quarter of a century.

Got diagnosed at the age of 9; was lost, scared and even ashamed in the initial years; was insecure and shy about sharing the diabetes side of my life with anyone; hit rock-bottom with my ignorance of this condition; revived myself through sheer grit, discipline and a commitment to be a better ‘me’ and now I can proudly say that I have been kicking ass with since the past 8 years.*

* I’d love to share about them here, but it’ll worth your time if you ask about it in-person if you catch me at Mensa/ Cafe or outside Bauhaus.

The Experimental Process of Storytelling

The poems, through various characters, depict my personal journey and experiences of struggling, dealing, fighting and eventually “living” with diabetes.

For Expertise 2: Experimental Storytelling which was so well conducted by Alberto Iberbuden, I selected a poem from this collection.

Purpose: to give a visual association to these texts in a playful and expressive manner including, but not limited to, various mediums such as photography, narration, animation and collage.

My aim during this expertise was to experiment with a new medium, anything other than illustration (which is my go-to medium for any creative output) I wished to make a film; however, due to time constraints it was suggested to choose a medium that we have control of. Not completely rejecting the idea of a film, I decided to go ahead with animated collages. The poem and its colours follows the The Embryo Model of story-telling (Rick and Morty)

After exploring various compositions and layouts, I arrived at a template, my blueprint for the 8 phase animation of the entire poem. During the process, I explored various elements and compositions to animate.

The Guidance, is the story of a boy who receives advice from his caring friend to overcome his fear of dealing with diabetes.

I hope you enjoy the short video as much as I loved making it. :)

Please visit the link below.

Danke schön.

Conclusion and Learnings

Although the project was short and intense, there were many learnings. 

A big shout-out to Professor Alberto for creating such a comfortable and safe space to discuss and explore our thoughts. He reminded and made us believe to „trust the process“.

I would like to thank Manuela Sanchez for her support to document and photograph the hand-held elements (vials, machines, pump, strips) that you see in the background. It was an impromptu collaboration and worked out for both of us as we both assisted each others projects. 

I would also like to thank Lara Thomaz for her inputs on the composition. 

I was also able to give my views and suggestions to other students. It was a good exchange of ideas, perspectives and skills which I believe is one of the intentions of this program. 

“... You and I are inherently different and complementary. Together we average as zero- that is eternity” - Richard Buckminister Fuller

Let's Collaborate!! :)