Exploring Cartography
Ashwini Deshpande, Academic Works, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India
Following three cartography works were done during my masters study at CEPT University. Intrigued by this technique, I explored three projects dealing with Archival Oral history, Movie Cartography, and Streetscape Dynamics.
Narrative Cartography
The cartography was developed as a part of a course during Summer School named 'Narrative Cartography + Video Cartography' at CEPT University. It is an attempt to visualise a story from archival research done on Calcutta Riots (1946). It narrates a survivor's story during the riots that took place on 16th August 1946. The cartography captures minute details of his memory and illustrates the initial events on Harrison Street that later turned into one of the gruesome riots of the history of India-Pakistan Partition.
Narrative Cartography
The cartography was developed as a part of a course during Summer School named 'Narrative Cartography + Video Cartography' at CEPT University. It is an attempt to visualise a story from archival research done on Calcutta Riots (1946). It narrates a survivor's story during the riots that took place on 16th August 1946. The cartography captures minute details of his memory and illustrates the initial events on Harrison Street that later turned into one of the gruesome riots of the history of India-Pakistan Partition.
Bizarre Moves and Moods: Movie Cartography
Uncle Hulot, unable to adjust himself in the modern villa Arpel create disasters in the depicted the three scenes. His actions make everyone move around the garden in order to control the disaster. Except uncle Hulot and the kid, the behaviour of the rest is almost robotic. They walk, talk and also think mechanically to match the
modern lifestyle of the villa. The cartography tries to capture the movements and moods of all the characters as the disasters take place.
Transforming Streets: Mandvi ni Pol
The study focuses on the transformation of streets in Mandvi ni Pol, Ahmedabad. Narrow and complex networks of the streets run through the dense residential clusters of the pol. Because of this high density, many informal activities are spilled out on the streets. The cartography focuses on how the street transform During various festivals and religious activities. People use the streets as public spaces and different pockets are used for celebrations. These insurgencies change the character of the streets. The use of street edges affect the vehicular and pedestrian movements pushing the boundaries of these streets.
