Project 2: The Samosa and the Gym

The Samosa and the Gym

“Maps only reflect the reality, they don’t change it..”

But what is reality? Is it an objective truth? Is it the same for you, and me, and the other? Is it finite?

These are the questions that make this project interesting.

Initially I had some difficulty in understanding the brief, but I (think) I understand it now. We are learning to color ‘outside the utilitarian convention’ that has become the default setting of modern city and landscape planning and is characterized by single-minded focus on objects and functions. We are starting on this journey by reimagining maps.

My choice of environment represents my pursuit of a healthier life and the dynamic tension between two ideas that sit across each other, like two poles of a magnet. On one end is the samosa – a fried dish with a savory filling, such as spiced potatoes, onions, green peas, and sometimes lentils too. It is a three-dimensional triangle and is accompanied by chutney. It. Is. Very. Tasty.

Samosa

On the other end is my gym, a place where I go to shed those calories that my samosas bring to me. Over the past few months, I have had to walk the tight rope, forcing myself to eat fewer samosas and telling myself to go to the gym regularly. This tension makes these two places important. However, until today, I had not thought much about the space and things between these two places. Thank you for making me think about it.

The space between places and the unmapped cracks within this space.

Here’s a quick sketch of the space that I chose to map:

Am I really mapping the unmapped?

Even as I start to think about this space in a way that goes beyond the way contemporary normative maps represent it, I realize that there is a limitation in my thinking. It is the streets. The streets I’m traversing are predetermined. So, reinterpreting this space is limited by the fact that I’m walking down predetermined streets and walk-ways.

Like always, I’d also take this opportunity and contrast my experiences in a developed country like the US with its much-evolved urban infrastructure and matured rules of engaging with this infrastructure vs other developing countries which have limited to unstable urban infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure forces people to find ‘their own way.’ It’s not surprising that in developing countries like India, Cambodia and Vietnam and sometimes even in China mapping heavyweights like Google maps are not reliable. They are neither extensive nor updated. In these countries, we rely on landmarks like homes, temples, wells, intersections, shops, powerline transformers etc., and above all PEOPLE. All this much more than conventional road signs, printed or mobile maps.

Being comfortable without maps is a way of life. This is in sharp contrast to developed countries where people have grown up to expect nearly flawless urban infrastructure and city planning. Unless they are leaving the city and the suburban infrastructure and venturing into the wild, they have little need to worry about finding their way.

Am I really mapping the unmapped? (Video)

Coming back to the project brief, I chose not to look at any of the existing maps. However, as I got home and started downloading photos, I realized that although I was not looking at maps, maps were certainly looking at me : ) Here’s how they traced my path.

My photos + videos geo-tagged and layered on top of Apple Maps (MacOS and iOS)

Same layering in 3D

Immersive maps?

If only maps also documented sounds, smells and feelings they were representing (play video below)

What do firefighters see?

Different ways of seeing and observing. Like, wearing different thinking hats or seeing through different lenses.

On to some of the forces I observed in action

1. Traffic

First we made cars, cars made traffic, and now traffic makes us : (

2. Automobiles:

They are everywhere

There are so many of them, that even when you are trying to take photos of other things, automobiles find a way to creep in

3. Transformations:

From a gas station

to

an apartment block

 

Other new construction

Such construction can be seen all around Silver lake. This neighborhood is developing fast.

4. Formal Communication: 

The many rules of engaging with traffic and adjoining public spaces. The more developed urban infrastructure is the more prescriptive are rules of engagement. This is something we do not see in less developed countries that do not have much in the name of a viable public infrastructure.

Don’t cross here

Don’t be in two minds now, must turn right

Don’t drink here

River looks nice, but don’t stop here

You might be paying taxes, but its not your land

Don’t walk here

Bikes go away

5. Waste:

One homeless man lives under this bridge during the day the to escape the sun and the heat. I wonder where does he go at night.

6. Wilderness and the River:

LA river, which hardly looks like a river, has some wild vegetation as it tries to reclaim its rightful place in the city. I did not know that LA had a river, but when I moved into this neighborhood, I started researching online and discovered some informative documentaries about the history of LA River. I was surprised to learn that it used to be a free-flowing river till it was decided that it has to be tamed and turned into a Bonzai version of itself.

Side note 1 – YouTube also has interesting videos describing Salton Sea. At one point, Colorado river used to flow into it was supposed to become a big tourist hub. Property was sold, resorts were built. But the river had other plans. I learnt about Salton Sea from  GTA5 – a video game which is set in a city called Los Santos (which is a rough copy of real world LA.

Side note 2 – GTA5 and GTA4 have detailed and editable maps.

7. Traces and Decay:

Product packaging in their afterlife. These random boxes seem to have managed to escape the cycle of life and death at the hands of the trashcan and the dump truck that comes looking for them every week.

I wonder how this car bumper managed to get here : )

8. Businesses

A business wearing its Indian ethnicity on its sleeve

Exotic businesses. This store has giant tropical parakeets

9. Ethnicity and Religion

Silver lake is at the edge of Glendale. The city has many immigrants mainly of Armenian descent. Ararat (the mountain range between Turkey and Armenia) is an important symbol in Armenian culture. Many Armenian businesses are named after Mount Ararat.

10. Forgotten:

Here’s a side walk that is disappearing, slowly. The soil that is sliding from the hillside is slowly encroaching on to the sidewalk. Looks like LA municipal authorities have forgotten about this sidewalk : )

11. Informal communication?

And lastly, some childhood memories. I used to think of billboards as landmarks on my way home. I used to get lost often : )

What does all this mean? Is there a correlation between forces? What does correlation (or the lack of it) mean? Continue reading here:

here https://sites.uci.edu/in4matx282f18/mapping-forces-and-unearthing-theories-hypotheses-and-insights-part-2-of-project-2/