Office Conspiracy

Pet dogs and stray dogs

“At what time do I get up in the morning?” – I asked myself one day.
I wasn’t sure…why I asked this question…probably the sight of a dog sleeping by the roadside had triggered some feeling within. I was on my way to office.
For the past few months I have not been able to catch up on sleep coz I was down with a chronic illness called – Boss Syndrome. Some situations had triggered my Boss to react in certain ways, which I dislike. And was under the self-imposed threat of loosing my job. Believe me, I had to go through a workshop on Emotional Intelligence to wade out those scary thoughts. Now I am almost fine.

Treading my way to office in attires, which I hated most, life was no more than a damp squib.
Tucking my shirt always gave me a suffocating feeling, which made things worse when complemented with a trouser and belt; a must for me everyday.
Although I’ve tried different routes…but only landed up being late and loosing half a day’s salary. So I choose to ply by the same 25km stretch every morning and evening.

Unlike freelancing, working for the corporate, the idea of design and its conducive environment has changed for me. Brilliant ideas are no more the property of beanbag thinking. Sticking around the assigned workspace for longs hours do not give me heartaches any more. I don’t choose my assignments any more.
I comfortably manage design issues and people…seldom design. I make strategies for getting things done.

I feel like a pet dog!

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is an intense sensory experience that invariably results in a feeling of pure joy.

I think here the most operative word is ‘joy’; worth noticing and building upon.
If at all there is an aesthetic dimension to a designer’s work that must eventually be realized inform of a solution to a problem of design (we cannot get away from that), then according to me it should squarely rest on the following three key attributesthat may incidentally help fulfill the ‘joy’condition.
The first attribute is workability.
When one is absolutely confident that it will eventually perform well enough to meet every conceivable need –andaspiration- of the ultimate user, it is the First Joy.
The second attribute is producibility.
When one knows for certain that it is entirely possible to make byusing appropriate –and available- materials andproduction methods with no adverse effect on the environment, it is the Second Joy.
The third attribute is affordability.
When one feels assured beyond doubt that even after adding up costsand various ‘margins’, all those who need it will beable to afford it and use it, it is the Final (and the crowning) Joy.Stated thus, aesthetics of design may well turn out tobe a highly gratifying experience not only for the designer but for all concerned; the designer, themaker, the seller, the user.
Because the joy derived is not only thrice blessed, it is shared fourfold.

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An extract from a note : Is there an aesthetics of design? - kumar vyas

Semiotics : Expressions

Semiotics is the study of the way in which meaning is produced in society. It is concerned with the process of signification and communication. Just as you can understand this writing because you are familiar with the conventions of the English Language, so too you can understand an expression if you are familiar with human tendencies and the way they react to situations/things.

Everything which is presented to the society in a social context is a SIGN. On a more general level, we read signs everyday in order to make sense of the world.


In our earliest years of life we learn an amazing range of things. Language seems to be the most significant at first glance, as it gives expression to life itself, but it is also important to note that during these formative years, and throughout our lives, we learn some other very complicated ways of understanding.


For instance we learn how to interpret basic body language (gestures, facial expressions), to make distinctions in power according to dress (tidy, smart uniforms, scruffy appearance), to understand accents different from our own and afford them specific classifications and meanings (northern, southern, ‘rough’, ‘posh’). We learn all these different ways of understanding because there are so many different ‘things’ in the world to understand.

All these things can be broken down into signs. We see a sign and are able to identify its meaning within its specific context, we can identify implicit meanings and we can recognize and utilize its meanings connoted by different contexts.

Maybe the best definition of semiotics is the one that just states that signs in the non-metaphorical sense are phenomena produced intentionally by humans and taken by humans to show the intention of the producer, and its content.

Langue refers to the system of rules and conventions which is independent of, and pre-exists, individual users; parole refers to its use in particular instances...similarly emotions and expressions...while feelings/emotions are common...their expressions might differ. example: i might get angry.. and give a cold stare...or i might scream and shout and stamp my foot too.
i would call any facial expression as synchronic in nature because it exists only at one point of time and space...however an expression could initiate a chain of other similar/dissimilar expressions in reaction to the previous expression...in such a case...that expression would be Diachronic in nature.
Normally we do not express ourselves by using single facial signs , but groups of signs, organized in complexes which themselves are signs.
Paradigmatic relations are those which belong to the same set by virtue of a function they share... A sign enters into paradigmatic relations with all the signs which can also occur in the same context but not at the same time.
Signs are in paradigmatic relation when the choice of one excludes the choice of another.
There are always larger units, composed of smaller units, with a relation of interdependence holding between both.
Syntagmatic relations are the various ways in which elements within the same context may be related to each other.
Eg. of syntagmatic expression could be say a person is laughing, she is bent double, her body is shaking, her hand s are on her sides. Together they form the syntagmatic axis. paradigmatic would be say she is rolling her head from side to side instead of shaking, her hands are on her mouth etc. These are possible substitutions.

How something is expressed may carry more significance and weight than what is said, the words themselves. Accompanied by a smile or a frown, said with a loud, scolding voice or a gentle, easy one, the contents of our communications are framed by our holistic perceptions of their context. Those sending the messages may learn to understand themselves better as well as learning to exert some greater consciousness about their manner of speech. Those receiving the messages may learn to better understand their own intuitive responses–sometimes in contrast to what it seems "reasonable" to think.
Part of our culture involves an unspoken rule that people should ignore these nonverbal elements– as if the injunction were, "hear what I say, and don't notice the way I say it." These elements are often ignored in school or overridden by parents, so the task of incorporating conscious sensitivity to non verbal communications is made more difficult.
Nonverbal communication occurs not only between people, but also internally. People grimace, stand in certain postures, and in other ways behave so as to reinforce to themselves certain positions, attitudes, and implicit beliefs. Unconsciously, they suggest to themselves the role they choose to play, submissive or dominant, trusting or wary, controlled or spontaneous.

Anger, not quite often but definitely is used to make sure that others don't get close enough to discover our weakness. Like porcupines, we use barbs of antagonism and intimidation to keep others at a distance, thereby protecting our own insecurities or flaws.
Often people use anger to create space for themselves. They may come across as strong and confident. But underneath the bravado they are weak. They can't afford to allow anyone to get close enough to see their fear or their insecurity.
This gives semiotics another dimension. Rightly said by Umberto Eco :
" A sign is anything that can be used to lie.“

The face is more highly developed as an organ of expression in humans than any other animal. Some of these become quite habitual, almost fixed into the chronic muscular structure of the face.

For instance, in some parts of the South, the regional pattern of holding the jaw tight creates a slight bulge in the temples due to an overgrowth or "hypertrophy" of those jaw muscles that arise in that area. This creates a characteristic appearance. The squint of people who live a lot in the sun is another example. More transient expressions often reveal feelings that a person is not intending to communicate or even aware of.

People react to the unspoken, as much (if not more) to how something is said as to what are the explicit meaning of the words. Misunderstandings can often be clarified if the people involved have the ability to notice and comment on the nonverbal communications in an interaction. People will benefit from learning the range of nonverbal behaviors in order to clarify the often subtle dynamics of the situations they find themselves in. For example, in a marriage, sometimes the other person gets irritated by some mysterious event: Exploring what was the problem may lead to an awareness that the way something was said communicated an unintended meaning! By making the nonverbal communication more clear, misunderstandings can be resolved.

...not without reason.

Anger is one of the most basic human emotions. It's a feeling of being against
someone or something. It's a hostile emotion that sets people against each other, or
even against themselves.
Anger, however, is simpler to define than it is to identify. Expressions of anger range
from the overt, in-your-face brand of open hostility to the cool indifference of a silent
stare.
At times, anger can feel like an inner fire. It hits you in the gut. Your stomach churns,
your blood pressure rises, and your breathing rate increases. Outwardly, your body
responds to the internal activity with a flushed appearance. You perspire, your
nostrils may flare, and your jaw tightens.
On the other hand, anger can be experienced as compliance on the outside while
resentment and hostility run just beneath the surface.
The silent withdrawal and lack of involvement of a spouse is often an indication that
one is angrily punishing the other for not doing things his or her way. Sex often
becomes a weapon of anger instead of the expression of shared love in a marriage.
Whenever we are prevented from fulfilling our wishes or forced into a situation we
dislike, our mind retaliates immediately. This uncomfortable feeling easily turns into
anger and we become even more disturbed than before.
Every day we encounter hundreds of situations we do not like, from having a
disagreement with your colleague to discovering that your girlfriend is dating
someone else or that you have been fired from your job; and our normal reaction to
all of these occurrences is to become unhappy and angry. However, try as we might,
we cannot prevent unpleasant things happening to us.
Anger seems to come from a source outside our self. At first blush, we would
probably agree. But are we merely reactors to our environment? What kinds of things
affect us?
Generally, we see the cause of our anger as something outside of ourselves. Most of
the time we do not see ourselves as being directly responsible for our anger. We feel
that we're merely reacting to external stimuli. "After all," we reason, "if he hadn't
treated her so poorly, then she wouldn't have gotten angry."
Because of our outward focus on external issues, we often fail to recognize that our
anger is caused by our realization that we are not getting what we want when we
want it. Like an infant who is feeling the hunger pangs of an empty tummy and
demanding to have them satisfied with food, we too feel the pain of disappointed
desires.

Most of us would probably agree that much of our anger is wrong and should be
avoided. But if we hate our anger as much as we say we do, why do we hang on to it?
The answer is that we cling to it because we fail to recognize the purpose behind our
antagonistic strategies. We nurture our anger because, consciously or unconsciously,
we believe it functions for us in these three ways:
Firstly, it protects us from additional pain, secondly , it deflects responsibility away
from our inadequate love for others, and it keeps people at a manageable distance to
ensure that we don't have to risk giving our hearts to others and get hurt in the
process.
So how do I live as an emotional being in a world that provides a regular dose of pain
every day? Rather than facing my pain, I will often choose to be angry because anger
is easier to control than pain and disappointment. It's easier for me to be angry with my
girlfriend, than to face the pangs of her cool indifference.
What I'm telling others by my anger is, "Don't expect much from me because I'm too
wounded to care about you." And when I expend all my energy protecting myself,
there's nothing left to protect others from my failure to love them.
Anger often shows up when we are caught red-handed in a wrong. Instead of feeling
the weight of our sin and accepting responsibility for our actions, we get angry. We use
our anger as an offensive weapon against those who expose and shame us. We try to
turn the tables on them to get the attention off ourselves. We try to intimidate them into
accepting the message, "I'm not the problem here, you are!"
Anger can also be used to make sure that others don't get close enough to discover
our weakness. Like porcupines, we use barbs of antagonism and intimidation to
keep others at a distance, thereby protecting our own insecurities or flaws.
Often people use anger to create space for themselves. They may come across as
strong and confident. But underneath the bravado they are weak. They can't afford to
allow anyone to get close enough to see their fear or their insecurity.

There is nothing more destructive than anger.
One of the most harmful effects of anger is that it robs us of our reason and good
sense. Wishing to retaliate against those whom we think have harmed us, we expose
our self to great personal danger merely to exact petty revenge. To get our own back
for perceived injustices or slights, we are prepared to jeopardize our job, our
relationships. When we are angry we lose all freedom of choice, driven here and
there by an uncontrollable rage. Sometimes this blind rage is even directed at our
loved ones and benefactors. In a fit of anger, forgetting the immeasurable kindness
we have received from our friends or family, we might strike out against and even kill
the ones we hold most dear. It is no wonder that an habitually angry person is soon
avoided by all who know him. This unfortunate victim of his own temper is the despair
of those who formerly loved him, and eventually finds himself abandoned by
everyone.
Anger is particularly destructive in relationships. When we live in close contact with
someone, our personalities, priorities, interests, and ways of doing things frequently
clash. Since we spend so much time together, and since we know the other person's
shortcomings so well, it is very easy for us to become critical and short-tempered with
our partner and to blame him or her for making our life uncomfortable. Unless we
make a continuous effort to deal with this anger as it arises, our relationship will
suffer. A couple may genuinely love one another, but if they frequently get angry with
each other the times when they are happy together will become fewer and further
between. Eventually there will come a point when before they have recovered from
one row the next has already begun. Like a flower choked by weeds, love cannot
survive in such circumstances.

In a close relationship, opportunities to get angry arise many times a day, so to
prevent the build-up of bad feelings we need to deal with anger as soon as it begins
to arise in our mind. We need to make the effort to clear away the mess in our mind
as soon as it appears, for if we allow it to accumulate it will become more and more
difficult to deal with, and will endanger our relationship. We should remember that
every opportunity to develop anger is also a scope to develop patience. A
relationship in which there is a lot of friction and conflict of interests is also an
unrivalled opportunity to erode away our self-cherishing and self-grasping, which are
the real sources of all our problems.
It is through our anger and hatred that we transform people into enemies. We
generally assume that anger arises when we encounter a disagreeable person, but
actually it is the anger already within us that transforms the person we meet into our
imagined foe. Someone controlled by their anger lives within a paranoid view of the
world, surrounded by enemies of his or her own creation. The false belief that
everyone hates him can become so overwhelming that he might even go insane, the
victim of his own delusion.
It is very important to identify the actual cause of whatever unhappiness we feel. If
we are forever blaming our difficulties on others, this is a sure sign that there are still
many problems and faults within our own mind. If we were truly peaceful inside and
had our mind under control, difficult people or circumstances would not be able to
disturb this peace, and so we would feel no compulsion to blame anyone or regard
them as our enemy. To someone who has subdued his or her mind and eradicated
the last trace of anger, all beings are friends. Therefore, if we really want to be rid of
all enemies, all we need to do is uproot our own anger.
If we are able to recognize a negative train of thought before it develops into full-blown
anger, it is not too hard to control. If we can do this, there is no danger of our
anger being 'bottled up' and turning into resentment. Controlling anger and
repressing anger are two very different things. Repression occurs when anger has
developed fully in our mind but we fail to acknowledge its presence. We pretend to
our self and to others that we are not angry - we control the outward expression of
anger but not the anger itself. This is very dangerous because the anger continues
to seethe below the surface of our mind, gathering in strength until one day it
inevitably explodes.

Very close to repression is shallow confession. All too often it is the quick-confession
mentality that doesn't want to take the time to understand where the
volcanic energy of one's anger comes from or what it is directed toward.
On the other hand, when we control anger we see exactly what is going on in our
mind. We acknowledge honestly the angry stirrings in our mind for what they are,
realize that allowing them to grow will only result in suffering, and then make a free
and conscious decision to respond more constructively. If we do this skillfully, anger
does not get a chance to develop properly, and so there is nothing to repress. Once
we learn to control and overcome our anger in this way, we shall always find
happiness.
Since it is impossible to fulfill all our desires or to stop unwanted things happening to
us, we need to find a different way of relating to frustrated desires and unwanted
occurrences. We need to learn patient acceptance.
Patience is a state of mind that is able to accept, fully and happily, whatever occurs.
It is much more than just gritting our teeth and putting up with things. Being patient
means to welcome wholeheartedly whatever arises, having given up the idea that
things should be other than what they are. It is always possible to be patient; there is
no situation so bad that it cannot be accepted patiently, with an open,
accommodating, and peaceful heart.
When patience is present in our mind it is impossible for unhappy thoughts to gain a
foothold. By learning to accept the small difficulties and hardships that arise every
day in the course of our lives, gradually our capacity for patient acceptance will
increase and we shall come to know for our self the freedom and joy that true
patience brings.
In reality most of our emotional problems are nothing more than a failure to accept
things as they are - in which case it is patient acceptance, rather than attempting to
change externals, that is the solution. For example, many of our relationship
problems arise because we do not accept our partner as he or she is. In these
cases the solution is not to change our partner into what we would like her to be, but
to accept him fully as she is.

There are many levels of acceptance. Perhaps we already try to tolerate our
partner's idiosyncrasies, refrain from criticizing him or her, and go along with her
wishes most of the time; but have we in the depths of our heart given up judging
him? Are we completely free from resentment and blaming? Is there not still a
subtle thought that she ought to be different from the way she is? True patience
involves letting go of all these thoughts.
Once we fully accept other people as they are without the slightest judgment or
reservation then there is no basis for problems in our relations with others.
Problems do not exist outside our mind, so when we stop seeing other people as
problems they stop being problems. The person who is a problem to a non-accepting
mind does not exist in the calm, clear space of patient acceptance.
Patient acceptance not only helps us, it also helps those with whom we are patient.
Being accepted feels very different to being judged. When someone feels judged
they automatically become defensive, but when they feel accepted they can relax,
and this allows their good qualities to come to the surface. Patience always solves
our inner problems, but often it solves problems between people as well.
If we practice the patience of voluntarily accepting suffering, which is definitely far
superior to masochism, we can maintain a peaceful mind even when experiencing
suffering and pain. If we maintain this peaceful and positive state of mind through
the force of mindfulness, unhappy minds will have no opportunity to arise. On the
other hand, if we allow our self to dwell on unhappy thoughts there will be no way
for us to prevent anger from arising.
Even if we cannot avoid unpleasant, difficult situations and a certain amount of
physical discomfort, but by training our mind to look at frustrating situations in a
more realistic manner, we can free our self from a lot of unnecessary mental
suffering.

Impossible Cup

Perception-function-contradiction ...
this is what "the impossibe cup" is all about.

This exploration in bamboo is the manifestation of my imagination of a product with no functional value at all.

The specific angle at which the bamboo has been chopped off...increases the level of dis-comfort when one tries to sip at a hot brew...to add to the distaste of the user, the handle has been placed critically!

Useful Art

Design for me is an 'useful art'...a means to communicate...to be in the context.
Coz i believe...no idea is bad...its just that some are out of context.

Redefining a Toaster

Unlike conventional toasters, ‘KRIS’ incorporates an hybrid temperature + time controller that ensures desired crispness for every slice of toast.

Other differentiating features :

1) The auto defrost facility thaws refrigerated bread before toasting it.
2) The easy removal of toast is facilitated by the angular slot which provides more surface area to pinch it out.
3) The push button operation makes the bread carriage mechanism smooth.
4) The crumb tray drops down and can be easily cleaned.

Nature and form

...a container for ‘Angustura Bitters’ inspired from Bitter gourd.