The Glossy world around 21st century Intellectual fashion parade

Stomach full of ideas and mouthful of lies: 

They come in thick lens and frames, shabby face with hair spread all over, distant gaze at the foreign lands.
They have one thing in common: a sort of contentment, air of passivity and blooming fragrance of satisfaction of their intellectual prowess.

Do we need intellectuals to guide us in these moments of paid subservience to the orders of various kind?

Across nations, seminars, conferences we are seeing intellectuals of various kind. Some busy selling their days of diaspora, some venting their anger across.

Our society is largely unguided now. We tread in crowds and commit unforced errors and heinous crimes motivated by urges of carnal self and no remorse. At the same time, I could listen to a bunch of intellectuals who deliver wisdom from the heights.

This post is prompted by hearing a few intellectuals the other day speaking about Indian nation state, the challenges of sovereignty, the fundamentalist Gandhi, the possible resurgence of Asia in the world stage, the problems in Kashmir valley, lack of critical attitude in the society etc.

Undoubtedly, their is a market out there for these intellectuals. World all over, intellectuals bred from Asia will be sold like hot cakes in the international intelligentsia and academic space. Their genuine dissents with the native regimes will be a good brand for them to sell.

A few of these themes are relevant indeed. No disagreement whatsoever. The point is when these intellectuals occupy our public space and speak about these numerous issues, I am not sensing an iota of integrity in their words or deeds. It may be a personal prejudice of mine. But I am not able to suppress this feeling. Do

Our nation needs genuineness and integrity more than any intellectual play of words or any kind of deft maneuvering over the world of ideas. Developed nations and the wealthy nations will have the luxury to breed and feed this kind of fashioned intellectuals. We need real blood people who can think beyond their personal reflections and turmoils.

'മൂസയിലെ കുതിര മീനുകൾ' : മുക്കുവന്റെ പ്രണയ കാവ്യവും ചില ചോദ്യങ്ങളും

'മൂസയിലെ കുതിര മീനുകൾ' കണ്ടു. അജിത്‌ പിള്ളയുടെ ആദ്യത്തെ സംവിധാന ,സംരഭം. ലക്ഷദ്വീപിന്റെ ദൃശ്യ ഭംഗി നന്നായി പ്രമേയവുമായി സമ്ന്വയിപിചിരിക്കുന്നു.  കഥയിലെ വിവിധങ്ങളായ സ്ഥലകാലങ്ങൾ യുക്തിപൂർവമായി ഭാവങ്ങളുടെ ഒരു തുടര്ച്ച സൃഷ്ടിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു.

എന്നാലും ചില വസ്തുതകൾ പറയേണ്ടതുണ്ട്. കുതിര മീനുകള എന്ന സങ്കല്പത്തെ അതിന്റെ പൂര്ണമായ ശക്തിയിൽ പ്രയോഗിക്കാൻ കഴിഞ്ഞിട്ടില്ല. കഥയിലെ നായക കഥപാത്രങ്ങളുടെ സ്വഭാവ വിശേഷങ്ങളായി കുതിര മീനുകൾ  അവശേഷിക്കുന്നു. അത് പോലെ തിമിഗല  വേട്ടയുടെ ചിത്രീകരണവും അതിന്റെ സജീവതയോടെ ഉപയോഗിക്കാൻ കഴിഞ്ഞിട്ടില്ല.

കാല്പനികതയുടെ ഒരു വ്യഗ്രത ചിത്ര  സന്നിവേശത്തിൽ തെളിഞ്ഞു കാണാം. എന്നാൽ വ്യഗ്രതയോടെ പ്രണയത്തിന്റെയും സമാഗമത്തിന്റെയും പരിസമാപ്തി സൃഷ്ടിച്ചു കഴിയുമ്പോൾ പിന്നെ ഒന്നും പറയാനില്ലാത്ത ശൂന്യത നമുക്കനുഭവപെദുന്നു.

ഇതു പുത്തൻ സിനിമകളുടെ ഒരു  പാരിമിതി ആയിത്തീരുന്നു.പുത്തൻ സാമൂഹ്യ അന്തരീക്ഷം ഉള്ളപോഴും പുതിയ സങ്കേതങ്ങൾ ഉള്ളപോഴും പഴയ ചോദ്യങ്ങളും പഴയ ഉത്തരങ്ങളും ഒട്ടുമിക്ക ഉദ്യമങ്ങളിലും പ്രതിഫലിക്കുന്നു.

അങ്ങനെ 'മൂസയിലെ കുതിര മീനുകൾ' മൂസ എവിടെയാണെന്നോ കുതിര മീനുകൾ കണ്ടാൽ എങ്ങനെ ഉണ്ടെന്നോ പറയാതെ, ചൂണ്ടി കാണിക്കാതെ ഒരു മുക്കുവന്റെ പ്രണയ കാവ്യം സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നു. 

Why digital physical design unity is not skeuomorphism

Unity in design praxis, blending the needs of digital and physical worlds is aspiration of many. It is at times a hot topic of discussion as well. Many design theorists look at skeuomorphism as the obvious choice and the approach to arrive at a unified design for digital and physical worlds. As we know skeuomorphism attempts to translate the physical features explicitly into digital realm. This is subject to criticism from various corners.


My critic is not from the angle of any pristine principles, rather from the perspective of a student of nature. And I don't make any loud claims that design is always the manifestation of truth and honesty. Design is as artificial as any form of art and exploration of truth as any kinds of science. Machine design will be largely driven by the forces of human machine interaction and reciprocal evolution. And I must say it is a misconception that the design is an explicit visual centered paradigm. Yes, it is true that visual features can quickly communicate design elements however there is a larger set of implicit design elements in every object, whether digital or physical. When you design a product or a service or an interactive experience for a commodity in a utilitarian relationship, explicit and consumer specific features are highlighted.

However this is not always true in the case of causal and natural relationships. When relationships evolve through a self organized network or a biological system, they abstract a lot of design aspects. Let us take the example of birds and their wings. Can we say that the evolution of wings in a bird is always driven by the use value alone. Of course not. Ecology also plays a role. Let us take the case of social signs and syntax in language. Can we have single design variable for describing the evolution of all the language symbols. Again it is not possible. Hence the analysis and investigation into the wide spectrum of natural and social relationships require multivariate analysis that goes beyond explicit forms.

Constructivism and the world of art: Beyond the noise

Investigations on the major milestones of Russian formalism took me to the foundations of constructivism. I found the following books informative on the historic role of constructivism in shaping a social aesthetics of art and literature in the modern times. However my pursuit to find the critical role of constructivism in shaping up a materialist consciousness in the emerging literary groups of Soviet Union needs further references.

In the book: Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in A Digital World, I came across an interesting article by Mayakovsky here: How are Verses Made?. Quite thoughtful indeed. This book mentions that environment design and artifact design need to be worked upon separately.

The same book says about another conjecture that the markets are inherently reflexive when the author is speaking about the ‘open textured’ nature of designs. The rationale is that whenever the interpretations of human action can change the course of subsequent action and interpretation, it is said to be reflexive. While searching online, I could see that constructivism is almost used synonymous with the category ‘social constructionism’ and many authors perceive Marxism itself as a philosophy centered on social constructionism.

Going through one such book, Building Knowledge Cultures, we can see that there is a recent attempt to create mystery around the concept of constructivism. This book presents an argument that constructionism and constructivism are entirely different schools of thought. I will need to examine the authenticity of this laughable proposition.

On going further, the book Unfolding Social Constructionism speaks about a critical approach to cognitive psychology and its representational paradigms. It says that memories, perceptions, motives etc are not psychological entities, rather constructed in conversation.

The book, The Russian Experiment in Art, 1863-1922 says that constructivism achieved its most complete realization in the early films of Sergei Eisenstein. Another book, Realist Constructivism says that a constructivist will take a clearer position on the ontological role between individual and society than on the questions surrounding the power.

Constructivism in Film: The Man with the Movie Camera : a Cinematic Analysis has finally landed me on the history of the movement in Russia at least. According to this book, constructivism was famously defined in the ‘Realist Manifesto’ issued by the brothers Naum Gabo and Antonin Pevsner. They wrote that ‘art is the realization of our spatial perception of the world’. The rhythms of the working men and the machines play an important role in the constructivist theater. Constructivist photo-montage is based on the principle of self reference and it precedes the emergence of the self referential cinema.

Like other constructivists, Alexander Rodchenko emphasized the self referential aspect of the photograph achieved through the dualistic relationship between the images content and the means by which the image is constructed. He suggested that the photographer should find the most expressive view point that would alert the viewer of the potential use of the medium. Implicit in this approach is the formalist’s method of ‘defamilarization’. This is an interesting development that constructivism becomes a tool to break the false consciousness.

Digital consciousness: Emergence of new state of mind

Consciousness is an expression of experience, an expression of your higher grasping and control over life and reality. We say that someone is unconscious in their actions or thoughts, when we cannot find a rational or unreal reference to some of their expressions or natural responses. It can be termed as a complex result derived from the history of experiences, neural behaviors of memory and deep rooted social symbols from racial memory. 

Without a real reason or material connection, new forms of consciousness or unconscious will emerge in the society or individuals. Hence the collection of imprints of digital technology and modes of commodity production are very much reasons for this new forms of consciousness. Consciousness is never complete in a single human being. It is in between people and their social reflections. I am conscious about what people think about myself equally as what I think of myself. Thus our thought processes meet inside each one of us. Will this happen in digital experience as well?

Creative Commons: Fotopedia -  Making of Harry Porter

Digital consciousness is a nice term for this age of digital devices and digitization of experiences. Before you are digitally consciousness, you are naturally digitally unconscious. You will be exhibiting certain unique unconscious responses to digital surroundings and ecosystem. Like any ecosystem, digital realm also will have layers of experiences. digital art, digital signs, digital science, digital philosophy, digital religions, digital fetishism, digital ideology, digital pathology all will be part of this way of life that reflects in this new way of thinking. How is digitization coming to our life in such a big way? It is part of our professional and personal life alike. Workplace intimacy and expertise with digital technologies follow at home. The more we use them in our economic transactions and money making moments, it becomes closer to us. This is quite natural.

Digitization introduces a lot of layers and hierarchies of experiences. We bank on technology to pierce through these layers to reach out to more people virtually. Then these layers will become natural parts of our digital persona and virtual life. These virtual networks offer huge amount of 'life casting' to attract our interests. Digitization has huge capability to create a virtual layer that imitates you and amplify your like and dislikes. This reflexive capacity of digital medium can induces a hyper level of narcissism in our ego. It can override your balanced state of mind in great scales. 

CreativeCommons: Fotopedia: MessagePad

When we deal with digital experience, their is a certain amount of abstraction and condensation in this mode as opposed to analog expediences. It is always in beta. Data is never in final form. It continuously evolves with the digital interfaces. Thus human mind fails to a certain extent to generate a final reasoning or conclusion about digital moments. When we experience anything our mind works on both reality principle and pleasure principle. Digital experiences provides a digital layer that directly interact with human to create a satisfaction in both real terms and pleasure. Thus human mind continues to explore digital experience. 

When we take mind and body together and weigh the influence of digitization, it may seem that the mind is the most affected by it. Though mind may be the larger part of this engagement, our senses and active body organs also are part of this experience. When digitization enriches mobile technology, it becomes part of every moment of our conscious life as well. 

When you become digitally conscious, you affinity to devices and miniature details of life continues to increase and your mind will struggle with meta-narratives in every kinds of experience, be it politics or poetic, be it love or distastes. We are getting more details than we can comprehend in the capacity of human cognition for a moment of experience. It also alters the scales of space and time in the digital information communication and experiences. Thus building a perspective in digital experience becomes increasingly difficult. The moment our mind realizes this, it may either go into addiction or aggression. 

If we can treat digital experience as normal as real experience, this layer of hyper reaction and ideological affinity can be controlled. As we know, a mirror is always a mirror, irrespective of how much you like your reflections !

Can cinema be an art of deception?

Film Review: Malayalam movie 'Drishyam'

Not getting into the controversies about the originality of the cinematic theme, let me express some of my thoughts about a movie I watched recently. It is Drishyam directed by Jithu Joseph. Mohan Lal, Asha Sharath, Meena and Siddhik are part of the main cast. It has become a block buster and getting popular review comments and word of mouth publicity. 

The movie begins with the tag line 'Visuals can be deceiving'. At the end of the 150 minutes, one may wonder what is the visual that deceived us. It was the narrative and the entire movie screenplay that deceived us. Moreover it raised a few questions on my mind. 

Can cinema / literature be the art form of deception? The movie goes at length to showcase the efforts of the commonsensical hero to hide a secret. The hero is on a war of survival against the brilliant but morally drained and personally shattered police officer who has lost all sense of humanity to prove a crime.

So on onside we have a villager trying to hide a grave secret and on the other side we have a police officer who goes brutal to unravel the mysteries surrounding her son. Where is a social conflict here? 

There are sexual abuses happening at various parts of our country. Then where should we begin the story? Should we keep the camera on the life a person who commits a crime to protest the abuse and then praise his efforts and brilliance in hiding the secret for eternity? Of course not. 

Despite a decent behavioural acting by Mohan Lal and the other crew, the movie is a pack of spades and strained imagination. Like every other commercial film that boasts about the marvels of editing, this film tries to create a perspective that is just dependent on an actor. The story is dead somewhere in the middle. 

Not only visuals but every art form can be used as a device for deception. It is artist who applies creativity to expose anti social elements and express truth in its highest form of existence, whether it is dream or reality. 

When humans dream of Algebra, nature crafts our Geometry!

A Collection of thoughts on Mathematical Languages:

Natural Reflections on Algebra & Geometry

This post is inspired by an intriguing thought that disturbs me often when I try to relate the beauty of algebraic notions and their syntactical complexities with the physical dimensions and measures of geometric nature. Geometrical shapes of vivid complexity is all over us. Algebraic knowledge becomes richer and deeper day by day. 

At the outset, algebra appears to me as the attempts of human mind to find an order within the physical and its own humane cognitive nature. Hence at times algebra becomes associative and at times abstract. Geometry is mostly occupied with unique physical operators for measuring nature and natural objects. As human mind and its boundless imagination works in both the streams of knowledge, they always explore anew territories and often produce complex functions and abstractions. Humankind crafts nature in their own reflection. 

As we know, our innate tendency to imitate nature has been one of the fundamental driving force in all our scientific, artistic and engineering initiatives. This tendency gets transformed into further advanced forms of knowledge as we apply our reflections of nature into our labor process. This tendency can be seen in the mathematical languages as well. Our mathematical observations about geometry has helped our investigations to find patterns in the field of numbers and algebraic symbols. Is there a difference in the nature of measurement in Algebra and Geometry? Though the approach remains the same the challenges differ widely.

Some metric level contradictions in the nature of Algebra and Geometry

I was always perplexed about the physical differences between various elementary mathematical operators like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. When I add entities of different properties, the sum never accumulates in nature. It occupies a physical space less than or equal to the nature of individual entities. 

Taking an example, if we add one mango and an orange in a physical box they take space as equal to their physical dimensions. In the representational mathematical space also they occupy distinct locations. When we take two mangoes here they occupy same space in the physical box whereas they add on to the same quantity in the representational space. 

The question is whether the mathematical symbolic space is as accurate as the physical geometrical space. For convenience we may denote this representational space as algebraic. The algebraic space is often limited by the limits of our abstractions and the capacity to associate them whereas the geometric space is challenged by the scope of observation and the limits on the minutest quantum that we can reach. 

Numbers are the base constructs of the symbolic space. They become complex when the physical world in the scope becomes wider and deeper. We think of complex numbers and complex plane when we reach a limit to measuring the diagonal of a triangle made of single unit edges. Then the new symbol enters our mathematical vocabulary. This is just an example. Similarly when we think of trigonometric measurements, we find new sinusoidal and cosine patterns emerging in symbolic space. It is a new synthesis of physical and symbolic space.

Next question is can symbolic space travel ahead of the physical space. In other words, can we dream a physical entity before experiencing its real physical nature. I must say that at times yes. It is not magic or miracle. It is because of the intellectual capacities of human cognition and the power of knowledge to expand the horizons of our recognition. Each strides in the cognitive skills of human mind and our social experiences enrich our mathematical languages, whether they reflect our knowledge about symbolic space or physical space.