Srishti Archive

Stemming from my observations with various alphanumeric identities that we humans have in common as objects, I put on the lens of viewing humans as objects. I was no different than a pair of headphones or a car in my newfound perspective. This just showed the innate power of objects and their reflections of us as humans. I aimed to explore this object like nature of humans, studying my own self, my own alphanumeric identities and drawing comparisons between humans and these objects. To bring my perspective into reality, I took the help of an old car user manual from 2003, around the same time I was born and used much of the same vocabulary from the manual but with a human context. Much of the sections like, Appearance Care, Do-It-Yourself Maintenance made a lot of practical sense when the subject was not seen as a car, but rather a human. This is what I planned to showcase, a user manual on the user himself, who is no different than the objects he uses. A testament to the importance of objects in our daily lives depicting the mechanisation and industrialisation of the human life. Intrigued by the usage of scissors as a drawing tool, I looked at unconventional and different methods of doing the same. I was instantly drawn to the photocopier and printer as I felt the conveyor belt like system was a perfect metaphor and manifestation of the industrial and object like nature of humans I wished to explore. The experimental nature of this medium pushed me to do unconventional and out of the ordinary actions, which included scanning my face, legs, hands and even experimenting with smoke and water. The performance like nature of the scanning process and the mysterious nature of the outcome was quite enticing and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this newly found process. The scanner had so much in common with the element of theatre and drama and this was quite a revelation. The fact that this perspective saw my medical records and hospitals equal to vehicle or product specifications and hospitals to service centers emphasized that humans and objects really did have a lot of similarities and this is something that I also wanted to capture in my manual.