Chunky Progress
Here we are again. After ages. But, fear not. It’s been a productive delay. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote here. I last came here nearly a month ago! The toolkit has made good progress, and work has started on the spatial side of things. Serious talks took place on the toolkit front, and although I don’t recall most of the finer details (worry not, its all in the notebook!), we now have a plan and a set of things to accomplish. There were a lot of discussions on why should we even have the toolkit in the first place. The very word itself is questionable. The word ‘toolkit’ has a very snobbish connotation, per se. It is alienating, and cold. I myself have never felt like using the ‘tools’ from a toolkit. It feels too formal, too constructed. So why bother making a toolkit when I myself won’t feel like using one. The gold standard for any toolkit is its level of usability. If it is well used, then its a good one. If the makers themselves never feel like using it, then why would anyone else? Hence, we’ve decided to ‘rebrand’ the toolkit into a handbook. A ‘handbook’ is a friendlier word. It feels a lot more open, and a lot less formal. Like any instruction manual, a handbook is a handy guide that endears itself to whoever wishes to consult it. It rewards those who wish to put in the effort to learn from it. A handbook feels a lot friendlier because it guides, and does not solely provide exercises for its reader to undergo. A handbook with a good narrative puts the reader at ease and allows them to access the information with no pre conceived thoughts or pressures.
Straight away, just by renaming the toolkit to a handbook, the approach toward making it also changes. I feel a lot more relaxed and confident about what I’m attempting to do. The expectation of making the end-all of all collaborative tools and exercises is lifted and I can focus on creating a manual that helps and guides collaborations, and not something that simply exists to test such a partnership. This was not a spur of the moment change. We went through a few iterations before settling on this. Admittedly it was a quick change in direction borne from a week of discussions, but there is a bread trail left behind to track this. At first I was assembling tools, and then mapping out all parts of the process of collaboration, to try and find some connections. We realised that it was too tool heavy and felt dictative and abruptly direct. At the same time, I was browsing through a book called _______ that helped anyone get started on becoming an entrepreneur. It had no tools or exercises, but it did have plenty of tips, and case studies that helped the reader understand the challenges of starting a business. It never questioned or tried to challenge the reader, but tried to solve their doubts and help them comprehend what all is needed.
Now that the approach has changed, we sat down and made a new plan of action. First off, without delay, we had to start collecting our case studies. The list is being drawn up as we speak, and we are also figuring out the interview method/process. We’re planning to do some 3D modelling of the interviewees and figure out a line of questioning. Every interview has to be unique to the person I’ll be interviewing, so a lot of homework in in order.
That sort of not so neatly leads me on to the next project: the spatial output. The crowning glory of my time here which will enable me to get a degree. The project so far seems exciting. We’ll be working in Virtual Reality, which is an exiting new medium which I think will eventually consume humanity. Probably. Or perhaps not. But it will still be a Very Big Thing. As of now I’m collecting assets for this virtual world. The really good bit about collecting assets is that I get to zip around Goa on a little black scooter with my helmet and sunglasses. It involves disappearing down rabbit holes and looking for beautiful things around me. I get to decide my heading at will, and I often do. The goal of my task is to get lost and find things that aren’t found often in the Goan landscape. My task is to document and take pictures of things that I see around me. The act of photogrammetry combines a few of my favourite things. Driving, travelling, photography, beautiful things, and a certain degree of calculation. My job is to drive around, find beautiful houses and things, click as many images as is efficiently possible, (akin to a crime investigator) and then drive to the next place and do the same thing. Then, I come back to the studio, load up all the images onto a piece of software that creates 3D models out of what I’ve gone out and clicked. It’s witchcraft, and it’s far too easy sometimes. But it can go terribly wrong at times. I’ve had to trespass on private property to capture a house that I really feel like I want to include in my projects. Sometimes I bust a gut and sweat my soul out documenting a house just to find that the software is unable to process the images into something remotely three dimensional. Sometimes the model that is formed in the end is so close to perfect, but a certain distinctive feature of the building glitches out. But thats how it goes sometimes and you simply have to accept that. For every model that comes out decently well, for barely any effort on my part, is worth a few models going haywire. In-fact, the the skewed, and glitches out aesthetic of these models will probably be used to form the overall look of the virtual world which we will create. We will celebrate and bask in the glory of all that is imperfect. It’s not due to laziness either. Of course, we don’t have enough time to ensure that we have clean and crisp 3D assets, but also the fact that every other 3D virtual experience seems to have clean models. It’s boring. The glitches in virtual reality matrix give a very interesting look and feel to the whole world. It’s probably what tripping on acid feels like. <- Something in that thought there I reckon. So while that happens, I will also have to figure out a narrative, which I should be working on right now incidentally.
So far thats what has been going on. It’s not a whole chunk of progress, but its certainly reduced the projected time it will take to complete the project. So far, it’s only been two months into officially speaking. Now I have four more months to complete everything, deliver two products and then compile everything into a comprehensive publication of proof, submit it and pass my jury. It’s still a tight deadline, but thats how it is. Oh and alongside I will have to prepare for CAT exams if I have to have a good future. Simple really.