201103 Research Gathering with Kiran Gangadharan – Decode

During this research gathering Kiran Gangadharan will present a roundup of Project Decode. Kiran will discuss the project’s main goals and approaches through a number of case studies, iterations of conceptual designs, and a collaboration with dancers and artists.

Coming from an engineering and design background, Kiran started his residency at FoAM in January 2011 to continue his research on “growth.” One of his recently evolving research nodes is Movementors, in which he relates to growth and form through the metaphor of movement. Movementors functions to question science, engineering and design perspectives where mathematical expressions of plants are decoded. It explores the world of spiral dynamics inspired by the old-school instrument of the spirograph. He relates the growth of plants to an unseen mystery of movement: movement as a performance in itself.

The comparison of complex situations from static/dynamic, organic/inorganic, form/function, observer/observed and self/other brings new aesthetics to movement and transforms the space of performance itself. Two specific topics are explored in detail: generative growth of spirographs mirrored in dance movements, and three-dimensional spiral movements. The presentation will conclude with a light Indian (Kerala) feast.

This residency is part of FoAm’s Asia-Europe exchange programme (AEGIS).

• More on Kiran Ganghadaran’s residency: http://fo.am/residency_kiran
• See also Christina Stadlbauer and Bartaku’s residency at Periferry 1.0 (Guwahati, India): http://www.fo.am/periferry
• Images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157626325858182/