Deepesh Agarwal

The weekend is something which I really look forward to. Apart from the other busy days of the week, I usually relax or hang out with some of my friends during the weekends. However, the third weekend of March 2019 was an altogether different experience for a hardcore engineer like me. As a part of my Humanities course on Digital Cultures and New Media in M. Tech. programme at IIT Gandhinagar, we had an industrial trip to the Uttarayan Art Foundation, Vadodara. It is located in Jaspur village, about 25 km. from the main city of Vadodara. The total site area is about 80 acres, and the art center is built up in an area of about 8.6 acres. The unbuilt area is covered by lawns, outdoor exhibition, amphitheatre, road network and pathways. The art center has several studio spaces for painting, sculpture making, pottery, seminar hall, office area and conference hall. The studio spaces are beautifully built and have perfect ambience to be a suitable working space for the artists [ 1] .

The Uttarayan Art Foundation is the brainchild of the industrialist Mr. Rakesh Agrawal. He, along with artist Mr. P. D. Dhumal devised this centre for arts in 2005. It was designed by Ar. Karan Grover. In the last few years, it has become a very active space for artists to collectively experiment, discuss and ideate on their art practices. National and International symposiums in various mediums are conducted throughout the year [ 2] . We got to see various forms of art, all gathered at a single place. There were separate cottage rooms, each dedicated to a specific art form or native to a specific region of our country. Being an electrical engineer, I had never been fed to such a large variety of art forms, sculptures, models, paintings and mediums, all at once. I could not imagine that welding could also be one of the medium to represent art.

Many of us in the modern world seem to take great dignity in the expeditious pace which life plans for us. We have a perception that we might squeeze a few more precious moments of our experiences in life if we move a bit faster. In reality, we overcharge ourselves of the enjoyment of the slow consideration of the phenomena we experience everyday. Art is something static which we might use to slow us in our perception of our world. It is not required that art be something static in motion but in thought. It is not something to be considered with only momentary attention. A single painting could mean millions of different things to different people. It is the value of possibility and of perception that is actually significant. A visit to such a place enables us to give a break to the tech-dominated mindsets and explore the beautiful stock which mother nature has to offer us. In the campus, there was a bridge which led to a beautiful view of river. Before leaving the place, I sat for around 10-15 minutes by the side of the river. The atmosphere was very calm and offered me a chance to escape the hyper-connected,

over-stimulated state of modern day life, in favor of a rare moment of solitude. The experience was really exhilarating.

Apart from exploring a wide variety of art forms, I also got a chance to interact with my instructor Dr. Arnapurna Rath. Usually, people don’t like to listen much to others, but my instructor is a very patient listener. We shared ideas on a lot of interesting topics ranging from social sciences, agriculture and technology as well. She listened to me very enthusiastically about my interests and hobbies. I was delighted after talking to her during the journey. The lunch break with the entire class was also an unforgettable experience. I sincerely thank the instructor and Teaching Assistant Shivani Sharma for organizing this trip for the batch and making sure that the entire trip was smoothly conducted. I would definitely like to volunteer in such trips for the future DCNM batches, if required. After the trip, there was only one thing which I could say to myself, “Weekend couldn’t have been better”.