Title

On Nothing

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Rutuja Ganoo, Syracuse UniversityFollow

Document Type

Thesis, Senior

Degree

B. ARCH

Date

Spring 2019

Keywords

Asian philosophy, psychology, spiritual, ritual, architecture, sensory, binding

Language

English

Disciplines

Architecture

Description/Abstract

In southeast Asian philosophy, artha, kama, dharma and moksha are said to be the four major goals in a Hindu's life. While artha (monetary) and karma (sensory) are physical and psychological, moksha is the ultimate destination. In this worldview, the soul goes through endless cycles o existence on various planes, until it grows spiritually; moksha is the release of the soul from the cycle of birth, life and death to the ultimate reunion with "god". The entity being released from this "binding," the soul, is said to work symbiotically with the human body to engage in worldly learning and experience. Moksha can be reached when, after recognizing the presence of consciousness, all understanding of self is lost, the complete loss of duality. The release of the soul is divided into seven stages, each being a wheel of energy, called a chakra. Each chakra is attributed with behaviors, characteristics and properties that dictate personality, life trends and preferences.

We understand the world and our situations based on the chakra in which we feel most comfortable. It is how we learn to identify with self and our relationship with the rest of the world. This project explores tracing these energy fields and translating these immaterial aspects to tangible, reactive, performative and sensory garments.

The thesis argues that emotions, behavior, and personality of these chakras can be translated/made tangible by creating objects that incite the aforementioned qualities as feelings within the viewer. Chakra, which translates to the wheel, embodies, the very notion of continual rotation, indicating (a) the existence of time and (b) its repetition - ritual. The pieces are therefore made in ritual, developed to perform, and can achieve a physical/ tangible understanding of non-being entities.

Additional Information

Thesis Advisors:

Brit Eversole

Julie Larsen

Sinead MacNamara

Recommended Citation

Ganoo, Rutuja, "On Nothing" (2019). Architecture Senior Theses. 501.
https://surface.syr.edu/architecture_theses/501

Source

Local Input

Creative Commons License

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