THE MOH MAYA PROJECT
AIM OF THE PROJECT:
The experimental typographic project was just as much about developing a series of explorations as it was about building a critical thought process and a narrative unique to the very meaning of ‘Moh-Maya’.
The purpose of working on a project with a fluid and an explorative nature was to firstly, learn to develop a set of constraints and work towards pushing them. Working on articulation of the approach became an integral part of such a flexible process.
There were several layers to taking a universally known system of thought; primarily, it was about trying to grasp a dimension of living and expressing it through tangible forms or to be able to bring that intensity into the creative process.
The aim is not simply to design print media and visuals that would reflect the idea of ‘Moh-Maya’ but also to work with objects that would react with the environment and express the transient nature of our existences.
The Project, hence, was to become a journey of sorts, through the existing cultural ideologies, religious views and sentiments to be viewed through each individual’s personal perspectives.
WHAT IS 'MOH-MAYA' ?:
The concept of Moh Maya is rooted in the aspect of ascension of the soul or moksh-prapti.
In Indian philosophy, moh-maya talks about the illusionary characteristic of the world and our tendency to form attachments, as the crucial misstep which prolongs the circle of life and rebirth.
In Sanskrit, ’moh’ refers to the attachment that we form to worldly materials and/or social relations while ‘maya’ refers to the worldly illusion or an infatuation to the material world. Moh is associated to kam (desire, love) and Lobh (possessiveness) and on the other hand, to ahankar
(ego and the sense of ‘I’).
In Sikhism, moh is referred to be a ‘maiajal’ and is represented to be the root cause of baser desires.
There are several folk and mythological stories that explain or interpret the concept through analogies or metaphors which draw on the idea that materials possessions, societal laws and relations and even our own identity is merely a form of attachment that is permeable and transient.
SECTIONS/ HOW TO READ:
There are three sections through which the project has been expresses. The first section deals with the experiments and the ‘outcomes’ of the experiments. Each series has been explained briefly and the images of the process as well as the consequent/constructed visuals follow, which vary from 2D photographic images, to posers, to an interactive installation piece. There are co-relations and overlaps between one series to another, although the explorations have their distinctive methodology according to the materials.
The next section showcases the, visual study book, which is a collection of images, typographic and otherwise, developed and collected together to express the intensity of the philosophy.
The final section presents the documentation book to you, which explains the project in detail.
COLLECTION OF EXPERIMENTS:
MOH-MAYA: A VISUAL STUDY
DOCUMENTATION:
