A Light in the Dark
Bhumi Gupta
As an architect by profession and an enthusiastic writer, I aspire to put words to expressions of architecture and design. My education in the profession makes me keen to know and understand more as a professional. With an aim to take my career towards design, critics and analysis, I want to make a valuable contribution to the architecture fraternity through my opinions and viewpoints. As an avid reader and soulful artist, I enjoy adventure through the world of imagination in writing and design.
Artist Statement
It is necessary to understand creation and the value of its beauty, but it is equally important to appreciate either and that is what my objective is.
Man from Utopia - A Story
It is the year 2050 and we are alive. It’s been an eventful 30 years and a marker for the change in our cultural trajectory. We understood that the negative carbon can be transformed into positive. Taking the particular case of Governor’s Island, we observed the carbon being emitted by vehicles in the Battery Tunnel and saw potential in sequestering it. The process of carbon capture further opened up opportunities for us to experiment with the carbon. As an essential step to utilise the captured carbon, it was stored deep under the ground as deposits. Over the years, these sediments formed by accumulation of captured carbon transformed into multiple layers of carbon material. The island is now a block of new carbon material, a platform for innovation in the way we construct and design habitats.
-
Its dark, he can sense it even with his eyes shut. His head feels heavy and there’s an uncanny thirst that absorbs him. He wants water. He opens his eyes and tries to see in the darkness. On deciding to take the risk in this darkness, he stands up and slowly starts to walk around. Not long after he sees a faint light shimmering not far from him, thinking that it could be water, he walks towards it in a hurry.
The calm he’d felt with the shimmering blue soon fades away as he realizes that what he’d seen was just a reflection on a very old building, almost all of it blanketed with the darkness. He tries to find a door or an entrance and on inspection understands that this is an old defunct church.
He suddenly has a flash of memory rush into his mind and out of instinct he start walking towards the trees that surround the church. He is walking and he hears before he sees, the water that he’d been wishing for. He wants to drink all the water there is and he rushes, but he trips on a small stone and falls face forward into a pit. Alas he gets water.
He tries to swim and navigate his way up, surprisingly there are no water weeds touching him and the water tastes unfamiliar, not salty enough. It is not the ocean, nor the sea, then where is he? Finally reaching the surface, he looks and what he sees amazes him.
The ruin aesthetic intrigues him, adorned with a golden hue.
-
The sight is mesmerizing, looking at all the dancing light and the colors, he is curious and wants to know where he is. He decides to look around in detail and investigate. On examining the pit he fell in, he deciphers that there must be an entryway somewhere around for him to enter, someplace where this warm light is coming from.
He bends down to look and examine the soils and the surfaces that are around him. On keen observation he realizes that there are marks on the ground indicating fluidity, which meant that the plane that he was standing on was in fact sloping. He soon figured out that he was positioned on an edge of a mound and decided to follow the peak.
Midway his climb, he encounters a path that curves around the mound twisting its way through smaller trees. He simply follows on a hunch that this would lead him straight to where he wanted to be, and soon enough he reached an opening of a tunnel from what he could see.
The tunnel seemed cold and yet inviting enough for him to step forward as he could once again see the golden hue from that light within. The sun was starting to rise and he felt energetic. He could see better the traces of time on the walls of the tunnel. Not long after he reaches the other end of the tunnel where he can see the water at his feet in a crater sort of well, or that’s what he thought it was.
There is light all around, bouncing on the water and illuminating all the surfaces it finds. He is excited about the place he is in and mesmerized to be able to be here at all. He paces in the tunnel for long and looks at all the coloration and striation that are very evident. He tries to touch and understand material. At places, he finds graphene deposits and figures out that this material he sees is made of processed carbon.
-
Amused with his understanding of the carbon material, he moves into the light and is mesmerized once again by the shimmering water down in the circles of this carbon material. He carefully navigates his way as close to the water as he can get to see further in depth. But, the morning sunshine casts a heavy glare onto the water making it difficult to intercept any finding. Alas he decides to jump back in and scavenge for any clues.
It was a remarkable sight, he saw lines, many lines. They were deposits of carbons over years and years, that much he could make out as he could clearly see color variations from top to bottom. He soon realized and grasps that there was no more to be found, rather he didn’t need to see more to learn about his whereabouts.
He quickly swims back to the top and walks back to the tunnel and comes out. Laying on the mound, basking in the sun, he jogs his memory to all the research he had come across from his father’s library. He couldn’t really pin point to what he was trying to remember but the fresh warm light lets his instinct have a free reign.
And then, he remembers, from long ago, reading about the carbon sequestration, a boom that had bought this world some time.
-
He sat a long while, thinking about the hours he’d spent reading all the articles and research papers that his father had collected for his studies. He vaguely recollected seeing an article from around thirty years ago about carbon mining, collection and storage. It had gotten him very curious to find out all about it but had not pursued his thoughts then, today he had all the time to think of it.
He tries to dig deeper into his memories of the article and speculate about life in the crater that we was besides. He had gone through the transition of a changed living but this he had not seen before, it looked historic.
After tremendous speculation and waiting, he gets up and goes on to search more. He’d seen doors and windows underwater in the circular walls around him. He takes a long breath and dares to jump a tier down and investigate inside the ruins. It was not difficult to find another tunnel opening and miraculously this one had more passages leading him inside the dwelling.
He is aware of the marks that time had left on the walls, the wear and tear too. He examines things closely and encounters early stages of historical smart living from the 2050s, the concept of being off-the-grid. Old ways were simple, yet smart and resourceful.
-
He is mesmerized by the story these ruins tell him about the life here almost about 30-40 years ago and he tries to take all of it in. he wants to go back home and find all there is to this. Until now he had forgotten about the underlying worry, where was he?
Out of concern, he traces his steps back towards the tunnel and leads himself out. He decides on starting from the place he’d woken up at. On setting out to explore rest of the area, he sees a lot of familiar things. He looks all around, soaking in the warmth his memories give him.
He suddenly starts running on a course, again led by his instinct and he finds the vent tower he was looking for, another building from his memory. He now knows where he is but to confirm, he walks to the highest mound there is, which he knows the way to. He climbs the steady slope and looks at the island he is on. The vision before his eyes is complete now, filled with everything he takes in and sees physically and also in glimpses from his memory.
He is happy with all the brightness, he finally remembers it all.
-
"Dear Diary,
I remember now, I know how I ended up here, this is the old island my dad got me to when I was small. I came here to look at the bee pavilion, play on the slide and collect oyster shells. We also biked around the hills in the south. What I see now is a volumetric capture of the time that has passed. A memorial in dedication to our deeds, depicting climate change.
Yours,
A Man from Utopia"
-
Its dark, he can sense it even with his eyes shut. His head feels heavy and there’s an uncanny thirst that absorbs him. He wants water. He opens his eyes and tries to see in the darkness. On deciding to take the risk in this darkness, he stands up and slowly starts to walk around. Not long after he sees a faint light shimmering not far from him, thinking that it could be water, he walks towards it in a hurry.
The calm he’d felt with the shimmering blue soon fades away as he realizes that what he’d seen was just a reflection on a very old building, almost all of it blanketed with the darkness. He tries to find a door or an entrance and on inspection understands that this is an old defunct church.
He suddenly has a flash of memory rush into his mind and out of instinct he start walking towards the trees that surround the church. He is walking and he hears before he sees, the water that he’d been wishing for. He wants to drink all the water there is and he rushes, but he trips on a small stone and falls face forward into a pit. Alas he gets water.
He tries to swim and navigate his way up, surprisingly there are no water weeds touching him and the water tastes unfamiliar, not salty enough. It is not the ocean, nor the sea, then where is he? Finally reaching the surface, he looks and what he sees amazes him.
The ruin aesthetic intrigues him, adorned with a golden hue.
-
The sight is mesmerizing, looking at all the dancing light and the colors, he is curious and wants to know where he is. He decides to look around in detail and investigate. On examining the pit he fell in, he deciphers that there must be an entryway somewhere around for him to enter, someplace where this warm light is coming from.
He bends down to look and examine the soils and the surfaces that are around him. On keen observation he realizes that there are marks on the ground indicating fluidity, which meant that the plane that he was standing on was in fact sloping. He soon figured out that he was positioned on an edge of a mound and decided to follow the peak.
Midway his climb, he encounters a path that curves around the mound twisting its way through smaller trees. He simply follows on a hunch that this would lead him straight to where he wanted to be, and soon enough he reached an opening of a tunnel from what he could see.
The tunnel seemed cold and yet inviting enough for him to step forward as he could once again see the golden hue from that light within. The sun was starting to rise and he felt energetic. He could see better the traces of time on the walls of the tunnel. Not long after he reaches the other end of the tunnel where he can see the water at his feet in a crater sort of well, or that’s what he thought it was.
There is light all around, bouncing on the water and illuminating all the surfaces it finds. He is excited about the place he is in and mesmerized to be able to be here at all. He paces in the tunnel for long and looks at all the coloration and striation that are very evident. He tries to touch and understand material. At places, he finds graphene deposits and figures out that this material he sees is made of processed carbon.
-
Amused with his understanding of the carbon material, he moves into the light and is mesmerized once again by the shimmering water down in the circles of this carbon material. He carefully navigates his way as close to the water as he can get to see further in depth. But, the morning sunshine casts a heavy glare onto the water making it difficult to intercept any finding. Alas he decides to jump back in and scavenge for any clues.
It was a remarkable sight, he saw lines, many lines. They were deposits of carbons over years and years, that much he could make out as he could clearly see color variations from top to bottom. He soon realized and grasps that there was no more to be found, rather he didn’t need to see more to learn about his whereabouts.
He quickly swims back to the top and walks back to the tunnel and comes out. Laying on the mound, basking in the sun, he jogs his memory to all the research he had come across from his father’s library. He couldn’t really pin point to what he was trying to remember but the fresh warm light lets his instinct have a free reign.
And then, he remembers, from long ago, reading about the carbon sequestration, a boom that had bought this world some time.
-
He sat a long while, thinking about the hours he’d spent reading all the articles and research papers that his father had collected for his studies. He vaguely recollected seeing an article from around thirty years ago about carbon mining, collection and storage. It had gotten him very curious to find out all about it but had not pursued his thoughts then, today he had all the time to think of it.
He tries to dig deeper into his memories of the article and speculate about life in the crater that we was besides. He had gone through the transition of a changed living but this he had not seen before, it looked historic.
After tremendous speculation and waiting, he gets up and goes on to search more. He’d seen doors and windows underwater in the circular walls around him. He takes a long breath and dares to jump a tier down and investigate inside the ruins. It was not difficult to find another tunnel opening and miraculously this one had more passages leading him inside the dwelling.
He is aware of the marks that time had left on the walls, the wear and tear too. He examines things closely and encounters early stages of historical smart living from the 2050s, the concept of being off-the-grid. Old ways were simple, yet smart and resourceful.
-
He is mesmerized by the story these ruins tell him about the life here almost about 30-40 years ago and he tries to take all of it in. he wants to go back home and find all there is to this. Until now he had forgotten about the underlying worry, where was he?
Out of concern, he traces his steps back towards the tunnel and leads himself out. He decides on starting from the place he’d woken up at. On setting out to explore rest of the area, he sees a lot of familiar things. He looks all around, soaking in the warmth his memories give him.
He suddenly starts running on a course, again led by his instinct and he finds the vent tower he was looking for, another building from his memory. He now knows where he is but to confirm, he walks to the highest mound there is, which he knows the way to. He climbs the steady slope and looks at the island he is on. The vision before his eyes is complete now, filled with everything he takes in and sees physically and also in glimpses from his memory.
He is happy with all the brightness, he finally remembers it all.
-
"Dear Diary,
I remember now, I know how I ended up here, this is the old island my dad got me to when I was small. I came here to look at the bee pavilion, play on the slide and collect oyster shells. We also biked around the hills in the south. What I see now is a volumetric capture of the time that has passed. A memorial in dedication to our deeds, depicting climate change.
Yours,
A Man from Utopia"
A Light in the Dark
A Directed Research Book