navin, Author at Navin Kabra's Blog

Occupying Facebook with Art

There is a meme going around on Facebook where you post a famous work of art as a status update, and everyone who likes the post is assigned an artist and has to choose another work of art to post on their timeline. I got to know of it via Bhooshan, and posted this one:

A great example of impressionistic painting – instead of photographic detail, the focus is on capturing movement and the *changing* play of light – both of those have come through beautifully here.

As a result of this, 42+ people liked it, and a bunch of those actually continued the chain and posted some lovely paintings. I decided that it was all pretty enough to capture in a blog post, so here goes the list. The caption under each picture is taken from the comments of the person who posted this painting.

Bhooshan’s painting that started it all for me:

I like the visual texture of this painting.

And here are the various people who posted things in response to mine:

BVHK posted this:

The Supper at Emmaus is a painting by the Italian painter Caravaggio who is known as an exponent of Baroque painting. I’m posting this because a. I found this painting very realistic b. Caravaggio is well-known for his use of lighting and I noticed the shadows etc. in this painting c. Caravaggio seems to be a very interesting character d. According to the Wikipedia page, “Caravaggio had a noteworthy ability to express in one scene of unsurpassed vividness the passing of a crucial moment. The Supper at Emmaus depicts the recognition of Christ by his disciples: a moment before he is a fellow traveler, mourning the passing of the Messiah, as he never ceases to be to the inn-keeper’s eyes, the second after, he is the Saviour.” and for a change, I sort of ‘got this’ So was very kicked about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio

Dhananjay Nene did a photograph instead of a painting:

This is a second in a series of six photographs of Rhein. There is something very special about the photograph. If you want to take a break and try to come up with some guesses, now is the time to do so without reading any text below. I’ll soon give away why this is a special photograph.
What is special about this photograph. Frankly it seems like a bland photograph. But it is an art created by subtracting rather than by adding. There is a substantial amount of editing that has gone into it including to remove dog walkers and a factory.
Something more curious about this photograph .. **drumroll** this is the most expensive photograph ever. A print was sold for $4.38 million. More details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein_II

Dipali Ekbote:

I choose today, Vincent Van Gogh’s Sorrowing Old Man (‘On the Threshold of Eternity’). As Van Gogh’s works go, this one’s very different in its brush strokes and the lack of vivid bright colours and depictions of several outdoor themes.
I first got fascinated with Impressionist art when, as a child, I found Camille Pissaro’s biography at my uncle’s house and loved it and the art for its lively, at times surreal form.
Van Gogh, a strong Post-Impressionist artist brought his own unique style of painting to what he saw but infusing it with the emotion of his mind. And what a mind it must have been. Living with acute and prolonged periods of mental illness, and being able to create the prolific works of art that he did, especially in the last years of his life. I think this work, completed two months before his death, depicts the artist’s anguished state so well. He chose to title it with “On the Threshold of Eternity” clinging to his faith in existence of a higher self and an eternity.
Don McLean brings Van Gogh to life in the absolutely wonderful song “Vincent” – a personal favourite. Do listen to it if you haven’t heard it yet. http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starrynightlyrics.html

Neena Kamal:

Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian artist from the princely state of Travancore (presently in Kerala) who achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. His paintings are considered to be among the best examples of the fusion of Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art.
This painting is called Jatayu Vadham and the scene is from Ramayana. I personally loved the detailing in this one! Loved the way falling feathers, different emotions are captured.

Koushik Sekhar:

One of my favourite paintings is by Raza. I dont know why I like it – maybe I like round objects . It was my screensavers/wall paper for years.

Kanchan Pant:

Diego Rivera a mexican artist. Someone who’s style of large sized fresco paintings and murals I have loved. I love the warm colors of all his paintings and murals. Bold, simple and yet dramatic http://www.diegorivera.org/flowercarrier.jsp. I like the irony of this painting where there is beauty…there is also burden. You almost wait for that moment when the man is going to rise with the basket on his back.

Sarika Phatak Paranjape:

Presenting one of the not so popular art piece – Van Gogh amendoeiras, 1890, by the very famous Vincent Van Gogh. I dont know anything about art but it gives me great joy every time I look at this painting. The composition is fantastic. I aspire to look outside the window of my house one day and see beautiful blossom like this with blue sky and nothing but calm around me. To me, great art is something an art illiterate like me would look at and fall in love with!

Makarand Sahasrabudhe:

It was a difficult choice to make but I picked this one as an example of incredible attention to detail and an understanding of how reflections on a spherical surface work. I had the privilege of seeing this lithograph at the Escher in Het Paleis recently. A reflecting sphere hangs in the Palace and once can actually hold it like Escher did and see the room behind. Drawing what one sees is out of question…

Ankur Panchbudhe:

Here’s an art work I have liked for a long time – Velazquez’s Las Meninas – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas It’s a painting of a royal household, maids of honor (“las meninas”) to be specific, but it’s very real, sympathetic and elusive. It also has that portal-ish feel, as if the viewer of the painting actually disturbed the proceedings and made everyone to look at him/her.

Asmita Jagtap:

“The Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer Vermeer was a dutch painter who specialised in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. I find the picture intriguing, it seems as though the girl wants to say something but is hesitant and doing so with her eyes. This was one my very first encounters with art, about 15 years ago, and remains to be a favourite. I had made a pencil sketch of this, except there were no lips drawn, to highlight the hesitation. Will try to share if I find it (in the attic) Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer

Keep checking this page for updates for the next few days.

Are our undergraduate engineering (BE) students being forced to publish papers?

Since the fake paper I managed to publish this weekend, I’ve been hearing disturbing reports that even undergraduate students are being forced to publish papers by college authorities.

It is my understanding that there are no University requirements that make it mandatory for undergraduate engineering students to publish papers either as a part of their BE Project, or anything else.

Update: Looks like I was partially mistaken. Here is the University of Pune’s BE Computer Engineering Syllabus. With reference to BE Projects, on page 56, bullet #5 says this:

Students must submit and preferably publish atleast one technical paper in the conferences held by IITs, Central Universities or UoP Conference or International Conferences in Europe or US.

My reading of the line indicates that submission is compulsory, but publication is not. Also, at least they’re clear in specifying what is an acceptable conference. But still, in my opinion, this can’t end well…

I have first hand experience with this. A student group who did their BE Project with me a couple of years ago were desperate to get their BE Project published (in fact, as I pointed out in my previous article, this incident is what started off the thought process that culminated in my fake paper this weekend). I protested that this requirement makes no sense, and forced them to go to their college and get the issue clarified. They came back to me and reported that they were told by college authorities that it was a mandatory requirement. What if the students were unable to get your paper published? The students were told to attach rejection letters from the conference – but submission was compulsory, they were told. At that time, my worry was that all these BE students would submit substandard BE Project reports as research papers to conferences and spoil the reputation of Indian researchers. Little did I know that the papers would actually get accepted by the conference they submitted the paper to.

Now comes something even more ridiculous.

Check out this notice from a prominent Engineering College in Pune:

Notice making it mandatory for students to publish papers — I was sent this image of a notice put up in a prominent local Engineering college, and was told that this requirement was made mandatory by the college for 3rd year BE students (October 2013). I was told that most of the students did publish papers. I have not yet verified whether this is indeed all true, but based on my past experiences, I am sure there are colleges where the students are indeed to forced to try to publish papers during their undergraduate studies.

(Note: I am neither disclosing where I got this information from, nor the name of the college – because I don’t want the students to get into trouble, and also because I’m not particularly interested in targeting any specific person or institutions. I’m more interested in seeing how we can change the system.)

I was told that this notice was a requirement for 3rd year engineering students last semester (Fall 2013)!! The only good news here is that the students were being reimbursed for (part of(?)) their expenses. But other than that, there are so many things wrong with this picture.

The worst thing was pointed out to me by a friend on Facebook:

Also, do point out that student themselves are so indoctrinated, they actually, sincerely believe that publication is a requirement. This is why the market is ripe for [conferences like these].

I know firsthand that students believe that such publications are actually good for them and their resume. I guess I am an idiot for arguing with them that this is not true.

Is this a common occurrence? Are other BE colleges making such arbitrary publication requirements? What can/should be done about this?

Fake Paper Impact: UoP VC to issue circular clarifying that publications are not mandatory

Since the fake paper I managed to publish this weekend, and the resulting Mid-Day story, the reporter from Mid-Day has been busy following up with next steps.

One day later, there are two new stories in Mid-Day.

The first one is good news. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Pune has confirmed that publications are not mandatory for getting an ME/MTech degree, just recommended. Considering that students are being given an incorrect impression, a circular is being issued to the colleges in the University of Pune clarifying this.

Read the full story here

Another, less savory aspect of this affair is the impact on the people involved in the organization of that conference. The story related to that is here, and manages to uncover some more interesting details of what was going on behind the scenes at that conference.