Hyper Dhyaan

In January 2020, New Delhi-based conceptual gallery STIR hosted an exhibit, Materiology 2.0,  in Chhatarpur, New Delhi. Partnered with Italian designer Matteo Cibic for the event, together we created an interactive installation titled 'Hyper Dhyaan'.

Our brief comprised a single question -- what if yesterday were to become tomorrow? The answer we came up with was a form of active meditation, hence the name 'hyper dhyaan'. While past notions of the practice have always focused on stillness and serenity, we sought to project meditation as a form of intense activity in the future, particularly given current lifestyles. People remain sedentary and focused on screens, tablets and cell phones and therefore need to unwind by cutting loose and going into active overdrive.

Our project, therefore, involved the creation of a 'trans-meditation room' so to speak, a place to dig into repetitive activity that trains attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear, emotionally calm and stable state.

With Jaipur Rugs as our sponsor, the medium for our installation was primarily carpets; we wanted to reinvent the perception of a ground plane and carpets as floor coverings, going against their preconceived notions. An octagonal box the size of a small room and wrapped in carpeting allowed one visitor at a time through a small double door, onto what they would naturally assume is a carpeted floor; in reality, what surprised them was a trampoline underneath, with the ground beneath shifting so to speak. Installed sensors within the space picked up on each visitor's movement and triggered either blue or red lighting in turn. These lit up the inside of our trans-meditation space, which consisted of canvas walls covered in graphics by both Rooshad Shroff and Matteo Cibic. The blue lighting caused red RS designs to appear visible and the red the works of Cibic in blue, switching from one 'universe' to the other as a visitor made their way around the rug-covered trampoline.

The deep-pile carpeting on the octagon's exterior evolved along a gradient from red to blue and was of a thick, hair-like texture. Its top was created with soft lycra, allowing visitors to jump as high as they dared to achieve the pinnacle of "hyper dhyaan".