Over the Easter break I have limited access to the internet, so I will do what I can with this post.
For the last 2 days I have been visiting the gardens of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton to do some observational drawings to help my set design development. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have such a wonderful, beautiful, and above all RELEVANT place that I can return to over Easter. Not only does the Royal Pavilion possess quintessentially Indian qualities that I would like to inspire my set designs, but furthermore (as aforementioned) it was used as a hospital for the wounded Indian soldiers during the Great War, and so fits my context perfectly. I managed to purchase a very very useful leaflet from the Pavilion gift shop about Brighton's role as the 'greatest centre for hospitals' during WWI , there were many dotted about town, one even in the building where I used to work!
The booklet was incredibly useful and contains some wonderful photos and the bare basics on India's role in the war. Incidentally, the old books that I found in the AUCB library were perhaps not as useful as I first thought. Having started to read through my photocopied pages on the train home, I discover that all the 'historical information' contained within the books is incredibly biased- truly written with rose-tinted glasses on. It's strange because one would assume naturally that the nearer that the date of the source is to the date of the event it's documenting, the more accurate the account will be. However, I realize now that perhaps you need a sense of distance from the original event in order to write a truly balanced account. Because as it is, these books seem to have been written before the Second World War, and therefore BEFORE India's Independence... and you can tell. It's still interesting to see the attitudes of people to the Indian Army at the time, and this sort of biased information will definitely help me with my character development, but as it is, I think I need to stick to more recent accounts when wanting historical accuracy. Either way, having a variety of sources is nice...
The booklet was incredibly useful and contains some wonderful photos and the bare basics on India's role in the war. Incidentally, the old books that I found in the AUCB library were perhaps not as useful as I first thought. Having started to read through my photocopied pages on the train home, I discover that all the 'historical information' contained within the books is incredibly biased- truly written with rose-tinted glasses on. It's strange because one would assume naturally that the nearer that the date of the source is to the date of the event it's documenting, the more accurate the account will be. However, I realize now that perhaps you need a sense of distance from the original event in order to write a truly balanced account. Because as it is, these books seem to have been written before the Second World War, and therefore BEFORE India's Independence... and you can tell. It's still interesting to see the attitudes of people to the Indian Army at the time, and this sort of biased information will definitely help me with my character development, but as it is, I think I need to stick to more recent accounts when wanting historical accuracy. Either way, having a variety of sources is nice...
Back to the present...
Drawing in the Pavilion gardens was lovely today (and yesterday) as it really helped to give me a sense of, not only the architectural side of things, but also how the environment feels when Indian architecture is melded with the natural world... the juxtaposition of all the beautiful cream domes and lattices with the bright flowers and greenery was really inspiring, especially as the set for 'Much Ado' really should mimic an 'outdoor' space....I also visited the very Indian-esque bandstand on the seafront, as it's visual qualities are something that I really want to harness for use in my set- perhaps manifested in a gazebo- or atleast a form representing a gazebo....
Here are a selection of the many photos and drawings of the past few days...
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