Engaging Luni: A Critical Zone of Wetness rather than a River

Abstract

When the ground is understood as a geographic surface, Luni is articulated to be a seasonal river that flows through the Thar Desert in India. In this paradigm, the desert is perceived as empty or as a place of scarcity to which water must be brought in pipes and canals. However, when situated within a “critical zone of wetness” that extends from clouds to aquifers, Luni is a culturally vibrant open terrain where various traditional practices of habitation—salt production, pottery, music, block printing, and dyeing—are acutely tuned to the monsoon. The design studio organized and instructed by Professor Anuradha Mathur in 2018 at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania engages the latter through analog prints, imprints, and montages to construct another ground. This approach pursues Luni as ubiquitous wetness, rather than understanding the Luni-as-a-river differently. The design project “Resonating Instruments” is an outcome of this studio. Instead of working with maps that construct the ground as a geographic surface, the project uses drawing, photography, printmaking, and montage as techniques of negotiation to construct the ground as a “critical zone of wetness.” These techniques were used to engage the Luni and to construct the instruments in a “critical zone of wetness,” where negotiation, flexibility, fluidity, and gradients are favored over rigidity, separation, and strict delineations and definitions.

Keywords

River Landscapes / Rain Terrain / Wetness / Music / Analog Prints / Montage

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