Amogh Bhatnagar

Junk Mail Machine

2013
Extrapolation Factory
https://extrapolationfactory.com
Storefront, New York City

https://extrapolationfactory.com/Junk-Mail-Machine


This project takes a participatory approach in the act of creating speculative narratives for the future. People are invited to share their idea for infomercial-style products in the future, using tools which unpack the social, cultural, and technological implications of product design and marketing. 

“Visitors engaged with custom futuring tools, props, and thought diagrams to imagine these future scenarios.  The resulting junk mail communicated the imagined outcomes, as well as implicitly hinting at the implications of the scenarios.”

DESI: Design School India

MFA Thesis, 2004
Ishan Khosla
School of Visual Arts, NYC

https://ishankhosla.com/

Ishan (who now has over 20 years of experience, runnig his design practice), envisioned a design school, running on an East-meets-West philosophy, for contemporary design education in India. His speculation is very realistic, and the plan-of-action very doable. But the pedagogy he envisions is radical, and even after a decade of working actively in the education sector, he says that it’s hard to realise the vision he had in his thesis, given the constraints of the education system and the industry that it feeds into. A large part of this vision, he says, also feels naive and oversimplified, in retrospect, written by a young student who was in that liminal space between belonging at home and in the outside world, in India, and in New York. However, the planning, the articulation, and the design show conviction and confidence, which should be evident in a project of this scale. 

The Post-truth Post

Classroom Project, Semester 5, 2017-18
Amogh Bhatnagar
BFA (VisComm)
College of Art, University of Delhi

A very quick-paced classroom project done as a part of a type-and-image workshop in college by yours truly, this “newspaper” was designed in response to the brief- Can you reimagine the newspaper? 

After grappling with form for a while, i decided to subvert the idea of function, and quickly created narratives that responded to fake news, social media, memes, propaganda, buzzfeed and internet culture, and advertising overdose. The result was an eight page 3 colour newspaper which acted as an art object, a design exercise, and a piece of social commentary.

For some reason, it’s got a disproportionately high number of page-views on my Behance page. 

Books that Don’t Exist

Various Archives
On the Internet

These books, from various episodes of the long-running animated sitcom The Simpsons are the perfect example of diegetic prototypes! They contribute to world-building, and offer subtle insights into the minds of the characters and the creators.

Further Reading:
www.ideabooks.nl/9783906213248-a-final-companion-to-books-from-the-simpsons-new-price-stained-spine


Many other such lists of books exist, like the props in Wes Anderson films, or #fakeBookCovers on Instagram, highlighting non-existent books made for various reasons- as props, as art-pieces, and as social commentary, memes or just general provocations. 

ANCHOR

Tarun Deep Girdher

GUIDE

Tanishka Kachru

         

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