Memories with a
Shelf Life
ROLE:
Illustration | Publication | Print
How do you preserve the nuances of an oral tradition when its native speakers are assimilating into a globalised world?
CHALLENGE:
Archiving the vanishing Palakkad Tamil Brahmin heritage—a culture defined by a specific dialect and physical rituals that are not documented in written form.
INSIGHT:
Cultural extinction begins with the loss of "muscle memory." Because gestures precede spoken language, the only way to archive an oral tradition is to document the morphological rhythms of its daily rituals.
SOLUTION:
Produced a "Time Capsule" publication—a non-verbal archive that maps fleeting human motions into a static visual system. The publication functions as a physical specimen, combining a morphological table of community gestures with translated personal narratives from in-person interviews.
HOW TO READ?
Each category is treated as an action and a verb—such as To Meet, To Prepare, To Eat, etc. Within these categories, various activities associated with these actions are documented. By using monochrome illustrations, I aim to visually convey the emotions tied to these actions. Accompanying the illustrations are the stories I gathered from individuals during my interviews, adding a personal narrative layer to each action.
book specification - A5 digital print,
cover - canvas paper 210 gsm,
pages - recycled off-white paper 170gsm
