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AKARA

The Quest for Perfect Form

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In today's world of interlink, where even seemingly tenuous connections can turn out to be significant, we explore the applications of Calligraphy in various technologies and art forms. The advent of printing with movable type meant the development of different type styles, most of which drew their inspiration from calligraphic traditions. Thus Calligraphy has influenced type design and typographic activities throughout the world.

There are several other interconnections:

Calligraphy and cartography:

The plotting and drawing of maps, where the lettering has to be clear but unobtrusive, well placed and easily readable, brings Calligraphy to the fore. Albrecht Durer's woodcuts include some of the most remarkable examples of cartography. Mercator's maps reflect the finesse of his calligraphic ingenuity. In India, the lettering of the 17th century maps of the western region makes use of informal Calligraphy while charting sea routes.

Calligraphy and musical notation:

The cadences of music and the arabesques of line have a similarity which lovers of music and Calligraphy can immediately connect. 'The dance of the pan', as Alfred Fairbank called it, makes for an imaginative language of musical notation.

We see this worldwide phenomenon in many -- and continuing -- forms: the medieval Chitrakavya and Aksharabandhas of India where verses were contained within graphic shapes; the labyrinth or grid-poem which flourished in the Renaissance and the Baroque in the West; the hui-wen genre within Chinese literature; and the many modern examples of concrete poetry in the West as well as in India, where a multiplicity of scripts offers a further exciting dimension.

Calligraphy and computers:

Computer technology bids fair to revitalise printing for India's complex, non-linear scripts whose composite characters and conjuncts vary in size and form. Specially designed software will now be able to produce a variety of calligraphic styles as typefont designs in Indian scripts. Such fonts will facilitate the publication of Indian scripts in various formats and styles.

Because of the structural differences between the Graeco-Roman and the Indian scripts, designing for Indian languages is no small exercise. But a beginning has been made; it advances, with notable promise.

A confluence of tradition and technology

A look at the state of the art in Calligraphy indicates the activities presently under way, and the possibilities for the future. While Indian epigraphy, papaeography and linguistic enquiry of various kinds engage researcher and academic, the study of Indian Calligraphy by comparison, has yet to receive adequate attention.

Attempts in this direction have already started. Some of these are: manuscript studies in a few Indian languages; structural analysis of letterforms; the adaptation of old writing styles for contemporary use, e.g. for typeface design; legibility studies. Efforts at organised calligraphic education have also been initiated, such as the introduction of Calligraphy at higher levels of art education, and workshops and seminars with international interaction.

With the objectives of preservation and promotion of the arts and culture, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts has undertaken an exciting task. The broad aims are: to serve as a national resource centre for the arts; to undertake research and publication programmes for information related to the Arts and Humanities, and to provide a forum for creative and critical dialogues. By using the new disciplines of information technology, an enormous and diversified range of the artistic and cultural heritage is being collected. Calligraphy falls naturally within this ambit, which includes textual and verbal materials, books and manuscripts as well as oral and auditory resources, records of visual kinetics (from dance to fairs and festivals and life styles), and the documentation of art objects ranging from sculpture to painting to architectural monuments to artefacts. Here Calligraphy also contributes, with specially designed lettering for the listing of data and transcription of texts, making its presence relevant wherever the written word carries weight.

'I dive down into the ocean of forms,

hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless.'

Rabindranath Tagore

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