Not My First Time

I feel rusty putting pen (typing) down to paper (screen) and writing in first person. It's been a while since I've done this. I was active on the block back in 2018. I had to stop because I'd just moved to a new country, house hunting was taking a toll on me, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, work was stressful and I just didn't prioritise making content.

I'm an architect-urbanist, originally from India and currently living in Seoul. I made my first Introduce Yourself Post three years ago - Why I Call Myself an Urbanist and another one a few months into my journey on the platform - Why I Still Call Myself an Urbanist. All of that remains. What's changed is that I am now a 3-year resident in Korea. I've picked up the language to a decent extent and it's really helped me navigate my surroundings. I've worked on a few urban regeneration projects in smaller cities in the country. I carried out a research project on high-rise production in Korea and India, applied for funds to exhibit it at the Korean Culture Centre in India and had it open in November 2019!

TeamLab has an exhibition on at the DDP, in Seoul. Visiting it has been one of the highlights of my year

In a Rut

I've been so caught up with things in the last three years that I haven't spent much time to create for myself. I've also now created a routine for myself which is great, but with COVID-19, there's not much to do outside of it. I live in one of the biggest, most dynamic cities in the world and I hardly go out to explore it anymore. I've been meaning to set up a website and write about urbanism but for want of everything to be perfect, haven't gotten round to it. Even though I bought the domain sometime last year. I was thinking, "When was the last time I really felt inspired to go out and see something? Write something for myself?" And I remembered the time that I was exploring my interests by creating content, and making artwork on this platform. I had felt motivated to put something out, it had all made my feel productive, happy and I had gained self worth.

I've also become a mad succulent lady. This is my living room with the grow lights for all my plants. It makes for a very different kind of ambience but I love it

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

And that's why I logged back in. It took me a while to find my keys. I read about all the changes in the last years and got instantly overwhlemed. I'm still not sure I understand all of it. A lot of it looks the same but also some of it is so different! I still can't wrap my head around the different front-ends and if I should be using them. It was, however, nice to find a 'My friends' tab on the right and see some familiar faces @agmoore and @heroldius still active!

In the past, I used this platform as an outlet for all of my different kinds of artwork and collaborative projects. In the last three years, I've delved into a new art form — swing dance. I've always used visual forms — drawing, painting and digital tools to express my artwork. Over the last three years, I've explored how to use my body to create collaborative art through social dancing. Swing dancing is one of things I'm truly grateful to have as a part of my life here in Seoul. It gives me a physical way to express myself and the community has kept me going this last year.

Me outside the DDP after visiting the Team Lab exhibition, trying to film a swing dance video, hehe

I reckon my content on the platform will be much of the same as before — artwork & urban experiments. I do also want to document my swing dancing so I'm going to look into what the best platform for that is. I also just want a diary-like space to document my life in Seoul. I really need to flex this writing muscle back into action and hope to be doing some serious writing about the urban. Most importantly, I want to be able to disassociate from the pressure that I usually put on myself to create the best possible version of any content. Instead, I want to focus on just creating as an outlet and enjoy it while I'm at it.

See you all soon and do comment and let me know what are the #mustdos on the platform, where you think I should be posting different kinds of content!