Treasure Trove

THE BRIEF

Objects have stories. Structures have stories. All complex material constructs have stories. Kagan possesses the superhuman capacity to extract these upon touch.

The mutant has only to make physical contact with an artifact or a relic or a monument to discover its substance.

Kagan isn’t the only freak around. After all, Witches and Wizards made these works of Art.

As he dives right into their narratives, incidentally travelling through time and space, the wizardry in design, the witchcraft in architecture, the devil in the details and the sorcery of the art we live in and are surrounded by are revealed to him.

Touch this Treasure Trove and it’s yours!



THE STORY

For a lot of us, life is an effort to leave something behind after we’re gone.

Something the world is better off, more beautiful, more wonderful with:
A wall built, a wall broken, a house, a tree or a tree house, a building, a cottage, a church or a mosque or a temple – any peaceful place of worship, a garden, a palace or a palace surrounded by gardens, a vineyard, a castle on a hill, a structure or a statue in the water, a fortress, remains and ruins and relics and residue from bygone eras that take you back in time, traces of contemporary times that bring you back to now, to its creators, curators, architects, into their imaginations, to their sense of purpose, the reason these exist, the reason they were ever made – the tales their fences and leaves and flowers and pillars and flooring have stored and tell when touched upon – in the limitlessness of a moment.
You came. You left. But what did you touch, where does your soul lie, what will you be remembered for?
Kagan, with a sixth sense for stories, discovers your touch upon his touch.

Look around you. We’re not such a bad species after all. We may have the ability to break. An ability we have often engaged. In our infinite wisdom, things of beauty have been destroyed, snatching away so much of our joy forever. Our own doing; Our immense, collective folly.
That supreme folly, however, has also come with the superpower to make.
When exercised, it translates into mankind’s marvellous contribution to the world.

We all come into contact with these marvels. We touch these treasures. We admire them – the painstaking effort it took to craft something so exquisite. Kagan goes a step further: With the superhuman capacity to tell its tale upon contact. It’s a mutation that allows him to mark the journeys of these material compositions – their creation and construction.
A mark has been made. A mark remains. It’s a treasure. Treasure it. Save its story. SHOUT! its story. It’s history. It’s the spirit of creation. And it’s every bit worth preserving.
A trove of mankind’s superpowers unearthed.
Only a superpower could reveal it.
And, because we have one, maybe we have many!

TOUCH ELEVEN

Location: South Bombay, in the alleys around Flora Fountain Point of contact: An erotic “massager” at a small stall   It is late morning, and the golden,...

TOUCH TEN

Point of Contact: Believe it or not, a Red Lipstick is what I’ve pulled out of the treasure chest before me. My touch is...

TOUCH NINE

(We’re still Talking Tagore with this TOUCH. That’s how much he has touched us…) Location: A library in Eastern India. Point of Contact: The delicate pages...

TOUCH EIGHT

(We continue Talking Tagore for as many TOUCHES as it takes to tell how much he has touched us…)   Location: A library in Eastern India. Point...

TOUCH SEVEN

Location: A library in Eastern India. Point of Contact: The delicate pages of a sepia-toned book with the writings of Rabindranath Tagore. Upon turning the pages...

TOUCH SIX

Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Point of Contact: Johannes Vermeer’s painting called, ‘The Little Street’. I’m looking at this painting and also wondering why it requires even a...

TOUCH FIVE

Location: Old Town Square, Prague Point of Contact: Beneath the Old Town Hall Tower   (Aamer Khan, a visual artist, doubles up as Kagan in this visual...

PODCAST: TOUCH FOUR

   

PODCAST: TOUCH TWO