The APOGEE English Press sat down with Atharv Agarwal, the CoStAAn of the Department of Visual Media (DVM), to gain an insight into their work for the upcoming fest.

Atharv explained that DVM handles all the tech-related aspects of the fest, including the website, several portals requested by other clubs or departments, and the official fest app.

They also handle the theme reveal, curtain-raiser, artist videos, and sponsor videos.

Atharv added that DVM was heavily involved in choosing the theme of the fest. He mentioned that multiple meetings were held with the Department of Art, Design and Publicity till a theme was agreed upon, after which the different verticals of DVM began their work according to the theme.

Atharv elucidated that managing the six different verticals—Front-end, Back-end, Video (2D), Video (3D), App-Development, and Design—requires a lot of collaboration. The teams work together constantly and have continuous feasibility checks to ensure everything goes smoothly.

When asked if DVM was working on anything new this year, Atharv said that they had developed a website for the Department of Paper Evaluation and Presentation, and improved the logistics for the clubs and stalls signings portal. He added that aside from the back-end and pre-existing portals, almost everything—like the fest website—is built anew by the department, every fest.

Delving into the collaborative nature of fests at BITS, Atharv said that DVM does a lot to help other clubs’ events go smoothly. They manage the signings portal to list events and merchandise; the inventory portal used by the Union Council, Election Commission, and the CRC; as well as dedicated portals for a variety of clubs and departments.

Atharv reckoned that being responsible for organising the team’s work as CoStAAn led him to bond more with the members of his department than when he was working solely on the technical aspects. On a concluding note, Atharv thanked his batchmates and juniors for always having his back and wished the best of luck to everyone conducting events. He added, ‘I encourage everyone to poke around the app a bit; you might find a little undocumented distraction.’