Taking a break from the noisy halls of SAC where his crew remained hunched over gigantic paintings, Aditya Pawar, the CoStAAn for the Department of Art, Design and Publicity (ADP), gave a brief rundown of what to expect from them this APOGEE.
This year, ADP has signed deals with the television channel 9XM, the online TV portal WittyFeed, and the business magazine Entrepreneur India. While the social media outreach is around 76,000 just on Facebook, the engagement rate is relatively low. The numbers from advertisements through the 9XM deal are expected to be a gamechanger. Ten media deals were signed before the start of this semester. Over the last three years, the publicity segment has grown from around three members to an eleven member team with separate divisions for Facebook, Instagram, and media partnerships. They had also taken up requisition work which did not fall under the purview of any specific department and successfully closed a deal with a merchandise sponsor.
Coming to the theme of the fest, he was of the opinion that, while “The Reality Roulette” looked pretty good on paper, it was hard to implement in terms of decoration or events. He was not present during the theme ideation as ADP had a different CoStAAn at that time. This was the first time ADP attempted aerial artwork with overhead patches on roads. Neon, origami, and aluminium are the bases of their idea execution. One installation which he is particularly proud of is the central structure which has been taken from the Planet of the Apes (1968). It is a “monolith symbolising milestones in revolutionary progress”, flanked by an astronaut and an ape. While the ideation had started much earlier, the art sessions started from 21st January.
Being the CoStAAn for ADP has been a great learning curve for him and the present CoStAA has done a lot to overcome the problems faced by APOGEE. He is strongly against the possibility of a merger between BOSM and APOGEE because not only do they differ in their profiles, the logistical problems of accommodation and available facilities would just cause both sides to suffer. He’s happy about the reduction in the number of days since the schedule is more compact. Earlier APOGEE was for four days, a timeframe in excess of what was needed resulting in a few events which generated low footfall. Around 800 BITSians also went for a Himachal trek during APOGEE last year. Issues with prize money not being transferred on time also caused the fest to be blacklisted by other colleges. He stressed on the fact that the next CoStAA must also work towards improving the reputation of the fest to bring it back to the original duration of four days.
He signed off by encouraging the general BITSian to participate in all events and compete with students of various colleges, “You are in a top engineering college of the country. The fest is for you. You will not get a platform like this elsewhere.”