Rhythm Saxena, the CoStAAn of the Department of Art, Design and Publicity (ADP) gave a brief overview of the work ADP is doing this APOGEE. ADP makes art panels, posters, and backdrops for the auditorium as well as structures for decorating the entire campus. They are also responsible for the publicity of the fest through the social media handles. ADP also brings in and manages media partnerships for the fests.

The department commenced its work on March 15, 2022—about two months behind schedule, Rhythm said. He added that the spirits were high as they had got the opportunity to work on an in-person fest after a gap of about two years. He believed that their dedication and excitement would compensate for the time crunch and the end product would be a great fest. Rhythm said that the theme of the fest, “The Encrypted Dimension”, provided them with a lot of scope to design creative decorative pieces. Elaborating on the meaning of the theme, he said, ‘Encrypted dimension means that the natural world is going on above the ground and below the ground there is another dimension that is encrypted and APOGEE would be going on there. So that’s like a secretive multiverse.’

Rhythm was of the opinion that people enjoyed fun events during any fest and that was the reason for doubling the number of live performances and stand-up comedy shows. He was excited about the lineup of speakers such as Jeffery Archer, Saumya Swaminathan, and Nagin Cox. He said they aimed to create an amalgamation of technical events and fun activities this APOGEE.

Rhythm said that initially, the fest was supposed to be held in a hybrid mode. In February, as the pandemic became less severe, the Institute, especially the Director, was very supportive of conducting the fest in person. Rhythm remarked that this came as a great relief to CoStAA as it would have been extremely challenging to conduct events in a hybrid mode. Talking about the spike in cases in the Goa campus after an in-person fest, Rhythm opined, ‘In BITS Goa the things are totally different. Our campus is like a bubble. We don’t go out and people don’t come in generally. I am very positive we won’t be facing any difficulties like that. Even if the cases shoot up it would be fine and I’m positive we won’t have many serious cases. I don’t know why it happened in Goa but I’m quite sure it won’t happen here.’

Speaking about his experience as a part of CoStAA, Rhythm said that his department mainly deals with groundwork which is usually hectic. He said that the CoStAA group was very supportive which helped ease things. Finally, he advised all the juniors who would be seeing an in-person fest for the first time to get involved in the events and enjoy themselves to the fullest as their first fest would be the most memorable one.