Emergent Ragas of the Luni River Bed

Overview

MONSOON SONGS is a speculative project exploring graphic design, strategy, and information systems through an emergent planting proposal for the Luni River bed in Rajasthan, India.

The work maps the river’s seasonal cycles—tracing existing conditions across periods of drought, occupation, and, monsoon transformation called Teej. It documents the annual trade fair in March, when the riverbed is dry and fully traversable; the introduction of light post structures as markers within the landscape; the emergence of datura (moonflower) plantings blooming from April through June; and the monsoon season in July and August, when the river swells and becomes uncrossable.

Together, these layers form a temporal and spatial system that visualizes the riverbed as a shifting landscape of use, ritual, and ecological change.