The Madras Projectசென்னை

An ongoing exploration by Vinay@ivinay

03 / A reconstruction in progress

A world
taking shape.

Come down
to street level.

Madras · c.1630 / c.1645 / c.1700

Compare three moments

100 seconds · Silent recording · Work in progress

A place, not a backdrop

The same world.
A different height.

A map can hold a coastline. A world has to hold a person standing on it.

The recording begins above the coast, moves through three moments in the reconstruction, then comes down to the beach and into a lane. Everything you see is recorded from the actual world.

This is a preview, not the walkable world. The latest build is phase 16, recorded on 1 October 2026. Independent review is pending.

One camera / Three moments

What changes
in the same place?

Choose a year. The camera stays fixed.
These are separate reconstructions, not a continuous map of how the coast moved.

Fixed aerial camera of the c.1630 reconstruction, with the coast and river before the English fort.
c.1630Before the English fort. The coast is already a place, not an empty beginning.
The same aerial camera in the c.1645 reconstruction, with the first English fort and settlement.
c.1645The first fort and a changing settlement. The camera stays where it was.
The same aerial camera in the c.1700 reconstruction, showing the fort, town and river.
c.1700Fort, town and shore. More of the settlement gathers in the same frame.

What is still being worked out

A person
beside everything.

The scale of a person, a raft and a palm has to make sense together, especially when they move. Watching the recording changed what this project tests.

The latest build addresses walkers’ knees, oversized seated figures, palm trunks and a colour correction. Some cottage colours and ground shading still need attention. These are recorded questions, not closed results.

Read what watching revealed