The work of human hands has primitive charm. Primitive media bear the marks of the human touch. A child's scribblings on the wall; a maiden's kolam before every home on the street; a sand artist's sculpture on the sea shore; and a lover's name inscribed for ever on the bark of a tree ... These, and many more, reveal the aesthetic and subtle communicative possibilities of primitive media.
The end of every medium should be to reveal the connect between the natural, the cultural and the spiritual elements of a community. Primitive media, unlike mainstream media, have no implicit or explicit agenda. Though graffiti are an unedited display of emotion, a wall journal can serve as a fine primitive medium to fulfil the creative aspirations of a community. Media students may be allotted space to display the skill of their hands. They may paint, sketch or write. At a less primitive level, they may prepare a collage or poster or display a series of photographs with creative captions. The wall journal, which costs nothing at all, may also serve as a notice board. The only disadvantage, if it really is a disadvantage, is that the wall journal has no permanent form. A second edition means the extinction of the first.
An alternative to the wall journal is the manuscript magazine. A person with a good hand may transcribe the articles and poems; but it will be better, for the sake of variety, if three or four are involved in the transcription. All that can be done with a wall journal, may also be achieved with a manuscript magazine. And the latter, besides being more permanent than the former, is a more intimate medium like a family album. Colour photocopies of the manuscript magazine, if one can afford it, may be taken for private circulation. Though a photocopier is far from primitive, photocopies of a manuscript magazine still retain traces of the essentially human, and therefore, primitive touch.