Kavya Kulshreshtha and I have published "Re-learning Puberty: Minimising Period Shaming in Urban Schools" with HWWE 2021. This research addresses the issues of understanding menstruation and its communication among the stakeholders: school-going students, parents and teachers. Kavya's design offers to minimise period shaming. As a supervisor, dealing with the topic and the 'female' student was initially challenging. However, as the project demanded and progressed, many perception blocks disappeared. It was then challenging to deal with the participants ethically; we devised multiple strategies, including semi-structured interviews and FGDs. One such method was Visual Card sorting, where visual cards were "made to analyse participants' uninfluenced behaviour towards sanitary napkins in their natural surroundings like home, school, and market... ". Read the published version here Read the submitted version here |
Design for development 2.0? Revisiting the Ahmedabad Declaration and discourse of design in India
presented at 2019 WDO Research and Education Forum, Hyderabad As the seminal India Report laid the foundation for the National Institute of Design (2013), a decade later, inspired by HfG Ulm and shaped by its local conditions (Rane, 2017), the Industrial Design Centre at IIT Bombay emerged as another hub for Industrial Design Education in India. Together they formed the two ideological cradles, where the first formal discourse of Industrial Design in India occurred. Reflecting on the projects, pedagogical models and philosophy from India, including Balaram (2005), Vyas (2010), Ranjan (2015), particularly IDC and NID, the paper here teases out the potential paths to pursue in the current scenario of design education in India and the larger developing world. Read here Towards an ontological expansion of design: Thematic threads to advance the next design education paradigm
presented at 2019 WDO Research and Education Forum, Hyderabad The new millennium widened the forms and perception of design as ‘Objects, Communications, Spaces, Events, Services, Systems, Environments, Organisations, Futures’ and associated it with ‘the idea of transformation’ (Ranjan, 2015). This expansion of forms and the idea of transformation is pertinent to the urgency displayed in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, 2015). Be it Responsible Production and Consumption (SDG 12), Sustainable Cities and Communities, or Good Health and Wellbeing (SDG3), the design has a role, agency and ability to critically and constructively address each of the seventeen SDGs poignantly. The author argues that the 'design' needs to be expanded to work in the larger world, with plural world-views, in facilitating the process. The paper elaborates thematic threads, which Design Education (DE) structures and networks can pursue to advance the next paradigm in its pedagogy. This paradigm (or paradigms) will surely be more relatable to the context and localities, and empathetic to the users and the mother earth. Elaborating the threads as critical practice will also allow DE to offer integrated solutions (UNDP, 2019) towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Read here Thanks to the editors Paul Rodgers and Craign Bremner for this witty addition to the discourse of Design. I am one of the contributors in the book 118 Theories of Design(ing) with:
#68 A Jugaad Theory of Design[ing] #69 A Gandhian Theory of Design[ing] #70 A Rasa Theory of Design[ing] Proud to be listed along the heroes like Arturo Escobar and Rachel Cooper In this short article, I am sharing some of the points I discussed in a panel on the National Education Policy 2020 at my alma mater, Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Gurgaon last week. I argue that how the National Education Policy 2020 is the much-needed paradigm shift in the Education & Academic sector. Though top-down, as a policy, it is going to revolutionise not just education and the whole idea of education in our society.
Read More Today, I presented a lecture, Designama: Shifting Positions of Design in India, at the New York University, 4-5 pm, 18 Feb at IDM, Room #324, 370 Jay St., Brooklyn, Department of Technology, Culture and Society, NYU. Thanks to Ahmed Ansari for hosting me at New York. Today, I reflected on 'Critical Pedagogy in Design in India' in the Panel on Design Pedagogy at College Art Association and Get International Program organised at School of Art Institute of Chicago. Our panel included Pedith Chan (Hong Kong) as the Moderator and presentations by Dr Priya Maholay-Jaradi (Singapore) and Eiman Elgibraan (Saudi Arabia). Thanks to Ali Mahfouz and Pearlie Rose Baluyut for the images.
"At a one-day preconference colloquium, to be held this year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the fifteen new participants will discuss key issues in the international study of art history together with five CAA-Getty alumni and several CAA members from the United States, who also will serve as hosts throughout the conference."
As a CAA-Getty International Program Fellow, I will be attending CAA Annual Conference and Fellowship Program in Chicago, February 2020.
It’s my pleasure to report our Study Trip to Arunachal Pradesh and Asom, undertaken with 17 students of Master of Design students (Feb 17 to Mar 1, 2019). The tour focussed on the Apa Tani Cultural Landscape of Ziro Valley in Arunachal Pradesh which features itself in the Tentative list of World Heritage Site, bolstering the claims of the richness of indigenous knowledge systems at various scales. The continuum of its everyday life and belief systems including its agriculture, land use practices, natural resources management and conservation, festivals, material culture, objects and crafts, has been exemplarily sustainable and can be interpreted in the modern education and policy frameworks.
The studio was undertaken under the MDES203 Design Studies, with ‘Design Anthropology’ (Salvador et al., 1999; Gunn et al., 2013; Murphy, 2016) as the theoretical framework operating at four levels as:
The seven days of field work involved enquiries at above levels with ethnography, visits to various institutions within, detailed interviews and a formal community interaction hosted at our stay. The students are expected to come up with a small exhibition on the documentation and reflection from the tour within the semester. They can also further derive ‘Design Projects’ to pursue their interests. I would like to thank Prof Sridharan who accompanied us in the first leg of the trip to Naharlagun, where our institution signed an MoU with the Rajiv Gandhi Central University and further travelled to the Ziro Valley to assess the future academic possibilities. I want to express my sincere thanks to Prof Sarit Chaudhuri (Director IGRMS and Professor of Anthropology, RGU) and our local guide Mr Chobin Punyo (Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at RGU). Their insights on Apa Tani cultural practices in Ziro enriched us with an efficient orientation. We are also thankful to the people in Arunachal Pradesh who helped us during the unexpected political turmoil during the last few days of our stay. I would also like to thank Prof Ravi Mokashi and Prof Udayakumar, Department of Design IIT Guwahati, who hosted us at IIT Guwahati along with presentations by Prof(s) Keyur Sorathia (HCI), Pradeep Yammiyavar (Usability), Sougata Karmakar (Ergonomics).
Paper presented at Lancaster University in September 2017In the larger developing world context, the idea of ‘care’ is most visible in Gandhi’s ideas. Though Gandhi was not a designer in established notions, as an excellent communicator and critical political activist, his sense of ‘care’ was reflected in most of his thoughts and actions. He famously argued for the idea of ‘Sarvodaya’ or ‘Well-Being of All'; a thought deeply influenced by the work of John Ruskin. This action can be seen as an act of care for fellow human beings and their human rights. From Indian political history, when Gandhi dreamt of India’s future, the ‘care’ for various factors remained central in his vision. Be it caring for the human labor or towards reclaiming the environment, or cultural values to the village structures. In the domain of design and care, the idea of ‘khadi', a handmade fabric, reflect his greater ideas of Sarvodaya. Khadi’s making involves care for the human labor and environment at various levels of its existence. As a non-violent symbol of protest, ‘khadi’ even cared to take care of the opposition, an act rarely seen in the history of political revolutions. ’Sarvodaya’ as a thought might have lost in the political unfolding of history in India and the developing world, the sense of it remains at the politics of it, though more selectively. To answer the question, “What might politicized versions of care look and feel like?”, Sarvodaya can be a caring and careful answer. The study would like to unearth the idea of Sarvodaya as a political version of Care and Design. >>> Read more
Images from the Book Launch Event of Blue Lines of Kolkata, the first from the Search Landscape Urbanism Series. This book I have co-edited with my teacher from undergrad days Dr. Suptendu P Biswas. The book was launched by Prof. Parth Pratim Chakraborty, Director, IIT Kharagpur with a personal note. A panel discussion on 'Future of Canals of Kolkata,' followed the book launch, consisting of Kalyan Mukhopadhyay, DC Traffic Kolkata; Prof. Samiran Datta from SRFTI Kolkata; Somnath Biswas, Civil Engineer; Abin Chaudhuri, Architect from Kolkata; moderated by Dr. Suptendu Biswas, Architect & Urban Designer from New Delhi. It was a fantastic learning experience through the diverse panel discussion and Q&A session as rarely you see such a passionate audience as Kolkata. Blue Lines of Kolkata, emerged out of ideas and proposals from the Search Workshop 16 and selected contributions from various experts, initiates a discourse on shifting the focus to Landscape Urbanism as a method to reimagine and rejuvenate the city. Interestingly, nine of the forty-two participants in the Search Workshop 16 organized by SEARCH and RCGSIDM, IIT Kharagpur, were from various levels and departments from SPA Bhopal. Image Credit: Subhadip Biswas, Saurabh Tewari, Anshuman Abhishek Mishra and Oxford Bookstore Kolkata
Had an amazing week in dealing with the Foundation Batch of NID Ahmedabad, along with the co-mentors Tanishka Kachru, Dr. Shilpa Das and Sangita Shroff.
People, Chair, and Value(S): A Qualitative Inquiry into the Material Lives
Today, Dr. Suptendu P Biswas and me, presented the context, framework and outcome of the recently concluded Search Workshop 16 at WIEZ2017. We represented Trust for Search and our respective institutions at this International Symposium organised by IIT Kharagpur and Columbia University. This is another step towards the dissemination of the idea of Landscape Urbanism and our workshop on the subject. Next in queue is a publication and an exhibition of all the proposals. Thanks again to all the associated; partners, mentors and speakers, and especially the participants of the Search Workshop 16, who will carry forward the baton.As the coordinator of the Search Workshop 16, I would like to thank each and everyone involved, participants and mentors, speakers and associates, sponsors and partners, technicians and vendors, who contributed in making Search Workshop 16, a meaningful and memorable experience. It was 21st January 2016, when I went to meet Dr. Suptendu P Biswas at his home and first conceptualised this workshop. Aur fir log judte gaye, kaarvaan badhtaa gaya...
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