Visited HfG Ulm, the Gangotri of so many post-war design objects, pedagogical approaches, and service/system concepts. It's unfortunate that this iconic Design School closed in 1968. However, it's ideological variations are all over the world including NID and IDC IIT Bombay in India.
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Ms Sushma, an educator at the Nai Taalim Centre, along with Mr Adwait, an educator from Bengaluru working in Sevagram, hosted us at the Nai Taalim School. The participants witnessed all the laboratories dealing with life skills including spinning, knitting, cleaning, farming, drawing, craft etc. and its integration with the mainstream academic structure for the students at the school.
Made in the memory of Shri Maganlal Gandhi, one of the nephews of Bapu, Magan Sangrahalay (museum) houses the artefacts related to Mahatma Gandhi. We interacted with Ms Vibha Gupta, the chairperson of the trust looking after the museum, about various issues of development and sustainability in relation with the philosophy of Bapu. Then a volnteer took all the participants around the live craft section of the complex, Magan Khadi. Participants witnessed not just the traditional methods of spinning and dyeing but also the innovative products like knitted T-shirt, real-leaf block prints etc. Mahatma Gandhi has been an iconic and omnipresent figure in India. Like, many of my co-citizens, I know a bit about his role in independence, his philosophy and writings. However, personally, there was no enquiry into the spaces he lived in. Thanks to EPCO Fellowship, I was able to visit the historical sites associated with Gandhi in Sevagram and Wardha. I further realised that I have seen his other residences, in Phoenix, and at Sabarmati. In this series, I will present snippets from Sevagram and Wardha. Again, the idea is to understand the Gandhian philosophy through spaces, objects and practices.  Sevagram Gandhi Ashram The Sevagram complex is made up of four significant buildings, including the Aadi Kutir, Bapu Kutir, Baa Kutir and Jamnalal Bajaj residence. Aadi Kutir was the first building to be made where Mahatma Gandhi stayed first along with his peers on the invitation of Jamnalal Bajaj of Wardha in 1936. Interestingly, Bapu limited the budget of the building to Rs 1, so it had to be made using the local material procured from the site. It is a minimal assemble of habitat spaces with ascetic materials like local timber and mud. The low ceiling height with the harmonic pillars around keep the experience serene and humble. This place witnessed historical meetings with many luminaries from India's freedom struggle. Later, with the larger influx of visitors in the setup the other huts were made. Its story reminded me of great suggestion to the architect Laurie Baker about using the building material from close vicinity. Perhaps, the Aadi Kutir was the reference. The whole complex conveys a spiritual emotion through its grounded planes and landscape. Every other second, I felt Gandhi was present around. The gravel on the ground and walking barefoot around was a tactical experience of the space. The objects kept in the residences manifests the simplicity of Gandhi's everyday life. PS: The early morning prayer at 4:45 a.m. was heavenly. I strongly reccommend attending it, if you plan to visit Sevagram. Designed by Architect Christopher Charles Beninger, the Bajaj Science Centre at Wardha is an innovative initiative to encourage and infuse the pragmatic aspects of science in young minds. Around 500 students from Wardha region enroll in the various modules of the Science Centre to learn the practical and creative aspects of science. They focus on learning by doing and creative learning where children are taught concepts of maths and science through fun activities and games. There are dedicated labs for each discipline of science including Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Chemistry, etc.
I think its one of the most meaningful initiatives in Science Education in India. Bajaj Science Centre is the model which can be implemented in various other fields like Design.
This weekend, through EPCO's Gandhian Eco-philosophy Fellowship programme, I was fortunate to meet Padma Sri Babulal Dahiya ji. He is curating a native and indigenous 'Paddy Bank' to counter the multinationals selling us unsustainable seeds. Interestingly, he learnt about all these paddies through Bagheli folk-tales and idioms. Have a look at the amazing catalogue of 200 varieties by him.
PS: Every day, I realise decolonisation can lead to sustainability. 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). Blown away by the wealth of textile craft of Kalamkari in Machilipatnam, a historic coastal town of Andhra Pradesh. Met Shri Pitchuka Srinivas who has curated the Kalamkari Museum at Pedana. He comes from the family of Pitchuka Veeru Subbaiah, the man who started kalamkari in Machilipatnam. The meticulous shirt designed by him in 1980s appears to be bold in fashion. Got to see the objects associated with the craft, including copper blocks, the dyeing process containers etc. in the privately curated museum.
 Published: The Lancaster Care Charter, January 2019, Design Issues 35(1):73-77 Click here to read further
 Very happy to be a part of the Gandhian Eco-Philosophy Fellowship by EPCO, MP Govt. Interacted with some amazing Gandhian thinkers and young researchers today, including the 89-year young Bhai ji KN Subbarao, and the poet Udayan Bajpai. Hope the next eight months to be a transformative learning experience.
Image Courtesy: EPCO. In September 2017, I got an opportunity to participate and present in ' Does Design Care...?,' a workshop at the Imagination Lancaster (Design Department of the LancasterUniversity, UK). As a bunch of interdisciplinary and multi-focus designers, we deliberated on the idea of care through/in Design. We revisited iconic Munich Charter and came up with a vision document, Lancaster Care Charter, which is now published in the latest issue of Design Issues by MIT Press. I thought of sharing the same with you.
Abstract In the fall of 1991 the Munich Design Charter was published in Design Issues. This charter was written as a design-led "call to arms" on the future nations and boundaries of Europe. The signatories of the Munich Design Charter saw the problem of Europe, at that time, as fundamentally a problem of form that should draw on the creativity and expertise of design. Likewise, the Does Design Care…? workshop held at Imagination , Lancaster University in the autumn of 2017 brought together a multidisciplinary group of people from 16 nations across 5 continents, who, at a critical moment in design discourse saw a problem with the future of Care. The Lancaster Care Charter has been written in response to the vital question "Does Design Care…?" and via a series of conversations, stimulated by a range of presentations that explored a range of provocations , insights, and more questions, provides answers for the contemporary context of Care. With nation and boundary now erased by the flow of Capital the Charter aims to address the complex and urgent challenges for Care as both the future possible and the responsibility of design. The Lancaster Care Charter presents a collective vision and sets out new pragmatic encounters for the design of Care and the care of Design. Read Further
Design in Visions: Visions of/on Design from the Events, Declarations and Policies in India
In the last six decades in India, like many developing nations, Design has repositioned and elaborated in/ by various visions. The research studies these changing positions of/on Design in the events, declarations and policies at different Design schools of postcolonial India. A mix of primary and secondary study looks into the timeframe from India’s independence in 1947 to the present and reflect on the nature and making of these positions and visions. Through the people and documents of/about events, declarations, charters, documents, working papers, and formal proposals, it analyses and presents the visions of Design as foundational, developmental, postmodern, neo-liberal and retrospective visions. Read Further
I presented "Design in Visions" at 10+1 ICDHS Conference. I discussed a thread of the journey of Design in India through various institutional visions and how it interacted with various postcolonial politico-economic developments at the centre. The paper analysed and presented the visions as foundational, developmental, postmodern, neo-liberal and retrospective. Post presentation, the Q&A included a discussion on the other possible forms and threads of Design History in India and comparitive developments in other greographies.
Out of the four Keynotes, I personally liked the Alain Findelli's (University of Nimes) talk for its broader historiographical nature. He critically reflected the journey of design in the last hundred years across the world. At the same time, I feel that it was inevitably Eurocentric until he discussed contemporary cases of community resilience and co-design from North Africa. ICDHS is a platform which seeks to challenge the existing histories of design by presenting otherwise 'peripheral' versions. There was a significant participation from Latin America, Scandinavian nations, Japan and Taiwan. My paper from India fitted well into the purpose of the conference. In the coming years, ICDHS seeks to decolonise the discourse of Design too. I hope the design, architecture and planning educators from India will contribute to the larger movement of decolonisation.
Paper presented at Lancaster University in September 2017 In 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
दिल्लीवालों को समर्पित।
यह मेरा शहर! कब आएगा मुझे नज़र? यह मेरा शहर! कब होगा मुझे इस पर फ़क़र? यह धुँध कब छँटेगी, कब आएगा मुझे कुछ नज़र? लगभग दो करोड़ लोगों का घर, ये दिल्ली शहर, अब दर बदर, दर्द भरा मंज़र। हर तरफ़, बस बुरी ख़बर, ना दिखती कोई डगर, हिंदुस्तानी इतिहास का सबसे निराला नगर, आज चिमनी क्यूँ बन गया पर? साँसे है रुक गई, पास है दिखती क़बर, धुआँ धुआँ सा है, इंसान ही का है ये क़हर। गाड़ियाँ अब भी दौड़ रही, स्कूल क्यूँ बंद है मगर? सियासत की रोटी सेकते राजा वज़ीर, पर प्यांदे क्यूँ खाए ज़हर? जब धूप सुहानी आ जाए, उस वक़्त बता देना पहर। यह मेरा शहर! बस आ जाए मुझे नज़र? - सौरभ तिवारी 10 नवम्बर 2017 Does Design Care... ? A workshop on Design and Care at Imagination, Lancaster University. I presented Sarvodaya (Ruskin, Gandhi) as one of the ideas of care and Khadi as it's manifestation. >More...
At this year's DHS' Annual Conference, I presented my ongoing research project, 'Raw, Repair, Refurbish: ‘Re-Use’ Design Culture from India.
 Kolkata’s original canal (Khal in Bengali) network, the backbone of the drainage system in the city for about three centuries, has deteriorated over the years. Unchecked growth and related land-fill, lack of periodic maintenance, poor management of waste-water and solid waste are few of the reasons. Kolkata suffered terrible water-logging for over a week in September 2006. Situation has been better since then, yet there are lots to be done. Besides that, most of these water channels and large drains are stinking, dirty and unhygienic negative spaces within the city.
The workshop recognized potentials of these drains/ nullahs/ canals, and, taking inputs from multi-disciplinary intellectual exchanges, explored ideas and proposal to convert such unused spaces into environmentally sustainable and socially appropriate public places and mobility corridors. This book, a collection of the said ideas and proposals, is arranged in two parts: the one with articles situating the project (taken up in the Workshop) in the larger urban context, and the other with concept drawings and sketches depicting ideas and explorations undertaken by the diverse groups of participants in the workshop.   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 |
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