Investigating Design

On 15th November, I participated it was a pleasure meeting Neha Tomar, Nandini Sharma from Center for Responsible Business (CRB), and was a great experience to have been a part of the panel discussion moderated by Elaine from Grace Farms and “Design for Freedom”. On the panel were Anshu Sharma of SEEDS, Sarabjit Sahota from UNICEF, Ankur Bisen from Technopak and I represented Investigating Design (InDes). The conversations were vibrant with energy and ideas, and that is what I enjoyed most. The round table was very important too, in the way that it brought diverse agencies on a singular agenda, and I’m looking forward to engaging with the entire team to take the ideas forward and being a part of co-creating a meaningful future.

On 4th and 5th July, 2023, we conducted a 2-day Day Workshop at K.R. Mangalam World School at Gurugram.
Name of the workshop;
What A’ Waste: Creatively finding the potential of upcycling in e-Waste

Mentors: - Neha Kulkarni, Tarun Kumar, Kanishka Prasad

The school had expressed a strong desire to encourage its students to engage with the spaces where they study each day in ways that go beyond the conventional. The school wishes to encourage its students to imbibe the philosophy of innovation and creativity by extending themselves beyond the demands of curricular learning by navigating a process of design thinking including research, creative brainstorming, feasibility analysis, material selection, fabrication detail and production of installations. These installations would serve a dual purpose of spurring the imagination and creativity of the students while becoming integral parts of the interior scheme of the Information Technology Department allowing them to feel pride and ownership of the space of the lab.
To aid the school in this endeavour INDES (Investigating Design) proposes to conduct a two day design and fabrication workshop for the students of Class VI – VIII to create installations within the IT Lab. Portions of the MS false ceiling suspended frame panels and parts of the enclosing walls (above the level of the work desks) would be made available to groups of students to make site-specific installations. The workshop would re-use materials from the large volume of waste being generated by the IT industry to link an approach of being ecologically sensitive along with gaining a deeper insight into the evolution of the IT industry itself. Old Cds, discarded wired & wireless mice and old keyboard keys, green motherboards with chips and circuits, empty cases of CPUs and computer fans would be upcycled using connectors and lighting where needed would enable the students to create news forms and objects of communication.
The two core themes that student groups would explore during the workshop and represent through their installations would be
1. The evolution of the IT sector and space: Research and represent significant elements from the History, Geography or the Technological evolution of IT and IT technology
2. Explore the emotions that constitute the experience of an otherwise ‘heartless’ industry: Research and represent the emotional aspects of teaching & learning whether it is wonderment, excitement, curiosity or even anxiety, frustration and confusion. Juxtaposing the constituent parts of what is an emotionless technology with the basic human emotions of the student would hope to create an impactful installation of student life.