Friday, December 31, 2010

Film making at NID: A design form or is it art?

Alpavirama 2011: NID film festival and conference


Prof M P Ranjan
Alpavirama 2011 is an event that includes a short film competition, a retrospective of select NID films and a seminar on film making and the design space, all conducted under the banner of NID in its 50th year of existence. Prof Arun Gupta a film maker and teacher at NID who coordinates the cinema short film conference and festival at NID asked me to comment on the forthcoming event on my blog so I raise the question – is film making Art or Design? To answer that question you may need to attend the conference and see the offerings from students and professionals who have managed to get their short films included in this forthcoming event at NID, Ahmedabad.

Image: Stills from “Chaattalmazha” by Ahsam K R, one of the short films that has been shortlisted for screening at Alpavirama 2011 festival and seminar.


I have however retired from NID services at the end of last month and will move on to a new role of active engagement with design that matters in India and elsewhere. I have been contemplating a change in my blog posts that can be unfettered by official institutional strictures or censorship and over the past few months I have been travelling from country to country and in these journeys I was fortunate to meet some remarkable design thinkers and activists who could be the subject of some future posts in the new year ahead, a renewed Design for India platform that has now seen over 1,00,000 visitors clocking over 2,50,000 page views from 8000+ cities in its first avatar that started in June 2007. I have been invited to speak at a number of international events in Davos, Milan, Shanghai and Atlanta in the coming year and at events in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, all exciting and I do look forward to being "retired by NID and from NID" as a Design Thinker and an Independent Academic at large living and working out of Ahmedabad. I had a wonderful farewell party at NID last month and a huge flow of messages on Facebook wishing me well in my retired life, thank you all. Wish you all a very happy and eventful new year ahead.


Image: Stills from the farewell event at NID and the retirement poster from former and current students at NID.


Prof Arun Gupta has sent me a detailed mail outlining the festival at NID and the related events that form part of Alpapavirama 2011 from 18 to 20 February 2011. More information will be available at these links below:
Alpavirama 2011 - South Asian Short & Documantary Film Festival
Alpavirama on Facebook
A little bird tells me that some of our well established graduates from the film, TV and advertising industry such as Sonal Dabral, Anirudh Sen and Shetal Sudhir will be sharing their work in person besides many luminaries from Asia and the world.

Prof. Arun Gupta's mail with the details are quoted below:

I Quote:


Introduction
In celebrations of cinema short films are generally overlooked, compared to the conventional full length feature films. There is something intrinsically special about short films. Short films are like life itself, with myriad colours and nuances, each transient yet for ever. There are many quirky, intimate, unfinished aspects of human existence which can best be conveyed only in a short film format. Further, since this kind of filmmaking faces less commercial pressures (cheaper to produce, hence financial gain not the only consideration), it is more likely to explore cinematic form and frontlines, allowing marginal and non-mainstream stories to be told.

People involved in making short films mostly just stop there; and lot of films thus never reach the audience, their authors neither having the will nor the wherewithal to proceed further. The available exhibition avenues haven’t also caught up with the noticeable increase in the number of short films being made. Further, most such spaces are dominated by older established filmmakers, leaving no platform for the large number of under-30 talents. There is need for a venue and an occasion where these young, enthusiastic and often innovative filmmakers are recognized and celebrated.

At the Film & Video Communication department in the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad we have been promoting short filmmaking for over two decades now. Through these years our students and faculty have created numerous short fiction and documentary films, and the artistic quality and social relevance of these films have been recognized the world over. Our alumni occupy important creative positions in the moving image industry, in India and abroad. Thus its time (in the Golden Jubilee year of NID) the Film & Video Communication department of the National Institute of Design plays a more active role in establishing a credible exhibition platform for short films – especially those given life by the under-30.

The 21st century is commonly believed to belong to Asia. Within Asia, South Asia plays a very important role. It is at once a point of arrival and departure, a seamless link between the so-called orient and the occident. But the subcontinent’s enormous (and increasingly demonstrated) potential has been needlessly inhibited by fratricidal dissension & strife. South Asian short films are alive to these dilemmas, the filmmakers subtly foregrounding the frustrations, pain and promise of south asian life, in their cine tales, underscoring the basic desire of all human beings for peace and harmony.

COMPETITION -
For the Alpavirama 2011 competition section short fiction and documentary films, not-less-than 3 minutes and not-more-than 30 minutes long, will be eligible to participate. The film(s) should have been produced after 1st January, 2009 and should have been directed by a young person (under 30 years, as on 1st January, 2011), who is a citizen of and ordinarily resident in any of the SAARC countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). The subject matter of the film should also broadly deal with South Asia, its people and their lives.

Each film selected for the competition will be screened at least once during the festival. The competition Jury would comprise of eminent individuals selected from the fields of cinema, arts, culture and academics, from India/South Asia.

Awards (Golden Commas) will carry a cash component as well as a trophy. All films selected for competition will get a Certificate of Participation.

RETROSPECTIVE -
For over twenty years, the students of the department of Film & Video Communication at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad have been making short fiction and documentary films, as part of their regular course structure. Many of these films won national and international recognition in the years they were made, but have subsequently not been seen or heard about. Hence a representative retrospective package of NID Film & Video student films, produced in the last two decades, will be curated and presented in the festival. Alumni whose works feature in the retrospective will be encouraged to be present during the festival, to lead the pre and post-screening dialogue.

SPECIAL PACKAGE -
The fast pace of China’s growth in recent years have left several old international hegemonies panting behind. Hong Kong, as China’s emblematic entranceway, is a city undergoing intricate and provocative change, with its medley of communism and capitalism, vertical and horizontal, expatriate and local, Cantonese and Mandarin. It would thus be very interesting to find out how the young Hong Kong filmmakers, living amidst these complex shifts, record & interpret life around them.

At Alpavirama 2011 there will be a Special Package of selected contemporary documentary and short fiction films from Hong Kong. Efforts would be made to invite some of the young filmmakers from Hong Kong, whose works feature in the package.

SEMINAR (Creative Seconds? - Ads, Promos and PSAs)
Many established filmmakers started their careers making under-a-minute films. This is where they polished their craft and learnt the ropes of the business. Some moved on, to longer duration formats. Some occasionally returned, for quick money or to revisit the aesthetic and communication challenges of the very short film.

NID Film & Video alumni have consistently made a name for themselves in the world of advertising films and television channel promotionals. It’s natural therefore for Alpavirama 2011 to ask the question – are these under-a-minute ads, promos and psa’s as imaginative an activity as a longer duration film – and what are the specific features which make these seconds so special ?

Alpavirama 2011 will have a half-day seminar on this topic, with experts presenting their views and subsequently taking part in a group interface with the audience.

Selected Films for Alpavirama 2011 COMPETITION
(1) Avargalluka / Dir: Alfred Prakash (Tamil-LV Prasad Chennai-India)
(2) Bedtime Story / Dir: Sandhya Daisy Sundaram (English-FTII Pune-India)
(3) Chal Meri Luna / Dir: Hardik Mehta (Hindi-Gujarat-India) (http://vimeo.com/11262381)
(4) Dhuruva Natchathiram / Dir: Alfred Prakash (Tamil-LV Prasad Chennai-India)
(5) Eidiyaan / Dir: Aman Kaleem & Mohd Irfan Dar (Kashmiri-Jamia Delhi-India)
(6) Innocence, Medium: Water Colour / Dir: Al-Haseeb Nomanee (English-Dhaka-Bangladesh) (http://vimeo.com/11313427)
(7) Jhat Pat Ghich Pich / Dir: Varun Halder (Hindi-Children's Filmmaking Workshop Delhi-India) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL8vnHAAtHA)
(8) Kal / Dir: S Manjunathan (Tamil-LV Prasad Chennai-India)
(9) Kalu / Dir: Naveed Anjum (Punjabi-NCA Lahore-Pakistan)
(10) Khel Khel Mein / Dir: Radha Kain (Hindi-Children's Filmmaking Workshop Delhi-India)
(11) Kusum / Dir: Shumona Banerjee (Bengali,English-SRFTI Kolkata-India) (http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/3899/Kusum---The-Flower-Bud)
(12) Mera Ghar / Dir: Abhay Kumar (XIC Mumbai-India)
(13) Not Born Heroes / Dir: Vishesh Mankal (Hindi-Marwah Studio Delhi-India)
(14) Paci / Dir: J D Imaya Varman (Tamil-Vadalur Tamilnadu-India) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_hwyTXaCGQ)
(15) Poka / Dir: Ishanee Sarkar (Bengali-NID Ahmedabad-India)
(16) Pushpendra Pandey, Extra / Dir: Ankit Mehrotra (Hindi-TV Direction FTII Pune-India) (http://vimeo.com/10058792)
(17) Shyam Raat Seher / Dir: Arunima Sharma (Hindi,English-FTII Pune-India)
(18) Sound of Time / Dir: Pema Tshering (Thimphu-Bhutan)
(19) Samudra Ke Bare Mein / Dir: Malhar Salil (Hindi-NID Ahmedabad-India)
(20) Idhuvam Love Story Dhanga / Dir: G Bharani (Tamil-LV Prasad Chennai-India)
(21) Titli Udi / Dir: Payal Kapadia (Hindi-Sophia Polytechnic Mumbai-India) (http://vimeo.com/9151026)
(22) Trapped / Dir: Swapnil Ashok Kumawat & Prasad Bhardwaja (Hindi-Pune-India)

Documentary
(23) The Boxing Ladies / Dir: Anusha Nandakumar (Hindi-SRFTI Kolkata-India)
(24) Burning Paradise / Dir: Nisar Ahmed (Urdu,Pashto-NCA Lahore-Pakistan)
(25) Cinema Making Peace? / Dir: Nisar Ahmed (Urdu-NCA Lahore-Pakistan)
(26) I Woke Up One Morning And Found Myself Famous / Dir: Sumit Purohit (Hindi,English-BFA Baroda-India) (http://vimeo.com/11762097)
(27) In Search Of My Home / Dir: Sushmit Ghosh & Rintu Thomas (Hindi,Burmese,English-Jamia Delhi-India) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEQCm-MexAA)
(28) Missing Vultures / Dir: Muhammad Ali Ijaz (Urdu,Punjabi-NCA Lahore-Pakistan)
(29) My Armenian Neighbourhood / Dir: Samimitra Das (English-SRFTI Kolkata-India)
(30) The End Of Flight / Dir: Tariq Thekaekara (English-Srishti Bangalore-India) (http://vimeo.com/16215242)
(31) Sawaal / Dir: Dawood Tareen (Urdu,English-NCA Lahore-Pakistan) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO7exvXDreU)

Selected Films for Alpavirama 2011 RETROSPECTIVE
01) TOTANAMA (1991 / Fiction / Workshop with students conducted/directed by Chandita Mukherjee)
02) RAILWAY CLERK (1993 / Fiction / Student Director: Sherna Dastur / Faculty Guide: Binita Desai)
03) I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC (1997 / Documentary / Student Director: Shalini Ghosh / Faculty Guide: Akhil Succena)
04) LISTENING TO SHADOWS (1998 / Documentary / Student Director: Kaushik Sarkar / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta)
05) STARRING ANJU SRIVASTAVA (2003 / Fiction / Workshop with students conducted/directed by Aniruddha Sen)
06) SAWAN KI GHATA (2005 / Fiction / Student Director: Pryas Gupta / Faculty Guide: SB Saksena) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trvt5HlgbZ8)
07) BANNUBHAI SEHNAIWALA (2005 / Documentary / Student Director: Adityan M / Faculty Guide: SB Saksena)
08) ONE SHOW LESS (2005 / Documentary / Student Director: Nayantara Kotiyan / Faculty Guide: Milindo Taid) (http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/3702/One-Show-Less)
09) IS MODH PAR KUCH NAHI HOTA (2005 / Fiction / Student Director: Hitesh Kewalya / Faculty Guide:Arun Gupta)
10) WORDS IN STONE (2005 / Documentary / Student Director: Akhila Krishnan / Faculty Guide: Vinayan Kodoth)
11) PRAKASH TRAVELLING CINEMA (2006 / Documentary / Student Director: Megha Lakhani / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN5oMpfvT34)
12) SARAAI (2008 / Documentary / Student Director: Prachi Mokashi / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta) (http://vimeo.com/2376992)
13) TRAN EKA TRAN (2008 / Documentary / Student Director: Aastha Gohil / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta) (http://vimeo.com/11516664)
14) PURNA VIRAMA (2008 / Documentary / Student Director: Ujjwal Utkarsh / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta) (http://vimeo.com/5505853)
15) THE FURNISHED ROOM (2008 / Fiction / Student Director: Priyanka Chabra / Faculty Guide: Amit Dutta) (http://vimeo.com/8570638)
16) CHAATTALMAZHA (2009 / Fiction / Student Director: Ahsam KR / Faculty Guide: Arun Gupta )(http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/2007/Chaattalmazha)

Alpavirama 2011 SPECIAL PACKAGE from Hong Kong
From: Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
(1) Merry X'mas (Dir: Au Man Kit)
(2) The Story of Ah Poon (Dir: Tsim Ho Tat)
(3) A Day in a Life (Dir: Kwok Zune)
(4) The Monk (Dir: Chan Siu Hei)
(5) Homecoming (Dir: Kwok Zune)
(6) A Ferry Tale (Dir: Kwan Man Hin)
(7) Genesis (Dir: Cheung Timothy)

From: City University of Hong Kong
(8) This Pair (Dir: Wong Yee Mei)
(9) X’Mas Tree (Dir: Sin Tsz Man, Jun)

From: Hong Kong Baptist University
(10) Sophia’s Promise (Dir: Zhang Duanyang)

Arun Gupta
Senior Faculty, Film & Video
Festival Director, Alpavirama 2011
National Institute of Design
Paldi, Ahmedabad - 380007, India

email: guptarun(at)nid.edu
Ph: +91-79-26623692
Fax: +91-79-26621167
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UnQuote


Yes, some forms of film making are indeed art, expressive in intent and form, exploring life and nature as only an artist can do with the artistic licence provided by society. However, the other forms are at the very heart of design and design thinking and in this form it is perhaps the most potent form of design action since it can be driven by intentions and act on society in ways that bring sweeping change through behavior change and support social action that is impossible with the mere design of material artefacts. The medium is the purveyor of the message and much more if it is wielded by a trained and sensitive design thinker and a political activist. Today in the age of transparency of Wiki-leaks and the RTI act in India along with easy access to MP3 recorders and MP4 and HDTV cameras in all digital devices and in mobile phones it is an invitation to the citizens at large to join the communication design action to foster change for the good and in the process shake up the establishments that are proving to be corrupt in many ways. Come and see for yourself.

Prof M P Ranjan

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

HfG Ulm and Basic Design: Conference at Kolkata: 28 September 2010

LOOK Back – LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design for India


Prof. M P Ranjan
New: Revised Poster and Registration Form
Download Conference Poster
Download Conference Registration Form


Image: Revised Logo for HfG Ulm Conference on Basic Design at Kolkata
Conference Title:

LOOK Back – LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design for India


Last date for registration: September 20, 2010 (Participation limited to 100 participants only - please register early) Conference on 28 September 2010 at Kolkata
Download Conference Information and Registration form
Download Conference Programme and Detailed Schedule: 1.1 mb pdf file
Download Conference Registration Form; 157 kb pdf file
Download Conference Poster, Programme and Speaker profile A3 size 265 kb two page pdf file

Venue & Schedule:


Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)
9A, Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata - 700 071
behind Tata Centre , Chowringhee Road

28 September, 2010 : Full-day Conference-cum-Workshop on Basic Design Education: 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.

Organisers:


National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad – in collaboration with
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata
HfG-Archive Ulm & IfA (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Germany) Stuttgart
Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)

Background:


After the successful one day event at Bengaluru in March 2010, this is the second in the series of conferences based on the spirit of the HfG Ulm pedagogy for design education and its impact on India. The HfG Ulm, which started as a continuation of the Bauhaus experiments in design education under one of its former students – Max Bill, soon veered from a foundation in art to a science and society focus under the leadership of Tomas Maldonado. The HfG Ulm faculty, all eminent teachers and thought leaders in their field, experimented with design education like never before and documented the results of teaching in a series of 21 journals published between 1958 and 1968. These ten years of intense research and theory building and sharing has had a lasting impact on the world of design education and the availability of these journals being one of the major factors for this durable influence. Selected papers from these volumes located in the NID Library were reproduced for a conference on design education in 1989 by Prof Kirti Trivedi at Industrial Design Centre, IIT, Powai and these have been a further source of inspiration for Indian design teachers over the years. These journals are now available as part of the conference kit in a DVD compilation that can inform and inspire design teachers interested in the subject.

The HfG Ulm impacted the world of design through its direct professional action with industry, memorably with Braun and its successful range of products that hit the market in 1955 and continued with other product successes that can be called the Ulm style of meticulous detailing and clean functional form. Hans Gugelot was among the lead drivers along this track. Other teachers such as Otl Aicher influenced major corporations such as Herman Miller and Lufthansa with significant contributions in graphic design. The closing down of the HfG Ulm in 1968 saw the scattering of its faculty and students across the world, each steeped in the Ulm ideology of public good with design theory and action, resulting in significant action on the ground in the form of new design education in Latin America by Gui Bonsiepe, in India by Sudhakar Nadkarni and H Kumar Vyas and in Japan by Kohei Suguira and Sutaro Mukai, besides the numerous other influences in Europe and the USA that continue to this day.

The Ulmer Museum/HfG-Archiv has brought together the various threads of the Ulm school in a unique exhibition called ulm: method and design / ulm: school of design 1953-1968 with archival objects, classroom assignments and multimedia exhibits never before seen in India. The exhibition is presented in India by the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, in collaboration with IfA (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Germany) Stuttgart and offers us the opportunity to both “LOOK Back - LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design Education for India”, a title that aptly sums up the objective behind the intensive one-day conference/workshop on September 28, 2010 at Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR), as well as to draw inspiration from the path-breaking work at Ulm and reflect on the path forward here in India. An impressive catalogue published by Hatje Cantz (ISBN 3-7757-9142-6) provides rich background research content on the school and the exhibition. Basic Design is the term used by HfG Ulm to describe the preparatory courses and abstract assignments developed to foster core capabilities in design action and design thinking while nurturing the sensibilities and abilities of a designer.

Participants:


Design teachers and teachers from other institutes interested in design pedagogy, including design research, design management and technology & design professionals interested in design education.

Registration Fee:


Individual designers and faculty : Rs. 2000/= each
Team of 5 faculty per school from India : Rs 5000/= per team

Exhibition Venue: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)- opens September 25, 2010

Conference Venue: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)– September 28, 2010
Abanindranath Tagore Gallery and Conference rooms, 9A, Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata - 700 071, West Bengal, India.

Organising Institutions


National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad – Prof. Pradyumna Vyas, Director
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata – Dr. Reimar Volker, Director
HfG-Archive Ulm & IfA (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Germany) Stuttgart
Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)

Keynote Speakers:


Daniela Baumann, Research scholar, HfG-Archive Ulm, Germany
Prof. Kirti Trivedi, Industrial Design Centre, IIT Powai

Prof Sudhakar Nadkarni, Dean, Business Design, Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai

Conference Chair:


Prof M P Ranjan, NID, Ahmedabad

Co-Chair:


Prof Suchitra Sheth, CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Registration:


Registration fees are payable by Demand Draft drawn in favour of “National Institute of Design” payable at Ahmedabad.
Registration Form duly filled with Demand Draft attached shall be delivered to National Institute of Design, Paldi, Ahmedabad 380 007

Last date for registration: September 20, 2010
(Participation limited to 100 participants only - please register early)

Address for communication and registration

1st contact: National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad
Avinash Bhandari
Conference Coordinator
Outreach Programmes
National Institute of Design,
Paldi, Ahmedabad 380007
Tel: (off) 91 79 26623692
Fax: 91 79 26621167 / 26605240
conference email: outreach@nid.edu
www.nid.edu

2nd contact: Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata
Sharmistha Sarker
Programme Officer
033 2486 6398
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan
8, Ballygunge Circular Road
(Pramathesh Barua Sarani)
Kolkata - 700 019 India
Tel: +91-33-2486 6398
Fax: +91-33-2486 5188
email: sarker@kolkata.goethe.org

Detailed Programme:


The one-day conference at Kolkata follows the opening of the touring exhibition ulm: method and design/ulm: school of design 1953-1968 September 28, 2010. Participants at the conference are encouraged to visit to exhibition before the event which is adjacent to the venue.

September 25, 2010 onwards (Exhibition venue: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR), Kolkata)

Exhibition: (optional for participants) Inauguration of the exhibition at the Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR), Kolkata organised by the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata.

September 28, 2010 (Conference venue: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR), Kolkata)

LOOK Back & LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design Education for India



9.30 am to 10.00 am Registration and informal get together. Seating for the Plenary Sessions in Abanindranath Tagore Gallery and the Reflection Session in conference rooms. Seating plan to be mixed across design schools with seats and Break-Away groups assigned at the registration. This will facilitate the workshop sessions and encourage participation by all members.

Conference Session One: LOOK Back: Hfg Ulm and Basic Design for India



10.00 am to 10.30 am : Opening remarks by organizers – Introduction to Purpose and mission of the conference.

10.30 am to 11.00 am Keynote 1: Daniela Baumann, Research scholar, HfG-Archiv Ulm, Germany – Focus on the pedagogy of HfG Ulm and its spread of key messages to other centres over the past 50 years.

11.00 am to 11.30 am Keynote 2: Prof. Kirti Trivedi, Industrial Design Centre, IIT , Powai – The Pedagogy of Basic Design at HfG Ulm– its growth and development in Asia after Ulm.

11.30 am to 12.30 noon Panel Discussion 1: Moderated by Prof Suchitra Sheth, CEPT University: Multi Institutional experience of Basic Design and pedagogy propositions from experiences in design education. panel discussions by five invited speakers from Indian design schools to reflect on various threads of influences across design subjects. Session will map the contours of Basic Design and Foundation programmes at leading schools in India today.

12.30 pm to 1.30 pm Lunch Break (lunch served at venue)

Conference Session Two: LOOK Forward: Future of Basic Design Education


1.30 pm to 3.30 pm: Break Away Sessions – World Café Format
Group 1: Senses: Sensitising Perception
Group 2: Knowledge: Broad World View
Group 3: Ethics: Attitudes and Values
Group 4: Culture: Understanding Context and Field Contact
Group 5: Skills: Actions and Abilities – Competency and Confidence

Conference Session Three: LOOK Forward: Reflections on Design Education


3.40 pm to 5.30 pm Presentations by Break Away Groups. The lessons from the debates and the key take-aways are summarised from all groups by one representative from each group.
(10 minutes including discussions from the floor)

5.00 to 5.30 pm Reflective Keynote Panel, commentaries by eminent design teachers moderated by Prof M P Ranjan, NID with Prof Sudhakar Nadkarni and keynote speakers. Building a checklist of action points and sharing these with the forum. Towards a policy for action by Indian design education.

6.00 pm to 8.00 pm Guided tour of the HfG Ulm Exhibition (optional for participants)
~

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Unsung Heros of NID: An interview with a carpenter

NID History from the grassroots: Nathalal Vavadia speaks about his journey at NID

Prof M P Ranjan

NID is approaching its 50th year since its inception in 1961 and there are many official events and activities that are being planned to celebrate the arrival of the landmark year. Here on this blog we have started an unofficial but sustained effort to try and look at all kinds of people who had contributed to the making of this great institute at Ahmedabad and from these glimpses we hope to shape a more complete view of the making of NID. Nathalal Vavadia who retired today speaks about his experiences and we will try and bring many more such interviews in the days ahead.

Image01: Nathalal Vavadia in various moods during a brief interview today, the 30th June 2010, the day he retires from NID after serving as a carpenter in the wood workshop for 40 years.



Nathalal Vavadia: Carpenter at NID remembers the good times from Ranjan MP on Vimeo.

Image02: Video interview with Nathalal Vavadia. Duration 12 minutes.


Nathalal Vavadia joined NID in 1970 as a carpenter in the wood workshop. He contributed to the NID building work as well as in producing the furniture designed by George Nakashima which was produced in batches at NID through the 70's to the 90's.

He remembers the people at the workshop and the intense work culture at NID during his tenure at NID. He retires from service today, 30 June 2010 and in an interview here he shares some of his experiences and insights on the history of NID as a centre of excellence. The interview is in Hindi but it provides a glimpse of what NID was in the 70's and 80's and provides some insights into the work culture of the institute in those days.

Prof M P Ranjan

Monday, May 24, 2010

Activity Theory: Keynote at a conference at the Aalto University

Keynote Presentation at FISCAR 2010 at Aalto University, Helsinki


Prof M P Ranjan


Raindrops & Footprints: Reflections on Design enabled development models for India.
Prof M P Ranjan
National Institute of Design
Ahmedabad, India

Image 01: Screen shots of the visual presentation used to support the keynote lecture at the FISCAR 2010 conference in Helsinki.


Abstract of paper prepared for a keynote presentation at the Nordic Conference on Activity Theory and the Fourth Finnish Conference on Cultural and Activity Research “Perspectives on social creativity, designing and activity” to be held at Helsinki from 23 to 25 May 2010

The author has been a design teacher at the National Institute of Design from the early 1970’s and has been involved in the teaching of design theory as well as conducting design research in the areas of industrial design for development with numerous experiences in the small scale and craft based production situations in India. Much of his professional and educational initiatives are focused on using traditional craft skills that are an abundant ability in India as a development resource that could address severe problems of poverty and unemployment in vast areas of rural India. Each design project experience conducted over the years offered new insights into the complex problems that were being faced by professionals trying to intervene in the sectors of need in India and these insights were translated into visual models that were used to inform students as well as future initiatives in these sectors.

The subject of this conference gives us the opportunity to reflect on these series of insights and to map out the contours of the theory of design based crafts interventions that emerged from the National Institute of Design over the past 50 years of exploration and design action in the field. The author’s personal background of having been born into a family of a craftsman carpenter who later built his business enterprise in the manufacture of wooden toys and furniture for children provides an extended backdrop for this investigation and reflection into the models for development that emerged and were tested through repeated interventions in the field. These refined and partly validated models are offered here with historical and personal references to the numerous projects that helped shape the insights and the specific models of development that have gone to create the “Macro – Micro Strategy for Development” that has been used to build a sustainable village based enterprise that is currently in progress as a test case in the bamboo based enterprises in the State of Tripura in Northeastern India. Each project experience brought in specific insights that are expanded and detailed to give a framework for the theory that has informed our actions over the years.

Learning from the field has been a much repeated mantra at the NID and its education slogan has always been “learning by doing” which in turn meant that those of us who lived and worked at the Institute were privy to hundreds, if not thousands of individual projects, all of which brought back fresh insights that we hope these reflections will reveal at least in part. There is an underlying theory that emerged and it will the attempt of this paper to try and articulate some of the contours of this theory by using the models that have emerged over the years and those that were used in the classes through which generations of NID students have been trained.

The paper will be supported by specific case studies to summarise the progressive findings from the field based experiences and the intermediate and cumulative strategies that were adopted for the numerous field based interventions carried out by the author and his colleagues at NID in the area of design for development. The paper will be accompanied by a visual presentation that would provide visual evidence of the context as well as the design offerings and alongside this will be the theory and the models and strategy diagrams that emerged as an outcome of these investigations, specifically those that were used to advocate future action in the field.

Download Full Text of presentation here as a pdf file 248 kb size

Download Visual presentation as a pdf file 8.3 mb size

Download Voice file of the keynote lecture as an mp3 file 45 MB size

Prof M P Ranjan

Activity Theory: Keynote at a conference at the Aalto University



Keynote Presentation at FISCAR 2010 at Aalto University, Helsinki


Prof M P Ranjan



Raindrops & Footprints: Reflections on Design enabled development models for India.

Prof M P Ranjan
National Institute of Design
Ahmedabad, India

Image 01: Screen shots of the visual presentation used to support the keynote lecture at the FISCAR 2010 conference in Helsinki.


Abstract of paper prepared for a keynote presentation at the Nordic Conference on Activity Theory and the Fourth Finnish Conference on Cultural and Activity Research “Perspectives on social creativity, designing and activity” to be held at Helsinki from 23 to 25 May 2010

The author has been a design teacher at the National Institute of Design from the early 1970’s and has been involved in the teaching of design theory as well as conducting design research in the areas of industrial design for development with numerous experiences in the small scale and craft based production situations in India. Much of his professional and educational initiatives are focused on using traditional craft skills that are an abundant ability in India as a development resource that could address severe problems of poverty and unemployment in vast areas of rural India. Each design project experience conducted over the years offered new insights into the complex problems that were being faced by professionals trying to intervene in the sectors of need in India and these insights were translated into visual models that were used to inform students as well as future initiatives in these sectors.

The subject of this conference gives us the opportunity to reflect on these series of insights and to map out the contours of the theory of design based crafts interventions that emerged from the National Institute of Design over the past 50 years of exploration and design action in the field. The author’s personal background of having been born into a family of a craftsman carpenter who later built his business enterprise in the manufacture of wooden toys and furniture for children provides an extended backdrop for this investigation and reflection into the models for development that emerged and were tested through repeated interventions in the field. These refined and partly validated models are offered here with historical and personal references to the numerous projects that helped shape the insights and the specific models of development that have gone to create the “Macro – Micro Strategy for Development” that has been used to build a sustainable village based enterprise that is currently in progress as a test case in the bamboo based enterprises in the State of Tripura in Northeastern India. Each project experience brought in specific insights that are expanded and detailed to give a framework for the theory that has informed our actions over the years.

Learning from the field has been a much repeated mantra at the NID and its education slogan has always been “learning by doing” which in turn meant that those of us who lived and worked at the Institute were privy to hundreds, if not thousands of individual projects, all of which brought back fresh insights that we hope these reflections will reveal at least in part. There is an underlying theory that emerged and it will the attempt of this paper to try and articulate some of the contours of this theory by using the models that have emerged over the years and those that were used in the classes through which generations of NID students have been trained.

The paper will be supported by specific case studies to summarise the progressive findings from the field based experiences and the intermediate and cumulative strategies that were adopted for the numerous field based interventions carried out by the author and his colleagues at NID in the area of design for development. The paper will be accompanied by a visual presentation that would provide visual evidence of the context as well as the design offerings and alongside this will be the theory and the models and strategy diagrams that emerged as an outcome of these investigations, specifically those that were used to advocate future action in the field.

Download Full Text of presentation here as a pdf file 248 kb size

Download Visual presentation as a pdf file 8.3 mb size

Download Voice file of the keynote lecture as an mp3 file 45 MB size

Prof M P Ranjan

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Look Back Look Forward: The Bengaluru event

Look Back Look Forward: HfG Ulm and design education in India, a brief report on the one day event at the Taj West End in Bengaluru on 6th March 2010.


Prof M P Ranjan
The one day conference at Bengaluru will be remembered for a long time by the participants, all teachers and design professionals interested in design education coming from several leading design schools in India. So much passion was released in the 24 round table discussions, only a small fraction of which can be captured here in the links and resources that we have been able to collect and create. Two workshop sessions, each of two hours duration across the twelve round tables each with eight participants and some observers kept all of us deeply involved on the subject of design education for India. This meeting will have an impact on the shape of design education in India since tere is the promise of a follow up meeting later in the year and with the sharing of the Ulm Journal as a digital resource as part of the conference kit the schools in India have for the first time access to the rich reflections that the Ulm masters had assembled in the 21 issues that were published between 1955 and 1968 when the HfG Ulm was finally closed down.

Image01: Thumbnail images of the HfG Ulm Exhibit at Chitra Kala Parishath and the registration session at Taj West End on the next day.


Image02: Thumbnail images of the conference participants during breaks as well as at the round tables during the keynote sessions.


We now invite all the participants to join us in our analysis of the event and the proceedings for which we shall make available and share below the links to all the lectures and presentations made during the day as well as a host of other resources that can aid the proposed analysis of the discussions and events of the day. The first set of links are for the eight voice files arranged in the order in which the events happened at the conference. The opening session had Dr Evelyn Hust of the Goethe Institute, Bengaluru make her opening remarks with Prof M P Ranjan making remarks on behalf of Director NID who could not attend and then on to introduce the format of the conference, keynotes and workshop sessions, as planned. The morning session that followed had three events – the first keynote lecture by Marcela Quijano, Curator, HfG Ulm Archive, and the second keynote by Prof Sudha Nadkarni, Dean, Welingkar Institute of Management where he shared his experience as a full time student at HfG Ulm in the early 60’s. (for voice recordings see the links below). Marcela Quijano gave us an overview of the pedagogy of the Ulm masters and the historical setting in which the design education experiments were conducted at the HfG Ulm.

Image 03: Thumbnails of the Table Cards, each with one HfG Ulm Master as listed: 01: Max Bill, 02: Otl Aicher, 03: Inge Aicher-Scholl, 04: Tomas Maldonado, 05: Hans Gugelot, 06: Walter Zeischegg, 07: Herbert Ohl, 08: Gui Bonsiepe, 09: Herbert Lindinger, 10: Horst Rittel, 11: William S. Huff, 12: Konrad Wachsmann.


These two keynote presentations of the morning set the tone for Looking Back at the legacy of Ulmer Model in terms of their design pedagogy and this was followed by the first Workshop session – Look Back – that lasted two hours, at the end of which each of the twelve tables made brief presentations on their findings about the salient aspects of HfG Ulm pedagogy. Each table was named after one of twelve selected Ulm teachers in the order listed below:

Table 10 : Horst Rittel
Table 09 : Herbert Lindinger
Table 04 : Tomas Maldonado
Table 03 : Inge Aicher-Scholl
Table 02 : Otl Aicher
Table 05 : Hans Gugelot
Table 08 : Gui Bonsiepe
Table 11 : William S. Huff
Table 12 : Konrad Wachsmann
Table 07 : Herbert Ohl
Table 06 : Walter Zeischegg
Table 01 : Max Bill

Each table had a set of provocation cards that carried quotes from the Ulm masters while these cards were also shown on the large projection screen as an automated slide show. Each quotation raised one issue that would be critical for the Ulm pedagogy and these provided the point of departure for the table discussions that were carried on in real earnest by all the participants. Each table also had table think sheets on which the participants were asked to make their doodles and notes as the discussions and devbates progressed at each table. These “Table Think Sheets” were collected at the end of the session and these too are made available here at the link below.

List of 8 voice files and resources for download
01_Opening Session_MPR Hust.mov – 12 mb
02_Keynote_Marcelo Quijano.mov – 27 mb
03_Keynote_Sudha Nadkarni.mov – 35 mb
04_Intro to_Look Back WS.mov – 9 mb
05_Round Table_Look Back.mov – 47 mb
06_Keynote_Kumar Vyas.mov – 54 mb
07_Keynote_Wolfang Jonas.mov – 61 mb
08_Round Table_Look Fward.mov – 49 mb

Image 04: Navigation screens from the Look Back Look Forward conference resource interactive DVD. These nine screens are from the root level pdf file and each item or image on the pages takes one to the respective file or page. The Index page is level zero, while the other pages are numbered from 1 to 8.


The conference resource DVD is packed with design education resources from HfG Ulm as well as from NID, Ahmedabad. Page two provides links to the numbered Journals from the HfG Ulm from 1 to 21 issue of the Journal, all scanned and made available as digital pdf files thanks to the kind permission from Prof Gui Bonsiepe who edited these volumes at Ulm. These Journals were published from 1955 till the last issue in 1968 when the school closed down under dramatic circumstances. These were available in India only in the NID library and for the first time these are made available to Indian design educators and researchers to understand the Ulm school’s unique pedagogy since these hold a rich resource of reflections from the Ulm teachers. Volume 3 was missing from the set all these years and we now have a copy thanks to the Ulm Archive Curator, Marcela Qujano, who gave us a copy for the Library which is now made available here as a digital pdf file at the link below, and this completes the set.

Download the “Look Back Look Forward” conference resource interactive DVD here:
Look Back_Look Forward_DVD.zip – 968 mb
Ulm 3.pdf – 3.2 mb (This issue was not included in the DVD since it did not exist in the NID Library and a copy was given to us by Marcelq Quijano when she arrived in Bengaluru for the conferfence.)

Page zero, or the opening page, is the Index with hyper-links to the other eight pages. Page two contains links to selected documents from the NID history and includes the Eames India Report of 1958, The MOMA catalogue of 1957 of classic design from USA and Europe whose prototypes are in the NID archives, NID Documentation 1964-69, The Ahmedabad Declaration of 1979, Design & Environment (1982), select faculty papers (1991) and the Proceedings of the DETM Conference (2005) and so on. Page four contains 16 papers and presentation files that record the progress of the Design Concepts and Concerns Course at NID where design thinking and design theory have been introduced to NID students from 1988 till date, evolving over the years to give NID education its distinctive identity. Page three has reports prepared by NID for the setting up of three sector specific institutes for design education in India. Other pages contain all the artworks for the conference graphics and table resources as well as the photographs from the Ulm Archive exhibit when it opened at the NID Gallery.

The visual slide shows or text resources for the keynote presentation are available for download here below and these can be viewed along with the voice files of the proceedings located above.
Keynote 01: India_Look back_Marcela Quijano.pdf – 5 mb
Keynote 02: NID Banglore Keynote at Ulm conference_Nadkarni.pdf – 36 mb

Keynote 03: Learning at NID- Then and Now, H Kumar Vyas (final).pdf – 1 mb
Keynote 04: Wolfgang Jonas_Ulm Conference_Keynote.pdf – 14 mb

Pictures of Bangalore event – Folders in .zip format each containing many selected pictiures in jpg format are available here for download (see list below)
Picture sets of Bangalore event in jpeg format
01_Ulm_Blore_PreConference.zip – 98 mb
02_Ulm_Blore_LookBack.zip – 79 mb
03_Ulm_LookForward01.zip – 75 mb
04_Ulm_Look Forward02 2.zip – 74 mb
05_Ulm_PostConference.zip – 11 mb

Picture albums of the sets in pdf format can be downloaded from these links here:
01_Ulm_Blore_PreConference.pdf – 9 mb
02_Ulm_Blore_LookBack_h3.pdf – 6 mb
03_Ulm_LookForward01_h3.pdf – 6 mb
04_Ulm_Look Forward02_h3.pdf – 7 mb
05_Ulm_PostConference_h3.pdf – 2 mb
Chakradar mid Blore Pics_h2.pdf – 6 mb

Conference kit resources in pdf format.
While the conference resource DVD that was distributed to all the participants contains the digital art works version of the table materials we provide separate links here for some of these resources so that they may be used directly if needed.

01_Conference Table_Ulm Masters.pdf : 58.9 mb
02a_look back cards_prn.pdf : 3.2 mb
02b_look forward cards_prn.pdf : 2.4 mb
02c_Model card Front_oranisation vs. free + political structure.pdf_4.pdf : 5 mb
05_Ulm Biography Bookmarks.pdf : 1.9 mb
06_keynote speaker bio+Workshops_s.pdf : 20.5 mb

Other HfG Ulm Conference Resources
Conference Participant List_xx.pdf – 3 mb
Table_Think Sheets_175page.pdf – 11 mb

Participants will now have access to all the resources that they may use to make their own analysis of the one day event at Bengaluru and from these we do hope that Indian design teachers will take back a lesson from the Ulm masters, that of documentation of their teaching resources and of their class outcomes in a contemporaneous manner in the days ahead. This alone will ensure that Indian design education retains a quality benchmark that can be shared and discussed as we refine our teaching methods and find value that is unique to our context, environment and culture. If teachers from our Indian design schools start publishing their work and through this an active dialogue is set in place we would have succeeded in our mission of sensitizing our teachers to the need for such documentation in managing and manintaining a high quality of education in our schools across India. I hope that we did succeed and that the future will show us the positive results of these tall intentions.

Prof M P Ranjan

Saturday, February 6, 2010

LOOK Back – LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Design Education in India

Prof M P Ranjan

Image01: Conference Logo using a basic design assignment as an image for the conference - Design: Rupesh Vyas


Conference Title:

LOOK Back – LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Design Education in India


Venue & Schedule:
Hotel Taj West End, Race Cource Road, Bangalore 560 001, India
March 6, 2010 : Full-day Conference-cum-Workshop on Design Education: 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

Last date for registration: February 26, 2010

Organisers:
National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad and Bangalore
in collaboration with
Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan (GI/MMB) Bangalore,
HfG-Archive Ulm & IfA (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Germany) Stuttgart

Background:
The HfG Ulm, which started as a continuation of the Bauhaus experiments in design education under one of its former students – Max Bill, soon veered from a foundation in art to a science and society focus under the leadership of Tomas Maldonado. The HfG Ulm faculty, all eminent teachers and thought leaders in their field, experimented with design education like never before and documented the results of teaching in a series of 21 journals published between 1958 and 1968. These ten years of intense research and theory building and sharing has had a lasting impact on the world of design education and the availability of these journals being one of the major factors for this durable influence. Selected papers from these volumes located in the NID Library were reproduced for a conference on design education in 1989 by Prof Kirti Trivedi at Industrial Design Centre, IIT, Powai and these have been a further source of inspiration for Indian design teachers over the years.

The school impacted the world of design through its direct professional action with industry, memorably with Braun and its successful range of products that hit the market in 1955 and continued with other product successes that can be called the Ulm style of meticulous detailing and clean functional form. Hans Gugelot was among the lead drivers along this track. Other teachers such as Otl Aicher influenced major corporations such as Herman Miller and Lufthansa with significant contributions in graphic design.

The closing down of the HfG Ulm in 1968 saw the scattering of its faculty and students across the world, each steeped in the Ulm ideology of public good with design theory and action, resulting in significant action on the ground in the form of new design education in Latin America by Gui Bonsiepe, in India by Sudhakar Nadkarni and H Kumar Vyas and in Japan by Kohei Suguira, besides the numerous other influences in Europe and the USA that continue to this day.

The Ulmer Museum/HfG-Archiv has brought together the various threads of the Ulm school in a unique exhibition called ulm: method and design/ulm: school of design 1953-1968 with archival objects, classroom assignments and multimedia exhibits never before seen in India. The exhibition is presented in India by the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, in collaboration with IfA (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Germany) Stuttgart and offers the opportunity to both “LOOK Back - LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Design Education in India”, a title that aptly sums up the objective behind the intensive one-day conference/workshop on March 6, 2010 at Hotel Taj West End in Bangalore, India, as well as to draw inspiration from the path-breaking work at Ulm and reflect on the path forward here in India. An impressive catalogue published by Hatje Cantz (ISBN 3-7757-9142-6) provides rich background research content on the school and the exhibition.

Participants:
Design teachers and teachers from other institutes interested in design pedagogy, including design research, design management and technology & design professionals interested in design education. Limited places available for design student observers sponsored by each participating school.

Registration Fee:
Individual designers and faculty : Rs. 2000/=
Team of 5 faculty per school from India : Rs 5000/=
Design student observer : Rs. 500/= (limited seats)
International Participant : USD 100 or Rs. 5000/=

Exhibition Venue: Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore - opens March 5, 2010
Conference Venue: Hotel Taj West End, Bangalore – March 6, 2010

Organising Institutions
Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore
Dr. Evelin Hust, Director
National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad & Bangalore
Prof. Pradyumna Vyas, Director

Keynote Speakers:
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Jonas, Professor for "system design" at the School of Art and Design, University of Kassel, Germany
Ms. Marcela Quijano, Curator, HfG-Archiv Ulm, Germany
Prof Sudhakar Nadkarni, Dean, Business Design, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai
Prof H Kumar Vyas, Distinguished Professor, CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Conference Chair:
Prof M P Ranjan, NID, Ahmedabad
Co-Chair:
Prof Suchitra Sheth, CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Registration:
Registration fees are payable by Cash or Demand Draft drawn in favour of “National Institute of Design” payable at Bangalore.
Payment with Registration Form duly filled to be delivered to NID R & D Campus, Bangalore or at the Goethe- Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore.

Last date for registration without late fees: February 26, 2010
Late fee payable after closing date: additional 50 % of registration fees above.
(Limited participation so please register early)

Address for communication and registration:

1st contact: National Institute of Design, Bangalore

Shashikala Satyamoorthy,
Conference Coordinator
National Institute of Design, R & D Campus,
#12 HMT Link Road, Off Tumkur Road
Bangalore 560 022
Tel: +91-080-23478939 (D) / 23373006
Fax: +91 80 23373086
conference email: hfgulm2010@nid.edu
www.nid.edu

2nd contact: Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore

Maureen Gonsalves
Programme Coordinator
Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
716 CMH Road, Indiranagar 1st Stage
Bangalore 560 038
Ph: +91 80 2520 5305/06/07/08-203
Fax: +91 80 2520 5309
arts@bangalore.goethe.org
www.goethe.de/bangalore


see detailed programme and download Registration Form from this link here below:
Download Detailed Conference Programme and Registration Form in pdf 400kb

Prof M P Ranjan

 
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