Dear Friends
We have been discussing the lack of research into many aspects of design
and design research and I agree that this is quite true from many angles.
However It is also true that many areas of research do cover the
intentions and the outcomes of design action although these may not be
percieved as an area of design research by many in the field as well as
outside.
At NID we have been doing sustained research into the crafts traditions of
India and these have so far been only available to NID schollars who have
access to the single unpublished copies in the NID Library, over 800 study
documents if you do not include the ones on textile crafts and the design
projects. These have remained unpublished both due to a lack of funds and
also due to a lack of vision that thse are of great value to our design
movement in India and elsewhere.
However, I am happy to inform you that we have just recieved an advance
copy of the book "Handmade in India" that was researched and created at
the NID based on 40 years tradition of crafts documentation and the last
five years of intensive research by over 50 teams from NID and it is
published and produced by COHANDS and Mapin Publishing Pvt Limited with
the support from Development Commissioner Handicrafts Government of India.
I am one of its editors and the first copy is at hand and we are quite
pleased with the results.
I have posted a note about the book and its design intensions on the
Design for India blog at this link below:
<http://www.design-for-india.blogspot.com/2007/08/handmade-in-india-handbook-of-crafts-of.html>
There is another post about the information architecture used for the book
at the Visible information India blog at this link below:
<http://visible-information-india.blogspot.com/2007/08/information-architecture-for-handmade.html>
We hope to have the books out in bookstores in India by early October 2007
and you can see more about the book at the Mapin website at this link.
<http://www.mapinpub.com/Handmade_in_India>
Mapin proposes top make the book available globally when the second
reprint is released later this year.
RMIT produced a book titled 'Design Research" by Peter Downton and the key
premise here is that every design project is a platform for research and I
do agree with this point of view but we do need to find ways of publishing
these design research findings and perhaps the web based approaches to
publishing that are being achieved by portals on design may actually help
us bridge the gaps that we are discussing today.
What do you think?
With warm regards
M P Ranjan
from my Mac at Gandhinagar
7 August 2007 at 4.15 pm IST
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Prof M P Ranjan
Faculty of Design
Head, Centre for Bamboo Initiatives at NID (CFBI-NID)
Chairman, GeoVisualisation Task Group (DST, Govt. of India) (2006-2008)
National Institute of Design
Paldi
Ahmedabad 380 007 India
Tel: (off) 91 79 26623692 ext 1090 (changed in January 2006)
Tel: (res) 91 79 26610054
Fax: 91 79 26605242
email: [log in to unmask]
web site: http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp/
web domain: http://www.ranjanmp.in
blog: http://www.design-for-india.blogspot.com
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