Dear Uma and the PhD-Design list
This is a long post and it has a long tail which I have not edited since
Uma and I, both the Indians have been self critical and have had an
offline set of exchanges which we felt should be shared with the list
for those who may be interested in this particular thread while the
others may delete the whole post since it is long, very long.
Your concerns about the crafts persons and the power equations as
disadvantaged persons is a real one which needs to be addressed in any
form of research or development action. The other threads on the social
consequences of design I am sure will address some of these concerns.
Business too is changing their attitude towards the use of design from
what I hear. Yesterday we had a lecture in the NID auditorium from a
senior member of the IDEO team in San Francisco, Joanne Oliver, who
spoke at length about the internal processes that addressed ethical
practices and the consequences of design at IDEO while she also shared
examples of projects that could illustrate this approach and the
experiments that IDEO had conducted in the project dealing with
Recycling, Reuse etc. In the Q & A session some of us asked probing
questions about the ethical standards in business about the use of
design as well as about IDEO's stand on such matters, which was both
candid as well as informative. I am sure that if practice has become
sensitive to such matters and not just about making the business go at
any cost I am sure that the design research community too would find
ways to track and build on this practice that is being talked about in
design circles a lot. Europe has called for a multi-national programme
for addressing climate change and this too is becoming an agenda item
across the world as are the social consequences of planning, design and
government action.
I will not elaborate here but save it for another post since this one is
already very long. I do look forward to hearing more from the list about
work done in other situations about social audits of design action and
how these are done and what have been the effects of such action. Yes, I
do agree with Victor that we need more of this kind of research but I
also agree with Ken that some of this is being done but outside the
umbrella of what is seen today as design research.
With warm regards
M P Ranjan
from my office at NID
9 August 2007 at 8.25 pm IST
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
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
education blog: <http://www.visible-information-india.blogspot.com>
[log in to unmask] wrote:
> Dear Ranjan,
>
> Please feel free to post this on the list serve if you think this
> conversation will be of interest to others.
>
> I do agree that an extended audit with multivariable analysis is necessary
> but it should also be participatory-I see the designer as the not the
> researcher but as the facilitator of the participatory design audit
> process including the preparation and dissemination of the audit results
> in a form that can be understood and accessed by all stakeholders and not
> just the designer and the funding agency.
>
> Wondering if there are some designerly methods/approaches that can change
> the state's bias towards funding applied sciences and projects in state
> owned instititutions.
>
> If not, there is a need to indentify alternate funders in the private
> sector or cultural institutions who could be more easily convinced of the
> value of design audits and the designers role in such audits and
> especially ones that will not be biased to government institutions.
>
> Such funders will of course require concrete evidence of the value of what
> we define as "designerly methods" and the proven experience of the
> designer in facilitating such audits. This may mean doing a few pilot
> studies without funding initially, and presenting them at appropriate
> conferences or publishing them in peer reviewed journals and also
> presenting them on e-forums where such funders frequent. Meanwhile, it
> would be good to gather and publish an list (preferably open source) of
> such "designerly methods" showing why they are different from or more
> effective for such audits than what social scientitsts or others do.
>
> As for "prior informed consent" -the way it is being used in the bio- and
> cultural diversity arenas in indigenous communities in india is prolematic
> and needs to be sorted out in a democratic and inclusive manner-including
> wo decides what happens to the data collected, who should collect it,
> what form should it be kept in and who should control and access it, if it
> should be commercialized and if yes, who should benefit from its
> commercialization, etc.
>
> Given the existing power structures and inequities, it is questionable
> whether many of the indigenous artisanal communities in India can really
> make "informed" decisions or whether they will need further capacity
> building and empowerment before they can be truly capable of undertsanding
> the consequences of revealing their TK and TCEs to those who may later
> commercialize it and leave them without benefits and even pose challenges
> to their livelihoods,
>
> Warm regards
>
> Uma
>
>
>
>
>> Dear Uma
>>
>> This discourse must be shared on the OhD list, but you can decide what
>> you want to do and when,
>>
>> Prior informed concent is a good practice that should become a norm as
>> we gpo forward but there are many difficulties to be ironed out.
>>
>> I disagree that it is the task of design schools to do all the research
>> needed while all the funding available is diverted to science and
>> humanities departments by government funding.
>>
>> Design should be adopted by many other disciplines and the research
>> should take pkace there using desigerly methods.
>>
>> Design audits need to be expanded and formalised and here too we will
>> need to look at many kinds of imapct assessment, a multi-variable
>> analysis may be needed.
>>
>> With warm regards
>>
>> M P Ranjan
>> from my Mac at home on the NID campus
>> 9 August 2007 at 8.15 am IST
>>
>> _______________________________________________________________________
>> 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://design-for-india.blogspot.com
>> _______________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>> [log in to unmask] wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Ranjan,
>>>
>>> Thanks for your detailed response about NID's vast body of research in
>>> the
>>> traditional crafts arena and the Design Audits for Industry and
>>> Governments that you have proposed . I am not sure if this will interest
>>> the rest of the list-so I have chosen to respond to you and not copy it
>>> to
>>> the entire list.
>>>
>>> I do agree that research through field work and direct contact in the
>>> field with living crafts-based cultures can be invaluable learning for
>>> the urban based design student and that the more sensitive and informed
>>> (from their field work as well as archival research) design
>>> interventions have helped improve the livelihoods of the communities
>>> they
>>> have done their research in, although some NGOs complain that the
>>> artisans' work suffers during the time spent talking to the student
>>> researchers.
>>>
>>> I hope that your suggestions for Design Audits for Industry and
>>> Governments will soon become reality and that we will be able to engage
>>> post graduate (if not undergraduate) design students to conduct social
>>> impact studies of previous design interventions in that community before
>>> embarking on their own projects. Ideally it would be be good to also do
>>> a
>>> social impact study of their own design intervention, but this may not
>>> always be feasible given the time constraints of a thesis/distertation.
>>>
>>> But should we not also explore ways to make the mapped cultural
>>> resources
>>> and insights available to the communities from where this information
>>> was
>>> extracted from and in a form that the community members can access and
>>> use
>>> for their own benefit?
>>>
>>> In the context of the debates in the arena of IPR, within and outside
>>> WIPO
>>> and among nation states (including ours) about bio-prospecting and
>>> cultural prospecting in indigenous communitie, perhaps we should also be
>>> concerned about what information we map and how much of it we make
>>> available to those outside the community, especially if such information
>>> in the hands of others could pose threats to the sustainabily of the
>>> community members' livelihoods. For eg. Urzamma (see paper on crafts
>>> revival trust) has also expressed similar concerns that i i.e. will the
>>> entry of Natural resources companies in this sector end up exploiting
>>> the
>>> communities natural resources for their commercial gain and leave the
>>> community without access to their livelihood assets. In the current
>>> indian
>>> context of land grabbing and privatization of commons where such natural
>>> resources are avilable, perhaps we need to also map and ensure
>>> protection
>>> of such common lands for the community use. Here we are getting students
>>> into the domain of policy research.
>>>
>>> Do you think we should follow the example of universities abroad and
>>> establish a code of ethics and have students work with memorandum of
>>> "informed" (this is critical) consent from the communities when mapping
>>> their traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions
>>> (TCEs) of indigenous communities?
>>>
>>> Look forward to your views on this.
>>>
>>> With Warm regards
>>> Uma
>>>
>>> > Dear Uma
>>>
>>>> Thank you. It is indeed good to have the printed book in hand, very
>>>> satisfying after so many years in the making.
>>>>
>>>> The 800 crafts documentations and craft design project reports that I
>>>> mention are both those done by (undergraduate) students as well as
>>>>
>>> those
>>>
>>>> done by faculty teams with students and researchers in response to
>>>> specific development situations that they have been asked to address
>>>>
>>> in
>>>
>>>> India by clients from both government , industry as well as
>>>> non-government agencies involved in development initiatives. All these
>>>> documentations have been done through direct field work and live
>>>>
>>> contact
>>>
>>>> in the field with living crafts communities since India is a rich
>>>>
>>> living
>>>
>>>> resource of crafts practices all over the country and at NID we have
>>>> found this kind of contact a very stimulating way of informing design
>>>> students about the cultural resources that could inform design values.
>>>>
>>>> The second question that you ask cannot be answered without
>>>>
>>> substantial
>>>
>>>> research which has not yet been done, since these documents are not
>>>>
>>> yet
>>>
>>>> published and they are not freely available for a wider discussion,
>>>> although I do wish that they were. However all of these are accessible
>>>> to those who visit NID Library and after a procedure to ensure the
>>>> safety of the documents our students, faculty and visiting researchers
>>>> have been using it as a resource to inform design action in that
>>>> particular craft or region. The quality of the documents vary quite a
>>>> lot based on many parameters but some are worthy of great respect
>>>>
>>> since
>>>
>>>> they have been done with passion and with maticulous research which
>>>> would put many qualified researchers to shame, even if they have been
>>>> handled at the under-graduate level.
>>>>
>>>> All these documents have been done with an underlying intention of
>>>>
>>> their
>>>
>>>> being used as a design resource and to make the study a take off point
>>>> for a development initiative and very few have been done only for the
>>>> sake of creating knowledge about the craft, although these may be the
>>>> most informative sources that you may find about the far flung places
>>>> about which very little may be available in the published space. Our
>>>>
>>> new
>>>
>>>> book is filling that huge void in India and we hope that we can
>>>>
>>> continue
>>>
>>>> to expand this base by our strategies of using the web as a platform
>>>> which is the fourth stage of our ongoing project at NID.
>>>>
>>>> In the context of our discussion on this list about design research, I
>>>> do believe that all this work is valid design research and it has
>>>>
>>> helped
>>>
>>>> support many design and strategy initiatives initiatives that we have
>>>> undertaken over the years in the field as well as those that use the
>>>> resource as a back drop for contextual information where none is
>>>> available, particularly in the whole area of rural development, be it
>>>> health, education, employment or infrastructure, to name only a few
>>>> areas of design action from our huge list of potential areas, 230
>>>> sectors in all.
>>>>
>>>> This does not mean that all the avenues for design research are
>>>>
>>> covered
>>>
>>>> nor does it mean that we should not initiate higher studies and post
>>>>
>>> doc
>>>
>>>> projects in all these areas. I have proposed an area of action for our
>>>> Institute which I called Design Audits for Industry and Governments.
>>>>
>>> As
>>>
>>>> part of our Design Policy initiatives I have suggested that India
>>>>
>>> should
>>>
>>>> set up a seven stage action plan to bring design thought and action to
>>>> the 230 sectors of our economy. I have posted this message on the blog
>>>> Design for India and you can review my proposal at this link below:
>>>> <http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/2007/06/wish-list-for-indias-national-design.html>
>>>> or at this short link here <http://www.tiny.cc/ep8qg>
>>>>
>>>> These seven stages are as listed below:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Design Opportunities Mapping: Setting goals and defining objectives
>>>> in close cooperation with the stakeholders.
>>>> 2. Design Awareness Building: Promoting and informing all
>>>>
>>> stakeholders,
>>>
>>>> the public, government, business and society about the use and
>>>>
>>> processes
>>>
>>>> of design action and research are reproduced here.
>>>> 3. Design Support Initiatives: Enabling and empowering user groups and
>>>> stakeholders to access and manage design to meet their core needs
>>>> through incubating, incentiviceing and hand-holding supports.
>>>> 4. Design Advocacy Services: Initiating and catalyzing action in high
>>>> risk areas through planned investment and regulation of infrastructure
>>>> and policy initiatives for growth and sustainability.
>>>> 5. Design Action Initiatives: Public infrastructure and good practices
>>>> in governance can be designed through a systematic programme of
>>>> government action through public private partnerships to ensure that
>>>> what is built is an umbrella for sustained and balanced development
>>>> across all sectors of need.
>>>> 6. Design Evaluation and Regulation: Impact assessment and systems
>>>>
>>> audit
>>>
>>>> on an ongoing basis will inform future investments as well as help
>>>> regulate and instill good practices across the board in all
>>>>
>>> development
>>>
>>>> initiatives funded by government.
>>>> 7. Design Planning and Vision: Support and direct investments in
>>>>
>>> public
>>>
>>>> interest research and design development initiatives that are both
>>>> visionary can ensure the future proofing of our economy in a climate
>>>>
>>> of
>>>
>>>> cataclysmic change.
>>>>
>>>> My other posts too have been about such an informed action and these
>>>>
>>> are
>>>
>>>> listed here for immediate review:
>>>> Design inside education: A strategy for India
>>>> Global Warming and Design Concerns in India
>>>> 230 Sectors of Economy for Design Action in India
>>>> Fields of Design and Opportunities for India
>>>>
>>>> Science and Design: Reality check for India
>>>> Wish List for Indias National Design Policy
>>>>
>>> <http://www.tiny.cc/ep8qg>
>>>
>>>> Reflections on Indian Design Policy 2007
>>>>
>>>> Take a look. In the wish list the design audit is proposed as a
>>>> procedure to generate accountability through critical review of design
>>>> offerings as well as the procedures and methods adopted to achieve
>>>>
>>> these
>>>
>>>> results.
>>>>
>>>> I will get back later if there are further querries from the list or
>>>>
>>> if
>>>
>>>> you have any other suggestions and questions.
>>>>
>>>> With warm regards
>>>>
>>>> M P Ranjan
>>>> from my office at NID
>>>> 7 August 2007 at 11.55 pm IST
>>>>
>>>> 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
>>>> 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://design-for-india.blogspot.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Uma Chandru wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear Ranjan,
>>>>>
>>>>> Congratulations. It was good to meet you and Aditi at NID and see
>>>>>
>>> this
>>>
>>>>> beautiful and much awaited volume, which I believe is a must for
>>>>>
>>> anyone
>>>
>>>>> interested in Indian handmade crafts and textiles.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have been reading with great interest the discussion initiated by
>>>>> Prof.
>>>>> Margolin and I may be diverging from this a bit, but I would like to
>>>>> contextualize some aspects of that discussion to your mail below
>>>>>
>>> about
>>>
>>>>> NID's large body of research in the crafts sector and similar work
>>>>>
>>> done
>>>
>>>>> by other undergraduate design schools in India.
>>>>>
>>>>> A review of the crafts documentation at the undergraduate design
>>>>>
>>> college
>>>
>>>>> in India that I am associated with reveals mostly descriptive
>>>>> documentation. These reports include fairly detailed descriptions of
>>>>>
>>> the
>>>
>>>>> crafts motifs, designs, process, history etc. The crafts history that
>>>>> the
>>>>> students include is mostly reproduced from our college or other
>>>>>
>>> library
>>>
>>>>> or
>>>>> the internet and often with little or no critical analysis. The oral
>>>>> histories of the crafts practictioners and their living cultural
>>>>> traditions that the craft is part of are often ignored. While
>>>>>
>>> problems
>>>
>>>>> faced by the artisans that the student's worked with are documented,
>>>>> they
>>>>> do not contain voices of the artisans or other stakeholders and it is
>>>>> often not clear if the problems were expressed by the artisans or the
>>>>> NGOs
>>>>> that work with the artisans or the author of the book they read. They
>>>>> also
>>>>> fail to include an appraisal of policies and development practices or
>>>>> the
>>>>> other wider socio-cultural, economic and environmental factors that
>>>>> might
>>>>> be influencing the transitions in the "traditions" that they are
>>>>> documenting.
>>>>>
>>>>> They include images of the traditional motifs, design and products
>>>>>
>>> and
>>>
>>>>> its
>>>>> current practitioners as well as a documentation of the student's own
>>>>> design interventions with the NGO or crafts community- i.e. final
>>>>> products
>>>>> designed by the student after his/her return to the college or
>>>>> co-designed
>>>>> in the community with the artisans.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am curious to know how many of the 800 student and faculty
>>>>>
>>> research
>>>
>>>>> documents at NID on craft traditions have gone beyond descriptive
>>>>> documentation.
>>>>>
>>>>> What percent have described/critically appraised state policies or
>>>>> previous designer, NGO, state interventions in these crafts
>>>>>
>>> communities?
>>>
>>>>> What percent have done an impact study of their own designs/products
>>>>>
>>> on
>>>
>>>>> crafts communities cultural traditions as part of their internship or
>>>>> research project?
>>>>>
>>>>> Or is this beyond the scope of undergraduate design education and is
>>>>>
>>> it
>>>
>>>>> something better left to masters or PHD design students or those
>>>>>
>>> outside
>>>
>>>>> the current design disciplines in India?
>>>>>
>>>>> Warm regards
>>>>> Uma
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> 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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