Dear Victor
My research of the past 30 odd years have been on the topic you
mentioned and it also began with an attempt to decolonize myself from
the 'western' worldview which is being imposed on us by ourselves in
the name of education. (I also would like to mention here that there
no villains but ONLY victims including the so-called colonizer)
I am connected with many people in India who has been exploring this
issue. I must tell you right at the outset that my exploration has not
been an academic research but an existential research and due to this,
I could go to any extent to explore this.
I think the most important issue that most people have not been able
to address is that people involved in decolonization are using the
same framework and categories imposed by 'modernity' and are getting
trapped. (I feel women's way of knowing is a category imposed by
modernity! What modernity denies is the 'feminine' in our being)
I did some very unusual things in the process that made me recover my
natural cognitive system. Number one is that I began to learn from the
illiterates, I stopped reading and which helped me to regain or
reawaken my senses and recover the cognitive system meant for learning
the REAL WORLD. The literates have a different cognitive system as
they have developed a system to learn the WORD.
I also began to learn from children. in the process, I adopted a
child and took three decisions. One, never say 'No' to her, always
follow her and never lie to her. (adoption just happened and was not
with the intention of learning!) But learning never the less happened
and she and the other children taught me what is life's true intention
and how nature works and how literacy and schooling kills this natural
process.
The way modernity has been studying children is to create a lab
environment and ask them to do all kind of stupid things and make
judgement about children! all the time pointing out what is their
deficiency!
if you want to understand the true nature of children, meet them in
their own space, on their terms. This is what I did in a school I ran
for three years. See the links http://sadhanavillageschool.org/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sadhanavillagepune
Our colonization or conditioning is taking place at three levels- The
information that is being passed down in the name of 'knowledge' and
most effort to decolonize stop at this.That is by changing the
content. But more dangerous is at the emotional level and at the sense
level. All of our art /design and architecture education is based on
western AESTHETIC sensibilities and how to decolonize aesthetic
sensibilities has hardly been addressed. I had organized two
conferences- one is 2015 and one in 2017 to initiate the process.
‘Reimagining Aesthetic Unfolding – From Conditioning to Awakening’
2nd International Conference on Design Pedagogy and Contextual Aesthetics
http://thanima.co.in/
http://rethinkingfoundation.weebly.com/
I also would like to direct your attention to a talk I gave at CEPT
University in the month of March this year called 'Rediscovering the
PROCESS OF KNOWING and BEING'
The gist is given below.
Knowledge creation has gone out of this culture after the advent of
schooling and the introduction of literacy. In fact, modern schooling
is an outcome of literacy as knowledge could be externalized and
carried around without the ‘life’.
The talk is on the damages of present schooling and early introduction
of literacy and numeracy and its impact on the formation of modern
man’s worldview who seems to have turned against life with his ideas
of scientific progress and development. The presenter has studied how
children ‘learn’ naturally and have got a glimpse into the biological
roots of knowledge and the ‘living’ nature of knowledge.
TOPICS
FROM WORD TO THE WORLD
How literacy changed the content of learning from world to the word.
Literates learn the word; illiterates learn the world.
FROM AUTONOMY TO DEPENDENCE
Literacy also brought in teaching as a means to upgrade
DEVELOPMENT OF RESPECTIVE COGNITIVE SYSTEMS
To learn the world and to learn the word
WHAT PREVENTS ‘UNDERSTANDING’
Paradigm shift, linear thinking, reasoning short-circuits
comprehension, mind created categories and compartments.
DAMAGES AND IMPACT on consciousness
Timeless-ness, omnipresence and abundance or ‘here and now’ to
boredom, absence, and poverty. Alienation, Thinking, fragmentation,
linear thinking, homogenization, Destruction of life, Afterthoughts,
exclusion, hierarchy,
Re-imagining Child CENTRIC SPACES – TRUE UNIVERSAL DESIGN
To learn and to be.
RE-IMAGINING SCHOOLS AND HIGHER EDUCATION
Based on the natural propensity to learn the real
world-self-initiated, experiential……
INITIATING FRESH RESEARCH
Biological roots of value formation, the creation of knowledge(process
and content) and aesthetic awakening – in short, WHY, WHAT and HOW of
LIFE
See the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2690&v=2aek6X_2K2g
Jinan
https://www.jinankb.in/videos
On 30/08/2018, Victor Martinez <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear list members,
>
>
> This semester my colleague Lindsay Norris and I are preparing a very
> ambitious project with our second year design students.
>
>
> In the last few years the topic of "decolonisation" as been much discussed
> in the design field, maybe not enough. The main conversation revolves around
> the idea that for centuries, because of power structures, we have been
> neglecting and denying other ways of knowing and understanding the world,
> therefore building it too.
>
>
> The definition of colonisation that we will be working with is:
>
>
> "The action of appropriating a place, mind, culture, identity or domain for
> one's own use"
>
>
> In order to embrace the great diversity of this planet, we need to accept
> the idea that each one of us has to decolonise itself from different
> preconceived ideas and assumptions of why the world works and looks as it
> does.
>
>
> The semester will be divided in two sections; one will deal with indigenous
> design and traditional non-western ways of knowing. We will have the
> intervention of a Kwantlen First Nation artist and we are looking for
> experts on this topic willing to share with us your view and understanding.
> We are kindly asking one hour of your time for a skype
> presentation/conversation. The dates for this will be Sep 24th (any time
> from 9 to 11 am PST) and Sep 26th (any time from 1pm to 4pm PST, we are
> located in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Unceded territories of the Salish Coastal
> peoples).
>
>
> The second half we want to dedicate it to women's ways of knowing. We
> recognize that the patriarchal world that we live in has denied and brutally
> obscured for centuries a unique and essential way of understanding our
> world.
>
>
> It is for that reason that we want to invite different women to our
> classroom to share with the students their perspective on this idea of
> women's way of knowing. What experiences they have in their everyday living
> that are evidence of this patriarchal structure? and what ideas and
> assumptions we have to decolonise from in order to fully embrace the best of
> all us?
>
>
> We are looking for women willing to share their experiences and view
> regarding the two questions above, similarly as before, we can offer one
> hour for a skype presentation/conversation.
>
>
> Our course is scheduled on Mondays from 8am to 12pm and Wednesdays from 1pm
> to 5pm (Pacific Standard Time).
>
>
> The sessions for our guest speakers will be on October 22nd, 24th, 29th,
> 31st, and November 5th and 7th.
>
>
> I am sorry to say that we cannot financially compensate for these
> participations, no need to explain in this forum the struggles with academic
> budgets.
>
>
> Please let me know if you would be interested in participating in this
> ambitious and exciting project, and if so, what day and time will suit your
> schedule best.
>
>
> Any question or doubt please let me know.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Victor G. Martinez Ph.D
> Faculty & Researcher
> Wilson School of Design
> Kwantlen Polytechnic University
>
> www.kpu.ca/design
> www.digitalphysicalities.com<http://www.digitalphysicalities.com>
> www.victorgmartinez.com<http://www.victorgmartinez.com>
> <http://www.trophec.com>
> www.trophec.com<http://www.trophec.com>
>
>
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--
Jinan,
TEXT DISTORTS, DIGITAL DESTROYS, WORLD AWAKENS
http://existentialknowledgefoundation.org/
reimaginingschools.wordpress.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/jinansvideos
www.re-cognition.org
http://designeducationasia.blogspot.com/
http://awakeningaestheticawareness.wordpress.com/
https://independent.academia.edu/JinanKodapully
09447121544
0487 2386723
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