WEAVE September 2022 | Death of Culture?

ADYA SRIVASTAVA

ABHAY SHARMA

Intellect

Cultural Identity in

Kirti Trivedi

Professor Emeritus MIT ID Indore, Avantika University The article ‘Cultural Identity in Design’ contains selected excerpts from the full text of an exhibition titled ‘Cultural Identity in Design: Propositions from India’. The exhibition was the final outcome of a year’s work on a fellowship awarded to Prof. Kirti Trivedi by International Design Foundation (IFG), Ulm, Germany; and was presented at the IFG Conference in Ulm in 1989. The exhibition consisted of six propositions elaborated visually in 28 panels, and was designed to be a travelling exhibition.

Global and culture-free products are not very good for the creative health of human society

The depletion of visual variety

What is labelled ‘culture free’ is really a manifestation of intellectual ideas of technologically dominant cultures.

This dominance usually leads to the elimination or death of other ideas - thus severely depleting mankind’s stock and variety of ideas.

Considering the uniform blandness of so many ‘designer designed’ products, one may be justified in concluding that the process of industrial design yields fixed results like mathematical formulas and engineering design.

There exists a commonly held view that there are some products which are ‘global’ and ‘context-free’. Products like computers and office equipment, machine tools, professional and scientific equipment etc. are generally considered ‘global’, implying that such products are designed without taking into account variations in user culture.

More recently automobiles, audio and consumer electronics are beginning to be included in this category.

Such products are characterised by a visual style which prefers plain geometric forms and avoids surface decoration- a style which owes its origin to ideas about form design developed at the Bauhaus and HfG, Ulm. The formal ideas developed at these schools have become established norms of practice for industrial design. The acknowledgement of one style as the ‘global’ style is more damaging than just a boring uniformity of the material landscape. Besides, it is easier to design and make the same product for all the markets, as there is no need to find out about differences in users and spend on separate model development and tooling. A myth has been created to support a lack of willingness to accept other possibilities or other viewpoints.

The self-imposed visual circle of limits within which the designers operate is not the result of any deeply held convictions about the way products should be made, but is based on an arbitrary agreement about what is currently ‘in’. If an important designer group steps out of the circle to create another circle, immediately others follow to join the new circle, which unfortunately is as small and isolated as the first.

The loss of variety is not just in mass-produced products, but also in individual living environments, where no compulsion exists to create identical structures. There seems to be a consensus about the use of only very limited vocabulary of forms, materials and configurations. A block in Tokyo looks nearly the same as one in Nairobi or Bombay or Milan.

Design has to operate in its own cultural context It is often forgotten that design is a service profession and that designer is a middleman.

The need for a separate profession of a designer is of relatively recent origin, and has arisen because of qualitative changes in the pattern of production, specialisation and complexity of the industrialised production process. A designer is required in such a situation to represent and interpret the users’ needs so as to ensure a better fit between product and user.

As an interpreter, a designer has to be particularly sensitive to functional preferences and also to emotional, cultural, aesthetic and behavioural preferences of the user group for whom one is designing. One cannot ignore the cultural context in the operation of a designer. We cannot design identities for cultures. The identity exists on its own, it emerges as a result of a lot of factors like historical, environmental, behavioural etc. Aesthetic preferences cannot be forced – they evolve. Different people and cultures have a right to be – and also a right to be different.

A Designer should be concerned with creating an appropriate human interface which would have proper form messages and will relate well with the users and their culture.

Tradition has many lessons to teach Local cultural and product traditions, evolved over thousands of years and surviving because they are soundly rooted in the soil, should be the most important reference source for a designer in that region. The continuing health of such traditions, their interaction with neighbouring and distant cultural traditions and the resultant variety – all these are vital for the health of ‘design’ as a whole.

A designer working in such cultures can derive great benefit from the study of these already evolved form traditions. If assimilated and absorbed, they would provide a much higher beginning point for the designer, from where even more innovative and refined statements can be made.

This would be much better, in any case, than starting from scratch and making a clumsy, primitive expression in another culture’s language.

"The continuing health of such traditions, their interaction with neighbouring and distant cultural traditions and the resultant variety - all these are vital for the health of 'design' as a whole."

Product ideas transplanted in another, alien culture do not usually take roots and flowers in the original form

Even in the context of centralised mass production, it is possible to respect and maintain regional identities

Any ideology needs an appropriate environment to take roots, grow, mature and flower to full perfection. When ideas are transplanted in a context to which they don’t belong, then a loss of quality is inevitable. Lack of attention to contextual and cultural compatibility has created many situations of product misfits.

Technological constraints are generally cited to explain the standardisation and uniformity of mass-produced objects.

The economies of large-scale production, the advantages of not having to tool up separately, the small size of different cultural segments, the difficulty of model changeover in the automated production lines – all these reasons are given to support the lack of variation. All these may be valid reasons. The difficulty arises from the economic impracticality of catering to regional variations from a central source.

Perhaps a new and more interactive model is required in which people contribute to creating what they want.

Individualization: the Indian Way Indians have never really thought of design as a special skill. There are millions of Indian people, who have always found their own design solutions to their needs.

Though unknown as individuals, it is their work which gives India its distinct visual character. A situation like this, where millions of minds are creatively involved in designing, is infinitely better than when design is controlled by a few socalled professionals. The laboratory of design becomes so vast, the vocabulary so much more enriched when everybody participates. Surprises never cease. Design is never dull.

"A situation like this, where millions of minds are creatively involved in designing, is infinitely better than when design is controlled by a few so-called professionals.

The laboratory of design becomes so vast, the vocabulary so much more enriched when everybody participates. Surprises never cease. Design is never dull."

Feature

What's up

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JA RVIS

Shyamala Prayaga Senior Software Product Manager, Nvidia LinkedIn With almost 2 decades of experience, Shyamala Prayaga has been an evangelist in her field of UX, more specifically Conversational AI. She founded groups like “User Experience Group’’, “Women in Voice, Michigan Chapter”, and has worked to bring an understanding of User experience to companies that have employed her skills. Having led initiatives across connected home, automotive, and wearables - just to name a few, she’s put her work on research into usability, accessibility, speech recognition, multimodal voice user interfaces, and has even been published internationally across publications like Forbes.

She has worked with companies like Amazon, Ford Motors and now Nvidia. Coming from a humble background in a small town of India, she has created a niche for herself.

Technology is imperfect, a failing speech recognition system or an AI that can’t comprehend any human functions. How can we as designers understand these blind spots, and in turn avoid pitfalls?

interactions but play a role in making others understand the end-to-end picture of it.

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First, we need to understand why blindspots exist. Take Amazon for example.

When Alexa was launched, issues like trouble in registering accents, words or even people soon surfaced. Pitfalls were not considered before launch since the approach was product-driven. Factors like these made the product miss the blind spots. As designers this is where our responsibilities come into play. Designers don’t just take requirements from product managers and design flow charts and

DEEP In an era where machine intelligence can automate tasks and predict outcomes, where IoT (Internet of Things) can embed functionality into objects and environments, it creates new challenges.

Considering this, how can designers shape themselves to create a better human-computer interaction?

Machines will automate a lot of things. For e.g. a voice assistant is able to do shopping on your behalf or become a concierge for you or these robotic assistants who assist through entire surgeries. Everywhere we see automation happening but who is the brains behind it, who is thinking about the interaction behind it, machines do not have their own intelligence they need to be taught, the same way machines will not understand how their interactions work. That is where the designer’s role begins. Designers are the ones who are going to ensure that we think about holistic journeys while we are thinking about how the design interaction will work.

In the end, what happened was that within 5 mins it became so racist, it started yelling and cursing as that’s what was fed into the system. If robots are left to learn themselves without defining the right interactions and guardrails we would see more assistants like Tay’s than Alexa’s and Siri’s. We as designers are the ones who need to bring everyone cohesively together and put the right guardrails.

Your journey is an example of how this universe brings us to a place where we can make our finest contribution. What were the challenges faced as we traversed the industry, and how did the transition transform our mindset?

I’ve always been a designer by heart. Design has always been my passion, but I was a ‘forced engineer due to family pressure’. I selected civil engineering streams out of all engineering streams because that’s where you could design and build tangible things.

So when I started interning at an architecture firm, I realised that there were many constraints to work with, like land dimensions, user expectations, budget etc. There’s so much to think about from the user’s standpoint. Soon that space became monotonous and less challenging to me as you cannot do many variations.

AK

As more and more automation happens, a majority of our responsibilities will become substantial. Another example is the Microsoft bot “Tay” which was launched with an idea that wanted to make the natural language system more understandable so that when you say something, the AI can have meaningful conversations with humans.

PAK I wanted to apply my architectural and civil engineering learning yet solve complex problems. That is when I got introduced to User Experience design. I felt like User Experience (UX) in the tech world was where I wanted to be—designing interactions for people and making it easy for them to use fascinated me. That was a hard transition for me because I did not know anything about UX to start with.

Understanding this concept or getting into this space was a big deal for me. Coming from a small town, I did not have access to many learning resources or people to take guidance from to get into this space, so I had to do a lot of self-exploration and learning. My biggest break came from America Online, where I had to build their web portal, and that is when I realised that UX is a new world.

I learn and grow with people, so I created a LinkedIn UX group to learn from people and share my knowledge. Soon it became a community project where I started bringing everyone together as UX was a new term at that time.

We have seen the transition from human-computer interaction to human-machine interaction or usability engineering; we had all of these weird terminologies until Don Norman coined it ‘user experience.

Recently there has been an increase in the number of negative articles about how technology will cause huge upheavals in the near future. How can designers, realistically and practically ideate for the future while staying positive about it?

The first time I went to the ATM to withdraw money, I was so scared and back then the machines were designed in a way that slid your card inside and would only give it back after withdrawal. You can imagine why I would be fearful, if this were my feelings then how would someone in their 50s or 60s feel? So, yes there is a lot of negative news now but people have gotten used to technology and are comfortable with it. We just have to learn to see through those things. There are biases as well, that’s an issue and we know this because we are hearing it from the users.

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"as a designer you can only control outcomes to a certain extent, you cannot influence people's decisions or how they think or the future."

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We are adapting, accepting that this is how it’s going to be and if people are not comfortable, they are just stopping to use these things and keeping themselves at a distance.

I feel like it’s the same thing, as a designer you can only control outcomes to a certain extent, you cannot influence people’s decisions or how they think or the future.

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Design is a discipline which considers both sides- execution and theory, never relying thoroughly on one.

However, the tools and processes used today tend to be biassed towards quick solutions.

That’s where the real-life situation and the academic gap come into play.

Design schools teach all the critical theories and processes but, at times applying theories, won’t be possible realistically. For e.g.: Imagine, you were just told that you have to work on 2 different products and launch them in a month. Now, you have to write your design requirements and do the due diligence to quickly launch the product and that’s when agility is needed to do what is important as you cannot do everything or follow every part of the design process.

As designers we are not losing skills, there are business needs, functional needs and user needs, the way we think about catering to all these needs while being agile in this space is essential.

How do I optimise it as a designer?

Providing the right inputs while making sure that we are moving fast is where the skills of the designer come in handy– do the minimum, as little as possible and as much as needed, that’s it. You don’t have to do everything, just move forward then launch early access or a beta, then do your research, and collect more feedback from customers. Sometimes you need to know where to draw the line and where to adapt.

AI has gone from uncovering mysteries of human life to becoming a buzzword for companies with AI-powered products. Do you think AI has lost its ambition and become artificial ‘general’ intelligence?

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I wouldn’t say that, the thing is people have started to realise the value of Artificial Intelligence and what it can bring. We have been trying for so many years to make artificial intelligence work for us. AI as a concept has been around for 20-30 years and we were able to do small things but now we have seen what the possibilities of AI are especially after the launch of voice-enabled assistants like Alexa, Google, Siri and The One the car.

AI is helping doctors with surgeries assistance and helping with imaging to detect anomalies in the MRI’s and CT Scan. AI is helping automate and optimise call centres, factories and offices. AI is not just a buzzword because people have started to realise the value of it and they want to use it more, it’s not losing its charm, it’s gaining because AI is capable of doing so many things in making your life easier.

What area will have the greatest changes in the next 5 years? Especially your area of expertise Deep learning, AI, machine learning and voice AI? Voice AI is going to grow significantly, we will see advancements in deep learning, and machine learning algorithms to make Voice AI more sophisticated.

When I talk about voice AI, it’s not just Alexa or Google voice assistance it’s more than that, we are talking about metahumans, a metaverse where everything comes together.

We are talking about optimising the entire business world through voice AI, customer care, health care, entertainment or even retail, there are so many opportunities.

Written By Mrunmayi Bhombe and Jineet Shah

Contrary

Can DESIGN D ESIGN Cultu DE D IGN DESIG Ashwini Deshpande Co-founder - Elephant Design Ashwini is the co-founder of India’s largest independent integrated design consultancy, Elephant Design. Not only have they worked with some of the biggest Indian conglomerates like Tata, Mahindra & Reliance Groups, but also global brands such as Daimler, Unilever, Colgate and BASF. Ashwini has helped brands such as Paper Boat, Epigamia, Chaayos & Too Yumm evolve in the startup space. She shares her thoughts in the realms of branding, design inclusivity, design thinking and leadership with students, professionals & startup teams.

LinkedIn

DESIGND ure ESIGNDE Die IGNDESI

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Manav Kambli Content Strategist - Elephant Design Manav Kambli is a writer, editor, and translator. When not developing content for Elephant Design, he works with publishing houses like Penguin Vintage to translate and bring forth noteworthy regional literature into the English language for additional exposure.

He has published several works in magazines like Helter-Skelter, Andolan, and Lila Inter-Actions, along with writing for and editing a non-fiction book (100 Years of Jamshedpur) by Marg for Tata Steel. He has also created video content for brands like Facebook and Josh Talks and curated social-cause-focused conferences for organizations like the UNDP and UN Women.

LinkedIn

"Culture is complex.

Nuanced.Culture doesn't die; it simply changes and evolves."

Cognizance of Death and Culture What do you think of the term ‘Death of Culture?’

How can we situate this in the many perspectives design offers us?

We can’t speak of death without speaking about time because death is often associated with the end of a particular time. Interestingly, the Ancient Greeks had two words for time: Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is quantitative. Clock time.

Seconds, minutes, hours. Kairos, on the other hand, is qualitative. The moments. Chronos marks the what and Kairos, the when. Indians can relate since we, too, have Kala (clock time) and Ritu (the moment).

These cultures’ more rigid perceptions of time exist because they’re convenient. A framework to tackle the everyday. But culture isn’t something mundane. It isn’t easily defined either - we can talk about behaviours, attitudes, norms and all kinds of human behaviour that might come under this umbrella term.

Evolve & Revolve

are anything but static entities. We grow, and our preferences change. And it is essential for design to anticipate those For us, culture is complex. Nuanced.

Culture doesn’t die; it simply changes and changes and adapt to them. evolves.

This brings to mind our work for Nirlep The Greeks (specifically, Heraclitus) nearly three decades ago. Culturally had another apt saying: Panta Rhei, or speaking, most Indian cooking needs “Everything flows.” This is something the occasional stir. Soiled spatulas and we see at play and at work. Innovation ladles would lie on the countertop or in and forward movement lie at the heart a separate vessel if home cooks wanted of design. This is because, as designers, we must design for humans, and humans to park them. This led to us adding a ‘split-handle lid,’ which keeps your ladle in a readily accessible position and avoids smarting burns when it is parked on the domed pot lid. Users responded enthusiastically; since then, we’ve seen many brands offering this feature.

Can we say that the practice of keeping spatulas or spoons on the side while cooking has died? No, but when presented with an alternative that feels intuitive, it has definitely changed and assimilated within the practices that ‘Indian kitchen culture’ possesses.

"Culture also doesn't change chronologically.

It changes with time and its continuity."

Cyclic nature of culture Culture also doesn’t change chronologically.

It’s impossible to pinpoint the second, the minute or even the year culture will change. Sometimes, this change is drastic but doesn’t feel that way because of how we temporally experience things. For instance, the brands you’ve come to know and love have changed beyond comprehension.

Before Coca-Cola was a soda, it was sold as a medicine due to the presence of the Coca leaf ingredient. It was associated with an elitist lifestyle, but now, it embodies happiness, donning a family-friendly cloak - suitable for social events and parties. “A single ad campaign, movement, or invention did not bring about this change - time and its continuity did.”

Further, culture is cyclical, and the industry has innumerable examples to showcase that. In the 90s and early 2000s, globalisation flooded our market with conveniences previously unknown.

Consumers had an entire array of brands to suddenly choose from, with many declaring that this infusion of foreign influences would result in the death of Indian or ‘desi’ culture. We know this to be untrue because we now have indigenous startups adding to the same displays on shop floors.

Diving deep into the culture This leads us to our experience while naming, branding and developing the identity and packaging system for Paperboat. The presence of nostalgic cues sent customers down memory lane as they sipped ethnic beverages like Aam Panna or Jaljeera, repackaged in a Doypack (Fun fact: NASA uses this to package liquids for astronauts).

Paperboat is one of India’s fastestgrowing consumer brands today, tell us that people won’t be moving on from ethnic drinks. Will there be cyclical patterns and changes in consumption and format? Yes. But death? Perhaps not.

and the potential for several cultures to exist simultaneously. The history of design shows us that subcultures are constantly developing. The constant interaction between subcultures and pop cultures creates a healthy diversity for consumers whose interests and beliefs are subjected to similar exchanges.

Old Bollywood songs are constantly remade. Emulators let you play 90s Pokemon games on your smartphone.

Sarees are haute-couture partywear, and Dosa batters aren’t frowned upon.

Your decades-old, favourite Mughlai restaurant now offers doorstep delivery.

Is culture dead? The question is now As designers, we can’t say we think much yours to reflect upon. about the Death of Culture then. We’d prefer to think about its continuity, flow

"Will there be cyclical patterns and changes in consumption and format? Yes. But death? Perhaps not."

Clarity

Into the Corporate environment

Kiran Khalap Co-founder, Chlorophyll brand consultancy LinkedIn Kiran Khalap has been involved in branding and communication since 1983. An author, educator, businessman, trekker and pursuer of personal improvement, he needs no introduction having worked with brands Infosys, Tata motors, Meru and GlaxoSmithKline. He has written fiction and non-fiction books like Black River Run and was the Chairman of ACSAC.

The shortest and most meaningful definition of culture I have read is “Shared meaning.” It’s by an Indian psychoanalyst, novelist and author: Dr Sudhir Kakkar.

What do we know about the culture at philosophical and workplace levels?

Why this dramatic drop between philosophical level and workplace level? When we do some research on corporate culture, we are up against opaque jargon: fragile versus resilient versus heterotic versus beta-philic versus tropophilic (loving change). When we bypass the jargon we arrive at three facilitators of long-term culture!

Let’s start with the story of my own involvement with the oldest brand on Earth, 1400 years old, originating in 734 AD. It’s called Eternal Mewar and it represents the unchanging, rock-solid core of the Maharana of Mewar family: custodianship.

Where every Maharana, leader of the people in the region of Mewar, saw himself as a custodian of respect for mankind, respect for independence and service to the community. 76 generations have lived up to this culture: even while everything changed around it dramatically. The enemies changed (Mughals, English); the governing structure changed (from kingdoms to a republic in India); sources of revenue changed (to hospitality).

Ability to adapt the unchanging core of the brand to changing environment

Meanwhile, the lifespan of companies has dropped from 61 years to 18!

if your organisation does not embrace the seismic changes that WFH has made compulsory, your organisation and you, both will be history.

(https://www.imd.org/ research-knowledge/articles/ why-you-will-probablylive-longer-than-most-bigcompanies/)

Brand James Bond was born in 1953. The first movie was made in 1962. The first Bond, Sean Connery, used to smoke, have sexual relationships with most females he met and consumed gallons of a dry martini. The latest Bond, Daniel Craig, never smokes, weeps for his girlfriend and drinks zero alcohol beer. Because society considers smoking and over-drinking infra-dig and HIV says multiple sexual relationships are unsafe. But James Bond must be 37 years old because he was a Commander in the British Navy before he turned into 007. And he must have the licence to kill. And unlike Jason Bourne, who uses pencils to kill people, he must have technology gadgets!

That remains the unchanging core of the brand. How is this applicable to corporate brands? Think Work From Home…if your organisation does not embrace the seismic changes that WFH has made compulsory, your organisation and you, both will be history.

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Refusing to become a globalised, unquestioned monoculture As global barriers fell, the idea that gained ground was that agriculture, finance, education, and healthcare could be reduced to one culture, destroying thousands of extremely rich, adapted-to-local origins! After decades of this monoculture, we now know the reality: local practices of Vedic Farming deliver results that are far more spectacular than chemical-driven farming; traditional medicine tends to have fewer side effects than man-made molecules; education aimed at high IQ (Intelligence Quotient based solely on linguistic and mathematical abilities) can destroy other Quotients… like MQ (Musical Quotient!), AQ (Adversity Quotient), EQ (Emotional Quotient) and SQ (Spirituality Quotient) so critical to enriching human life!

How is this applicable to corporate brands?

Why should all corporate cultures try to aim for high IQ employees?

They might be relevant to a business consultancy, but not to a hospitality brand, where EQ will play a larger role! (Watch this if you haven’t already). At chlorophyll, we are attempting to reach the Teal Level of Organisation, a level described by Frederic Laloux and explained here: https://bit.ly/3cUuAu5

My last facilitator: it is about the employee, not the employer!

I am talking to you youngsters who want to get employed. First, do you want to be employees, or do you want to be creators? If you want to be an employee, do you know what kind of organisations you want to join? If you know what kind of organisations you want to join, have you researched them?

Everlane (https://www.everlane. com/) introduced the term Radical Transparency in 2010 to announce it would share its profit margins for the apparel it sold. In 2020, NY Times published an article that said the transparency did not extend to employee policies.

Would you still join Everlane?

There are no wrongs or rights: some cultures survive beyond human lifespans, and some don’t.

You decide where you belong.

SUMMARY

"There are no wrongs or rights: some cultures survive beyond human lifespans, and some don't.

You decide where you belong."

K

Intangibles like culture are extremely difficult to manage in organisations unless there is a philosophical (think Eternal Mewar) or civilisational culture (think Japan) to support it.

Whether an organisation has managed to retain its culture or not, it is also the prospective employee’s responsibility to research and find out whether they want to belong to that culture.

Reflection

About Culture Suresh Eriyat

Animator | Film Maker | Studio Eeksaurus Suresh Eriyat is an Indian Animator and Filmmaker and the founder of his own studio called Studio Eeksaurus. With decades of experience in the field of design and film direction, he has over 450 films to his credit with hits like ‘Tokri’ and the ‘Fisherwoman and Tuk Tuk’.

LinkedIn

The Emergence of Culture Culture is the only probable differentiator between an animal and a human being. Culture would have emerged into existence when the primitive human got a gap between survival and sustenance. While introspecting the factors that led to the birth of culture one can also confirm that the depletion of the same factors can cause the death of a culture. Mobile phones for example have brought a different sort of ‘culture’ (cynically termed as lack of culture) that emerged out of no time to spare for each other in a physical world and have become a free platform to profess culture without actually inculcating one.

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Sustenance of culture

Culture has to be nurtured and nourished for it to flourish.

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The defining line between Art and culture: Art and culture are two sides of the same coin that came about when man found some time for himself. So logically, time is the most essential factor that supports art and culture to exist.

Not merely for its existence but also for it to be appreciated. When time is depleted, both the practice of culture and appreciation of it find no takers. Culture has to be nurtured and nourished for it to flourish.

Culture is the way of sensitive living, a sign of a humane civilisation. Even insensitive living can sometimes be called pop, materialistic or even uncouth culture! Can they really be a culture?

Once a reporter asked Gandhiji about his thoughts on Western Civilisation. He replied ‘It’d be a good idea!’, mocking the absence of authentic culture and hence civilisation when the West always went for a materialistic pursuit for happiness, while in the East, happiness is a spiritual concept.

Indian youngsters in the past left their households to the Himalayas to find inner peace which helped bring a rock-solid Indian culture of kindness and acceptance that has had a huge impact on this country and its countrymen. Greed drove the smallest of countries in the world to conquer the rest of the world to define and demonstrate the most ‘sophisticated culture’ that we know of today. It is nothing but a hollow mask tagged ‘sophisticated culture’ that under pressure would wither, whimper and crack to reveal those barbaric faces beneath them. When a society becomes hate-ridden, wars erupt and we have often seen ‘sophisticated’ humans reincarnating as barbarians.

A Culture-depleted society is an aftereffect of hatred. Any society that embraces hate is endangering culture and eventually art.

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Compulsion by force on humanity can leave them without the sensitivity and sensibility to embrace a positive culture and dignified living.

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The reason why countries spend so much on the destruction of the human race than on nurturing it is because of the core barbaric aggression hidden deep under the insecurity of survival.

When survival is in question, culture cannot coexist. Remember prehistoric humans didn’t consider or recognise something called culture when they were constantly in survival mode.

Mere questioning of each other’s real cultures at a global level will create wars between countries, revealing the fragility of many cultures. But then art is fragile too just like culture. Tribals who have dealt with the challenges of survival have also nurtured culture, while the urban crowd constantly takes a detour to rediscover that core human culture every now and then by being in touch with them.

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Time is the most essential factor that supports art and culture to exist.

Positive reinforcement with a pinch of love In our studio too, in the past, we experienced depletion of culture as well as cultivation of culture. It’s a microcosmic example that can be used as a great subset for macrocosmic behaviour. There was a time when we did brilliant work-mechanically and out of fear, believing it was the right way to do things. There was rampant hate between team members. Fear of each other, which we mistook for discipline, was the propelling force in our studio, survival being the only theme. There was no time for a positive culture to grow and it had to be brought in consciously. We started meeting outside work and doing things for people that had nothing to do with work. We never had people greeting each other earlier, which has now changed. That really is the emergence of culture. I do not believe in the word ‘work culture’. Culture, for its existence, is independent of any dependencies like those we often wrongly attributed. When there is a culture that binds us, the thinking is at a much higher scale and the work that comes out of such a crowd also brings about changes in the way people think, resulting in the emergence of a new society. Compulsion by force on humanity can leave them without the sensitivity and sensibility to embrace a positive culture and dignified living.

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Profound

Death of Sustainable Culture

by Veena Sonwalkar and Brajendra Panda

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Veena Sonwalkar is an associate design director at frog and currently leads the frog Bangalore studio. With over 18 years of experience in user experience design, her focus now lies in defining planet-centric solutions. LinkedIn Brajendra Panda is a principal designer at frog. Based in Gurugram and originally from Bhubaneswar, he explores the intersection of sustainability, religion, and design. LinkedIn

Culture is who we are, it shapes our identity.

Numerous indigenous cultures have typically placed the environment at the centre of their existence throughout the years. ‘Sustainability’ was the core of their existence and living in harmony with nature was the essence of many cultures in India. However, with rapid industrialization and urbanisation, planet-centric culture is increasingly replaced with ‘human only’ centric development policies. Now ‘Sustainability’ is more of a buzzword which again focuses on improving human existence rather than being respectful of other living beings or the planet at large.

This article critiques the death of ‘planet-centric culture’ in the Indian context. There are numerous factors this death can be attributed to:

"Culture is who we are, it shapes our identity."

Stress on ‘economic only’ growth Indigenous cultures in India focused on holistic existence and living in harmony with the environment. For centuries we worshipped trees, animals and birds. Village communities were self-sustaining – with a vast majority of economic activities being localised within the community.

Growth was not just economic but social and cultural.

However, with rapid industrialization, the world (and India) began to solely focus on economic growth. While industrialization helped boost production efficiency and reduced manufacturing costs, it was a centralised model where raw materials and labour had to be brought into the factories hubs for

large-scale manufacturing. This meant a larger carbon footprint and a drastic change in the socio-economic order. The focus on ‘consumption’ for economic growth has systematically depleted our resources and increased economic

inequalities/divides in society. It has paved the way for natural disasters, pollution and other environmental stressors.

Economic inequalities

Convenience

The choices (diet, transport, stay, entertainment, energy usage, consumption of products and services, etc.) of every individual consumer coalesce into society’s overall ecological impact.

Moreover, our environmental policies have a marginal impact on our social norms, behaviours, and the financial viability of our collective actions.

The repercussions are greatest for lower income people, migrants, and people from other disadvantaged groups who may lack the resources needed to prevent or recover from natural disasters, pollution, and other environmental stressors. A traditional selfsustaining lifestyle has become both prohibitive and undesirable for the lower-income population who identify it as symbols of backwardness and inconvenience. (e.g.: a traditional diet for the poor like ragi costs way higher than a pack of Maggi). Additionally, the elitism associated with sustainable living has further distanced the lower and middle classes from seeking affordable choices which are often harmful to the environment.

With fast-moving modern lifestyle, convenience is often relished. Society has adopted ‘Onthe-go’ products which come along with mass manufacturing, and distribution systems that use a fair bit of packaging, generating massive amounts of non-degradable wastes. Mass production and new service models have led to the creation of products that are convenient, accessible and affordable while increasing the demand, leading to overconsumption.

Be it while ordering food through delivery apps or serving food at home on single-use foam plates, we have forgotten some of our traditional practices – like steel “dabbas” and banana leaf plates.

In Mumbai, a changing lifestyle with working couples, the dabbawalla service is falling behind due to convenient online ordering & delivery services which help avoid the hassles of cooking.

This has resulted in the generation of plastic waste while concentrating profits in the hands of a few rich investors who own these apps.

"Growth was not just economic but social and cultural."

From interdependence to independence Our culture has always been that of interdependence. While we depended on nature for the fulfilment of our needs, we made sure to respect the sources from which we fulfilled our needs. Rivers, mountains, trees, animals, birds, and even rodents like rats – all were worshipped as either gods or their pets.

With an over-emphasis on independence from shortages, we have switched to industrial solutions for our needs. We have built massive dams that tame rivers, quarried mountains, cut trees to make space for infrastructure projects, caged animals, and birds in zoos and national parks.

We quarried mountains to find the raw materials for building the dams, which in turn have given us independence from floods. However, we are seeing an increase in landslides, and a drop in soil fertility in the flood plains increasing our dependence on concrete and fertilisers respectively.

Religious connotation for indigenous environmental practices One of the reasons for the above is the extreme religious association with worshipping nature. Worshipping cows has more religious connotations than conserving nature and respecting other beings. Often nature takes a backseat.

"The elitism associated with sustainable living has further distanced the lower and middle classes from seeking affordable choices which are often harmful to the environment."

"From interdependence to independence our culture has always been that of interdependence. While we depended on nature for the fulfilment of our needs, we made sure to respect the sources from which we fulfilled our needs."

Emphasis on Western education With excessive western education, emphasis is again placed on profit from industrial and technological advancements. Emphasis on gaining mastery over nature is at the core of modern science. Western education also emphasises class which creates an additional social bias for certain economic strata. This impacts decisions around the environment which directly impacts lower-income people who cannot participate in these decisions.

While industrialization is inevitable, sustainable innovation is vital. Retaining the essence of traditional living is the only way to save the planet!

References: https://en.unesco.org/courier/april-june-2017/ culture-heart-sdgs

Bedrock

Attention to Detail

Shantanu Salunkhe

Co-Founder of Studio Lopamudra Visiting Faculty Communication Design at MIT ID Indore, Avantika University LinkedIn

Moving from Architecture to Industrial design, Transportation design and owning a studio how has your journey been so far?

My journey began with architecture, but design had different plans for me. Having the desire to work in interdisciplinary fields, working with only Industrial design or spaces generated a sense of limitation. The continual nage of pursuing what you love and the desire to achieve things on your own has helped me explore many disciplines. There is no clear beginning moment for this desire, but a persistent curiosity in the mind has led to it.

Lopamudra’s creative end domains include graphic design, visual communication, industrial and product consultancy, commercial photography, and so on.

Currently, I am focusing on the creative and artistic domains in conjunction with design in order to create conceptual art, entertainment and media, storytelling, and gaming. Leading to domains that are both entertaining and engaging, but also demanding. The first five years of college were a learning experience, but with networking and mentoring, the journey seemed to be smoother.

Which culture do you think is dying and should be revived?

Although they are not gone, the ability to observe things clearly and objectively has greatly diminished.

Due to the moment for mass manufacturing; minimalism is no longer an ethical demand, but rather an industrial requirement. A complex piece cannot be produced. During the Renaissance, people had more freedom to express their uniqueness. People used to desire to accomplish something that they could call “my.” Now, people seem to be ok with having the same IKEA furniture as their peers. Looking at things or the way we look at things has steadily changed.

It also varies from period to period, materials, processes, masses, proportion, and how it connects to us in those specific settings. Designers now see more potential in a product, resulting in frequent manufacturing and a deterioration of the detail.I believe that the art of observation should be revived because it is one of my favourite ways to pass time.

I believe that the art of observation should be revived because it is one of my favourite ways to pass time. One is one's own best teacher; Self-taught skills are what stay for life the day they die. Observation is at the heart of it, and the entire design community should practise it.

One is one’s own best teacher; Self-taught skills are what stay for life the day they die. Observation is at the heart of it, and the entire design community should practise it. Additionally, people’s connections to pencils and sketchbooks are deteriorating. A creative individual should keep a connection with traditional sources of documentation even while the resources and working environment are shifting to the digital realm, which is not always a bad thing.

For instance, one should engage with an artwork when visiting a museum rather than looking at it for a lengthy time. It had been unsuccessful to write down the first idea and then live with it for a second.

What do you think is the intersection of design and culture?

Many cultural techniques are resurfacing as a result of their dependability and scientific approach making those habits more sensible.

Like in the medical field, Ayurveda has started to pop up again in recent years. These have started to resurface because these are highly tried and tested methods which have proved to be the most reliable backed with logic and scientific data. Owning your arising culture also helps you to be true to yourself and brings in the original factor, needed today.

Thus, the cultural environment is extremely important in design and architecture

As a student of design what helped you understand concepts of design?

It varies from project to project as one makes their own decision. We are first graded on the rationale rather than our skill set. As we become older, we develop maturity in our jobs. Finally, it is about breaking down a process that is common in most design projects. Architecture and design have separate foundations. Architecture is primarily concerned with spatial design, whereas design is concerned with usability and form.

Considering the demands of their consumers or clients may also help them develop their ultimate offerings. Understanding different processes not only help you produce better results but also helps you design your own approach.

What are your thoughts on the current design education culture? What is lacking now but was there when you were a student or vice versa?

It differs from person to person; some may be driven to learn while others are more concerned with production. A sample of trial and error and the give-and-take interaction is more engaging in today’s educational society. The following generations are becoming wiser and smarter as they are exposed to more resources. In the process, one should absorb the experiences of one generation and integrate them with their own learnings, which will eventually be passed on. As expectations from both individuals grow with time, take the best aspects of your or others’ previous experiences, learn from them, and put them into action. Akira Kurosawa has influenced him a lot, especially in his discussion about keeping one’s relationship with pen and paper. He faced many challenges in the industry, and often had a hard time comprehending the world around him in this industry, he does think overcoming those points has shaped his personality and made him who I am. It has helped him create better, but also reflect. Design is the manifestation of one’s thinking. We can walk in our own way by employing our fundamental sensory comprehension using past experiences.

"Design is the manifestation of one's thinking. We can walk in our own way by employing our fundamental sensory comprehension using past experiences."

A lot of things are rapidly changing around you. Often we subconsciously adapt to it, in such cases how do you make a difference?

One should immerse themselves in it. People occasionally express boredom, which implies that they have a lot of free time. It all comes down to perspective. Things around you are changing quickly, but the speed of change is up to us. It is one’s only responsibility to look back in time, beyond the present or the future. It will teach you not to make the same mistakes again. For example, examine how the notion of leisure has evolved significantly. To grasp change, one must live it and realize what they must adjust to; even if you don’t get it today, you will find it out eventually. “Live now”.

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To grasp change, one must live it and realize what they must adjust to; even if you don't get it today, you will find it out eventually. "Live now".

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Written By Ishita Neema

Q

Barsan Laagi

Hemant Kaushik I got selected as of the top 75 artists of Madhya Pradesh, exhibited and participated in the event “Swatantrata ka Amrit Mahotsav” registering for contribution by the creative expression on canvas. The artwork was “Barsan laagi” kajri revealing an ancient Indian tradition in which beautiful Indian Heroines are welcoming the clouds of Monsoon by singing kajari and expressing their emotions and message through the clouds while waiting for their lovers in pangs of separation as referred to in Meghdootum by Kalidasa. It is a stylised representation developed by me, this work was in continuation of the series from which one work was awarded nationally and exhibited internationally in Germany. It was a highly anticipated piece and got sold there. The exhibition was from 8th August to 15th August in Cambridge Art gallery Indore.

LinkedIn

Faculty artwork Shubham Saurabh Gupta LinkedIn

Indian Typography and Characters In the world of typography, it is rare to see explorations of Devanagari Letters. This creates a mindset that typography means- A, B, and C more prominently compared to KA, KHA, and GA, which signify the DEATH OF CULTURE. The Detailing and Ornamentation/Decoration of these characters are inspired by the motifs of Gond and Phithora Art. I have explored ten Devanagari letterforms which have an interesting aperture. The main aim was to explore the

Devanagari letter in a way so that I can create some Indian creatures/characters/animals from the negative space/aperture of each letter. The interaction between the letters and characters is very harmonious because they fit into each other organically as if that negative space was designed for those characters.

The characters’ names are also very Indian in nature, even the way of saying, so if the character’s name is HOSHAINA, it is written HA se Hoshaina, the way our hindi teachers used to teach us in primary school.

THE CULTERE OF LIFE AND LOVE RENDER VAIN THE LOGIC OF DEATH -pope john paul II

1 Design Compe tition 2022

Devika Kulkarni

quietus

The vulture symbolises death, resting peacefully on her (culture’s) hand. Here female pronoun is used for culture since a lot of languages do so. The man in traditional attire right next to her ear, is performing hymn of mourning, helping her smoothly transcend into whatever lies ahead. The cultural architecture in the background, represents our culture fading away & so does the auto while its motion states that life goes on, irrespective of death.

2 Design Compe tition 2022 Based on Charlie Chaplin’s speech from The Great Dictator, this poster expresses the impact of our unending wants on society and the natural world.

Ishan Nakate Shaurya Upadhyay

Machine Men

“We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.

Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…”

The End is the

beginning Student Article

“The previous has to end for the next to begin.” Rebirth or revival only takes place after the existence of a particular thing is terminated, just like the outdated is substituted with the pristine. We experience death every day, of inanimate things as well. With the death of the old, comes the new. Instead of perceiving death as a misfortune, we can call it a terminating stage. Our way of living, the products that we use, the fashion we follow, the rules we abide by, the culture we embrace, everything experiences a terminating stage.

Sometimes while just sitting around, peacefully looking at the luminaries in the sky, I wonder about the meaning of culture and its relevance in our lives. Culture is usually perceived as the

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"When a particular trend is in its transitional stage, it is thrashed with criticism which gives rise to multiple emerging trends."

T D Aarya Dixit

customs, ideas, and beliefs, of a particular person, society or country.

But I feel like this perception constrains the spread of culture. With globalization, culture should be adopting a particular way of thinking or making things that will create an impact. Lasting for centuries, decades, and years to staying for months, weeks, and days the culture evolved its form and acquaintance as a trend.

This techno-savvy world we breathe our existence in gives birth to trends in almost all fields and walks of life. These trends gain popularity on the internet and on various social media platforms reaching out to more people who start to follow them. They can be related to design, architecture, fashion, beauty, dance, music, books, and so on, lasting for minutes, days, weeks, months, or even years.

Over time, these trends see revivals. For an instance, the use of woven furniture has been growing over the past year. This furniture has come and gone multiple times in sunrooms or patios.

Although the materials and processes have changed, the look remains similar. Another example happens to have a relation with graphic design.

Many trends from the 90s were revived in 2020. The 90s was a decade defined by many styles and genres. To be precise, Grunge, Anti design, Pop, and Rave were trends that saw a massive comeback. Embracing nostalgia, many designers, and brands used them in their designs and marketing strategies.

The shift of culture or trend is coarse. When a particular trend is in its transitional stage, it is thrashed with criticism which gives rise to multiple

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emerging trends. As Charles Kettering quoted, “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” Moving forward with the available resources, situations faced, and changing attitudes of people are some of the reasons responsible for changing trends with time.

Looking back at the history of culture, it has evolved. Some traditions have to die for us to survive. Their termination makes space for creating the new. “Culture does not change out of desire. It changes out of necessity.”

"Moving forward with the available resources, situations faced, and changing attitudes of people are some of the reasons responsible for changing trends with time."

Connecting Flowers

My designs depict mandala forms constructed from simple geometric principles.

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Garden Flowers

Personal Project

A NEW GLASS ART The tradition of Glass Painting in India is one of the most refined art forms, which emerged in the state of Gujarat at the beginning of the 18th century.

Chinese artists who had settled in the region influenced local traditions of glass painting which were noted for their sheer brilliance, stunning clarity and use of rich colours.

Glass painting involves painting on tinted glass that transforms a plain piece of lifeless glass, into a wonderful piece of art. Its effects can be amplified when placed under proper lighting.

I was first introduced to this wonderful medium by my art teacher in the seventh grade. I was fascinated by the bold, beautiful colours and the meticulous process that had to be followed to obtain a finished result.

For my style of painting, I prefer to use canvas board instead of glass as it is easier to draw directly on the canvas and the colours when applied in a forgiving manner look bright, bold and beautiful. My designs depict mandala forms constructed from simple geometric principles.

Aditya Gawade

Lost in my Hair

Personal Project

Atharva Kulkarni

Sawltu PRODUCT DESIG N Why Salt and Pepper shakers?

Their presence might not make a difference but their absence does.

Design speaks to each of us in a universal language, by which your native tongue generates excellence and is intriguing at the end of the day.

Salt and Pepper shakers are normalized in every restaurant you go to. Being a keen enthusiast of lifestyle product design, here is an attempt to ‘Make it Real’ with skills of prototyping and drafting a real story behind your design.

L ocal A r t s

BatikPrint Long long ago, on the banks of Shipra known for its purity, the Chipa Samaj introduced a wax-resist dyeing technique known as batik to make their ends meet. This art of antiquity is believed to be practised in countries like Egypt, Japan, Indonesia and India over the past 2000 years now. Here, we have Mohammed Asif Mohammed Ibrahim explain Batik to us in detail.

Batik is a printing process wherein moum (wax) is applied on a cloth in the areas where we do not want the colour to be absorbed. Asif explained the difference between Batik then vs now as “Zameen asmaan ka farq”. Started with just one colour to now using multiple colours. But fortunately or unfortunately, these colours are chemicals, but these chemicals make these colours last for more time than the actual cloth. Earlier due to the unavailability of tools that could make finer details, the motifs without any question were bold.

Traditionally, the tool is a pen-like structure made from a bicycle’s taadi (stick) tied with a kite’s maanjha (thread) and removing the nariyal (coconut) threads to make it like a bowl. Dipping the pen in wax allows the coconut bowl to absorb the wax, and then with experience, the designs are controlled on the cloth directly. Designs are inspired by flora and fauna. That in itself is the charm of the art.

An idiosyncratic feature of the art would be the fact that it is only done on pure cloth like cotton, silk, Tucson, chanderi and Maheshwari. If not, the colour may bleed through, destroying the look of the whole piece. In addition to this, not many machines are used. Even to this day, the shilpi (artisans) prefer using the best asset, their hands to make these repeated patterns. That too, without any tracing, and they proudly announce that even with a magnifying glass you won’t be able to tell a difference between two pieces.

In today’s time, many of us may also be using materials consolidating batik motifs but are unaware of it. That’s where the question arises “Is this the end of these?” But everything is a game of demand and supply, if times are changing but we don’t change then something is also bound to die. With changing times we have to adapt and live with the times and maybe that actually adds even more life to the art.

Written by Ananya Gupta

MandanaArt L ocal A r t s

We met up with Krishna Verma, an artist who has been practising Mandana art since she was eight years old and got to know more about the art form. With a cup of tea and the quiet ambience of her house, we barely noticed the passing of time. The discussion was long and enlightening, hoping that some of her energy is captured by us.

Mandana- ‘Zameen ki Chitrakaari’, the practice of which started a long time ago, to mark the start of festivals like Dipawali, Holi, and weddings. Back then it was mostly the women practising this art who had a restriction of completing the design in one sitting, leaving it unfinished and taking breaks in between was considered ill-fated.

The designs, inspired by the flora and fauna, were drawn on the ground which is prepped with cow dung. Fingers and a brush made of hair, later on, a brush made of date stalk was used. The colours ‘geru’ (red ochre)

and ‘khadiya mitti’ (chalk dust) used. Black, considered inauspicious is never used for any design except for ‘naag maharaj’, which adorns the walls of houses in some villages still. Mandana is drawn, in and out of the houses to protect it and ward off any evil that may come it’s way.

Written by Mrunmayi Bhombe

Circular motifs inside the design are called ‘bharan’, bindis or mirror used are called ‘kangure’. With time, certain aspects changed - tiny mirrors used as decoration is a recent addition,colours apart from white and red is also being used. Houses are rarely paved with cow dung these days, so mandana is drawn on canvases or cement walls, altering its essence but keeping context the same, after all, things change over time, adjusting to the environment around it.Now, anyone who is interested in practising the art can do so, and at their own pace. The designs are made with precise calculation and measurements, previously done by hand spans or width of the thumbs and now with the help of modern measuring instruments like a ruler. Circles are still drawn with the help of a nail and thread.

Over the years the number of people practising the art has gone done, but the government has started providing funds

to conduct ‘shibirs’ (workshops) where students are taught the basics of the art and get to know about the existence of such art form before its forgotten, though, is that even possible? Sometimes all it needs is a bit of awareness and eagerness to re-ignite the dying flame.

SHREYA PALIWAL

Design Consultant at HRS Navigation LinkedIn EasyNav™ Infinity is a Surgical Navigation System that aids surgeons with the preciseness of surgical implications. Interface was redesigned for enhancing effortless and confident navigational surgeries during critical times as such.

HMI Re-Design for easyNav™ Infinity

TYPE OF PROJECT Design in Medical and Systems PROJECT CLIENT Happy Reliable Surgeries Pvt. Ltd.

Terrafortis Martian Exploration Rover

A functional, desirable and survivable rover for exploration on mars.

The Challenge The future for humanity will be to become a multiplanetary species by terraforming Mars. However, Mars is a hostile planet for exploration. All efforts made for mobility on that planet are focused on survivability. With “Terrafortis” an attempt was made to explore the desirability and functionality aspect of design for space exploration, while bringing a human touch to it.

Atharva Pande

Industrial design intern at OLA Linkedin

Desirability

The rover mimics natural experiences on earth resembling our home. The balcony window is reminiscent of an architectural marvel amidst nature.

Functionality

The rover incorporates several features like a foldable redundant exploration arm, 360°-surround lighting, de-pressurising chamber for docking and exiting.

PLAY BACK Survivability The rover makes use of current developments in terms of technologies to convert Martian air into water and breathable air.

A functional, desirable and survivable rover for exploration on mars.

Currently, we still miss out on the desirability. This can be a huge stumbling block tomorrow, when humans start to stay far far away from Earth for longer durations.

This project was also an excuse to work for my life goal, that is, facilitating humans to become a multi-planetary species.

Philosophy of the Drama Club at avantika THEATRE OVER MOVIES When the former NSD director and play writer Ratan Thiyam was asked why he does theatre instead of movies, he replied: “मैं नाटक इसलिए करता हूँ, क्योंकि फिल्म में तुम्हारा हीरो आसमान की तरफ इशारा करता है और कहता है, ‘वो रहा चांद,’ कैमरा उस तरफ घूमता है और थिएटर में बैठे हजारों लोगों को पर्दे पर एक सुंदर चांद नजर आता है... मेरे नाटक में यू होता है के मेरा हीरो पीछे पर्दे की तरफ इशारा करते हुए कहता है के ‘वो रहा चांद,’ लोगों की नजर इसके इशारे की तरफ जाती है, पर्दे पर कुछ नहीं होता फिर भी थिएटर में बैठे हजारों लोगों को एक चांद नजर आता है... उनके मन में छिपा हुआ... मैं लोगों को उनके मन में छिपा हुआ चांद दिखाने के लिए नाटक करता हूं।”

Avantika Drama Club tries to implement the same philosophy in their culture. It is designed for students interested in learning more about the various forms of performing arts, such as skits, mimes, plays, and much more.

It includes learning onstage and backstage management, working on acting skills, set building, and costumes/makeup design. Drama Club is open to students from every discipline who passionately want to learn something new irrespective of their prior knowledge about the domain.

Avantika Drama Club conducts regular sessions on understanding the performing arts to help the students grow. It will soon be conducting theatre workshops to explore the possibilities for interdisciplinary linkages between different forms of plays.

Till now, Avantika Drama Club has performed two theatre plays, “Karna Ek Pratibimb” and “13 April”, and both of them were highly praised by the audience. More plays are still in the pre-production phase and will be premiering soon.

“ TheWeaveMagazine ”

Alexa, play "Greek Tragedies" Down to the Rabbit hole

Tw Janlyn Joyce

Disclaimer: This is *BC, not *BS. If the common era was led by Greek gods that is Zeus undercover as Jesus would have been chaos but why not give it a shot ‘cause who wouldn’t wanna miss a chance to rewrite history.

So here we go again right from where it all started, baby Jesus Zeus and his daddy issues ‘cause a common thing in this common era is you either marry your own children or eat them (oops Kronos).

And the water into wine would have never been a fiasco cause I’m pretty sure Z’s got his own stash downtown.

And feeding 5000 people- easy peasy lemon squeezy but we are not touching down on the eating part again, sorry or am I? Here comes the fun part and my favourite one, walking on water?

Lame, more like bolt through it, cause he puts the D in the dangerous.

Again, another trick up his sleeves; what has this magician got this time, faked the death of his beloved or beloveds we lost count along the way.

And the grand finale, raising back from the dead itself, bet nobody saw it coming. Well, to say the least half of modern culture is inspired by it and the whole plot of walking dead like zombies and brain-eating corporate managers.

The funny thing is that’s the point we don’t understand how much of this directly affects the world, the design world.

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WHO ASKED? No one, I am gonna bore you with some examples anyway.

Starting with Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun, hence global warming and the favourite subject of our sustainability design enthusiasts.

And Medusa who supported this all the way by turning people into ecological artefacts, had to be pretty stoned huh? Lol. Or rather the story of Narcisse and his love for himself, all my graphic design geeks, where y’all at?

And ‘The’ Midas’s touch that turned every inspiration your own but with your flair of gold but in the real world it is called thievery, wait! Is that even a word nvm, my point is to be unique (resources: Wikipedia) By the way, have you heard about Hercules and his 12 labours, pretty much the same as the design process, every task is a step towards the inevitable point of no return to sanity.

A special mention to the fates, who spin the threads of lifes of the future, I think this one is best left unspoken.

And the lovely Pandora’s Box is like the life of every designer, promising but taking the wildest turns along the way, the only difference being that

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there’s no hope left.

Well, that’s enough jab at them, go get some sleep, omg forgot it’s just a myth like any of these stories. And yeah sure they didn’t live happily ever even a little after.

I rest my case.

BC: Before Christ BS: Bullshit

O VEDANT KORE

PHOTO STORIES

MY JUNGLE BOOK

All of us have seen the jungle book once in our lives. The characters, their roles, their work, their expressions, their behaviour all have minute details. These details are what attracts us towards it and then fall in love watching it several times even if its been watched once.

These pictures that I have clicked are ones which I thought have the same emotions, expressions, and roles which I hope may bring enthusiasm towards whoever will see it.

IT IS MY JUNGLE BOOK!!

O

ANUP DAHALE

Kirti Stambha The ‘Kirti Stambha’ tower is built in the Solanki style. The intricate carvings and architecture of the tower are well-known. The seven-story temple is adorned with sculpture and mouldings from the ground to the roof.

The carvings on each summit differ from one another. This is my attempt at capturing and displaying the essence and design of Rajasthani culture through photographs.

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Editorial Ishita Neema Samridhi Samal

Content Suchira Biswas Ananya Gupta Jineet Shah Mrunmayi Bhombe

Design Abhay Sharma Deepak Roshan Anvesha Dubey Anup Dahale Lubaina Mizwan

Marketing Rajdatta Malusare Mansi More Srushti Dhobley

Author Research Nupra Dharod Siddhi Mahale Naina Heble

Guided by Raghav Pandya