Everything Design : Keynote Presentation at the Kolkata Design Week 2019

Kolkata Design Week Keynote Presentation February 2019

EVERYTHING

DESIGN

Towards A

POLYVALENT

PRACTICE

Through our work in the built space, we’ve experimented with multiple formats and ideas across utility and scale.

A recent

history

Of Thought

MODERNIST THOUGHT

Modernism was a movement in the arts in the first half of the twentieth century that rejected traditional values and techniques, and emphasised the importance of individual experience.

Certain dictums like “Form follows Function� emerged during this period that stressed a purity of purpose, and a rejection of the excessive ornamentation and representational tendencies in the Arts prior to its emergence.

POSTMODERN THOUGHT

Postmodernism rejects simplistic meta-narratives and binary statements, because they reject the concept of truth that metanarratives presuppose.

Postmodernism argues that truth depends on context. ]

Certain dictums like “Form follows Fiction� emerged during this period that laid stress on storytelling and multiplicity of narrative, in rejecting the unified theories of Modernism.

DECONSTRUCTIVE THOUGHT & THE SIMULACRUM

Deconstructivism takes concepts apart along their structural “fault lines”. To deconstruct is not to destroy. Deconstruction is always a double movement of simultaneous affirmation and undoing. ]

“I speak only one language, and it is not my own.” Jacques Derrida.

ON RHIZOMATIC THOUGHT

THE TREE

VS

THE RHIZOME

While deterministic thought follows the tree trunk and branch structure, comprised of many binary decisions, the Rhizomatic thought structure attempts simultaneity of thought, tapping into every node on the Rhizome at once. ]

The Networked world is reflected in Rhizomatic thinking, the tree metaphor of “decision making” replaced by the web metaphor of “serendipitous discovery”.

A RHIZOMATIC MAP OF THE FUTURE

THE ORACLE THE BUSRIDE LAB 2015

THE ORACLE ( detail ) THE BUSRIDE LAB 2015

DESIGNING

EVERYTHING

In our own work, we engage with multiplicity along the Rhizome web to create Speculative fictions, provocations and scenarios that point to alternate realities. ]

Speculative fiction allows us to merge the worlds of narrow and deep research, storytelling and pseudodesign to create tiny vignettes of pluralistic Future visions.

Personal Work NID, Ahmedabad 2014

Personal Work NID, Ahmedabad 2014

Personal Work NID, Ahmedabad 2014

Student Work Speculative Design course taught at NID, Ahmedabad 2015

Collaborative Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

Collaborative Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

Student Work Speculative Design course taught at NID, Ahmedabad 2015

Student Work Speculative Design course taught at NID, Ahmedabad 2015

Collaborative Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

FUTURE

ARTEFACTS

To better visualise simultaneity along the Rhizome, we pick nodes to hyper-detail, to allow the magical mundanities of everyday lives to inform textured nuances of Future-casting. ]

Designed provocations allow us to see what these inhabited Futures may look and feel like, and the spectrum of issues we may have to deal with as co-inhabitants of the Rhizome.

Collaborative Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

Personal Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

Personal Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

Collaborative Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

Personal Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

Collaborative Work UNBOX Caravan, Ahmedabad 2014

FUTURE

CITIES

In our capacity as a build construction studio, we are endlessly fascinated by the Future of Cities. We tend to explore these nodes in greater detail, forming part of a larger inquiry to create meaningful steps towards shared Futures. ]

We see a rich convergence of ideas in Future Cities, melting pots of the best of urbanity and Future humans, creating multiple eccentricities.

Student Work Speculative Design course taught at NID, Ahmedabad 2015

The Reimagining of The Ruins of St.Augustine The Busride Lab, Heritage Next 2018

Photogrammetry of Monuments and Icons The Quicksand Games Lab + The Greenhouse

The Time-share Religion Kiosk The Busride Lab 2016

The Wave Tidal Energy Harvesting Tetrapods The Busride Lab 2016

The Tree Surgeons , Guerrilla Solar Artists The Busride Lab 2016

Guerilla Adboards The Busride Lab 2016

The Ha ji Ali Scuba Pilgrimage The Busride Lab 2016

FUTURE

MONUMENTS

It is our contention that tomorrow’s statues need to transcend Ornamentation, Politics and weak Symbology.

To justify their place in our Future cities, they need to become ‘Performative’.

Saddam Hussein, toppled 2003

Scenario #1 India has emerged as the Fifth largest E-waste producer in the world ( 2 million tonnes in 2016).

Mumbai tops the list of cities producing e-waste, while Maharashtra tops the state-list.

95% of the processing of the waste is carried out by the informal sector.

The MKGandhi Memorial E-Waste Urban mine and Sorting Centre Commissioned July 2035

Scenario #2 India is running one of the largest and most ambitious renewable energy capacity expansion programs in the world.

Newer renewable electricity sources are projected to grow massively by 2022, including a more than doubling of India's large wind power capacity and an almost 15 fold increase in solar power from April 2016.

The MKGandhi Memorial Desalination Plant and Cooling towers Commissioned November 2035

Scenario #5 The narrative of Ecological value as opposed to the ‘development’ paradigm is a gross misunderstanding. While humans must work hard to merit their place in cities of tomorrow, so must nature.

It is our own myopia that stops us from visualising new symbiotic scenarios where we can co-exist and thrive.

The MKGandhi Memorial Aquatic Nature park and Coral Reef Scaffolding Commissioned February 2035

The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sovereign Grain Silo and National Seed bank Commissioned October 2035

The Kasturba Gandhi Memorial City Server and Sovereign Data Centre Commissioned July 2035

The Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Solar Locomotive & City Tram stack + Pixel Art collaborative Artwork Commissioned November 2035

FUTURE

PROBLEMS

In our exploration of the Rhizome, we encounter many potential dystopias, an elaboration of our own dysfunctional paradigms taken to the extreme. ]

We create a range of responses to these scenarios, ranging from Manifestos and the Right to Disconnect, to re-imagining our ways of deploying Technology.

Present Day Telecom NOC File photo

ON BEAUTIFUL PROBLEMS 2035

The Chand Baori, Abhaneri, Ra jasthan

The Chand Baori is a “Beautiful Problem�, a distinct, unique topical issue in which the solution articulated is one of exquisite beauty.

The Tesla Giga-Factory, Nevada

What better way to create a Sun Temple than with Solar Panels?

The Abhaneri Sun Temple, Jaipur 2035 Illustration : Monkeyverse

FUTURE

Scenes

Other explorations, looking at inter-connected scenarios around additive manufacture, Heritage conservation and a host of other scenarios. ]

We explore tiny fragments of our collective futures through the lens of speculative fictions.

3D Printing Additions and conservation work at Lothal, 2035

Miscellaneous drone deployments, 2035

Progressive Political posters on Seed-paper, 2035

The AI Powered Lie-detector MAIcrophone, 2035

The Aiphone Holo-glitch, www.aiphonehelp.org

The Aiphone Fingerprint-glitch, www.aiphonehelp.org

Student Work Speculative Design course taught at NID, Ahmedabad 2015

FUTURE

Crafts

A sustained inquiry into the Future of Craft, using a polyvalent Rhizomatic exploration of the nature of making and crafts. ]

Working in multiple iterations to explore the nuances of crafts in a Future Indian context.

Thesis Project Yatharth Ipsum, NID 2019

Thesis Project Yatharth Ipsum, NID 2019

Thesis Project Yatharth Ipsum, NID 2019

Thesis Project Yatharth Ipsum, NID 2019

Thesis Project Yatharth Ipsum, NID 2019

A few

Truisms

Our world is a rhizome

All points on the rhizome are interconnected

The rhizome is

Regenerative

All points on the rhizome are potential

Design interventions

DESIGN

EVERYTHING