LVS 2016: Field Report

A TEN DAY CROSS-CURRICULAR & INTERDISCIPLINARY INTENSIVE WITHIN A REGIONAL LANDSCAPE

LAAJVERD VISITING SCHOOL 2016 FIELD REPORT

Rehabilitating Landscapes Focus Site: Kaghan Valley, KPK

Economic constraints and pursuits; increased tourism and the subsequent transformation of local environment, nature and culture have contributed to the degradation of the natural landscape of Naran and Kaghan Valley in Northern Pakistan. Prevalent issues are deforestation, sanitation, and a growing culture of irresponsible tourism, which is destroying the living landscape of these valleys. The Visiting School will investigate how local culture and environment is embedded within the landscape and how can this co-existence flourish rather than fail. It will further investigate the potential of natural and cultural landscapes to contribute to a sustainable economic model for locals i.e. through the presence of precious stones, local craft skills and local practices and patterns. Natural and cultural heritage sites will be explored as the LVS participants work alongside the local population with the aim of generating knowledge and proposing alternate and effective possibilities of understanding landscape as a resort for rehabilitation.

CONCEPT NOTE There is a rising need to revisit our approach to academia that contributes to critical awareness and sound co-shaping of our shared environment. Encouraging interdisciplinary academic discourse, Laajverd initiates its visiting school that responds to conditions of ‘crises’. Crises are instants of shifting modalities – they mark points of change in a multilayered program. It is a specific period of time that is crucial in several ways of identification and determination of a system that is being regulated in an escalated force field. Combined systems of humans and nature are convoluted in terms of how they anticipate and respond to disturbed environments: disasters and conflict zones. The capacity to deal with the types of uncertainties and surprises requires innovative approaches, creative combinations of strategies, and the ability to adapt to the changing environment.

The governance of such areas is exercised by the state and the development sector that deals with the conflict that arises due to the crises. Often, disaster zones prove as a fertile ground for the conflict to foster. How does the creative faculty and developmental faculty respond actively to shifting environments? This intensive invites the creative and developmental faculty, students and field experts to join this visiting school in chalking out a more effective academic methodology.

Based on the project Academy for democracy (AFD), Laajverd’s visiting school encourages interdisciplinary academic discourse that employs creative negotiation as a method to address the communities undergoing conflict.

AFD is a practice led research project that aims to analyze, understand and refine the role of the creative faculty in order to equip them with the precise body of knowledge that will aid them during humanitarian activities. It provides artists with an opportunity to see how field practice might best interact within the visual arts, and how scholarship aligns with professional reflective analysis and creative impulse. It involves performance, sound and visual arts. By extensive research into the academic structures and the professional practice that follows, this project investigates new and creative methodologies that re-structure the current academic process. By observing the fast paced transformation in the recent past that has re-organized our cities, this initiative is inspired by the new socio-spatial configurations that await the caretaker in order to democratically reclaim the space.

Experimental cooperation across disciplinary boundaries exemplified in this project seeks to address the educational skills needed to tackle the critical environmental and humanitarian challenges. The immediate goal of the AFD is to collaboratively engage with the community under study in order to analyse the context and multiple ways of reconciliation.

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The visiting school further composes a trans-disciplinary curriculum for higher education, presenting a workable and academically feasible design for shared knowledge building under the AFD visiting school auspices. The research and seminar topics are designed by instructors from different fields that not only present a broader understanding of the subject under study but aims to experiment with the various ways in which we perceive the human condition within the geo-fabric.

In 2014, the school was based on the Attabad Lake disaster in Northern Pakistan. In 2015, LVS was conducted in Neelum Valley that lies on the Line of Control in Azad Jammu Kashmir. In 2016, the LVS was based in Kaghan Valley.

By Zahra Hussain

Zahra Hussain Director LVS

Creative-Participatory Action Research Audio Visual Cultures An architect, theater practitioner and culture observer; MA in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths in London. Founding Laajverd in 2007 as an undergrad, Zahra has taught at National College of Arts, directed plays, exhibited across 4 continents and documented the trees of an entire forest. She has also conceived and curated several projects that experiment with communication strategies often relating to the sub-continental and post-colonial debates eg Info Bomb and her recent research titled “Halo-caust; the architecture of counterinsurgency” which examines the ways in which Pakistani Urban spaces have rapidly transformed due to geopolitical conditions and various natural and man-made disasters. At present, Zahra is pursuing her PhD in Human Geography at the Department of Geography in Durham University.

Zahra is actively working towards making the LVS a dynamic interdisciplinary platform for experimenting alternate strategies for working with communities and exploring pedagogies for higher education in Arts and Humanities.

WORKSHOP CONVENERS PROFILE

Maria Mohsin Naqvi

Material Culture and Craft Recently working as a Creative Director of a couture brand, ‘Meraki’. Founder of Cosmo M; working idependently as a Gemologist and Jewllery Designer. She graduated as the first batch class of 2008-12 from Pakistan Institute of Fashion & Design in Jewellery Designing and Gemological Sciences. She further continued her professional diploma studies in ‘Colored Gemstone Identification’ and ‘Lapidary’ from University of Engineering & Technology in 2013. Naqvi is also serving as Director of Art & Advocacy for Pakistan Youth Alliance since 2009.

Aftab Rana Eco Tourism

Mr. Aftab-ur-Rehman Rana is professionally associated with tourism industry since 1988. He is a well-known figure in tourism sector due to his pioneering efforts for the promotion of youth tourism, adventure tourism and ecotourism in Pakistan.

Presently, he is working with USIAD Firms Project as a Tourism Development Specialist. Previously, he has served Adventure Foundation Pakistan as Director General and Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) as Senior Tourism Promotion Officer. He has also worked with the government of KPK and Gilgit Baltistan to develop regional tourism policy and framework for the public-private partnership in tourism sector. He is also the founder of sustainable tourism movement in Pakistan and a pioneer of ecotourism in Pakistan.

Fatima Hussain Core team LVS

Audio Visual Cultures Fatima Hussain is an Artist-Curator/Theatre Practitioner based in Pakistan. Her work over the last few years has addressed multiple issues bringing into it the political, the historical, the everyday, and whether with intention or escape, ‘art’ for her, has fallen within a larger interpretation of the colonized structures, languages and territory. She founded Other Asias, a transnational in 2011 that voices fictive and found sounds in order to create and inform technocratic society.

Her recent curatorial projects include Info-Bomb, SLICE and Redo Pakistan, mostly nomadic in nature, curated in the form of newspapers, websites, radio shows and public events. Fatima is a 2005 graduate of the National College of Art (Lahore).

She moved on to Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London for her MFA2008.

Suniya Taimour

Environmental Security An environmental lawyer and a conservationist, with a niche in conservation of living heritage allows me to dwell on multiple facets of social and human development which encompasses not just policy analysis but intangible cultural interaction between the humans and the ecosystem to allow for a strategic approach aimed at enhancing the well being of the communities.

Abdullah Aslam Core team LVS

LVS Outreach Program

Sarah D Nardi

Community Heritage Mapping Sarah De Nardi is a community archaeologist and oral historian with a focus on material culture studies and memory. Her work on landscape perception, the material manifestation of memory and heritage intersects the disciplines of archaeology, heritage studies and cultural geography.

Abdullah Aslam is a graduate of National College of Arts, Rawalpindi. He is an architect, graphic designer, illustrator and a cyclist. Abdullah has been part of the core team at Laajverd asince 2010. For the LVS, Abdullah is responsible for the LVS Outreach Program and is faclitating the workshops to enrich the conceptual concerns and also as a potential tutor for the projects.

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WORKSHOPS & SESSIONS Creative - Participatory Action Research

By Zahra Hussain

This workshop gave participants an insight to the various qualitative research methods used in social sciences and the arts. The workshop focused on exploring creative methods for conducting participatory research with local communities.

This workshop served as a backdrop for the research carried out throughout the Visiting School.

Audio Visual Cultures

By Zahra Hussain & Fatima Hussain This workshop introduced the participants to culture and nature and how the relationship between these two entities has developed. Through this workshop participants learn to map local practices and living patterns that ultimately inform their individual projects. These practices and patterns are also added to the IPPC.

Material Culture and Crafts

By Maria Mohsin Naqvi

This workshop explored material cultures through the study of crafts and the role of crafts persons. A lengthy debate was generated on Arts, Design and Crafts; what brings these three entities together and what are they separated by. Moreover, the effect of globalization on local crafts was also discussed.

Community Heritage Mapping

By Sarah D Nardi

This workshop explored material cultures through the study of crafts and the role of crafts persons. A lengthy debate was generated on Arts, Design and Crafts; what brings these three entities together and what are they separated by. Moreover, the effect of globalization on local crafts was also discussed.

Environmental Security

By Suniya Taimour

The workshop on environmental security and ecological interdependence primarily encompassed four facets of the Naran Kaghan Valley: development, tourism, sewage disposal and deforestation with regard to the applicable laws, practical implementation and the subsequent disconnect between the legal provisions and development.

Eco Tourism in Kaghan Valley (session)

By Aftab Rana

Introduction to the main aspects of eco-tourism and the potentials of it be implemented in Naran and Kaghan Valley.

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An effort to unlatch from the prevalent global narrative of development, Laajverd Visiting School aims to understand the regional patterns of growth and progress. Through our workshops, we will see the different strands of regional composition of life and try to map trajectories that can help us understand the structure of these societies and to help retain their regional quality.

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FIELD NOTES The first day at LVS began with an introduction to the organization Laajverd and the project Laajverd Visiting School, followed by the Creative Participatory Action Research Workshop that was led by Zahra Hussain. C-PAR Workshop was conducted for 4 hours, which introduced the participants of LVS to the importance of participatory research, and how that can lead to sustainable action. Through discussion, power-point presentation and group assignments, the participants mapped out possible participatory action methods and approach that they will adopt in the field. Later on ideas developed in groups were presented to all the participants, which generated a healthy criticism and feedback. This element was further explored after every field research activity in order to help participants carve out a participatory action project. The creative element was explored through the artistic research and dissemination methods, which were discussed during the workshop. This workshop was supported by the small grant from PR Hub at Durham University, UK. A successful element of the workshop is how it has seeped into all the other workshops of LVS regarding culture, community, natural environment and community heritage. Field research for the workshops were designed keeping in view the participatory action component. The group discussions and de-briefing at the end of the day also entailed thorough discussions and critique on the participatory methods used and way forward.

Morning Session

Circle Session Exercise

Participants while in the field

At noon, Aftab Rana presented details on the people, culture and history of the valley and how it has developed over the last few decades. He also focused on the aspects contributing to the degradation of natural environment and landscapes and STFP efforts on promoting sustainable tourism in the Valley.

In the afternoon, LVS group was taken to Kamal-bun forest to see apex two thousand year old Deodar tree. On return, the group enjoyed hot tea as the session on Eco-Tourism began. Aftab Rana conducted this session and he laid emphasis on Eco-tourism strategies and how important it is for Pakistan to adopt these. The participants then discussed possible eco-tourism strategies, which could be further developed and discussed during the Visiting School.

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Night Discussions

Audio Visual Cultures workshop was conducted on the second day on LVS, which was led by Zahra Hussain and Fatima Hussain. This workshop introduced the participants to indigenous culture, knowledge and traditions, in order to understand the relationship between people and their environment.

This fueled a discussion on ‘worldviews’ and how an honest inquiry in the field can aid the researcher in understanding or relating to the worldview of others. The participants were divided into groups to map out local practices and patterns that constitute life in Kaghan Valley. The research was carried out in Kandal, Ranjri, Khannian, Damdama and Batta Kundi. These practices and patterns will be collated under the Indigenous Practices and Patterns Catalog (online journal). The group carried out field research in the afternoon, in the evening they reconvened in groups to present the practices and patterns collected in the field. The crit session took place between 8pm – 9:30pm after which the

The third day began with Material Culture and Craft workshop, which was led by Maria Naqvi, which sparked a debate on arts, design and craft and the rights of craftsperson and what it means to empower the craftsperson and the craft. Zahra Hussain further supported the discussion as she introduced Participatory Design workshop initiative that can empower the craftsperson and ensure sustainable development of the craft rather than taking a top-down approach. This workshop entailed fieldwork; map the crafts of Kaghan valley in order to see the dying and flourishing craft, skill level of craftsperson and possible development of the craft. After fieldwork, LVS participants presented their findings from the field. The next day was spent in Jared village. One group engaged with woodcrafts persons at the Wood workshop and the other group went to explore loom craftsperson in Jared market. At the woodworkshop LVS participants were given an assignment to develop a product with the craftsperson, Anum Khattak (lvs participant) designed some jewelry items and shared these ideas with Master Sajid who further developed and produced these items in walnut wood. On the same day, Hajra Atiq (lvs participant) got in touch with the Forest Department official and arranged a briefing for the LVS participants. At noon, the participants arrived in Khannian and set off for Participatory Design workshops with Khannian village which involved paper-making and embroidery designs workshop. In the evening, Sarah De Nardi conducted Community Heritage workshop, which led to a bubbling discussion on the relationship of nature and culture. This workshop required participants to develop experiential maps of Kaghan Valley in close consultation with the community in order to explore their idea of home, comfort and landscape.

In the fields with local chidlren as guides

Nature Walk and Talk at Saif-ul-Maluk

Participants enjoying the glacier at Saif-ul-Maluk

The next day (6th day), LVS group left Khannian for Bata Kundi to further mapping community heritage. Participants visited nearby villages and met with local people to collect stories. In the evening, ‘environmental security’ workshop was conducted by Suniya Taimour, which entailed the participants to work on sewage disposal, tourism, development and deforestation. Next day, the group set off for Lake SaifulMalook to attend ‘Nature walk’ with WWF persons (Waseem and Muddassir) and wildlife official, which was helpful in understanding the natural landscape and wild-life around Lake Saif-ul-maluk. Participants further understood the challenges to Eco-Tourism and discussed potential sustainable tourism strategies. On Day 8 and 9, participants worked in the field; baked cakes with community women, drawing exercises with school children, visited gravesites with elders, visited pasture-lands in order to develop their projects which were eventually presented to the entire LVS group and some local people, who gave their comments and feedback on each project. After this, possible outreach plans were presented by the LVS core-team in the sectors of education, heritage conservation, craft up-lifting and responsible tourism.

Visiting Mr Mushtaq in his workshop in Jared Making paper with community

Girls drawing flowers and leaves

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PROPOSALS & OUTREACH

During the Visiting School, participants are encouraged to work on individual inquiries, which may lead to a project.

Thorough collective crit sessions and individual tutorials with LVS core team directed participants to develop their projects.

Following are some projects proposed by the participants,

Indigenous Practices and Patterns Catalog LVS Team Audio Visual Cultures assignment led participants to identify practices and patterns through the field research conducted in Khannian, Dumduma and Battakundi. The extensive list contains the products used and made, craft of the area, building techniques, practices, folklore, knowledge and usage of herbs etc. A detailed study on crafts was done by Faryal Arif, while Batool Ali contributed a list of herbs and their usage.

Nida Akhlaque is involved in compiling and categorizing the information to be added to the catalog.

Mapping Earthquake Narratives Sabah Mehmood Responding to an assignment given by the LVS core-team on collecting Earthquake 2005 narratives. Sabah responded in a creative way- she illustrated oral narratives of the Earthquake that were recorded over the course of the visiting school.

Her drawings of the narratives presented details of the valley all the way from Ghari Habibullah to Battakundi. Through these narratives she also mapped architectural details of the houses from before the earthquake to the reformed ones postdisaster.

Revolutionizing Teaching Methods

By Fahad Awan

Fahad looked at the way government sanctioned education and teaching methodology played a role in the receding knowledge of the immediate surrounding in school children.

Through workshops with the children by engaging them in creative activities, Fahad’s project proposes interactive teaching methodologies for teacher incorporating indigenous knowledge, fostering a healthy dialogue that can potentially inculcate interest for education in both local girls and boys.

Sabah Mehmood presenting her work

Drawing the Imagined Maheera Ali and Usman Malik Maheerah and Usman mapped how art was being taught to the school children in the valley and how their understanding was being developed through the curriculum that was being taught. By conducting drawing workshops with children they tried to assess to what extent their imagination was being used in the drawings and they developed activities that involved listening to a folklore and drawing the characters out through imagination. Maheerah and Usman were interested in getting the children to draw what they have never seen before.

Presentations on the final day

Eco-Folklore

By Sabeen Mehmood Durrani Sabeen used existing folklores of the area and improvised them keeping in mind the environmental threat that the landscape of Kaghan/Naran valley faces. She developed a detailed story touching all aspects of degradation of the natural habitat and by creating children as her primary audience. Her project proposes performative storytelling for ecotourism and to also spread awareness amongst the locals.

Haji Sb giving information

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| Maheera, Usman and Fahad with kids

Anum in a conversation with the Craftsperson

At the Wood workshop in Jared

Writing Landscapes Anum Khattak Anum’s performative writings about the valley proposed documentation of the area in a creative manner. Her experiential writings evoke sensations of the landscape, the built environment, practices and memory. These writings will potentially be used as theater performances or published as booklet for environmental and cultural awareness of Kaghan Valley.

Nature Walk at Saif-ul-Maluk by WWF Field Officers

Projects by other participants include extensive maps of the areas visited, propositions for Eco-Tourism and natural environment protection and conservation.

In October 2016, as an outreach project of LVS 2016 developed by LVS Core team won the PeaceTech Award for developing a Phone App that connects Tourists to Local communities and their cultural heritage, food, crafts and landscapes. The App will be launched in April 2017.

LVS core team presenting the Outreach program objectives

Laajverd Visiting School has an outreach component that encourages participants to engage with communities to build their capacity, conserve local knowledge and and conduct any workshops which may enhance the local skill-set. This year, participants were engaged in a wood workshop in Jared Bazar in order to explore product innovation with the crafts persons.

Anum Khattak completed this exercise when she designed some material with the crafts person and he produced the products within the span of a week.

A paper-making workshop was conducted with the locals, an idea floated by Faryal Arif and the LVS gathered raw materials to conduct the workshop. Although the workshop was directed at the local women in Khannian but the men seemed to take more interest and started helping out with the tasks. Eventually the local men were fully involved in the activity while the women were engaged in another workshop that LVS team was conducting in the same vicinity. This workshop was based on exploring embroidery designs in a participatory method with the local women, which ultimately resulted in designing a purse. This led the women to explore new designs in embroidery inspired from their local surroundings.Maria Naqvi engaged children in making bead jewellery, a session that was thoroughly enjoyed by children.

The LVS Outreach program is being developed under the categories of craft up-lifting, primary and secondary education, heritage conservation and eco-tourism.

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FEEDBACK

Fahad Awan, Participant

Faryal Arif, Participant

Political Science Student, LUMS

Visual Studies Lecturer, Karachi University

‘Laajverd was an incredibly informative and immersive research experience that certainly exemplified the participant action research it aimed to achieve. It involved intuitive and creative ideas for community engagement and sustainable development that i shall remember and apply in a lot of my fields in the future. The multidisciplinary aspect of Laajverd was what set it apart as a premier academic program from the rest of similar initiatives. From a holistic overview, adopting a bottoms-up approach it aims to resolve problems from a micro-perspective that has a trickle down effect on the larger problems being solved simultaneously. With 5 Workshops, daily training sessions, field surveys and presentations, Laajverd was undoubtedly one of the most academically sound experiences I’ve ever had in my life.’

LVS has played a major character in harnessing my career goals. The program is an ideal ground for interdisciplinary approach, which was exactly what I was seeking. Through LVS I have experimented, researched and shaped my own projects, which I would never be able to do otherwise. I would suggest this program for someone who is inquisitive and seeks alternate methods of doing things. Also, to someone who wants to broaden his/her spectrum and knowledge of understanding the world around him.

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Nida Akhlaque, Participant

Aleem Raza, Participant

Architecture Student, COMSATS

Media Studies Student, Riphah University

Last year my teacher was a participant in LVS 2015, she shared her experience regarding rehabilitation of communities, diversity of participants and the workshops in the LVS. That motivated me to be a part of LVS 2016.I am thankful to LVS for providing a platform for learning in a diverse and intense environment that has changed my outlook towards my position as a researcher and a citizen. Being a thesis student, I am now able to understand various research methods and the importance and aspects of field/ site research. Extensive field research enabled me to explore various aspects of a certain region and interaction with communities aided me to analyze them strategically. Laajverd is a source of inspiration for aspiring academicians and I’ll definitely recommend others to work with this organization

The most interesting and useful sessions were fieldwork activities and group discussions. I enjoyed all the workshops, and any discussion related to my topic (media studies) or beyond such as on culture and crafts. LVS community outreach activity “Paper making” was most enjoyable for me as I documented the whole process through my camera.

The whole experience was amazing seriously and the best thing I noticed was the management, which was great! Each of the 10 days was well organized and I met the best people there!

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SUPPORTERS LVS 2016

Participatory Research Hub

END NOTE Laajverd Visiting School is an initiative to engage bachelor students and mid career professionals in rigorous field research. This encourages them to critically analyze the culture, environment and people of that area. This helps them reflect upon their own position in an increasingly urbanized and globalized world while understanding the challenges faced by local cultures and traditions. For the locals, we try to make them aware of their environment and also do on-site impromptu workshops in areas where we can assist them through the LVS outreach program. The LVS believes in a two-way learning model where the locals and visiting participants engage a healthy dialogue for knowlege production.

A PROJECT OF LAAJVERD

The organization Laajverd (since 2007) is directly related to and dealing with cultural development in regional areas. Laajverd has been experimenting with cultural creative communication strategies in order to engage with the communities undergoing conflict; the activities and outcomes are also based on creative output. Laajverd works with youth, women and communities at large. The projects are creative in nature and are driven by rigourous research and critical analysis.