DCC2007_PG Class starts at Paldi campus for Textiles and Furniture students

Image: Day one, students who made it to the class today.
Today we had many absentees due to the long weekend with Onam and Raksha Bhandhan, but the brave ones were there and we did get the show on the road, DCC has begun and the students have made a dash to Calico Museum after we discussed it in class. There was a heavy downpour in the afternnoon and I am not sure of they made it to the museum on time but their report on Wednesday will tell us what happened.

Image: DCC2007 Black Board on Day one.
The DCC black board shows that we discussed "What is Design? .... and the Designer?" and looked at various aspects of design and how the designer knows what needs to be known. The nature of knowledge was seen as not being additive but with a focus on understanding rather than a mere collection of facts, like putting new ones into a container. Insights were important as was motivation and exploration. Imagination was the key to finding design opportunities and this also created the problem of not being able to share these easily and much effort was needed to show through models, from abstratct to tangible at various levels of reality, before we are able to manifest a design action in the real world. The future is not knowable although we may glean trends and possible approaches, but the future can be created by design, if we are able to translate our intentions into tangible actions with sensitivity and care, this future can be sustainable and beneficial as well.

Image: Books that were introduced to class.
We introduced some leading thinkers in design as well as current concepts that are being discussed and debated on forums such as the PhD-Design list as well as the DesignIndia list on yahoogroups with a focus on the major authors whose books are at hand as well as those who are easily accessible through JSTOR research and ofcourse on Google and Wikipedia. More later about these sources and the authors.

Students will submit a writen note by email on what they think is design after they have explored various internet sites and accessed the books in the NID library. Students were asked to reflect deeply on their own belief systems and what they had experienced in their childhood which may have contributed to some of these beliefs. This would lead up to the next assignment when we meet again in class.