DCC2008 PG at NID Gandhinagar: Theme FOOD

Image: Day one at Gandhinagar for students for five PG disciplines of LAD, ADM, Toy, SDM and New Media. Class in progress in the old auditorium.

Over the past few weeks Rashmi and I discussed the theme for the DCC2008 PG class and we decided that Food would be an appropriate one for this year across all four modules to be conducted at Gandhinagar, Paldi and Bangalore campuses. Last Saturday we met again with Harini and developed the set of assignments and a tentative schedule for all the assignments to be handled by the groups as well as individually. The first assignment this year would be the one dealing with what we already know about a given subject to be discovered through a deeply involved process of brainstorming followed by finding a suitable structure through a negotiated round of debates and discussions on the discovered concepts and the making of a meaningful structure. This agreed structure would be further visualized in the form of a expressive model in the form of a metaphor that could be used to share the groups understanding with the rest of the class and the teachers. This presentation is scheduled on Wednesday, 16 July 2008 in the presentation space at Gandhinagar.

Image: Theme structure for Food and the rich texture of street food vendors in Bangalore City as captured by Rajesh Dangi on his blog Bangalore Daily Photo.

The preparation of the individual “Me Boards” would be done by each student in the evenings when the group is not in session with each of them taking time off to take a deep look at themselves with a particular emphasis on their belief systems and their known taboos. Based on this introspection they would create avisual representation of themselves using a composite image and word map that can capture the findings in a manner that could be shared with the class. This image would be then resolved into a high resolution jpeg image file either by scanning of an original artwork or by the conversion of the digital composite file that has been created in any software of their choice. This jpeg image will be deposited and submitted in a shared folder called DCC2008 on the Gandhinagar UNSECURE server for review in the class on 17 July 2008 when we meet again for the second lecture on the role and processes of information gathering in the design process.
The outline of our intentions in choosing this particular theme for this series of courses are stated on the two blog posts on Design for India. These can be accessed from these links below:
DCC2008 Theme Food: Design with participation and discourse
Food and AnthroDesign: Approaches and Attitudes for India