A curiosity-led
curation
creation collection
of spaces in between...
Observation and Imagination
Justice Blueprint (working title) An ongoing effort for branches at the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) to develop and adapt activities, programs and services addressing the needs of patrons transitioning from correctional facilities. A coalition between the Parsons DESIS Lab and Justice Initiatives outreach program at BPL.
“If there is such a thing as a typical day, could you walk us through one of your days? ”
Context + Research This phase involved re-assessing the project proposal for the NEA* and framing the key issues/ problem spaces with the Justice Initiatives team. This was followed by research comprising of inperson and remote ethnography fieldwork, including a series of interviews with key stakeholders.
“If you had a magic wand and could change anything you like about the library what would you change?”
* NEA - National Endowment for the Arts above: conversations with library staff
above: observational sketches at branches
Sense making This phase involved coding and mapping the qualitative and quantitative data collected and organising them to identify patterns and relationships across various themes. In addition, this helped to build insights and identify design opportunities.
Note: low resolution images have been used to maintain the privacy of conversations and field research
“How might we...?”
“What if...?”
Organising Insights In this phase, the complex maps were broken down into key themes to communicate the findings to the Justice Initiatives team for further feedback. This helped ensure that their perspectives constantly informed the research and its findings.
Facilitating Ideas for Design Prototypes In this phase, participants in a graduate design studio at Parsons immersed themselves into the current prison and re-entry service landscape, conducted additional design-led research and developed proposals for prototypes.
Developing the Blueprint (W.I.P)
In this phase, a self-reflective kit is being designed in order to mirror the spirit of the library and its staff involved in justice related services. This will be distributed in upcoming training activities and programs in order to engage, inform and sensitize staff on issues and questions around the carceral system.
Rational and Emotional
Wonder Collaboratory A research collective, exploring wonder-led-design, seeking to co-create spaces where intuition out validates reason and fascination is the foundation of design methodology. The work currently entails a of a series of publications, workshops and activities that centre reflection, play and awareness in design education. Team project | mixed- media Refer here for more information
“A process is a series of progressive and interdependent steps in order to achieve a particular end or a series of actions to change or preserve something.”
Play, Reflection, and Awareness hold hands and dance in merriment around design methodologies. How might we support a deeper infrastructure for wonder in design education? What is the role of wonder in design? How does it transform practice?
above: ‘Get Lost’: An invitation to turn off autopilot, break out of prescribed patterns and see what happens. A guide to getting lost through a series of speculative objects.
above: ‘Pocket Ponders’ : a pocket book series exploring methods and sensibilities of creative practitioners at The New School.
below: An ongoing, ever-growing repository of experiences and experiments, curated as an invitation into Wonder.
below: ‘Wandering with Words’: capturing the essence of one’s observations as a way to explore subjectivities / positionality in design education.
WONDER IS A NAVIGATION SYSTEM
Where do practices of wonder naturally emerge?
above: images from thesis exhibition at Parsons School of Design ; also showcased at the Worldmaking Media Collaborative Showcase 2022
Fact and Fiction
Spaces of Wonder Unravelling the wonder in public institutions of pedagogy, investigating relationships between built environment and social interactions. Team Project | Mixed-media, collage Refer here for more information Refer here for the provotype
what designing adaptable space where social public infrastructure
a Provotype
why facilitate learning who encountering the unknown how dynamics of exchange; invoking
ly, oral e r a ry sh emo am
from your room
Wonder
two ago weeks
A virtual platform to explore different ways of learning outside formal institutions was developed as a means to provoke conversations amongst different people. By engaging them to understand contexts and culture through their own lived experiences, this project aspired to create spaces of learning where collections were ephemeral, and public memory was the museum.
a Research Paper/Collage The aim of the research was to examine the relationships between space and social interactions and how they inform and shape each other. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected across two contrasting branches of the Queens Public Library. Using collaging as a method and medium to synthesise, complex connections were made visible across themes like architecture, community building, public safety etc. Excerpts from the paper ‘Libraries as Spaces of Wonder’
Marvel and Mundane
Public Furniture Urban Space An investigation on the role of furniture in facilitating social interactions in public spaces. A study on accessibility, inclusivity and participation in urban settings through quotidian objects. Independent study | Mixed-media, collage Also featured here
sensation accessibility
involving direct and passive senses of smell, taste, and touch
who accesses these spaces and how are they able to do so?
ownership physical or moral? The feeling of a sense of belonging rather than monetary ties to a place
conception modes through which a person knows and constructs a reality.
perception inter-subjectivity
Some places encourage interaction between people whereas others foster a kind of collective isolation by focussing everyone on a central object of attention.
Formulating theoretical frameworks: Conceptualised from the works of Yi-Fu-Tuan and Margaret Kohn this framework helped explore the notions of time, materiality, form and location. An activity with Design and Anthropology graduates also informed the research.
side: a visual analysis of the different ways of occupying public furniture, both natural and human-made Excerpts from the Auto-Ethnographic Journal ‘Public Furniture Urban Space’
Abstract and Concrete
Architecture Portfolio A collection of spatial design projects of varying scales and typologies featuring select works from undergraduate study and a three-year practice at Studio Lotus, Delhi. Refer here for complete portfolio
Designing in Details A tap room designed and executed in Pune, India. The project involved detailed designs of every element in the space from the walls, partitions to furniture and lighting.
Surrealist Collaborations An exhibition design, executed in 15 days and involving the transformation of a historic site in Delhi. Collaboration with multiple vendors, artisans, designers and building preservation committees was essential to conceive and execute this project.
Reimagining a Workspace A workplace for a boutique textile business that reconceptualised the brand’s identity and its core values into an open space plan for an office, storage and studio.
all images : left: concept sketch right: built space
Projects Index
Justice Blueprint (working title)
Wonder Collaboratory
Spaces of Wonder I
Spaces of Wonder II
Three stage coalition with the Justice Initiatives program at the Brooklyn Public Library.
A design research collective conceived by three individuals who believe that fascination is the foundation of design methodology. Formed as a way out of design practices that are driven by capitalistic notions of efficiency and productivity, the collective centres work that is born out of slowing down and seeking wonder in the ongoing now. The work aims to cultivate curious awareness, deep reflection, and exploratory play of and in one’s self and surroundings to support practices of wonder in design education. The effort is to create conditions for being and becoming by thinking through making.
A virtual participatory platform for translating and re-imaging the experiences and pedagogies arising in cultural public institutions such as libraries and museums into other forms and spaces. Rather than looking at them as centralized institutions, this work explores ways to co-create these spaces as distributed nodes of shared learning. With a focus on diverse contexts within complex cities (India, Latin America, USA), it alludes to concepts of memory, rebuilding, deficits, reconstruction, and reconciliation. This platform is an attempt to create an ephemeral collection that lives within a conversation but aims to create learnings around encountering the other, understanding the unknown strange histories as a means to resist polarisation.
A research paper with a focus on archiving multivalent experiences at the Queens Public Library. Two contrasting branches – Corona and Hunters Point were the sites of study for qualitative and quantitative data collection. These were mapped in the form of a collage, wherein abstract and concrete frameworks on experiences (Yi-Fu Tuan) in public spaces (Margaret Kohn, cluster concept) were layered together. The aim of the research was to examine the relationships between space and social interaction and how they inform and shape each other. Some of the guiding questions that helped orient the research were: 1) how might our social interactions within libraries shape their built form? 2) what strategies might branches adapt to propel this change?
Stage I: Field research, autoethnography, conversations with staff on awareness, engagement and challenges faced by them with respect to running programs and services for patrons in and transitioning the carceral system Stage II: Categorising, sense-making and identifying potential areas of mediation. Facilitating a graduate design studio where students developed artefacts that could provoke the staff to think about ways to support each other and their patrons. Stage III: (in progress) Building a kit with the following goals: - Sensitize, inform and engage library workers on issues and questions around the criminal justice system - Support branches to develop and adapt activities, programs and services addressing the needs of patrons transitioning from correctional facilities.
For a deeper dive into the learnings, workshops and publication, read: https://drive.google.com/drive/ folders/1AGA60ZK5GdcewYYyPTMjuC8I8_EwQSu
For more insights, read: https://drive.google.com/drive/ folders/1AGA60ZK5GdcewYYyPTMjuC8I8_EwQSu https://openprocessing.org/ sketch/1042140
PORTFOLIO SELECTED WORKS IN SPATIAL DESIGN
AKSHAYA NARAYANAN
Public Furniture Urban Space
Architectural Portfolio
This project aimed at bridging two practices of design and anthropology by developing methods for design led research. Using auto-ethnography as an entry point, the work documents experiences of occupying different typologies of furniture in public spaces across New York City. From benches, to chairs to naturally occurring rock formations, this research examined the role of these ubiquitous objects in shaping an experience of a place. Their interactions with each other, humans and non-humans further allude to the nature of the systems that make these spaces more accessible to some publics while completely impeding their occupation by certain others. By exploring the notions of time, materiality, form and location this piece was a handmade collage layered with multi-sensorial observations.
This work documents select projects in spatial design from my earlier practice and B.Arch coursework.
More on this project here: https:// anthrodesign.wordsinspace.net/2021/ our-nal-projects/
To browse this piece, refer: https://drive.google.com/drive/ folders/1AGA60ZK5GdcewYYyPTMjuC8I8_EwQSu
Curating Public Memory (not included this portfolio)
Curatorial team projects aiming to activate spaces between history(formal) and public memory for restorative justice. Do You See a Classroom? A virtual participatory exhibition examining the politics and poetics of the classroom. Digging into the New School Archives and pictures, this exhibit was curated to trace back the histories and moments in time that represented the diverse ways of learning at Parsons. Participants could browse the collection, catalogue it in the different ways and create their own understanding of what a classroom should look and feel like. Air Making; Constructing the Invisible: A curatorial proposal for the Climate Museum based on ideas and practices that use art and technology as a medium to make visible the impediments of urbanisation and air pollution. More on this project here: https:// climatemuseum.org/blog/2021/6/16/newschool-students-propose-exhibitions-forthe-climate-museum