Creating Together
Virtual Internships: creating and learning from India
By Ishita Shailesh &Varshini Girish Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design & Technology with a B.Des in Creative Education Design, Bangalore, India.
Foreword by Alisha Collins Brilliant Labs Creative Catylist
"Alisha, anything can be learnt," my mentor Geetha Narayanan, the founder and former director of Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design & Technology, told me when we first met. I was then encouraged to experiment in order to learn anything I wanted. I had joined the Institute's Design in Education program but shortly found myself exploring new areas— such as Visual Communication, Crowdsourcing, Envirocasting, Physical Computing, and Cartography— that did not seem to be connected to education. Surprised, I went to my mentor again and asked, "Why am I pursuing other areas? I came here to learn how to teach," and she said, "You are learning how to learn." Since then, my focus has been on consciously exploring the art of learning to better understand, "Who is the learner? What and why are they interested in learning? How do they learn? And how can I design tools and practices to further their learning?" Eleven years after graduating from Srishti, I got the opportunity to connect with two brilliant minds who also had just graduated from the same college and studied the same program now known as Creative Education Design. We bonded quickly as we all had been exposed to interdisciplinary educational approaches and shared similar learning values. Ishita and Varshini are extremely talented designers who have a novel way of navigating complex ideas into simple and appealing visuals. I invited them to join me in designing an illustrated guidebook to introduce Biomaking to young people, teachers and parents. This project aims to empower young people in tinkering with living matter and design projects exploring biological systems in practical ways. The activities in the book introduce ways to collaborate with living creatures like bacteria, fungi, and algae to solve critical problems, sustainable design products and make art. It's been a pleasure working with Ishita and Varshini. They have worked very hard to sharpen their skills in using digital illustration as a medium to communicate complex learning concepts. Their work brings abstract learning ideas alive through beautiful graphics depicting concrete examples and applications of biomaking. They have made a significant contribution to the project supporting young people's curiosity and interest in learning science. Brilliant Labs Magazine Revue Labos Créatifs
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