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2017. Design + Environment + Law Laboratory. The DEL Laboratory is an initiative of Natural Justice & Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
DEL Lab Logo Design: Sonalee Mandke Cover photo: Savara Kamba Basadi. Photo Credit: Deepta Sateesh. Back inner cover photo: Granite betta, Karkala. Photo credit: Shubhika Malara. Back cover photo: Sural Palace, Udupi District. Photo credit: Deepta Sateesh. DEL Laboratory Partners:
CONTENTS
Who We Are
05
How We Work
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Change & Impact
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Projects 11 Research & Collaboration 19 Events
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Current Ecosystem 26
WHO WE ARE Vision The Design+Environment+Law Laboratory (DEL Laboratory) is set up to work with challenges of existing legal, environmental, social, economic and cultural frameworks through interdisciplinary thinking and creativity. The DEL Laboratory is an intiative of Srishti and Natural Justice. We believe that the designer brings a transdisciplinary approach to complexities and contradictions on the ground in contentious landscapes, through new ‘data’, synthesis and imagination, to investigate, image and intervene.
The studio-lab carries out collaborative research projects to: - Explore the assemblage of ecologies and disciplines that design gathers, through active engagement in the environment; - Bring a design approach to pedagogy, policy and practice;
- Strengthen socio-ecological relationships, making way for synchronous engagement in our environment, and build resilience.
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HOW WE WORK We move design thinking out of the institution into the field, pushing towards activating and catalyzing change. We use design as a practice that stretches across inquiring, investigating and imaging ecologies, and how we engage with them. This is carried out through design studios that feed into the larger realm of the design research undertaken in the lab.
Values that guide our approach, methodology and pedagogy: •
Interdisciplinary thinking
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Openness & reflection
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Embracing complexity
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Design sensibility, curiosity & criticality
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Empathy & mindfulness
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Experience-based learning
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Ecological sensitivity
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Collaborative decision-making
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Emergent ideas and practice
We believe that research, based on theory, practice and reflection, form the foundation of how design thinking and methodology can contribute to and impact broader issues of policy-making, regional and spatial planning, conflict resolution, local practices, uncovering new lenses and pathways for humanity to navigate through our changing world and environments. _______
The lab continued to work in the Western Ghats this year, with a focus on ideas of living heritage, in contexts that are threatened by developmental interventions. The Western Ghats, a contentious landscape that has drawn much attention over the past few years, is of research interest as the conflicts on the ground today of development and environment stem from the current image and imagination of the Ghats.
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CHANGE & IMPACT The DEL Laboratory has been creating action-oriented projects where certain gaps have been identified from research to implementation. The hope is that these projects can contribute to research and activism in addressing issues arising from the nature-culture divide. The areas that the lab focuses on include:
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Investigating environmental legal history of landscape
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Critically reflecting on the construction of landscapes developed over the years through multiple lenses
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Exploring design practices in the areas of ecology and environment
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Creating new methods and tools that can operate in complex contexts
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Experimenting with inclusive approaches in the invention of new data
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Creating non-disciplinary design models for learning, doing and acting in the environment
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Imagining new ways of seeing and engaging in environmentally sensitive regions that can inform policy-making
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PROJECTS TRACING PLACES / PLACING TRACES
CONTEXT - MOODABIDRI
The lab undertook a studio to investigate the collision of development and environment in a small town in the Western Ghats, Moodabidri, Dakshina Kannada. This town is a place of living heritage - physical, natural and cultural. The studio housed 3 students’ projects, each who focussed on an anchor of the landscape that they sensed was critical to the understanding of the place in the past, present and possibly the future. The studio brief is below.
Nestled between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, Moodbidri is famed for its thousand-pillared temple, and as a center of Jain culture and heritage. Moodbidri is at a cross-roads where many peoples, cultures and ecologies are evolving in a unique environment. As a result, the region has been shaped by multiple, sometimes competing forms of governance that have imagined and reimagined the identity of the town. The effects of these layers are visible in Moodbidri as a tension between the past and a desire for modernity that is emblematic of twenty-first century India.
Places are composed of dynamic and complex ecologies. These are formed as much from our material surroundings, such as settlements, landscape, and climate, as from the immaterial – our social lives, relationship to nature, and the ways in which we imagine our past, present and future. How we understand and articulate these dynamic relationships constantly changes with the flow of time: places are temporal, always in flux. One of the ways we envision our environment, past, present and future, is by discovering the traces of their construction that we engage with in everyday life - traces of life, practices, politics, materials – all delicately intertwined to make place. This project seeks to explore, uncover and respond to these layers of complex relationships and interdependencies that form contemporary small town India, today.
Students immersed into Moodbidri’s socio-cultural and ecological contexts as well as the living heritage of the town. This will encompass artefacts and artisanal practices, spiritual spaces and ritual practices, oral and performative traditions, poetics and politics of language, cuisine and ancient agricultural practices, and more. Through tracing multiple narratives that link the past, present and future, we will uncover the patterns, rhythms, and movements of people, goods and practices that make this place a diverse landscape. From these tracings will emerge new constructions and the production of responses that allow for multiple interpretations and representations of Moodbidri. This project was housed in the DEL Laboratory, in collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture, Manipal University, and Architect Vasudevan Kadalayil.
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“Evanescapes” Popularly known as Jaina Kashi, Moodabidri is one of the major Jain centres in South India. The town is located on the western coastal region of Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka, and is believed to be named after the bamboo growing in that area, from the words Mooda (East) and Bidiru (Bamboo). Since the age of discovery, the silk and spice trade routes connected the Malabar Coast with civilizations across seas. Trade ensured not just exchange of goods and people but also cultures and belief systems along with it. For instance, Islam was introduced to this region by the Arabs traders whereas the Portuguese introduced systems of merchant ships carrying guns and gunpowder. (Rao. 2015) Being just 35 kms northeast of Mangalore port, Moodabidri was also a busy town of trading activities in the past, connecting the coast with the plateau. The area was well known for spices, especially pepper and betel nut, and other regional produce like sandalwood, ivory and perfumes amongst other things (Gazetteer of India, 1973). Despite various socio-cultural influences, Jainism enjoyed royal patronage of major kingdoms such as the Western Ganga, Kadamba and Chalukya dynasties and the Alupa, Hoysala and Vijayanagara Empires and is still prominently practiced across Karnataka.
With eighteen Jain Basadis built during 14th and 15th centuries, eighteen temples and eighteen keres, Moodabidri simply waits to be recognized officially as a heritage site. All the eighteen Basadis are living monuments, but the Saavira Kambada Basadi, the Thousand Pillar Temple, happens to be the most visited and worshipped by pilgrims from all over the country (Mudde, 2011). The richness of Moodabidri’s social and cultural past can be traced even today in details of its settlements and landscape; and in the everyday life of people – in spirit-worship like Bhuta Kola and Nagaradhane, ritual dances like Hulivesha and Yakshagana, celebrations like Rathotsava and Kambala, practices like paddanas and much more. But what makes a landscape diverse? What influences the temporality of a landscape? And how can one document it in all its dynamism? Tracing Places/Placing Traces project began with the understanding of places as dynamic entities that constantly evolve with its socio-cultural, political and ecological environments. Within this context, we attempt to expand the boundaries of heritage with newer ways of seeing. This implies heritage can be looked at not just as an extra-ordinary, mysterious, static entity of the past, but also as an active entity travelling from past to present to future. In this sense, heritage is also in our daily lives, in ordinary routines – in the way we walk, the way we dress, the food we eat and so on. In this project, the anchors were the materials laterite and granite, local to the region, and deployed in multiple practices across time. These practices demonstrate living heritage that is ever-changing yet rooted in place.
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“Blurring Boundaries” The aim of the project is to blur boundaries. Through an interpretation of the Siri ‘paddana’, the intention was to soften the lines between reality and myth, between local and global, people and natural resources. Due to rapid urbanization, the relationship between people and nature has become divided, when to locals, it is one big habitat. There exists a socio-ecological relationship between the two, which has been lost. Inspiration came from the concept of folklore, which can hold within it many ideas and beliefs. Land, also, becomes a character that the humans interact with. The land is used to interpret certain aspects of the story, and also talks about how a close relationship existed, but not anymore. The advent of the industrial revolution and “science” and technology began to portray folk knowledge of the land as back-ward because it was based on intuition. It caused a gap to grow between the concept of local( region specific) and global (India specific), and consequently, what is real, and what is a myth. Local beliefs can accept the existence of certain features of a landscape because of the intervention of a god, or the healing properties of a plant because it is sacred to another god. There is a certain multiplicity in it, which gets eroded on a global level. Therefore, the aim of the project is to re-visualize the connection between them using Siri as society, and the land as ecology. This project investigated the ‘paddana’ of Siri, and used the narrative as a lens to engage in place.
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“Bhakti” Are things being left behind in the name of modernization and development? Have we forgotten the way of our home or where we come from and where we belong to. Have we every thought for making our own homes we take from nature? We as humans only demand for shelter, money and a car in this world to survive and not fresh air, happy faces, loved ones and trees. Does the world functions like this? Making houses, having retirement plans, eating all day long and making travel plans after 40 to understand life? No, we need to understand the value of what exists today, otherwise nothing will be left in next few years to make our houses with, or food to be chewed. Everything is developing to an extent of extinction. In the society where we live in has many powerful people who could make change. But no one
likes change. Everybody in this world just wants to have a good house, a car and obviously a lot of money. We need to take a step back and look at what we have created as humans and reflect on it and appreciate it or question it, as what makes the world is humans and understanding the value of ones own creation takes time. With the lens of tracing the influence behind the cultural norms, the Moodabidri research started. The interests included how development also has an important role in preserving/looking at heritage. A place such as Moodabidri is affected by a fast-changing regional context - and with it perpetuate old and new ideas of faith. The final outcome of this project is a film titled “Bhakt”.
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RESEARCH & COLLABORATION The DEL Laboratory has engaged with a new organization this year - Dakshin Foundation, with whom there is a formal Memorandum of Understanding. DAKSHIN FOUNDATION Dakshin Foundation is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation and a charitable trust. Our mission is to inform and advocate for conservation and natural resource management, while promoting and supporting sustainable livelihoods, social development and environmental justice. The collaboration with Dakshin Foundation is for 3 years, and is currently exploratory as there are multiple projects already with Dakshin, that demand design research and creative approaches and outcomes. The DEL Laboratory has begun to collaborate with Dakshin at events, including a workshop at the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
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EVENTS Seminar: Rethinking Research and Design Practices in the Face of Rapid Urbanization 22 May 2017 Deepta, during her Visiting Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study on India (CASI) (April-May 2017), curated a 1-day seminar, a collaboration among CASI, PennDesign and Penn Institute of Urban Research (PennIUR). The seminar brought together a number of research scholars and practitioners across fields of planning, landscape architecture, history, geography, social sciences and design. _______ SEMINAR SYNOPSIS Today, about half the world’s 7 billion humans are living in urban conditions. The accelerated growth in the past few decades has increased the stress on urban ecologies to provide adequate infrastructure, resources, and basic amenities while deepening socio-economic inequalities and creating dramatic cultural shifts. Serving the urban are areas deemed “natural”— forests, cultivation lands, the ocean, from where resources are extracted and processed, water is controlled and delivered; where “nature” resides and provides, where indigenous people and biodiversity exists. In these complexities, how do we begin to work collectively across disciplines to investigate and expose the “nature of things” and what “things” we engage with? From critical thinking and problem-solving to imagination and activism, this seminar endeavors to explore new ways of working between research and practice, between the humanities and design, to rethink the future.
Presenters: David Gouverneur, Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Landscape Architecture, PennDesign Sanjoy Chakravorty, Professor Department of Geogeaphy and Urban Studies, Temple University Debjani Bhattacnaryya, Assistant Professor of History, Department of History, Drexel University Dilip da Cunha, Adjunct Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, PennDesign
Discussants: Deepta Sateesh (CASI Visiting Scholar), Director, DEL Laboratory, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Eugenie Birch, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Education and Research, Department of City and Regional Planning, PennDesign Anuradha Mathur, Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, PennDesign Participants included master’s and doctoral students, and post-doctoral fellows of planning, design, humanities and social sciences across UPenn, Temple University and Drexel University.
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EVENTS Talk: City Planning Department, PennDesign Philadelphia, USA 12 April 2017 Dr. Eugenie L. Birch invited Deepta Sateesh to give a talk on the links between planning, policy and ground conflicts. Deepta presented some of the lab’s projects to share the importance of appropriate interventions, in which planning and policymaking may only provide a partial resolution, while design research approach and art have greater potential. A number of Planning students were interested in the interdisciplinarity among design, environmental law, planning and art practices.
Talk: RAD Studio, Human Factors International Mumbai, India 14 September 2017 The RAD Studio at HFI hosts a number of talks on disruptive approaches to solving today’s wixked problems, including issues of gender, technology, marginalization. Deepta was invited to speak on the disruptive design approaches to investigating environmental issues. She presented 2 projects including the Agumbe project titled “Living Plains” and the Western Ghats “Splice: the Iconic Joint” project on Traces.
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Workshop: Design Thinking for Conservation Student Conference on Conservation Science, IISc, Bangalore 23 October 2017 In collaboration with Dakshin Foundation, Deepta designed and facilitated a 1-day workshop for conservation science students at the SCCS Conference. WORKSHOP BRIEF The field of conservation is constantly challenging us to adapt an inter-disciplinary approach to addressing issues. The workshop will introduce a few select art and design thinking tools which participants can integrate into their research in ways that will add a fresh layer or perspective to their work. Relationships, change and other elements can be recorded using creative methods which allow for new visual ways of communication and representation of the same. The workshop will equip individuals interested in conservation with new skills they can use. The students will begin to see the importance of art and design that is already embedded in science. They will be introduced to new creative tools to include when doing field work, so that visual data (apart from photos) becomes part of their research and narrative. Students will use the tools during the workshop to go out into the campus and gather data first hand. There will also be a discussion to explore how these tools could connect to their own ongoing or future work.
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EVENTS Conference: Beyond Nature / Artifice, INSULA III Colloquium and ICUA Conference Madeira, Portugal 8-12 November 2017 Deepta Sateesh presented her ongoing doctoral research at the INSULA III Colloquium that was held in tandem with the ICUA Conference in Madeira, Portugal. The meet was titled “Beyong Nature | Artifice”.
PRESENTATION ABSTRACT The dominant understanding of and engagement with nature has always been as the ‘other’, devoid of complexity and dynamism. In the Western Ghats of India, nature is articulated and managed in a language foreign to the landscape, while the understanding of enactive autochthonous practices are completely left out, marginalizing the local inhabitant. Since its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, conflicts have escalated on the ground, emphasizing the need to investigate a more fundamental source of these clashes. I explore the construction of this divided ‘habitat’ through a design methodology using creative practices of imaging and material engagement. I propose that this ‘habitat’ has been designed by a colonial intervention, the Mangalore Pattern Roofing Tile. The tile initiated an imaging of the Ghats as a landscape that drains the monsoon, creating a separation of wet from dry. This drainage imagination erased local everyday practices rooted in a particular understanding of dynamic ecological processes of this monsoon terrain, and the continual appropriation and reappropriation of wetness across time in the Ghats. This presentation will reveal the design of the dominant inherited image and its language, and speculate the ‘ground’ for a new complex local imaging and vocabulary.
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OUR CURRENT ECOSYSTEM Team
Students
Deepta Sateesh Director & Co-Founder
Devki Pande - Illustration, Creative Writing “Blurring Boundaries” Project
Shambhavi Singh Research Assistant
Shubhika Malara - Public Space Design “Evanescapes” Project Sonali Agarwal - Film “Bhakti” Project
Advisors
Collaborators / Partners
John C. Keene, Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania
Moodabidri Jain Temple Trust Ar. Vaudevan Kadalayil, Ecumene
Geetha Narayanan, Founder-Director, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Kabir Bavikatte, Executive Director, The Christensen Fund
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Faculty of Architecture, Manipal University Dakshin Foundation
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