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DRAW THE WORLD TO KNOW THE WORLD
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As a part of its curriculum, the National Institute of Design offers a two-week multidisciplinary series of workshops called Open Electives. This course carrying 2 credits is offered to M. Des. students of semester 2 and B. Des. students of semester 4 and visiting exchange programme students from all disciplines, across all the three campus. The broad objective of this course is to provide an opportunity for interdisciplinary & multidisciplinary exploration and learning, beyond the specialisation of a specific design discipline. The overarching theme for this edition of the International Open Elective is, Drawing—By Design. Twenty Four workshops are on offer across the three campuses—12 at Ahmedabad, 6 each at Bengaluru and Gandhinagar. Offered by designers, academicians from India and abroad, from countries such as Switzerland, UK, Canada, and Germany, this bouquet of workshops explores various dimensions of drawing, ranging from thinking and visualization; representation and expression; semiotics and ornamentation; to narrative and communication.
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PREFACE Children show a strong connection between what they draw, how they play and what they experience. What they draw, also shows distinct aspects of what children see, what they wish, what they want to describe, etc. Unwanted importance given to learning and writing skills deny the possibility for the development of drawing to be used as a tool for observation and expression. Drawing also needs to be developed as a functional tool which anyone can learn, which also means that drawing needs to be distanced from art, which is supposed to be an activity that only the gifted or talented can do. Draw the world to know the world intends to open up possibilities for research on the potential of drawing as a cognitive tool as well as communication among people and also to help designers invent simpler ways of drawing. The larger purpose is to get schools to give children more time to draw, especially the children among lower age groups.
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Jinan KB
As an educationist, Jinan has been studying the cognitive damages of the present educational system and cognition among so called ‘literate’ people. He has been concerned about the way modernity is homogenizing and standardizing thoughts, tastes and dreams of people through social engineering. In the context of children, he has been studying various aspects- cognition, play, aesthetics and drawing for almost 15 years. Since 2011, he has been involved with a school which is creating a space for children to awaken their natural cognitive tools and processes. The most important breakthrough has been the finding that cognition, beauty, love etc. has biological basis. Based on these insights, he has been exploring the deeper and hidden cognitive damages of schooling and the biological foundations of learning/being. From these findings, he has been doing workshops, retreats and courses for parents, teachers, children, college students doing design, architecture and management.
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Immanuel Suresh
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Immanuel Suresh is a designer and educator. He had been part of the Faculty development programme at NID before he joined as a faculty member in the Visual Communication discipline. He has been actively involved in the Foundation Programme and teaches basic design courses. Suresh joined the College of Art and Crafts, Chennai one of the country’s oldest art institutions, where he learned from reputed painters and craftsmen teachers in a metal smithy. Self supported by five years of part-time work as a scientific glass-blower, he earned a postgraduate diploma in Painting with a first class gold medal. A short stint in advertising followed his education. At NID, Suresh teaches Colour and Drawing. He teaches Environment Exposure. His other interests include nature, form, and illustration.
Shrinkhala Aren
Shrinkhala Aren graduated from the Film and Video Communication department of National Institute of Design in 2005. She has worked as an assistant director and associate producer in Mumbai before pursuing post graduation in Design Management from Ecole Internationale de Design, France. She previously worked with Raa’ Media Pvt Ltd before joining NID as a Faculty in early 2013. Her specialization is in Film Editing and she takes courses for the same on both Undergraduate and Post-graduate levels.
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students that took part: Abhishek Umrao Amarnath Praful Ankita Talapatra Anuja Tapase Avinash Narwade Freny Antony Janmesh Gharat Jigisha Tank Kabya Shree Nandita Saha Prathish K. Srinivas Raveenthar Ravinderan Shalini Tripathi Siddhesh Gautam Zunaira Naqvi
M.Des Interaction Design M.Des Photography Design M.Des Graphic Design M.Des Design for Retail Experience M.Des Strategic Design Management M.Des Transportation & Automobile Design M.Des Interaction Design M.Des Furniture & Interior Design M.Des Strategic Design Management M.Des Lifestyle Accessory Design M.Des New Media Design M.Des M.Des Design for Retail Experience M.Des Ceramic & Glass Design M.Des Apparel Design B.Des Graphic Design
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GROUP I Is drawing just an artistic expression? Is drawing just for a fun time? Is drawing just for beautification? Or it is beyond that? We went to Behra Munga Andhashala on Ashram road, Slums behind NID and an Old age homeShantivan in Paldi. We conducted workshops for children of different age groups in various places to understand drawing as cognitive tool. In one week of field visits in this course, we realised that drawing is not just artistic expression, it also represents stories, emotions, experiences and observations.
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each and everything they do. They don’t judge anyone, they don’t compete. They don’t put any “so called logic” in doing things. Children show a strong connection between what they see, what they play and what they experience. But from adult sides: “Our eyes have stopped functioning and brain is more active to build stories”. We should learn to be more authentic than building stories. Children by nature are co-operative, and are not possessive about their drawings. They are fully involved in the act of drawing. They don’t even bother writing their names on the drawings. Being here and now matters to child, then anything else in world. Reflection of what children have been drawing is clearly suggests that drawing is much more than just an artistic expression. Abhishek Umrao, Zunaira Naqvi, Janmesh Gharat, Jigisha Tank and Shalini Tripathi The course “Draw the world to know the world” put focus on drawing not as an artistic expression but as a cognitive tool to express and observe. Initially, we were clueless about how to proceed further with children who were in school, in slums and even people who were living in old age homes. We went ahead with sheets, pencils and colour pencils. The first destination we decided to go was Behra Munga Andhshala where special children who cannot speak and hear study. We chose this place because every child has their own perspective and even special children are blessed with imagination which normal children have. We initially had difficulty in communicating with them but as we played with them and spent some time listening their stories in sign languages, we observed that the children were very conscious of their surrounding. They tend to draw what they have been taught in the class or they have
learned from someone. But when they are comfortable, they take inspirations from what surrounds them. Their drawings have stories and experiences. Some drawings had emotional connections to something or someone. Every Drawing was a lot more meaningful and expressive than what they drew earlier. They become free to explore on the paper as it became their space to express their heart and soul on it. There was a huge difference between deaf & dumb children and old age women living in an old age home. These kids are starting their lives to see a lot of things in world and on the other hand these old women have seen most of their lives whether it was good or bad. But what we found common is that both of them need something or some medium to EXPRESS. But old people find drawing silly and for kids they don’t even understand the meaning of expression. They are fearless and confident in 13
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FLAGS In these drawings, children drew different styles of the Indian National Flag. Most of them were inspired by the Republic Day celebration that happened in the school that day. Children expressed their imagination and observation in these sketches. For example, they have shown the flag hoisting, theRepublic Day parades and people saluting National Flag.
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SELF EXPRESSED NATURE Children drew that part of nature that was visible or prominent in their surrounding. Few children used their own imagination of what nature could consist of. The drawings mostly consisted of their own stories or observations.
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HOUSE Children converted complex structures of their houses into simple lines. They also included important features like window, door, fan, roof, stairs from their memory to make it look like their house. Every child’s imagination was different from each other and was mostly inspired from their perception.
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SWINGS AND SLIDES These drawings were made by children in Behra Munga Andhashala on Ashram Road. They were sitting near play area in the school. The spatial arrangement of the slides and swings is very well captured by them. They drew the parts that was most used or visible to them.
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COMPOSITION Children have tried to put a story in their drawings. They drew all the essential characters and components of the story. Even here they have broke down all complex forms into simple basic lines. The influence of city style homes or apartments could be seen in some of the drawings. This collection is a mixture of drawings from slums behind NID and Behra munga andhshala on Ashram road. Few of the children didn’t have formal education, but they were as good as others in communicating their stories.
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VEHICLE In these drawings, children have concentrated on the shape of the vehicle along with highlighted parts. The drawings were detailed enough to make it look like a bus, truck or khatara they intended to draw. Children also explored their imagination with the things they don’t see or aren’t familiar with. And they came up with really interesting forms. They tried to justify their drawing by adding additional elements to it. For example, a child drew rocket and then clouds and sun around it to make it look that its flying.
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CHARACTERS Children have used their imagination to create different characters, with their own way of looking at things. Few drew cartoon characters by recalling what they saw on televisions, few depicted their friends sitting beside them, some of them took inspiration from nature and drew animals and insects. Each child has his own peculiar style of putting things together.
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OLD AGE HOME At old age home, drawings were inspired more from the emotions and observation. Their drawings had stories which were emotionally really close to them. Few drawings were really abstract and they drew rangoli patterns because they are associated with it. Few of them had perception that they are illiterate, that’s why they can’t draw anything and refrained themselves from drawing .
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GROUP II On our first day of the Open Elective, Mr. Jinan shared his experience, insights and thoughts on drawing as a cognitive tool. After his session and brief introspective break, We decided to erase consciously everything we learned before about ‘learning’ and head into the unknown. We thought we would start off with one question – “How do children perceive the world?” For answers we headed to Manav Sadhana at Sabarmati and B.M Institute of Mental Health.
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Drawing is a truer, organic tool for communication than writing which requires language. Every child draws the world, we all once drew. Nobody teaches the child to draw, it is a spontaneous act. These were some statements that made a great impact on me after the first session with Mr. Jinan .K.B. Along with a vivid list of questions and queries which is still in process. What is Knowledge? What is learning? Why do children play? What is a toy? What is reasoning? Etc. For me these questions made sense, it provoked many more discussions inside. If we detach Drawing from the idea of art, then what is it? Drawing as a tool for communication, as a cognitive tool? So after the first session, we decide to form groups and move outside the campus to initiate children to draw, keeping in mind that no monitoring, or conclusion should happen but only observation should be in mind. My group consisted of Nandita Saha (Lifestyle Accessory design) , Siddhesh Gautam ( Apparel Design) and Freny Antony ( Transportation and Automobile Design)
Siddhesh Gautam
For our field work we went to Sabarmati Ashram - Manav Sadhan, where a school and hostel was run annexed to the ashram campus. Next we went to B.M. Institute of Mental health, Ahmedabad. An institution that facilitates rehabilitation and education of the specially challenged. Though our time frame was limited, our interaction with children has enabled a new opening and learning within us. However I am haunted by a lot of questions How children perceive drawing? How we lost that ability as adults to draw? Is it almost parallel that we lost the child in us? How education system/hierarchical knowledge transfer is killing imagination and creating patterns and boundaries in the mind field of the child. When did being good or bad started to matter so much to us? How important is looking rather than the output? I found that every child if not interfered had a unique way of drawing, expressing maybe a narrative, a story, situation or a person. This process also filled them with joy. Often
Nandita Saha
Amarnath Praful
insistence and education can ward them off the truly creative path and segregate them into skill based categories. For me the learning from this course has been questions, redefining and challenging certain norms and conditions I had in my mind regarding knowledge, communication, drawing and writing. These questions haven’t met with answers yet. Amarnath Praful/ Draw the World to know the world.
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LANDSCAPES Confident landscape with the sky filled with birds and a gigantic brown sun between mountains. Below is a scene narrated of the school with an aeroplane taking off and a big red sun on one side.Well composed landscapes, One of them having five suns rising behind the mountains. On the right is an intelligent detailing of the flower and the house with interesting patterns. A good use of positive and negative spaces is seen here.
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FLAGS Usage of the national flag on days of celebration, showing crowd saluting, interesting patterns around the flag and decorated podium. The flag has been used as a part of a scene narrating a story
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CHARACTERS Animated and lively portraits of the children’s friends, family and imaginary beings.
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FLORA Interpretation of trees and plants rough the form of fruits and various ways of illustrating a tree. A tree has been represented in colours other than green. and the abstraction of trees, plants, flowers and leaves is unique.
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HOUSES The exterior and the interiors of houses have been represented through the child’s observation and memory. The surrounding is also attached to their idea of a house.
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Interestingly, the exterior and the interior of the same house was drawn on both sides of the paper, vibrant colours and interesting sense of composition is seen in the drawings below.
Multiple images on multiple folds unfolded a narrative. Interesting placement of objects such as tree, sun and other buildings.
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ABSTRACT PATTERNS Vivid and imaginative use of colour and unique exploration of form. Detailed repetition and multilayed patterns that children came up with.
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DRAWINGS BY ADULTS Drawings by people who have not drawn for years tried their hand at live sketching. For example, 87 years old Mr. Rathod feeds pifeons at the ashram everyday. He make a sketch of the ashram and a pigeon beside it. Most drawings were personal and from 40
memory. Portarits made by visitors at the ashram and the view of the riverfront from the ashram.
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Raveenthar Rajendiran
Anuja Tapase
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It was a very nice experience for both of us after this two week observation and understanding through this course ‘Draw the World to Know the World’. We are now much more clear about idea and knowledge of the kid’s drawing world, where we got some nice moments to spend with the kids, which took us back to our school days. At the end of the research observation, we came to know how current eduction system acting as a barrier for the thinking freedom of the kids in this current scenario. Also how different factors affects the creativity and their innovative mind of thinking. With the observation from the drawings of the children, we understood that every child has been gifted with art of expressing, which act as a cognitive tool - Drawing. We also noticed that each and every kid is unique in their own way of expressing through drawing. And also we understood that why Drawing needs to be distance from art
GROUP III The workshop ‘Draw the World to Know the World’ intended to open up possibilities for research on potential of drawing as a cognitive tool as well as for communication among people, also with the purpose to get children to draw with open mind. With lots of confusion and questions but for a new exprience, we, Raveenthar and Anuja as a group headed with Mr. K B Jinan to Vishwa Bharati English Medium School, Thaltej. We met the school Principal Mr. Solanki, who was a very humble and polite person to talk to. He introduced us to the school children & teachers and assigned us a special schedule for our research everyday and we got a chance to research about three different age groups : Kindergarten of agegroup 3-5 years, Grade one & two kids of age group 5 - 6.5 years and grade four & five of age group 9-10 years. After the research, during documenting we tried to understand the drawings done by the children of different age groups, putting them al together to analyise the way how different the thinking changes with age. We also tried to understand from child’s as well as from adult’s point of view.
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KITES Children’s observation about the shape of Kites is pretty strong, as we noticed almost all the kids drew diamond shape kites with a triangular kite tail. Alsoo they are clear with the kite string attached as many of them have drawn the string in the middle of the Kite
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SCHOOL The very first building for a child is always his school where he/she spending more time after their home . Here the kids had depicted it in many interesting ways . By drawing a big rectangle to depict the basic shape of the building and numerous small rectangles inside that to show the windows on it. In some cases kids showing the rectangles only with steps that goes upward, in some interesting cases they made three houses one above another to depict the floors in the school building
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FESTIVAL CELEBRATION Christmas, Diwali, Kite Flying, Holi, etcits all about celebrations. Every drawing shows the joyousness, happiness, and celebrations of festivals.Every child have their own style of drawing and depicting the story. Hemandra’s drawing of Christmas celebration is quite interesting as he drew a Santa Claus who has placed gifts under the trees with a promising note of coming next year, also the kid in the drawing is very happy too. Brijesh’s drawing of kite flying is a memory drawing as seen and celebrated the festival by himself as he drew big speakers for music for the celebrations. Whereas, Meet’s kite festival tells a different story of as he depicts kite flying competition. He has drawn a kite flying competition scene of his friends. He has played nicely with the emotions of the children as we noticed that the child standing in themiddle is upset as he lost the fight. Neha made a diwali drawing where she prominently showed her house and herself celebrating the festival. She detailed out her dress by drawing a flowery lehenga and earrings
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NARRATION Narration drawings are the most interesting drawings we have found among all the drawings. The children have drawn their own stories or any imagination or any futuristic stories of their own. Almost all drawings consist of a sun with a happy face along with houses, trees and themselves. Riddhi (5 years old) depicted her fairy love story by drawing herself walking in a beautiful park carrying flower baskets. Her garden is full of birds chirping, peacocks, happy sun shining, with a tortoise (best friend) keeping eye on her. 48
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GROUP IV We visited slum areas in Ahmedabad, Blind People’s Associations and Diwan Ballubhai School for studying children of age group 4 yrs to 12 years. However, the Blind People’s Association, Ahmedabad had low vision kids of age group 8-16 yrs. We observed that the children are prone to co-learning and are very curious of the activity they indulge in. Children capture the basic elements of an object which they represents in their drawings. The forms and the meaning changes based on their associations and experience in their everyday life. Some are aspirations, while some are reality. Drawing is a mode to express their imagination, interpretation of the surrounding. It is a free expression of their learning and adaptation with time which we as an adult always overlook.
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Ankita Talapatra, Avinash Narwade, Kabya Shree and Prathish "Do not direct the children how to draw or what to draw. let them draw whatever they like" This was the instruction by our guide and mentor Jinan KB. This led us into a 1 week survey to understand kids with a fresh perspective and to know them better. Spending time with kids always help us to rediscover ourselves and recall those golden moments in our life which rejuvenates us. Draw the world to know the world as an open elective course was a beautiful enriching experience. It helped us to understand the lives of kids by observing their behavior and psychology using “drawing” as a cognitive tool to express where, how and why they feel what they feel. Drawing is a medium where they explore their imaginations, perceptions, interpretations and
experience. They learn by doing things themselves. Our area of observation were different slum areas in Ahmedabad, Blind people association, Diwan Ballubhai school in an age group of 4-12 yrs except for blind people association where the kids were up to 16 years as well. Kids like to share their innocent playful world with everybody. May it be a living form or a non living object, they connect and associate themselves to everything. Their forms of representation carry more meanings and emotions than how we normally look at it, but it gets uncovered only with adequate time and careful observations. Understanding their drawing with an radiant perspectives unleashes lot of minute details how they perceive and register objects in their learning process. Kids always indulge in co learning and peer learning. Their composition are mixture of imaginations
and reality which they encounter every now and then either as an activity or a play. Their characters always carry emotions based on their surrounding. Many kids associated drawing to those images which their drawing book contains or taught in school. However, many children started narrating their imaginations through drawing in form of stories. In a nutshell, the course was like a window to us which allowed us to enter into the kids world uncovering new meanings, reasons and facts again and again.
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FLOWERS How it grows, it’s ecosystem, essential elements constitute children’s imagination with flowers. Patterns inspired from rangoli. It is more than just a form. They capture the basic contour of the form.
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COMPOSITION The composition is filled with water, sharp mountains, trees, fish and birds; natural elements. The sun is always bright.
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HUMAN FIGURES It was observed that children drew their same gender and the girls usually has an element of beautification in their drawings. All the dresses contains floral patterns with buttons. They make what they adore! All the characters are smiling, their hair are so funny, like they do not care to manage it.
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TEAM COMPOSITION The kids were provided with a A1 sized chart paper which they shared to draw. They started copying from each other which shows clear view of peer learning.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to thank all these places for being so cooperative and giving us a wonderful experience Behra Munga Andhshala Slum behind NID Old Age Home, Shantivan Sabarmati Hostel: Sabarmati Ashram B.M. Institute of Mental Health Blind People’s Association Diwan Ballubhai School Vishwabharati English Medium School We would also like to thank Jinan KB for giving us a new perspective towards drawing and Shrinkhala Aren and mmanuel Suresh for being our source of help and guidance.
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