Design – A view from India
I attended two lectures about design in India in the last month. Both very different, but combined I feel I might understand Indian Design a bit more.
The first lecture was by Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan, a professor at the AUD – the Ambedkar University Delhi.
She studied Visual Communication at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and has a PhD in design history from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Her doctoral work focusses on the global-local contexts of the genesis of modern design education in India after independence. Suchitra’s professional design practice has centred on social communication design, exploring a variety of issues ranging from women’s health, child rights, primary education, minority rights, communalism and globalisation in rural and urban India. (AUD, n.d.)
This experience was reflected in her talk. When talking about India someone has to realize how big the country is, how many languages are spoken, how many cultures are included. It is immense. Talking about one country, from an European perspective, is not applicable. Representing India is challenging.
Additionally, India was colonized for over 200 years, resulting in a design culture with its roots in Europe. Bauhaus, Basel Graphic Design and HfG Ulm are taught there as well as here. Therefore, the design in India was colonized, making the term Indian Design even trickier. Suchitra even talked about a new form of colonization, with lots of Western Designers coming to India. But maybe this is just globalization.
Anyway, representing a diverse culture is the struggle of Indian social communication design. This is illustrated during India's Republic Day Parade. Floats represent the current technological achievements, while other floats represent Indian states in a very traditional way. Here you see the float Mahrashtra.
The presentation was more like an invitation to join the conversation about the search of identity in the world of design. Discussing questions like, what are the new values to represent modern India? How to decolonize design? What is Indian design?
But that automatically led me to the question, what is Scottish Design?
Mackintosh, Robert Stevenson, Tartan…Old names, traditions…maybe that is a global problem. The search for identity while we are getting caught in globalization. Meeting people from all over the world, getting informed about new inventions anywhere in the world, taking on universal standards of design…
Where is the difference of design in between countries supposed to come from anymore? We were only able to talk about a common type of design, art or music, when artists in a country mingled and learned from each other. Nowadays, when the internet gives us the option to learn from people all over the globe, we might have to start talking about global design – human design?
Here the second lecture comes in. Naim Shaikh is the Head of the Design Vision Centre of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. His talk focused on the reasons behind design.
Why do we design a product? To make money? To solve a problem? To make the world a better place? The answer will vary from person to person, but Naim pointed out a trend in the Industrial Design of the 21st century. Sustainable Design. Solving social, ecological and economic problems, without creating new ones.
So what is Scottish Design, or Indian Design?
Our main concern as a global population is maintaining our world. So maybe Indian Design as well as Scottish or German Design is Sustainable Design!
