HfG Ulm and Basic Design: Conference at Kolkata: 28 September 2010

LOOK Back – LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design for India

Prof. M P Ranjan
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Conference Title:

LOOK Back – LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design for India

Last date for registration: September 20, 2010 (Participation limited to 100 participants only - please register early) Conference on 28 September 2010 at Kolkata
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Venue & Schedule:

Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)
9A, Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata - 700 071
behind Tata Centre , Chowringhee Road

28 September, 2010 : Full-day Conference-cum-Workshop on Basic Design Education: 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.

Organisers:

National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad – in collaboration with
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata
HfG-Archive Ulm & IfA (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Germany) Stuttgart
Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)

Background:

After the successful one day event at Bengaluru in March 2010, this is the second in the series of conferences based on the spirit of the HfG Ulm pedagogy for design education and its impact on India. The HfG Ulm, which started as a continuation of the Bauhaus experiments in design education under one of its former students – Max Bill, soon veered from a foundation in art to a science and society focus under the leadership of Tomas Maldonado. The HfG Ulm faculty, all eminent teachers and thought leaders in their field, experimented with design education like never before and documented the results of teaching in a series of 21 journals published between 1958 and 1968. These ten years of intense research and theory building and sharing has had a lasting impact on the world of design education and the availability of these journals being one of the major factors for this durable influence. Selected papers from these volumes located in the NID Library were reproduced for a conference on design education in 1989 by Prof Kirti Trivedi at Industrial Design Centre, IIT, Powai and these have been a further source of inspiration for Indian design teachers over the years. These journals are now available as part of the conference kit in a DVD compilation that can inform and inspire design teachers interested in the subject.

The HfG Ulm impacted the world of design through its direct professional action with industry, memorably with Braun and its successful range of products that hit the market in 1955 and continued with other product successes that can be called the Ulm style of meticulous detailing and clean functional form. Hans Gugelot was among the lead drivers along this track. Other teachers such as Otl Aicher influenced major corporations such as Herman Miller and Lufthansa with significant contributions in graphic design. The closing down of the HfG Ulm in 1968 saw the scattering of its faculty and students across the world, each steeped in the Ulm ideology of public good with design theory and action, resulting in significant action on the ground in the form of new design education in Latin America by Gui Bonsiepe, in India by Sudhakar Nadkarni and H Kumar Vyas and in Japan by Kohei Suguira and Sutaro Mukai, besides the numerous other influences in Europe and the USA that continue to this day.

The Ulmer Museum/HfG-Archiv has brought together the various threads of the Ulm school in a unique exhibition called ulm: method and design / ulm: school of design 1953-1968 with archival objects, classroom assignments and multimedia exhibits never before seen in India. The exhibition is presented in India by the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, in collaboration with IfA (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Germany) Stuttgart and offers us the opportunity to both “LOOK Back - LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design Education for India”, a title that aptly sums up the objective behind the intensive one-day conference/workshop on September 28, 2010 at Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR), as well as to draw inspiration from the path-breaking work at Ulm and reflect on the path forward here in India. An impressive catalogue published by Hatje Cantz (ISBN 3-7757-9142-6) provides rich background research content on the school and the exhibition. Basic Design is the term used by HfG Ulm to describe the preparatory courses and abstract assignments developed to foster core capabilities in design action and design thinking while nurturing the sensibilities and abilities of a designer.

Participants:

Design teachers and teachers from other institutes interested in design pedagogy, including design research, design management and technology & design professionals interested in design education.

Registration Fee:

Individual designers and faculty : Rs. 2000/= each
Team of 5 faculty per school from India : Rs 5000/= per team

Exhibition Venue: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)- opens September 25, 2010

Conference Venue: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)– September 28, 2010
Abanindranath Tagore Gallery and Conference rooms, 9A, Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata - 700 071, West Bengal, India.

Organising Institutions

National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad – Prof. Pradyumna Vyas, Director
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata – Dr. Reimar Volker, Director
HfG-Archive Ulm & IfA (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Germany) Stuttgart
Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR)

Keynote Speakers:

Daniela Baumann, Research scholar, HfG-Archive Ulm, Germany
Prof. Kirti Trivedi, Industrial Design Centre, IIT Powai

Prof Sudhakar Nadkarni, Dean, Business Design, Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai

Conference Chair:

Prof M P Ranjan, NID, Ahmedabad

Co-Chair:

Prof Suchitra Sheth, CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Registration:

Registration fees are payable by Demand Draft drawn in favour of “National Institute of Design” payable at Ahmedabad.
Registration Form duly filled with Demand Draft attached shall be delivered to National Institute of Design, Paldi, Ahmedabad 380 007

Last date for registration: September 20, 2010
(Participation limited to 100 participants only - please register early)

Address for communication and registration

1st contact: National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad
Avinash Bhandari
Conference Coordinator
Outreach Programmes
National Institute of Design,
Paldi, Ahmedabad 380007
Tel: (off) 91 79 26623692
Fax: 91 79 26621167 / 26605240
conference email: outreach@nid.edu
www.nid.edu

2nd contact: Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata
Sharmistha Sarker
Programme Officer
033 2486 6398
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan
8, Ballygunge Circular Road
(Pramathesh Barua Sarani)
Kolkata - 700 019 India
Tel: +91-33-2486 6398
Fax: +91-33-2486 5188
email: sarker@kolkata.goethe.org

Detailed Programme:

The one-day conference at Kolkata follows the opening of the touring exhibition ulm: method and design/ulm: school of design 1953-1968 September 28, 2010. Participants at the conference are encouraged to visit to exhibition before the event which is adjacent to the venue.

September 25, 2010 onwards (Exhibition venue: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR), Kolkata)

Exhibition: (optional for participants) Inauguration of the exhibition at the Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR), Kolkata organised by the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata.

September 28, 2010 (Conference venue: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata (ICCR), Kolkata)

LOOK Back & LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design Education for India

9.30 am to 10.00 am Registration and informal get together. Seating for the Plenary Sessions in Abanindranath Tagore Gallery and the Reflection Session in conference rooms. Seating plan to be mixed across design schools with seats and Break-Away groups assigned at the registration. This will facilitate the workshop sessions and encourage participation by all members.

Conference Session One: LOOK Back: Hfg Ulm and Basic Design for India

10.00 am to 10.30 am : Opening remarks by organizers – Introduction to Purpose and mission of the conference.

10.30 am to 11.00 am Keynote 1: Daniela Baumann, Research scholar, HfG-Archiv Ulm, Germany – Focus on the pedagogy of HfG Ulm and its spread of key messages to other centres over the past 50 years.

11.00 am to 11.30 am Keynote 2: Prof. Kirti Trivedi, Industrial Design Centre, IIT , Powai – The Pedagogy of Basic Design at HfG Ulm– its growth and development in Asia after Ulm.

11.30 am to 12.30 noon Panel Discussion 1: Moderated by Prof Suchitra Sheth, CEPT University: Multi Institutional experience of Basic Design and pedagogy propositions from experiences in design education. panel discussions by five invited speakers from Indian design schools to reflect on various threads of influences across design subjects. Session will map the contours of Basic Design and Foundation programmes at leading schools in India today.

12.30 pm to 1.30 pm Lunch Break (lunch served at venue)

Conference Session Two: LOOK Forward: Future of Basic Design Education

1.30 pm to 3.30 pm: Break Away Sessions – World Café Format
Group 1: Senses: Sensitising Perception
Group 2: Knowledge: Broad World View
Group 3: Ethics: Attitudes and Values
Group 4: Culture: Understanding Context and Field Contact
Group 5: Skills: Actions and Abilities – Competency and Confidence

Conference Session Three: LOOK Forward: Reflections on Design Education

3.40 pm to 5.30 pm Presentations by Break Away Groups. The lessons from the debates and the key take-aways are summarised from all groups by one representative from each group.
(10 minutes including discussions from the floor)

5.00 to 5.30 pm Reflective Keynote Panel, commentaries by eminent design teachers moderated by Prof M P Ranjan, NID with Prof Sudhakar Nadkarni and keynote speakers. Building a checklist of action points and sharing these with the forum. Towards a policy for action by Indian design education.

6.00 pm to 8.00 pm Guided tour of the HfG Ulm Exhibition (optional for participants)
~

Royal College of Art (RCA): Linkages with NID & Indian Design: Contemporary Influences (Part 3/3)

Royal College of Art and the contemporary Indian designers

Picture: Singanapalli Balaram and his Rural Bicycle designed at the RCA as a student project.

Just as NID had trained the first generation of design teachers for India in the 60’s and 70’s some of these leading teachers and some from the second generation were further trained at the RCA in the 70’s. The first to head to London was Prof Singanapalli Balaram who was deputed from the NID for a year long training at the RCA in 1971. He returned to India and worked at NID till he retired from the Institute after which he has moved to Coimbatore to set up a new school of design there called the DJ Academy.

Singanapalli Balaram, RCA, Industrial Design Engineering, 1971.
Home at DJAD, Coimbatore:
Balaram at DJAD:

The IDC was set up in 1969 by Prof Sudha Nadkarni who himself was a student of Hfg Ulm but his students from IDC went to the RCA in the early 70’s to come back to teach at IDC, IIT Mumbai and at the IIT Delhi where another school of design took root.

Lalit Das, IIT, Delhi (RCA, School of Industrial Design Engineering from 1972 to 1974)
Biography:

Kirti Trivedi, IDC, IIT Mumbai (RCA, School of Industrial Design Engineering from 1972 to 1974)
IDC, IIT Mumbai:
Hindu Architecture:
IDC Publications:

K Munshi, IDC, IIT, Mumbai (RCA, School of Industrial Design Engineering in 1974)
Workshop on Product Innovation:

Dhruv Mistry, MA Sculpture RCA 1983
Biography link:

Shilpa Ranade, IDC, IIT, Mumbai Head of Animation at the IDC also stuidied at the RCA.
Interview in Animation Express:

This early round of RCA scholars from India was followed by a stream of very talented designers from NID, most of whom were from the NID’s undergraduate programme and they are listed below with discipline, year and some web links appended below each person.

Picture: Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien at their studio in London

Nipa Doshi, MA (RCA) Furniture, 1997.
British Museum:
John Lobb: Apprentice Shoes:
I.D. Magazine:
Moroso:
Norsk Form:

Nagraj Seshadri, MA (RCA) Industrial Design, 1998.
Core77 1999 Heavyweight Design Champion:
LinkedIn Profile:

Priya Prakash, MA (RCA) Computer Related Design, 2001.
O’Reilly Conference:
Priyascape blog:
Nesta Award:

Diana Irani, MPhil (RCA) Constructed Textiles, 2002.
Constructed Textiles:
Nesta Award:

Pratap Bose, MA Vehicle Design, 2003
RCA Degree Show 2003:
Box Car comment:

Bikram Mittra, MA Design Products, 2007
Bikram Mittra profile:

Animation has been a dominent area of collaboration in recent years. Nina Sabnani participated in the Helen Hamlyn conference for Design for our Future Selves in 2005 and several RCA faculty and students from RCA Animation Department traveled to India and interacted with NID faculty and student teams under an ongoing relationship under an MOU between the two schools.
Helen Hamlyn conference :

Picture: Anab Jain at RCA in 2004

According to Professor Sandra Kemp, Director of Research at the RCA, I quote from her email communication “Our strongest link with NID is through our Animation Department: - the RCA MA Animation course has had a working teaching exchange going for some years now. Over the years several Animation 2nd year students have been in Ahmedabad for 2 week teaching experiences at the NID Animation undergraduate course. All students enjoyed their stay in India a lot and they all came back with valuable experience. In return the MA Animation course had several exchange students on the course, such as Lucky Vakharia in 2007. The Head of Department, Professor Joan Ashworth and the AHRC Research Fellow Deborah Levy have both visited NID to run workshops, along with one of our Visiting Lecturers, Christine Roche. UnQuote

The following NID graduates have done their animation or media related courses from the RCA in recent years.
Sandeep Channarayapatna, MA Animation, 2004
Teheran Film Festival:

Anab Jain, MA Computer Related Design, 2005
Anab Jain website:
Anab Jain RCA portfolio:
Anab Jain's new website

Meghana Bisineer, MA Animation, 2006
Meghana Bisineer resume:
At RCA summer show:

Pooja Pottenkulam, MA Animation, 2006
Pooja Pottenkulam RCA showcase:

Anitha Balachandran, MA Animation, due to graduate 2008

The previous two posts about the linkages with RCA London can be seen here. The Early Years: Linkages with NID & Indian Design and next the Linkages with NID & Indian Design: Major Influences