Route plan

18th August

we decided upon the theme for our products and made SWOT analysis for the same. this took us till noon . later we decided to visit houses and collect cans or bottles whatever could have been possible.

later in the afternoon we took a trip through the houses in the SFS colony. Afternoon did not prove a good time to visit houses also most of them were not very supportive. we ended up just up just getting a few boxes and empty tubes. we also tried a asking help from a few shops but nothing worked. so we visited the scrap shop in the market and found a interesting trunk. As we were not aware of the price offered we waited for looking at more places and at the same time some shopkeepers told us to visit the Attur layout for timber waste but as we went there we did not find anything so we returned home late evening and thought of continuing the next day.

19th August

Today we planned to narrow down on our search by first thinking over the products we would like to bring in. this took up a lot of thinking as we had to connect the products to our topic of research and to the people(our audience).

we came up with around 9 products which possibly could be made.

later in the evening we designed these products and thought about the materials it would require to be made.

some things seemed not so possible to be made because of their availability. so next day we decided to g to the market area in the city.

20th August

Today as we had liberal arts till 2 we decided to leave the city as soon as it was possible.

we traveled a lot to almost all those streets where the truck and auto material could be available like Siddaya road, Kalipalyam street, S.P. road, Gujri and Russel market.

We went to all these places however failed to get the horn we were looking for. we managed to get the rear view mirror and we also managed to get a trunk. However the horn searching took almost 2 hours of our time and when we got one it was over expensive so we decided to leave the idea.

however we managed to get some wood from our friends place just to save out on the cost. If this option will not work out we will be visiting the city again tomorrow to get some more products.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths- The truck art culture is almost all over the world and very common in India. Truck art is something that the people do not need to go to a museum to experience it. It is known to even the people who do not know what art is It’s bright and attractive, colorful and catches eye.

Weakness- our area of truck art intervention is quite limited so we cannot get truck artists having more potential and experience of having done different art to interview and work with in this project. Also Indian truck art history is not easily available, a lot of travelling is required to e done to meet more artists and learn the culture from different areas.

Opportunities- Indian market has always been fond of colors so if this art is taken to the market in the form of different products (maybe waste, products for daily use, decorative pieces etc.) it will do well. Also they need to be given at affordable prices as people do not like to spend much on art and innovation here. Also the truck artists can explore their art on different canvases.

Threats- Because of easy availability of stickers in the market which can be stuck directly by the owners on the trucks to save time and money the original truck at done by the artists since years has been dying. It is necessary to preserve this art or soon we would be travelling on roads with nothing on the trucks to amaze us.

Final project brief

The Truck art intervention.

Our group visited various spaces where the trucks are loaded, unloaded, constructed and painted. We had conversations with the truck drivers, painters and observed their activities. We also observed the entire process of painting the Tempo’s and the trucks. The time spent in painting the Tempo was much less than that required to paint the truck. Also the amount of painting done on the trucks in this part of the country is much less than that in the northern areas.

We also learnt that there are different types of truck art in different parts of Karnataka itself. Also we learnt about the importance of painting the trucks and the use of radium’s.

· · Project objectives: understanding the art not only in this part of the country but looking at various other types which are not available here. Looking at the cultural aspect of the art. The traditional ways and its way into the present age. Taking this art to another level by taking it to masses. Technological advances overcoming the art.

· · Project scope: The people who have been doing this art have never worked on a canvas other than the truck. By taking various other products to them we want them to interact and explore with their art on these products and take the truck art to the masses by introducing these products to them.

· · Desired outcomes: We plan to make and introduce these products to the masses. Not only will they see the art on the product but also learn about the art and culture they are interacting with, with the help of the product.

· · Constraints: we have some geographical boundaries. There is lot to see and learn from this art however all is not available here and it is not possible for us to travel so much and reach these areas. Also time is a big constraint which has to be worked out.

· · Reason for choosing this domain: We tried out three spaces where we could possibly work on and found this space having more potential than others. Also this art is so colourful that it attracted us to look more into it and as this art is dying we thought we could try to introduce some more ideas by which this art can be still worked on.

This art is seen in day to day to life and hardly given a thought. We just want people to give a thought about why such a beautiful art is gone unnoticed.

Group- Shambhavi and Samhitha.

Time line-

	Process	Proc Dates
	Chalk out an accessible space within the constraints of this lab and define it with sufficient clarity. This will be done through mind mapping images and discussions	11th August 2010
1.	Look into this space and find creative opportunities that are achievable within the time, expertise and resource constraints of the situation. The opportunities need to be about enhancing modifying or creating livelihood solutions. Remember you need to go through the following steps in this column. In case you are omitting or modifying or changing the order or adding on any step it should be justified and substantiated in step 3	11th and 12th August 2010
2.	Initial round of research to focus, refine and redefine the above finding. Also ability to evaluate several such findings.	15th August 2010
3.	Write a project brief which clearly defines your scope of work and the scope of your project, This can be in the form of an imaginary proposal made by a client to you or vice versa. This stage will in effect explicit the rest of the contents of this column	16th August
4.	Assess the project brief in terms of its inherent potentials and constraints Ability to understand your scope of work – Project SWOT – strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats	16th August (evening)
5.	Identify appropriate information sources (Ability to pin point primary and secondary stake holders) this would include study of existing models	18th August
6.	Identify appropriate strategies to dig out real information (Familiarity with different research methods)	18th August
7.	Analyse and evaluate available data to find essential requirements. Create tools. (Ability to Synthesize data and summarize key findings)	19th August
8.	Convert key findings to definite goals (Ability to create a design brief)	21st August
9.	From your goals create a timeline and list of responsibilities and outline a resource management system	22nd August
10.	Develop and explore ideas using different methods ( eg brain storming, workshops, discussion forums) and resources, reviewing, modifying and refining work as it progresses	23rd August
11.	Convert ideas to concepts using evaluation methods (Be familiar with evaluation methods eg matrics, evaluation tables)	23rd August
12.	Present a personal evaluation, realizing intentions and making informed connections with the past research (Ability to realize intentions)	24Th August
13.	Narrow down to a final solution and present it using visual language skills, techniques and specifications (Ability to choose a final solution and create a stand alone kit)	24th August (evening)
14.	Create a Prototype or final representation of your solution making informed choices of medium and material	26th August
15.	Reviewing, modifying, refining and sometimes redefining work as it gets tested (Ability to test evaluate a final prototype) Reviewing, modifying, refining and sometimes redefining work as it gets tested (Ability to test evaluate a final prototype)	27th August
16.	Documentation Ability to create a complete self explanatory and viewer friendly portfolio of work that contains well classified and detailed evidence of all your efforts.	28th August
17.	Create a Specification Kit for the final solution. This kit includes visual representations, specification, instructions and detailed description of the final solution	29th August
	Further Refine/redefine your final concept based on feed back from users	30th August
	Submission of documentation	30th August
	Organising an exhibition for the srishti community	1st and 2nd September

Design brief for the project on Honnavar

Design brief

This is a design written from the point of view of a customer /client to the designer.

Need to make a story book for children telling them a story of the customs and traditions behind the ornaments. The information about the ornaments shall be provided. The story has to be thought by you and made into something that will interest school students.

Points t be taken care of while building the book-

• Should be in English(to cover a larger group)
• The book should represent Folklore(something having a traditional and a tribal feel to it)
• It can be handmade or print media.
• Illustrations should complement the story. Should be visually attractive.
• Not too expensive. Affordable enough to keep in library and sell a few copies.
• Size should not be bigger than A4, a bit big or small will do but nothing too small or big.
• Take into consideration the use of colours, paper, font and illustrations.
• It can be in a single tone.
• The main point of the book is to convey the culture of wearing ornaments of the halakki community, which is also a dying culture to students. It’s just a way of preserving and taking to the crowd the wonderful story behind the jewellery.

Visit to Honnavar.

Just 4days, what all could we possibly cover in those 4 days was what I thought before going to Honnavar. However even those 4 days we grasped a lot. Honnavar a beautiful place on the western coast in north Karnataka was a place of great learning. The cultures and the rituals there itself were very diverse. On different islands around Honnavar lived people from different communities all having their own way of livelihood.

Eventually on the first day we had no idea of where to start from. Savita, whose house we were all put up at and her family were very helpful. There was a lot to explore. Each area of research was interesting. We all had an eye on everything going on in our surroundings however each of our focus points were different. I narrowed down to doing research on the need based craft.

Day 1

We had yummy ‘kotte rotti’ breakfast in the morning and we had an experience to the beautiful art Gomakkul community called ‘Shedi Kale’ by Hanumi who belonged to the same community. The paint which were actually a paste made naturally out of clay and different stones and also the brush made of beetle nut husk was something we had not seen before... We participated in using this new tools make the art. The same day we also visited the Mavinkurve islands in the evening. There we learnt how they made mats out of the grass which grew locally on and near the island. The boat ride to and fro was worth after having to meet the family there. Learn their way of living, weave mats, listen to their songs and greet them and the beautiful scenery.

With the day ahead we had a full course south Indian meal for dinner. Each day we were served different type of delicacy from the south.

At the Mavinkurve islands where we visited the Byali Mane family, we learnt what they and many other people in that community did for their living and how they lived(having a tour through their house). How sand mining which was yet illegal was carried o, on a large scale here, also how marriages happened here and about the dying craft of mat weaving and how most of the objects made locally were overtaken by the plastic replicas.

Day 2

Next day started early as we visited the ‘Salvador Mane’ and learnt the way they made their living by making ropes. The entire process of decaying the coconut husk for 9 months, beating it to produce fibres and then drying and turning it into rope was interesting to see. The traditional way of making the rope was with hands, which is now replaced by a machine made locally. It was a sustainable design which worked without electricity or any other power resource. We visited a few more houses in the same area and found out that the people of this community were mainly Christians and made ropes and did agriculture mainly on others farms for a living. Also being a coastal area sea food was a delicacy there.

We also visited another part of the Mavinkurve island which belonged to the Gomakkul community. We visited their houses. We learnt that most of the families living in different houses were related to each other. One of the families invited us to their house to have a sweet dish called ‘shevge hutla’ which is a delicacy prepared especially when a woman is pregnant. We saw the entire process of how the rice was made indo shev and how the coconut milk was prepared. We also tied to make it on our own and tried a hand on churning butter. Later we returned home and had one more surprise in store.

The same evening we had two women from the Halakki tribal community who came to visit us. We got to know about their lifestyle, what they think what they knew, their approach towards life etc. We had a small one on one discussion with them where they asked us questions. It was a different approach towards doing research. Later in the evening the tribal women dressed us in their attire and we had a beautiful dance and music session. The most interesting part of the attire was the jewellery which drew my attention the most. I later decided to make this as the subject of my research further. We had a wonderful day and a tiring one with lot of walking around in the rains. A tight sleep was needed.

Day 3

Next day was followed by a heavy rainfall. The rain did not stop and we did not. We left for a visit to the Halakki village. Each village settlement here is called a koppa which is taken care by a selected head of that community. As today I had focused myself to look at the different jewellery dressing i realised that the current generation did the follow it. The ornaments were only worn by the older crowd. This was sadly a dying ritual. The ornaments worn by the women beautified them even more. I got to learn the story, the custom, and the ritual behind the ornaments.

We spent a long time in the village visiting a lot of houses, talking to them etc. The ladies were very shy. They were not too outspoken but they loved to express themselves in the form of music. One f the house e visited was the one where en sang and played tabla. Their instruments were made of pots covered with lizard skin. A very locally made instrument but very powerful. The voice was raw but yet fresh to hear. They usually sang this during harvest times at nights which continued to till dawn. We also interacted with them and danced on their music while they did their ‘Suggi dance’ on our music.

Left for home for a late lunch followed by a session of learning how to make thread out of the thread for the jewellery out of a cactus leaf fibre and made pouches for filling idly batter of jackfruit leaf for the next day breakfast.

The day ended up with a wonderful meal and some fun.

Day 4

We had discussions on our project to come the next week. Ten we had an experience to the Brahmin meal. We enjoyed the entire experience of the way it was cooked, served and finally eaten.

As it was last day we had a visit to a beach which was fun filled with lot of rain and high tides. We returned home to some hot Pakodas and left at 8 pm for Bangalore with our bags packed with wonderful memories and a lot of experience and learning’s.

story2 (persona and scenario)

This story is of a person who owns a small dosa shop and how a small incident changes his life.

Manjunatha coming from a small village in Tumkur has been working in Bangalore since 7 years. His wife used to sell groundnuts and he used to make knives before they started with the idly and dosa shop.

One fatal day Manjunathas father fell sick back in village and so he had to rush down to meet his father along with his family. All of them left for Tumkur the very same day.

Everything at home went back to normal in a three days time. His father started recovering from the illness. Manjunath had left his shop closed for three days and needed to hurry back as he had spent a lot on his father’s medicines. Also keeping the shop closed for so many days would mean losing customers.

He hurried back to Bangalore after 3days and asked his wife to stay back along with the children at his father’s place to take care of him. Manju arrived home late on Tuesday night and decided to get to work the next day. He woke up early next the following day, as he did not have his wife’s help to prepare the food there was quite a lot of work load on him. He left for the shop at 7 am.

Manjunath reached the shop in 5 minutes from his place only to find the locks on the shutter to his shop broken. His shop was small, just enough t accommodate a dosa stove and a small basin. He opened the shutters just hoping nothing should have gone wrong. However when the shutters opened the stove had gone missing. It came like a shock wave to him. He had already suffered a loss when his shop remained closed 3 days and losing the stove now... he could not have suffered from a greater loss than this. Most of his income depended on selling the dosa and losing the stove only meant 40% reductions in his total earning which meant quite a lot.

When all this took place a lot of crowd had already gathered. Many suggested that he should go and lodge a complaint at the police station. He thought over it and soon lodged a complaint for the same. He waited for 2-3 days after lodging the complaint but no action was taken by the police till then. After all he was just a poor fellow he thought, why the cops would ever bother to investigate.

A few more days passed by. Manjunath had not told his wife about the entire incident as she would have been tensed and also his father was not entirely well yet.

He kept it to himself and carried on with his work as usual though his income now was much less than before. On the same night when Manjunath was selling his last few idly’s he saw two drunken men pass his shop and have a hearty laugh at him. He also recognised them to be the fellows to whom he once refused to sell the knives. He did not find them to be the right people so he had not sold them any knives and was also troubled by them for few days but it had been long since then and nothing grave had really happened after that.

Manjunath did not really pay attention to this he continued with his work and packed up soon to leave for home. On his way back home when it was already quite dark and most of the shops had closed down; however he again heard the laughing noise of the same guys who had passed his shop. Some urge made him go inside the dark lanes and follow the noise. He walked a bit inside to the dark room and a small light burning there he saw the two men sitting there and drinking. He heard them talking something fishy but could not make out what. He learnt after a while that they were talking about teaching someone a lesson. He just shifted his sight to find his own stove placed right in front of those men. He felt so surprised having to see the stove and he had immediately recognised it as it was a bit broken from one corner which had happened during shifting. He screamed and ran towards the stove not realising the consequences there after. The two guys saw him coming and immediately caught hold f him. He felt that his end was about to come. Nothing could save him now. These men no ordinary, they belonged to the local gang of the area and had good contacts with the police as well. He begged the guys to let him go but they refused to. After having a discussion amongst them the guys gave manjunath an option rather a suggestion. They told him that he could have his stove back if only he considered completing one of their works.

Manjunath was not really left with a better option. He needed to buy a new stove for which he had no enough money and if doing a small job meant getting his stove back he did not mind it. He could not have even done anything else as the chaps would not have even left him otherwise. They did not let him leave for the night. Manjunath did not have a slight idea of what e was falling into.

Next day manjunath was brought out of the dark room he had been locked into.

He was handed over a bag and asked to deliver it at a particular place in chickpet near majestic. He was promised that his stove will be returned as soon he completes the job. So he left for the place with a heavy bag in his hand. There was a guy following him so that he could keep an eye on him. Manjunath was not at all comfortable. On the way he thought of having a peep in the bag only to find a lot of cash and packets of drugs. He was scared to death on this sight. On his walk towards the place he had to wait at a cross junction to cross the signal. One of the police men caught him at that site. He could see him sweating and felt something fishy about it. He immediately went there and caught hold of manjunath. It happened all of a sudden leaving no time for manjunath to escape.

He was caught in a big problem. As the bag was not a sturdy one it was easily ripped open by the cop and manjunath was taken in custody for the same. The other guy following had run away from the site by then. When questioned by the police as to what he was planning on doing, Manjunath explained to them that he had nothing to do with the bag, told them the entire story and pleaded them to let him go but all was in vain. No was ready to believe him. When his wife came to know she immediately took the next bus and came to see her husband, however even she could not understand him. She thought her husband had done the job to earn fast money.

Manjunath was in a big legal and financial problem finding no loop hole to come out.

Honnavar project

honnavar is a place where culture art and craft is flowing. Everything i have studied there and seen there has been an experience of a lifetime for me . being my first field trip i did not at first know what to concentrate on so i thought of starting from my favorite subject that is crafts .

As we went along i also started taking interest in the folk art and music of that place. There was a lot to explore and the days were few. However after we dressed up like tribes i loved the costumes and specially got drawn towards the jewelry. Jewelry has always been something i adore and here the history and the cultural aspect of jewelry attracted my attention the most so i thought of choosing it as my subject for the project. also Samitha had a similar interest both of us decided to settle back on it.

Jewelry is a very broad subject by itself. From where it came , how is it worn , what is each bead called and what is its importance and many more were the points we could lay our focus on. All the points seemed important and we did not want leave out on any of them so we decided to make a story out of all the points with many illustrations and all handmade so it helps convey the information in a casual way and attract more attention also.

our route plan :

MONDAY-TUESDAY

First sorting out the information and prepering the story board.

once the story board is sorted out we can start preparing the characters and the illustrations needed page wise. (day 1 -2)

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY

Once this is ready we start preparing the final layout for the book

, the illustrations and the content and creating the pages and start work on the book cover

SATURDAY-SUNDAY

complete the left out parts , binding and the finishing.

The money earning exercise: what are its outcomes?
The outcome of the exercise was basically to learn how small business at a extreme ground level start , how we can face initials problems while starting the business and how we can innovate to earn faster also we used the role play method of research where we actually play the role of small scale business people.

What other similar exercises can be created?
we can offer to work with them simultaneously without pay so they are willing to keep us and we can get maximum information by being there the entire day. Take 50 rupees n send an entire day travelling and see how one can survive and innovate to earn for living that day better.

What kind of research tool is role play?
Role playing is a research tool in which an individual participates to play the role of the the person he/she is researching on. In this case he will become that individual for some period and experience how that individual lives, what he goes through daily, how he manages his routine, how he earns, how his relations are etc. This gives research method gives a first hand information as by playing the role of that individual we directly experience his life.

What are its advantages over plain interviews?
In a role playing method we get first hand information as we ourselves play the role of the person we want to research and get every detail of how his daily routine is, how he earns, how he lives, etc. However in interview method you can get only the information the interviewee is giving you and he might not give the exact details or might forget a few things. So the role play method is a better research tool.

What is ergonomics?
Ergonomics is a design of the tools and the workplace in relation to the worker. The tools are designed for a particular job taking the human measurements into consideration so that tool is best fitted for the particular work and repetitive human injuries, maybe short term or long term are prevented by the regular use of the tools.

How is it as a research tool?
The importance of ergonomics as a research tool is that it helps us to study why a workplace or a tool is designed in a particular way. How the worker is benefited from it and Also there can be flaws if the ergonomics is not properly applied and we can help improve it with our research. Also in small businesses how people innovate to find ways to make work simpler.

What kind of user understanding does ergonomics provide?
Ergonomics helps to understand the relation between the workers and their tools and workplace. Helps to understand how the furniture, arrangement, size of tools, body posture and also the physical and social environment should be in relation to the person working in that space.



What is a scenario and or persona, what are the advantages of creating them ?
Persona's are fictitious characters created to represent a particular individual or a group pf people and scenario is a fictitious description of an event or chain of events. Building persona and scenario can help understanding behavior of different people in different situations and how we can deal with them.

How can it also work as a design tool?
Many companies now use persona and scenario building as a design tool. they create persona's of their customers and put them in different scenarios to understand the the how their product might be reviewed, how many problems can occur and what situations they might have to deal with. It also helps to understand what type of products might be required for the future market and what amendments can be made in the present product. This helps them to see the future for their company and design products in such a way.


What are the advantages of a Matrix as a research tool?
Matrix helps to rank our needs from the most important to the least important and thus helps to make a correct choice. When we do research we have a several options and we either consciously or subconsciously create a table and mark our needs when we have got a choice and this helps to make a exact decision of what we require.

How can it also work as a design tool?
Method of matrix can be used while designing a product. Making a list of all the features or the contents the product is required to have and then selecting it on the basis of customer requirement and needs then matrix can be done by ranking the the most important to the least important feature and selecting the highest ones and including those in the design. This way many companies use matrix method to design products.

Give two examples of second level understandings from Marasandra village based on your own reflective judgment.
Marasandra was a not only a potters village but there were many families engaged in various other activities as well. Many of the families were engaged in the same occupations since generations where as a few were going out to the city for jobs because of which the traditional art and craft was dying. Also they were not only dependent on one profession but also had two three more businesses in a family like pot making, murti making etc. There were different activities going on during different times of the day. The village was interdependent in many ways. The potters need not go out to buy clay as it was available to them from the lake near by which is however dying now. Also the waste was not thrown as they mostly reused it.

Give two examples of design interventions you can do on the basis of these three weeks of research.
We can either create commercial products based on the skill of the potters or artisans so they are acceptable in the current market. but a lot of research has to be doe for this. Also we can have more innovative options to create small business so many unemployed can be give the idea to start their own business.

Matrix

Matrix for buying an iPod/mp3

				Transcend		Sony		Philips		Apple
Long lasting			100	4	400	3	300	2	200	4	400
Good music quality			90	3	270	3	270	2	180	4	360
Good display			80	2	160	1	80	2	160	4	320
Facility for radio			60	3	180	2	120	2	120	4	240
Video capturing			50	3	150	1	50	2	100	3	150
Pricing(Budget)			70	4	280	3	270	4	280	2	140
Small size			40	2	80	3	120	3	120	4	160
					1550		1220		1190		1830

Method of selecting the an object with many choices.

Here the features are marked out of 100 for the level of importance and each company is marked out of 5 for the level of faring in each Feature. In this way the apple ipod ranked the most and i finally decided to buy the same.