Urban Typhoon

Students and faculty of CMCS participate in Urban Typhoon in Dharavi, Mumbai from March 16 to 22, 2008.

The Urban Typhoon workshop is a global experiment in participatory design. It is directly connected to the various communities of Dharavi and its grassroots community groups. It is a collaborative project organized by the residents of Koliwada, independent researchers and activists, and PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research), a Mumbai –based research collective.
Dharavi's Koliwada is a traditional fisher folk community in one of Asia's largest informal settlements. Koliwada's village like character has been preserved even in the midst of the dramatic urban and demographic changes that Mumbai has experienced in the last century. The workshop aims at producing creative alternatives for the future of a neighborhood threatened by a redevelopment plan of the government as well as a multimedia testimony to the unique spirit of Koliwada. This workshop is also an experiment in participatory planning and global collaborative work.
Architects, urban planners, artists, activist and legal experts from India and the rest of the world work in small teams with local residents. At the end of the workshop all the produced output work is uploaded on a community owned website. This material can then be used to inform any future redevelopment plan - whether it is lead by the government, NGOs, or local communities.

For more information: www.urbantyphoon.com

Making a Mural

Students of CMCS participated in a workshop with artist Liz Kemp from February 25-29, 2008.

Murals are visual artworks painted, drawn or sculpted on walls or floors and are an ancient form of decoration and socio-political commentary. Over the five days of the TISS mural workshop students first studied drawing, then designed and executed two murals for installation within the campus. Drawing is the fundamental skill in art and is taught by various methods and approaches. The workshop used exercises from Betty Edward's book, /Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, / to uncover some of the ways in which we can learn to access the part of the brain that controls creativity and to prove to participants that everyone could and did in this workshop - DRAW!! Above all, they enjoyed the process of making art.

Liz Kemp works as a consultant artist with small groups, communities and international public agencies in a range of cultural settings to design and implement visual art projects, including training and education programmes, designed to enhance human well-being and build capacity for sustainable social and economic development. She has over 30 years experience in the field of public art and has had the privilege of working with people on many visual art projects all over the world, including her native Scotland. Some of these projects can be viewed on her website: http://lizkemp.co.uk

Globalising Economies, Localising Cultures, Contesting States

Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the Centre for Gender, Law and Sexuality (CGLS) group of UK from Dec 11-13, 2007, at the International Convention Centre in Goa.

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