Notes from the strategy session in New York.
By Mary Boone.
Design with India Program
Asia Society
February 6, 2007
History and Objectives of Design with India -- Debera Johnson; conference co-organizer, chair IDSA nyc chapter and director Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable/Social Enterprise.
The Design with India Initiative consists of a series of both online and in-person discussions aimed at creating a global think tank of business people, educators and thought leaders in the field of design who have an interest in India and the opportunities there. The conference in New Delhi last December people got talking about the world of design, this meeting represents an extension of the discussion. This discussion was designed as a dialogue with full participation from the stakeholder panel on stage, the resource orchestra from various areas of design from inside and outside of India, and the audience, primarily designers and architects, including 60 remote attendees from India and across the United States. Moderator acts as conductor directing the dialogue and Facilitator role of capturing themes of the dialogue.
3 questions/Key takeaways
The evening's discussion focuses on the following three questions:
Question 1: What are the opportunities and challenges for companies and designers to collaborate with their counterparts in India?
Question 2: What does India seek for itself and how can designers and innovators assist India in achieving its vision?
Question 3: What efforts are required for making the collaboration happen amongst these stakeholders?
Format of Discussion – Mary Boone; Boone Associates.
Resources for this meeting
Keynote speaker:
Neelam Deo, Consul General; Consulate General of India, New York City
Onstage Panelists:
Vishakha Desai; President, The Asia Society
Bruce Nussbaum; Editor, Business Week
Bunker Roy; Founder; The Barefoot College
Mary Boone, Facilitator; Boone Associates
Mary McBride, Moderator; Strategies for Planned Change
Resource orchestra (21 people)
Local and Remote participants (Al Cortes of Asia Society served as onsite proxy for the 50 remote participants joining from India and across the US online via Microsoft LiveMeeting.)
Order of discussion format
1. Keynote speaker delivers address.
2. McBride begins dialogue by engaging panelists with 3 questions.
3. Panelists respond, then resource orchestra, then other participants.
Keynote address -- Neelam Deo, Consul General in the Consulate General of India located in New York City
CG Deo said that tonight's conversation flows out of the summit in New Delhi and she described the audience as a diverse group with a diverse cultural background. She was particularly struck by the fact that the meeting had emerged from an online forum of design innovators, and that it had generated enthusiasm from people worldwide. She pointed out that Time Magazine had awarded the Person of the Year to people all over world who are building collaboration through the online arena.
CG Deo said Design = art + science + commerce. She notes the value of extending the concept of design to encompass industrial design and other forms of design.
"Diplomacy is art of creating sustainable relationships," said Deo. "In a post-industrial age, exchange of information over the Web and ease of travel is blending world cultures. Traditional fields are well represented in India and increasingly nontraditional fields will be represented as well."
Panel Discussion – Mary McBride (moderator)
Mary McBride began the panel discussion with brief introductory comments, noting that in a Post-Industrial Age, we need a continued conversation with the design community in order to bring about the type of world we'd all like to live in. McBride addressed the first question to Bruce Nussbaum.
Question 1: "What are the opportunities and challenges for companies and designers to collaborate with their counterparts in India?"
Bruce Nussbaum's Response:
Nussbaum noted that "What you need is someone who sees around corners." He said he got this phrase from a session he attended at the World Economic Forum about innovating in a networked society. Nussbaum said that many people in India can see around corners and cited examples of innovation in the health care industry (heart surgery, cataracts) and telecommunications (price for a phone call is 1 cent a minute).
Nussbaum said we need to re-envision what we saw as "poor people" in India who needed help and now see them as innovators and consumers. If you design products and services for people in India you can generate significant economic growth.
Design is bigger than the ability to fabricate. India has a very rich culture that is sensual, rhythmic, and joyous. Its culture alone can have a vast influence on all forms of design. This is a culture, said Nussbaum, that will prove powerful on the world scene.
Themes from Resource Orchestra and Other Participant Responses to Question 1:
1. India is learning to deal with great challenges as well as great opportunities.
India has best and worst of many things. There is terrible poverty, and a tremendous lack of infrastructure, but to do something within an environment like that requires incredible talent. It will be necessary to deal with the human condition at all levels. It's harder to do, but the rewards are greater. There is a real challenge to develop simple solutions to complex issues. It will be important to think not just in terms of taking income but in adding to their income.
2. The concept of design shouldn't be pidgeon-holed.
We need to think broadly about design and how it adds to the quality of people's lives. We also need to think about where design is going. Design is about more than making money, it's about culture, diversity and improving the quality of life.
Design has been a part of business for many years, but the real challenge now is how to partner with business and others to take design to the next level to serve as a social stimulus to help people across a range of incomes to have a good life.
3. India is a special place in terms of what we can learn about design.
In the case of India, part of the challenge of improving the quality of life will involve looking at the whole culture - how can you not throw away culture while trying to achieve progress? At the beginning of the 21st century, India is a special place (due to pace, diversity, size, and complexity) that will help us look at where design is going. This is not just about what designers can give to India, but vice versa.
We need to look at the innovation that comes from a situation where resources are constrained. Creativity thrives in this type of environment and we need to think about how that applies to the rest of the world where people live on less than $1 a day. India is not alone, there are many similar things happening in other developing countries.
4. Qualification of the term "design" is in order.
Designers have been grappling with term "design" a long time. The meaning of the term has been evolving. Graphic, industrial, etc. has evolved into a set of methodologies you can apply in different contexts. For example, we now talk about designing educational systems and processes. Business is now trying to operationalize the term, but the real challenge is civil society and how to apply it to legal, transportation, etc. Business people are nervous about "design", but comfortable with "vision". When businesspeople talk about innovation, most of them are talking about design. Innovation is really design.
5. What are the unique opportunities for women and design in India?
There are special opportunities for women and design in India because they are very social and they gather. If small businesses can collaborate with women to empower them to work at home, in groups, and in other gatherings does that constitute an infrastructure? Those of us who travel there frequently see amazing development in middle class wives -- they have boutiques in their homes, cottage industries, etc. This was unanticipated. We need to connect those energies and scale it up. There was a strong Indian presence at Fashion Week this year in New York, so this process is already starting.
6. Urban India is very visible. We also need to look at rural India.
There are approximately 650,000 villages in India. There are different opportunities around the villages. There are significant possibilities for learning from rural India. Both Urban India and the rest of the world can learn a great deal. For example, there are thousands of kilometers of bamboo fencing in India. This is very cost-effective and environmentally sound because they don't have to transfer materials there for fencing. These types of innovations are not recorded in economic terms. How do we address this?
7. How can we embrace the diversity of India?
Different parts of India are not the same. There are vastly different terrains, languages, etc, There are even different pickles in each of those 650,000 different villages. Vast cultural and other differences are found within a range of 30-50 miles. At a time when we are losing variety in the world, we need to bridge local to global and vice versa. Sustainable markets are in your own neighborhood.
Question 2: "What does India seek for itself and how can designers and innovators assist India in achieving its vision?"
Bunker Roy response:
Roy believes India seeks recognition for the value of traditional skills. Thirty-five years ago, Roy started the Barefoot College which provides education for the poor, and it is run by the poor. The College is working with the 300 million people who live on less than $1 a day.
The Barefoot College is giving people more respectability and tremendous knowledge and skills. Roy believes we need to demystify, decentralize, and begin to understand the tremendous knowledge and skills of the people in rural Indian villages. The key notion is listening, learning, and having the patience to see the work the people do in villages rather than trying to impose "solutions" on them. Rural India ia a different India.
Roy stressed the difference between literacy and education. There are vast knowledge and skills in rural India which are not utilized or applied. The Barefoot College is designed to address these issues. Knowledge + confidence + competence + belief = a professional (as opposed to holding formal degrees, etc.).
The College is now reaching over 100,000 people over an area of 500 square miles. There is a grave future for rural employment unless we intervene. Potters, weavers, basketmakers, dyers, blacksmithers, etc. have lost their markets to plastic. They have also lost their skills. How can we get them back into the mainstream?
Roy believes in reviving traditional skills and giving people other skills. A great deal of the work of the College is focused on women and helping them. They are training women (and men) to be solar engineers and then they use solar cookers for meals. They have very effective rainwater capture methods which are based on traditional methods. They also have revived the craft of puppet-making and find World Bank reports to be an excellent material for puppet fabrication :-).
Themes from Resource Orchestra and Other Participant Responses to Question 2:
1. Post-industrial design
We need to leapfrog industrial design and think about post-industrial design. In the process of doing so, how can we preserve and value the activities and capabilities that preceeded the industrial era? What applies in the post-industrial era and how can we integrate new technologies within the existing social fabric? (Example: Microlending provides great economic results for both lenders and borrowers.)
Part of the answer to addressing sustainability in rapidly developing economies with huge populations is to look at the rural villages and the social fabric of a country. For example, India has a vibrant services economy: including Bollywood, spirituality and healing, etc. There are deep emotional values that undergird this services economy. There are strong social ties, strong traditions, and great differences. How can that be translated into a sustainable vision made of little and big parts? We must answer this question because there is no future without it.
2. There is a need for release of wealth in addition to addressing poverty.
Disposable income exists in India, we need to release it. We can get around infrastructure issues by using existing tools like the cell phone and other mobile technologies. A business is far more likely to invest in something that uses the cell phone as a platform for services because they will get a faster return on investment as opposed to something like high definition TV which is less widespread. It is important to use existing platforms.
Two steps need to be taken: First we need to recognize that the opportunities are there. Next we need to demystify the process of doing business in India. It's very difficult to see around corners. Instead of forecasting, we need foresight.
3. Reverse migration is essential to preserving critical aspects of the village culture.
Artisans are migrating to cities, we need to keep them and their knowledge in villages. Young people want to leave to go to University and then the village loses thatperson - they never come back. We need reverse migration. If we can teach people to use their traditional skills for modern conveniences then it will encourage more of them to stay. For example, at the Barefoot College, traditional blacksmiths are now building Geodesic domes.
4. The formal education system in India does not encourage the development of traditional skills.
The education system in India is very Western. People who are educated often become arrogant about the value of knowledge in villages. They lose the ability to learn from people they consider socially inferior. This is the Village perception of the westernized education system. Unlearning is very difficult for educated people.
On the other hand, previously at the school of design in India (NID), they had international teachers, but these teachers left because there was no money to pay them and so Indians began teaching. Those Indian teachers asked students to go to villages to spend two weeks and document what they learned and it brought remarkable results. The students gained clarity and some got deeply interested. Rather than pity, the students learned respect for the villagers.
5. Listening is a critical skill for appreciation of other cultures as well as a key element in good design.
People in villages think the west is not willing to listen to them. They watch people to see if they have sense of humor, etc. There is a major problem of communication. It's important for people from the West to learn that you're not doing nothing while you're listening.
Advice from Bunker Roy to young designers who want to work with traditional areas: Choose an artisan village and stay there for 6 months and just listen. Be open-minded and just stay with artisans in these communities.
A core strength of design is that it is set up for listening. Listening is a core competency of design. Co-creation is critical to the design process. Listening is a challenge for designers, sometimes designers have their own agendas. There is a difference between designing for and designing with. In mass production most designers are designing for instead of with. The idea of participation, co-creation, and a collaborative design process will help make things better.
Design "with" India was a conscious title for this meeting. It was meant to evoke just this sense of collaboration and co-creation.
6. Architecture in India needs to be reconsidered.
In the rush to attain the Western ideal of high tech buildings, architects are creating environments and buildings that don't work within the larger environment either technically or culturally. Part of the problem goes back to having people commission buildings. Some believe the only way is to transplant ideas in order to achieve "progress." It is possible to integrate ancient technologies with the new, but in order to do this, we have to have understanding and respect.
There are exceptions to the "Western" progress notion. One architect mentioned a project where they are using rainwater harvesting, native stone as materials, etc.
British architects tend to be more open to collaborative partnerships. They are accustomed to working across countries, overcoming insecurities, and they have the confidence to create something new.
7. What does it mean to be modern in India?
What does it mean to be modern in India? Recreating a mini-America?
Modernization requires upfront reflection. We need to take the knowledge base of the Western world and think about how to integrate it into specific cultural environments. It's not about sending or selling all our stuff somewhere else, but rather using our expertise in teaching. We can share processes instead of technologies.
A revolution is occuring in American Industrial Design, because Westerners are asking ourselves, "Do we want injection molded plastic all around us?" We are moving more to natural materials such as rattan, hand-chiseled stone, etc. We are developing a high touch/high style. As we experience this revolution, we're all going to look to India for inspiration -- we'll be inspired by the melody and music of Indian culture.
8. We must further consider the role of mega-cities in the development of India and other developing nations.
Question 3: "What efforts are required for making the collaboration happen amongst these stakeholders?"
Vishakha Desai response to Question 3:
Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of making this collaboration happen is first to recognize that it is a collaboration of equals (between the West and India).
Themes from Resource Orchestra and Other Participant Responses to Question 3:
1. Who are the stakeholders? (Be clearer on definition.)
Indian designers, American Designers, and the people you are designing for (and with).
2. Collaboration to what end?
People with big visions need to come together. For example, a fast-growing software company from India wanted to brand and position itself as leader in this part of the world. So they hired company from America to help them behave differently and address this market appropriately. On the other hand, an auto company selling in India for over 34 years, was producing autos which conceptually not made for India. The client realized this and wanted to commission a product to be designed for this market. An Italian firm and an American firm worked in collaboration with an Indian firm to make it happen.
Indian designers should think big and think like leaders. An Indian design firm can be a world leader. Designers in India want to share their work with the rest of the world, not just India.
Collaboration is most importantly a mindset.
3. What does being Indian mean when you are designing?
It is important to examine the underlying principles and processes of Indian design. Think it through from both sides. In that process, remember that the notion of "authentic" Indian is problematic because of colonization.
In India often people will have the capability to do things like fix broken cars even when they are not professional mechanics. Indian children make a toy from seeds that they leave beside ant hills to allow the ants to hollow out the toy in order to create it. The resourcefulness that grows out of both contraint and abundance is critical to understanding the value India brings to the design process. It is important to bring the two worlds together where there will be convergence.
4. We can't ignore the role money plays in creating progress.
It is important not to forget about the 600 million middle class people in India. There are many graduates that have pursued their dreams internationally and they are not irrelevant. It's not all about money, but money is important. India progressed in the IT sector because people followed their dreams by following the money. India is what it is because people have pursued money.
5. What are the next steps?
Question, listen, relearn, create partnerships.
Engage in questioning and listening. As we do so, an interesting framework might be to think in terms of Problems, Challenges, Solutions, and Implementation.
Think about how to relearn things that are in danger of being lost. (e.g. Rain harvesting) along with modern ideas that can help. When we talk about about models of partnership, the first step is to relearn and recognize what we don't know and have one foot in past and one in the future.
Bridge the past, present, and future.
Summation
Consider the average speed of a car in the US traveling at 4 miles per hour with one passenger and the bicycle in India carrying five people as a way to envision the potential for creative exchange between India and the west.
This forum has just started to ask questions so it is important to continue the dialogue.
Some people believe that India is emerging as a superpower. But India is not in a power game. It is more useful to think of India not as a superpower but as a super influence. The intellectual capital of Indians can be to world ideas what "Intel inside" is to computers. You will see Indians and Chinese in international places but loyal to their new homeland. Indians want to make more money and have better life, but it is not in their interests to discuss a power shift. It is in their interest to discuss how they will continue to influence people in both their new homes and their old homes.
There is a new community of people traveling around the world. They are in great positions in the developed world and have a great role to play there. There is a synergy of ideas happening around the world. We should continue the dialogue and the collaboration and move beyond the fear about losing jobs.
Design is not something you make, it's something that happens when ideas and aspirations match. Design happens when you bring together people with ideas with people who have aspirations.
Designers tend to talk to each other. We need to bring in different points of view. Our view to the larger world is important. The process of listening will continue. We are thinking about holding dialogues and strategy sessions such as the one we had tonight in other parts of the world.
The way we design will make the world we all live in.
Postscript
Another opportunity for continuing this discussion will occur at Connecting 07 in San Francisco in October. This session will be hosted by the International Congress of Industrial Design and IDSA.
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