The Food Project has been more of a Bribal ki Kichdi than any other project that I have been a part of. But the idea has been brewing and refining itself as we work on it. To trace histories, the original ideas can be referred to at this link.
The Food Project was originally planned in terms of distribution systems. So we had discussions about Food Miles and then we planned to have a look at the Mandi and its operations. Special focus would have been on the rearrangement of the Transport System for Food Distribution in face of a Disaster situation.
Then we came up with the idea of Food Map which later on grew into the concept of mapping the Food Stalls in Ahmedabad, tracing their histories, the cultures around these places and recording the changes in their distribution with time and space. We figured that you have to look at Food in terms of time, spaces and people. Within these three axes of representation, one could create a holistic preview of the semiotics of Food.
The problem statement then boiled down to the set of questions that need to be answered or a set of end objectives to be achieved, so that one could figure out the methodologies of going about it. What follows is an independent interpretation of a conversation between Praneet, Mohit and Ranjit making attempts at figuring out a basic methodology.
Food should be looked at with a holistic perspective of its life-cycle. Hence considering that there are four distinct phases in the life-cycle of Food viz. Production, Distribution, Consumption and Waste, you could make attempts at looking at these phases individually and then mapping them together to create a representation of the life-cycle.
Taking an example, one could look at Bhutta (Corn). There are two major varieties of it viz. the Desi (hard to chew and bite off) and the American (the softer ones). Thus the production module involves the varieties whereas the distribution module involves the various thellas that sell the Bhutta on highways, roadsides and cross-roads. One could look at the kind of people that stop-by at these stalls, their placement at various times and days of the week which would in turn create a movement pattern that could be mapped. The set of people who stop-by make up the consumption module and finally the act of throwing the remains on the roadside after consumption would fall into the category of the waste module.
The problem with the example is that it has only one attribute (Bhutta itself). So, one would have a very limited understanding of how systems with multiple attributes (two or more raw materials) would be represented. The discussion moved to a Paani Puri stall (two attributes… Batashe and Masala Paani) and the Bhel Stall (greater number of attributes).
While these two stalls were under consideration, we figured that the life-cycle of the raw materials runs in parallel to the life-cycle of the processed food. That is, the Batashe will have their own dynamics of production, distribution, consumption and waste and the Paani Puri will have its own. Though they always intersect either at the level of distribution or consumption. Thus one can focus on the distribution and consumption modules as the major interest areas.
In the process of documenting these modules, one needs to find the set of actors that play a crucial role in defining these modules. For example, the farmer is the most important actor in the production module while the Mandi, a vendor and the stall owners all makes up for the distribution cycle. The consumers for the processed food or the stall owners for the raw materials would make up for the consumption module and the same would be a part of the waste module.
In fact, looking at the entire problem in terms of actors… the stall owner plays a pivotal role being a part of three distinct modules. You could look at food through the eyes of a food stall owner. You just need the right ethnographic methodology to get this information out of the food stall owners around.
Primary Ideas/Ideals:
History of Food Project
Problem at Hand
Food Life-Cycle
Example: Bhutta
Raw materials vis-a-vis Processed Food
Actors
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
[original] Food as Cognition: Contour Maps of Ahmedabad
Brief Description:
Creating contours to map the interplay between food spaces, social interactions and transformations through time.
Description:
The plurality of any city is represented in the multiplicity of food consumed. We create a consciousness of the city between the study of plurality in space and time. Thus, exploring the constructs of food as transaction, food as object and the semiotics of food we hope to provide for an understanding of the cognitive geography of Ahmedabad. Food becomes a vehicle not only for a new geography but new perspectives of urbanism. We hope to
Within the paradigm of study, we understand that food is an index of change. The study will attempt to present a rich image of food and its interplay with people through space and time. Spaces, localities and people communicate their identity with the consumption and production of food. Hence, exploring relationships between raw, processed, and cooked food as well as the other vectors and the transformation of symbols through time, we hope to create a Panchang of food. Time is a basic axial principle for understanding history, seasons, and schedules. Time helps us grasp both auspicious and inauspicious.
The scope of the study would also include attempts to understand the reconfiguration of food systems during and in response to a crisis. Thus while looking at Gujarat Riots as a case study, we would analyze its impact on food distribution (raw materials and transportation) and consumption (food havens). It is also an initial expectation that we would be able to compile a comprehensive resource (or digitize and obtain materials) of writings, images, film etc. relating to topics of interest.
Names of Authors:
The study is being performed by a team of students and faculty of DA-IICT with some support from friends at NID. The constitution of the team involves Prof. Binita Desai (faculty for design and animation at DA-IICT), Prof. Shiv Visvnathan (a social scientist), Praneet Koppula Reddy (alumnus of DA-IICT working in HFI), Mohit Gupta (alumnus of DAIICT working in MSR) and Ranjit Singh (alumnus of DAIICT working in DAIICT).
Creating contours to map the interplay between food spaces, social interactions and transformations through time.
Description:
The plurality of any city is represented in the multiplicity of food consumed. We create a consciousness of the city between the study of plurality in space and time. Thus, exploring the constructs of food as transaction, food as object and the semiotics of food we hope to provide for an understanding of the cognitive geography of Ahmedabad. Food becomes a vehicle not only for a new geography but new perspectives of urbanism. We hope to
- contour the interplay between formal and informal food spaces
- construct food spaces and social interactions centered around them
- provide an architecture and economies of food as production and consumption
- study the gastronomy of festivities.
Within the paradigm of study, we understand that food is an index of change. The study will attempt to present a rich image of food and its interplay with people through space and time. Spaces, localities and people communicate their identity with the consumption and production of food. Hence, exploring relationships between raw, processed, and cooked food as well as the other vectors and the transformation of symbols through time, we hope to create a Panchang of food. Time is a basic axial principle for understanding history, seasons, and schedules. Time helps us grasp both auspicious and inauspicious.
The scope of the study would also include attempts to understand the reconfiguration of food systems during and in response to a crisis. Thus while looking at Gujarat Riots as a case study, we would analyze its impact on food distribution (raw materials and transportation) and consumption (food havens). It is also an initial expectation that we would be able to compile a comprehensive resource (or digitize and obtain materials) of writings, images, film etc. relating to topics of interest.
Names of Authors:
The study is being performed by a team of students and faculty of DA-IICT with some support from friends at NID. The constitution of the team involves Prof. Binita Desai (faculty for design and animation at DA-IICT), Prof. Shiv Visvnathan (a social scientist), Praneet Koppula Reddy (alumnus of DA-IICT working in HFI), Mohit Gupta (alumnus of DAIICT working in MSR) and Ranjit Singh (alumnus of DAIICT working in DAIICT).
Suspension of Disbelief
While we were traveling the conventional way .ed, with the silly little curious mind of his, came up with an interesting stream of thought. The primary question was how has the notion of travel changed in the brave new world with so many gadgets and technologies available for simulation and all the other various ways of enhancing experiences.
One can take videos, photographs, create blogs, keep notes, have conversations etc. These are possibilities within the current spectrum of technologies available. Though I guess we will eventually make it possible to satiate all the five senses when creating simulations and probably one might even have experiential travel tours of places.
So, can we eradicate the difference between this exploration into the virtual city and the notion of real travel involving actually walking through the city, watching the life around it with your own eyes? Or given that you have a camera that walks around on your instructions through any city and one gadget for each of your senses so that you can hear the clamor of the streets, smell the fragrances around, taste the food and speak to anyone you like… would you think that this is the same as traveling with your physical presence in that place?
My answer to that question was quite vague, though it mostly revolved around the fact that until you don’t create a memory of the travel, in terms of the experience of reaching that city, exploring it and then experiencing the sadness of leaving all its beauty to get back to your own mundane life… the notion of travel is not complete.
.ed thinks that it’s perfectly possible to break the notion of the necessity of physical presence for the experience of being in a city or a place. Given the right kind of gadgets one can simulate the experience with a much more holistic perspective. The underlying argument being in terms of the example that while you are dreaming, you feel that the experience is true and that you are physically present in whatever place you believe yourself to be in.
I went around talking to other people.
Shiv thinks that probably it might be true for the new generation, but for oldies like him… he would like to feel his feet hurt while walking the streets of a city. The sense of being tired is essential for travel. Also, one has to experience a certain sense of anxiety and excitement of being in a new place. In fact, the first thing that you do after you has reached a new place is to find a good enough place to pee. So, you might end up paying a good amount of money on a bad coffee just to find a good place to pee. Other than that the sheer excitement of seeing a familiar face in an unfamiliar city would prove to be a far better experience than any virtual simulation.
Bini thinks the substitution of the imaginary for the real is a notion that works for the new generation. In fact, you need to travel the entire expanse of 16 kms of Manhattan to know the city of New York (something like that… the figures might be incorrect… but you get the idea!) So you may use smileys while chatting to express emotions and other person might picture you as angry or sad, but still the experience of having a conversation over a cup of coffee is entirely different. You can’t compare the two.
Tony equates the idea of the notion of suspension of disbelief ergo the title of the past. He believes the virtual and the real are two parallel streams that meet in the realm of suspension of disbelief. Though he initially started of with the comment that I would like to feel tired when I have traveled, without that feeling, the notion of travel is not complete. But later he chose to look at it in terms of watching a film and said that despite everything while you are watching a film that you are interested in… you would share the same space as the actors and live out the script before you come back to reality. It should be the same for travel.
(Shiv, Bini and Tony are fellow collaborators whose opinions would be recounted in many posts of this blog. They are the necessary support system for this blog.)
Primary Ideas/Ideals:
Theme – Travel
The question?
Opinions
One can take videos, photographs, create blogs, keep notes, have conversations etc. These are possibilities within the current spectrum of technologies available. Though I guess we will eventually make it possible to satiate all the five senses when creating simulations and probably one might even have experiential travel tours of places.
So, can we eradicate the difference between this exploration into the virtual city and the notion of real travel involving actually walking through the city, watching the life around it with your own eyes? Or given that you have a camera that walks around on your instructions through any city and one gadget for each of your senses so that you can hear the clamor of the streets, smell the fragrances around, taste the food and speak to anyone you like… would you think that this is the same as traveling with your physical presence in that place?
My answer to that question was quite vague, though it mostly revolved around the fact that until you don’t create a memory of the travel, in terms of the experience of reaching that city, exploring it and then experiencing the sadness of leaving all its beauty to get back to your own mundane life… the notion of travel is not complete.
.ed thinks that it’s perfectly possible to break the notion of the necessity of physical presence for the experience of being in a city or a place. Given the right kind of gadgets one can simulate the experience with a much more holistic perspective. The underlying argument being in terms of the example that while you are dreaming, you feel that the experience is true and that you are physically present in whatever place you believe yourself to be in.
I went around talking to other people.
Shiv thinks that probably it might be true for the new generation, but for oldies like him… he would like to feel his feet hurt while walking the streets of a city. The sense of being tired is essential for travel. Also, one has to experience a certain sense of anxiety and excitement of being in a new place. In fact, the first thing that you do after you has reached a new place is to find a good enough place to pee. So, you might end up paying a good amount of money on a bad coffee just to find a good place to pee. Other than that the sheer excitement of seeing a familiar face in an unfamiliar city would prove to be a far better experience than any virtual simulation.
Bini thinks the substitution of the imaginary for the real is a notion that works for the new generation. In fact, you need to travel the entire expanse of 16 kms of Manhattan to know the city of New York (something like that… the figures might be incorrect… but you get the idea!) So you may use smileys while chatting to express emotions and other person might picture you as angry or sad, but still the experience of having a conversation over a cup of coffee is entirely different. You can’t compare the two.
Tony equates the idea of the notion of suspension of disbelief ergo the title of the past. He believes the virtual and the real are two parallel streams that meet in the realm of suspension of disbelief. Though he initially started of with the comment that I would like to feel tired when I have traveled, without that feeling, the notion of travel is not complete. But later he chose to look at it in terms of watching a film and said that despite everything while you are watching a film that you are interested in… you would share the same space as the actors and live out the script before you come back to reality. It should be the same for travel.
(Shiv, Bini and Tony are fellow collaborators whose opinions would be recounted in many posts of this blog. They are the necessary support system for this blog.)
Primary Ideas/Ideals:
Theme – Travel
The question?
Opinions
[draft] Looking for Education
Looking for Education is a non-profit collaborative project targeted at bringing into print the works of amateur photographers and writers (verse, short stories, anecdotes etc). The book(s) will be published by independent publishers that allow printing-on-sale to reduce initial overhead and inventory costs.
It is the broader aim of the project to donate surplus funds (beyond publication and shipping costs) to organisations committed to supporting education through scholarships and child-sponsoring. This will ensure that the looking for education community at large can be aware of the use of the funds.
Since the content - photographs and texts - submitted to the project would eventually result in a book, it is required that the contributors submit content to express their interpretation of a certain theme. This theme is expected to be finalised very early in the project and should reflect or explore the spirit of the project.
All content submitted, generated by the looking for education community will be released under the Creative Commons (by-nc) Licence and all rights will remain with the original creators where-ever possible. The content, format and design of the book will be finalised through community vetting though in certain aspects where the community is unable to reach a common consensus the sponsors could be asked to intervene.
Certain volunteers supporting the cause will be assigned the responsibility for overseeing the design and form of the book through community consensus. At any time volunteers can submit independent designs for the community to decide if the design is better.
Creative Commons Licence Attribution Non-commercial licence
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses
Lulu.com - Print-On-Demand Online Publisher
Print on demand (POD) is a method of producing books or other media (such as CDs and DVDs) one at a time. With print on demand, a printer produces hard copies of a book from a digital file. That way, the book is only printed when someone buys it. With Lulu, an author gives us a digital file of the book and we create a print-ready version of the file. When a customer buys that book from Lulu, our printer prints that copy (or copies) and ships it within days.
Primary Ideas/Ideals
Theme
Online Community
Independent Publishing
Provide exposure to Amateur Photography
Non-profit
Creative Commons Licensing
It is the broader aim of the project to donate surplus funds (beyond publication and shipping costs) to organisations committed to supporting education through scholarships and child-sponsoring. This will ensure that the looking for education community at large can be aware of the use of the funds.
Since the content - photographs and texts - submitted to the project would eventually result in a book, it is required that the contributors submit content to express their interpretation of a certain theme. This theme is expected to be finalised very early in the project and should reflect or explore the spirit of the project.
All content submitted, generated by the looking for education community will be released under the Creative Commons (by-nc) Licence and all rights will remain with the original creators where-ever possible. The content, format and design of the book will be finalised through community vetting though in certain aspects where the community is unable to reach a common consensus the sponsors could be asked to intervene.
Certain volunteers supporting the cause will be assigned the responsibility for overseeing the design and form of the book through community consensus. At any time volunteers can submit independent designs for the community to decide if the design is better.
Creative Commons Licence Attribution Non-commercial licence
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses
Lulu.com - Print-On-Demand Online Publisher
Print on demand (POD) is a method of producing books or other media (such as CDs and DVDs) one at a time. With print on demand, a printer produces hard copies of a book from a digital file. That way, the book is only printed when someone buys it. With Lulu, an author gives us a digital file of the book and we create a print-ready version of the file. When a customer buys that book from Lulu, our printer prints that copy (or copies) and ships it within days.
Primary Ideas/Ideals
Theme
Online Community
Independent Publishing
Provide exposure to Amateur Photography
Non-profit
Creative Commons Licensing
Monday, August 27, 2007
innovation eXternally
Innovation: externally-oriented or x-teams
(book by Henry Bressman - INSEAD and MIT Professor Deborah Ancona)
Organisations, increasilgly becoming more knowledge driven, and competing through innovation are built around multi-disciplinary teams. The focus on interaction between different groups within an organisation is also repeatedly stressed, but innovation and meaningful interaction is often stifled "because they don’t take into account external stakeholders and conditions".
The teams do look outside, but with a mental model built around internal processes and expectations. Teams look outside of their boundaries at very specific checkpoints and/or problem situations. Externally-oriented teams operate consistently outside the realm of the organisation, constantly scoting for problems, plausible solutions, research and other activities. This enables not only a more real sense of the need, and capabilities required by a service, it also allows the team to collaborate effectively and leverage external services and thought.
x-teams will also be more effective in collaboration within the organisation, as they can better gauge the impact and scope of varied products/services. By engaging with problems, solutions and processes explored in neutral space, x-teams can constantly look beyond long-term expectations for internal vs. external services, products, processes and partners
Bresman points to corporations such as Microsoft, BP, Merrill Lynch, Procter & Gamble and Southwest Airlines as examples of companies which have successfully used X-teams “because they work so hard at building linkages with other groups within their own large organization, X-teams also serve as a powerful tool for top management to create a culture of innovation across the wider organization.”
Bresman and Ancona’s book provides a toolkit for firms looking to create their own innovative X-teams. It outlines three elements – external activity, extreme execution and flexible phases – which form the principles by which X-teams guide themselves
http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/Bresman.htm
(book by Henry Bressman - INSEAD and MIT Professor Deborah Ancona)
Organisations, increasilgly becoming more knowledge driven, and competing through innovation are built around multi-disciplinary teams. The focus on interaction between different groups within an organisation is also repeatedly stressed, but innovation and meaningful interaction is often stifled "because they don’t take into account external stakeholders and conditions".
The teams do look outside, but with a mental model built around internal processes and expectations. Teams look outside of their boundaries at very specific checkpoints and/or problem situations. Externally-oriented teams operate consistently outside the realm of the organisation, constantly scoting for problems, plausible solutions, research and other activities. This enables not only a more real sense of the need, and capabilities required by a service, it also allows the team to collaborate effectively and leverage external services and thought.
x-teams will also be more effective in collaboration within the organisation, as they can better gauge the impact and scope of varied products/services. By engaging with problems, solutions and processes explored in neutral space, x-teams can constantly look beyond long-term expectations for internal vs. external services, products, processes and partners
Bresman points to corporations such as Microsoft, BP, Merrill Lynch, Procter & Gamble and Southwest Airlines as examples of companies which have successfully used X-teams “because they work so hard at building linkages with other groups within their own large organization, X-teams also serve as a powerful tool for top management to create a culture of innovation across the wider organization.”
Bresman and Ancona’s book provides a toolkit for firms looking to create their own innovative X-teams. It outlines three elements – external activity, extreme execution and flexible phases – which form the principles by which X-teams guide themselves
http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/Bresman.htm
exploring talk
- New conceptions of/for space: notions of public, private, virtual and imagined.
- Vacations, holiday, leave
- Knowledge [ comments on the knowledge commision ]
- Design as nessecary for Enggs :
invention/creation/innovation/improvisation/iteration/interaction - indian creations: indigenization, inspiration, translation or plagiarism
Monday, August 20, 2007
Gedankenexperiment
Imagination always touches the boundaries of possibilities and then goes beyond it. The brilliance of this German heading a.k.a. Thought Experiment is that the set of possibilities is limitless and hence, the imagination is bound within it.
Throughout the history, we have looked upon a set of people who have been "ahead of their times". This notion of personalities living in the future while existing in the present isn't just a cliché to denote respect, it's a tribute to the fact that a few people can experiment with their thoughts in a much better fashion than the others.
The Center of Thought Experiments is an attempt to push the boundaries of restraints on Imagination. To make attempts to "out think" the present set of assumptions and scenarios. The scope is as wide as your thoughts and the possibilities are a product of what your mind can conjure.
Throughout the history, we have looked upon a set of people who have been "ahead of their times". This notion of personalities living in the future while existing in the present isn't just a cliché to denote respect, it's a tribute to the fact that a few people can experiment with their thoughts in a much better fashion than the others.
The Center of Thought Experiments is an attempt to push the boundaries of restraints on Imagination. To make attempts to "out think" the present set of assumptions and scenarios. The scope is as wide as your thoughts and the possibilities are a product of what your mind can conjure.
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