Situated Design Practices

Four diverse sessions, delivered by people working in entirely different contexts both in their practice and personal history.

Faculty : Saul Baeza

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Day 01 : Visit to Cal Negra

On the first day of the seminar, we visited Hospitalet de Llobregat, the delta region where there's a juxtaposition of diverse territories - the El Prat airport, a nature reserve, the Llobregat delta and finally the beach. In the morning, we visited a farmhouse which is occupied by artists who practice on the farm. Maria, one of the artists living there, works with ceramics and uses local clays around the area for her practice. I found the approach fascinating and I had the chance to talk with her about m y research. We later went to a neighboring farm to get some freshly harvested vegetables, we we met Jauma. He explained to us the history of the river, the original and the changed path of the Llobregat river and its effects. He went on to elaborate about the politics of the area, proposed expansion of the airport and the impact it would have on the surrounding fields.

We also had the chance to meet with a falconer whose falcons work for the airport. It was a fascinating discussion about interspecies collaboration, which ties a lot into what we have been discussing in class throughout the term.

We spent the rest of the day day cycling around the area, visited various locations in the nature reserve which had either a historical significance or geographical vantage point. Saul, along with some more faculty members, explained us the contextual history and the stories behind the places we visited. The weather was absolutely perfect, and cycling around was refreshing.

Day 02 : Hibai Arbide

The second day was an online session by lawyer and journalist Hibai Arbide who is working in Lesbos, Greece with migrants and refugees. He shared insights into the refugee crisis happening on the island, the ground reality which rarely anyone talks about, and shared some hardhitting incidents and stories.

He spoke in detail about the how authorities deal with these incidents, the invasive use of technology in enforcing regulations and rules on refugee camps. These conversations paved way to more philosophical discussion around borders - what do borders mean?

This session was particularly eye opening, with regards to border crises and migration, its effects on identity and in turn society. Hibai was open and honest about not just his work, but how his work ties into his personal life, friends and mental health.

Day 03 : Visit to FOC

The third session of situated design practices, was at FOC, an artist collective formed by many small collectives. We were hosted by the Jokko Collective, which focuses on redefining African electronic music. They showed us around their space, their studio, residency areas for other artists working there, a space where they host gathering and parties while giving a platform to upcoming artists to perform.

They walked us through their journey, the way they built the space from scratch, while navigating the complexity of making decisions in collectives, shows us the befoe and after images of the space. It was really nice to see how humbly they started their art practice, but consistency and commitment had allowed them to scale it up to a level where they now have a niche audience. The collective started with a hope to get african representation in the music scene eight years ago, which was predominantly white during the time. Understanding the diaspora, and the context of their practice, definitely adds considerable depth into their work.

Also interesting to note was the walk that we had as a class from Placa Espanya through Montjuic towards Zona Franca. Saul guided us through the walk by showing us the olympic infrastructure that was built to support the Olympics in 1992, showing us a new side of Barcelona. The contrast is quite noticeable, along with its history and displacement of the communities living in the area previously.

Day 04 : Ben Ditto

The course culminated with an online session by Ben Ditto, an artist who uses Instagram as a platform for his art. His work makes the user question what is real and what's not. He created Ditto nation, an online community that engages with intense topics like war, violence amongst other hard hitting things. His presence on multiple platforms has allowed him create an engaged community that has almost physicalized his algorithm into people across the world who bring to his attention issues that he can address with his art.

When asked about responsibility, his detached response that he does not feel responsible raised some questions in my head. When the platform of choice is Instagram, one thats highly opinionated, how can an artist engaged actively in bringing to notice hard topics, choose to remain detached and diplomatic? Having said that, I truly admire the commitment and nonchalance that he bring to table. Being true to oneself and building a business around it takes considerable amount of resistance and confidence.

Positional Reflection

This course for me has been highly insightful - firstly because we had the opportunity to be out in the city away from the classroom, engaged in activities which I believe allow for a lot more experiential learning. Secondly, because it opened up discourse about how personal history and context can reflect in your practice. In this course, we engaged with different practices, in work and in context, yet somehow all of them were honest and thought provoking, more so than others I have encountered because the motivation was more than just money.

Before MDEF, I was running my own design practice back in Mumbai for three years. Having experienced the process of building a practice and eventually being burnt out by it, I now realize that there was a gap - being true to my own interests and inspirations, and working for clients. I understand there would have to be a balance, but now having engaged with practices that prioritize their embedded context as the spine, it has been validating.

Now that I am working with heritage and culture as part of my research, this course also ties in strongly with the idea of having a situated practice. It has raised questions in my head, how can I define my own situatedness? After the first visit to Cal Negra, I was intrigued by the methodology that Maria uses in her work, and the narratives she likes to construct around the objects that she makes. Sourcing clay from local construction sites, rolling the clay on ground to get a 'fingerprint' of the context so it can generate conversation about where it comes from etc are fascinating approaches of including your context into your own. This is something that I am struggling to bring into my research. Is physical context somehow more relevant or is the context of one's identity, that's ever changing, relevant?

This course also made me realize the potential of art and design. It can be thought provoking, hard hitting, or simply there, what gives it value is the intention behind it. Once the context is established, the WHY is relevant, I believe it generates a response that is raw and honest. Its more than just problem solving, its more than just being functional, its the weight of its history, territory and process that makes it 'situated' and meaningful.