UnBox Festival

Are We Being Served? With Nico Macdonald and Richard Eisermann

admin — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:32:37 +0000

In the UK, service design has emerged over the last decade as a discipline that improves peoples’ experiences when visiting the doctor, opening a bank account, renting a car, etc. But how transferable (and relevant) are the tools, methods and processes of service design when applied to the Indian context? We will seek to answer this question by engaging and challenging workshop participants to re-imagine their least favourite Indian services. Participants must come to the workshop prepared to identify a service in India that they would like to see improved. As a group, we will select the top 3 services that need re-designing, then break into working groups to begin to do so. We will look at issues such as co-creation, cross-cultural understanding and post-disciplinary teamwork with the aim of collectively deepening our understanding of how India can better be served. Nico Macdonald is Head of Innovation of the Creative Industries iNet. Richard Eisermann is Founder and Strategic Director of Prospect, a London-based service design firm.

Workshop: Design Jamming: Tools for Ideation with Bram Pitoyo

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 11:49:08 +0000

While design practitioners have tools for production, planning, and even decision evaluation, tools for ideation are harder to come by. Tools for ideation that generate a wide range of ideas while still producing focused outcomes are even harder to come by. In this workshop, design strategist and typographer Bram Pitoyo teaches you a method for approaching a range of design questions, from how to make a better pen to how to improve migrant laborers working conditions. The method takes 10 minutes to teach and the remainder of the session will be spent “Design Jamming”: practicing the idea on real life problems in collaborative groups. Participants should have a real life design problem that they would like to brainstorm around. This workshop is led by Bram Pitoyo, interaction designer at Wieden + Kennedy.

An Afternoon with MP Ranjan and John Thackara

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:21:53 +0000

Participants can join these design thinkers for a conversation about design thinking intersecting with different disciplines. Enjoy an open conversation in the spring sunshine between MP Ranjan, John Thackara, and UnBox attendees.

Workshop: Five Steps to Designing Classrooms for Real Learning with iDiscoveri

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:19:23 +0000

Learning is a complex process for children and it often breaks down in the classroom. Despite a lot of talk and theory about making learning meaningful for children, there are few practical last-mile solutions on how exactly to design classrooms for real learning. Ashish will draw from his decade-long experience in transforming classroom learning hundreds of schools across the country to lay out a simple yet highly effective process for making the teaching and learning process effective and engaging for children.

Panel: Cultural Funders

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:17:15 +0000

Funders of cultural activities in India will reflect on their role in shaping projects and trends by discussing projects past and future. They will also offer practical advice for seeking funding and partnerships with their institutions. Confirmed speakers include the Goethe Institut, Pro Helvetia, and Austria Culture Forum.

Workshop: Storytelling in New Media

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:15:05 +0000

Filmmaker Varun Mathur, Basic Love of Things co-founder Avinash Kumar, and 4YourEye show and tell about storytelling, communicating, and stirring strong feelings among collaborators, partners, and broader audiences. We will see film, digital media, and other techniques and conceptual principles of telling stories about complex systems — non-linear stories with many characters, relationships, and dynamics.

4YourEye is a pioneering VJ collective from Austria who will share their experiences of collaborating with brands to create immersive audio-visual projects.
Varun Mathur is a documentary filmmaker who has screened films about culture, globalization, and governance both in India and internationally.
Avinash Kumar co-founder of Basic Love of Things and Quicksand will share approaches and perspectives on using rich media to communicate about complex systems.

Panel: Organic Food & Farming in India: The Road Ahead

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:02:46 +0000

Organic food, farming, & lifestyles are global trends that are finding their way into India. In a strange irony this represents going back to traditional means of producing food that Indian farmers utilized for centuries till artificial pesticides and fertilizers came in under the Green Revolution banner. This revival of organic food production and retail has been fraught with multiple debates around the cost of such produce, lower yields and the resulting inability to feed India’s growing population, coupled with a lack of awareness around the benefits of organic produce by end consumers. This debate is fueled by the influence of the large agriculture and processed food lobby.

UnBox, as part of its Fellowship program will cover 4 blocks of this Organic ecosystem: Organic farms, retail of organic produce, organic food restaurants (the service aspect), & finally end consumers around their perceptions of organic produce. Subsequently, the “Organic Food & Farming In India: The Road Ahead” panel will bring together a diverse set of people ranging from Service Professionals turned organic farmers, bureaucrats from the Indian government, medical & nutrition professionals, retailers of organic food, & end customers food – to discuss the organic food ecosystem in India, the roadblocks, and the opportunities for innovation that exist.

Demo: “the expanded cracked everyday electronic” with Andy Guhl

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:57:42 +0000

Learn the principals of his new audiovisual performance „The Instrument“ – how does light transform into sound.

THE INSTRUMENT is Andy Guhls music and photo instrument for an audio-visual live performance. It consists of broad, highly developed „cracked everyday electronics“ and expands this audio performance with divers wireless micro cameras, beamers to a synchronic audio-visual experience. The painting of light with photo chips from micro-cameras, reflectors and refractors explores new dimensions in visual phenomena. The light and the flickering involved have an effect on optical scanners and develop a different electronic sound. New picture information is generated by the audio-visual signal, setting itself to music once again. The light is transformed to sound by self-built light sensors.

The direct interplay with this audio-visual feedback in an analogue electronic system makes up „The Instrument“ – you see what you hear.

Andy Guhl's hacked electronic instruments.

Andy Guhl and Klangwert at a collaborative performance.

Panel: Self-Publishing Platforms in India

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:41:57 +0000

Building off of the energy to document culture and create new kinds of expression, panelists discuss emerging trends in self-publishing as a way of creating new spaces for interdisciplinary practices.

Nikhel Mahajan of AudioAshram
Shani Himanshu of CellDsgn
Arpita Das of Yodakin

This panel will happen in sequence with the cultural funders panel for participants interested in participating in two panels during one afternoon.

Workshop: Typocentric Bazaar with Meena Kadri & Rajesh Dahiya

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:35:59 +0000

Find creative resources in the world around you. In this workshop, participants will create typography from objects and forms available at local markets. Participants will learn how pixel fonts work, starting off with making basic letterforms out of found objects such as bindis or seeds. Emerging typgorapherswill then graduate to more complex objects such as, in the spirit of UnBox, boxes.

Meena Kadri is a designer, educator, and author of culture blog randomspecific. Rajesh Dahiya is founder and principal at communication design firm CoDesign.