Design Concerns: Student Colloquium Papers (Volume 1)

Learning to know and learning to do has distinguished NID's experiment, providing a challenge to its students and faculty to constantly evaluate, adjust and reorient its focus in seeking a greater relevance in the Indian context. This has meant a broad-based training, drawing upon the knowledge base of many related disciplines in aiding the design student develop values and attitudes critical for providing effective service to the real needs of our society. In this pursuit of constantly redefining a designer's role, the Colloquium Paper serves as a vital link in the student's growth through a process of internalisation and articulation.

This volume, the first in a series, hopes to create a platform wherein design concerns and issues as experienced by student designers are expressed. These are shared here to enable a dialogue with other students, professionals and all those interested n the design activity.

NID's professional education programme commenced in the late 60's, laying the foundation of design education in India. A unique contribution by NID has been the integration of real-life, professional situations within the design curriculum. Learning to know and learning to do has distinguished NID's experiment, providing a challenge to students and faculty to constantly evaluate, adjust, reorient its focus in seeking a greater relevance in the Indian context. This has meant a broad-based training, drawing upon the knowledge base of many related disciplines in aiding the design students develop values and attitudes critical for providing effective service to the real needs of our society. In this pursuit of constantly redefining a designer's role, the Colloquium Paper serves as a vital link in the student's growth through a process of internalisation and articulation.

This volume, containing a selection of Colloquium Papers, is first in the series to be published. Its immediate aim is to encourage students of NID to achieve standards of excellence in their academic pursuits. The long term aim is to create a platform wherein issues and concerns of this young profession as experienced and viewed by student designers are shared with students of other professional institutions. It would hopefully, also provide a fresh viewpoint to professional designers.

The editors have done a herculean task of ploughing through over 200 papers, evolving subject/theme categories and a selection process. In this task the editors were ably assisted by a group of volunteers from amongst senior students, members of faculty and staff. Over many cups of tea and heated discussions, a selection for the first volume has now been completed. My colleague, M P Ranjan, the driving force in this endeavour, along with his team fully deserve our appreciation and sustained encouragement.

The word 'Colloquium' suggests a discussion, a dialogue. From NID's early days, students were encouraged to discuss and express their ideas, freely and openly. This idea was extended to the Colloquium Paper which it was felt would "provide the student with an opportunity to assess, evaluate and finally articulate as designer, his or her own role in society". The guidelines for writing the paper have made it clear from the beginning that the purpose of the Colloquium Paper is to "articulate one's thoughts and experience". The articulation is of one's own thinking process and what has influenced one to think in a particular way. Each student is required to submit a Colloquium Paper before being permitted to undertake the Diploma Project.

Written examinations are routinely conducted in conventional educational institutions, but at NID evaluation is through regular assessments of their tangible work by the faculty offering the course and by juries consisting of several faculty members at the end of each semester. Students learn by doing, rather than by rote. However in this process of creating and making things, written communication often takes a back seat. Reading and writing are therefore emphasised at every opportunity and it is through the Institute's Science and Liberal Arts programme, previously called the General Studies Programme, that they are exposed to numerous subjects apart from those in the curriculum directly related to design. These courses require written submission from students. It is not surprising therefore that these Colloquium Papers reflect the students' wide-ranging interests, their analytical minds, and, above all, their sensitive interest in the world around them.

In recent years, the Colloquium Paper has been upgraded to introduce an element of critical reflection. It has now become a mini-thesis or dissertation of undeniable importance, consisting of about 3000 to 5000 words. Also emphasized is the importance of originality and proper presentation based on formal research and consultation with faculty in and outside NID.

Over the years, the guidelines for Colloquium Papers have evolved through the participation of numerous faculty and others from outside. It would be appropriate to name some of the major contributors in the first volume of published papers. The early contributors, who encouraged and assisted the development of General Studies at the Institute, included Prof. H K Vyas, Dr. Leela Shah, Gautam Sarabhai and Prof. Christopher Conford.

Coordinators of the Science and Liberal Arts Programme - Dr. Glendola Shanthappa, Prof. S. Sethuraman, Prof. N V K Murthy, Sunita Vasudeva, Vinai Kumar and now Sudhanva Deshpande have all left their indelible mark. We acknowledge Dr. Glendola Shanthappa's pioneering work in formalising the writing of these papers and for collecting a large number in the Resource Centre, which has made this volume possible.