[Reader-list] Srishti Project - Eco-source - 1st posting

[Poonam Bir Kasturi]

Our first posting since we
started work on the Sarai Fellowship.

Our Feelings
It feels like we are on show?
Have we been on show before?
So we have to say things - share with people our
simple questions that have actually brought us into
a milieu where we perhaps don't fully fit?

Who we are -
We are a group of people - some students, some
designers, some doubling in the role of facilitators.
We are also part of a institution called Srishti school
of Art, Design & Technology

What is our project?
Its called "Eco-source".
We pose questions so that students get opportunities 
of bringing the real world into the educational space, 
to see how art and design can respond.

The current work is driven by questions such as these:-.
1. Why don't householders segregate waste at home
inspite of the Municipal corporation programme called
"Swacha Bangalore".

2. When you call "Ask Me" services and ask where you can dispose
used batteries - they want your email id and don't have any person,
firm or service which knows how to dispose old batteries.

3. If there was a no-fuss product to help composting at home-
would it help? 

We are not very competent researchers - so we are in the process of
creating a network of experts who will help along the way.

We hope that by August 2004 we will have created maps of the city
that have stories and details of intersecting information -
information on where to get something, its location, 
the way that product of service works, the people who are invovled
the history or other anecdotes that surround the activity.
All of this under the big theme of "sustainablity".

For example - if you wanted to know how banana leaves are sourced,
sold, disposed - could you see a map that showed you how this
product reaches Bangalore, where, when, why and how? What happens
to it after it is used? Who is doing research on alternative uses of this
material and other interesting ideas of Banana- Banana repbulic perhaps?
Art around this theme that has provoked an examination of social
implications of capitalist trade?

Do we have a grand idea of what we will cover? 
No - this is evolving from the
ground to accomodate student interests, and logisitcs. 

What have we done so far?
A group of students have mapped the sources in the city of bio-degradable
containers for indian take away food - they have also analysed the needs
of a user of such a service - since take away food (Indian with gravys) 
is a big business in Bangalore.

Another group of students have prepared a comprehensive survey tool
to check why segregation is not happening at the household level in 
Bangalore.

Another group is working with a community of Potters to develop 
a product which will help composting at home.

Another group begins work on analysis of the IT directory and other
such directories of Bangalore. This will lead to a information design
exercise on how categories should evolve and what needs to be covered.

What we would like from the community of Sarai?

Any suggesstions, any comments and ideas to nudge us along.

Thankyou

The team at Srishti working on Eco-source