WORD to the WORLD
Exploring experiential KNOWING.....
Thanima - the four years of journey
The THANIMA conference was initiated mainly to address the homogenization of our aesthetic sensibilities. The Western aesthetic is sweeping the whole world making the very idea of culture redundant. Cultural diversity would soon be eliminated totally if we don't explore deeply various aspects of the formation of aesthetic sensibility in humans. We need to come together to explore deeply various aspects of aesthetic formation, its roots, its connection with the context, formative process, connection with cognition, connection with culture and also how it gets awakened, distorted and destroyed.
The intention of the conference was very clear not only in terms of the content but also the process. We were not expecting any expert pontification on the issues raised but to learn to hold our suggestions, explorations lightly, with humility, to invite more and people into a journey of enquiry.....
What is unique about the content is that aesthetic sense has never been considered worthy of addressing the de colonization issue. Almost all the conferences on decolonization are about how to decolonize the knowledge. Aesthetics is also very intangible 'subject'. So purposely we were journeying into an unknown and intangible realm...
But over the years slowly even other issues related to homogenization are also being added and the third one will attempt to go much deeper to delve into the spiritual alienation of modern man and his war against life and nature.
The first conference of Thanima was conducted at Department of Architecture, NIT Calicut, on 30 and 31 January 2015, with the theme 'Reinventing Design Pedagogy & Contextual Aesthetics', aimed at exploring various aspects of aesthetics – formation, conditioning, politics, connection with culture and ways of teaching design {pedagogy}.
The conference addressed the need to overcome stultifying cultural homogenization and to recapture the lost aesthetics more rooted in our milieu along with the importance to impart education without killing the creative and inventive spirit in children and orient them in culturally authentic ways.
The conference was attended by 300 delegates from all over India and over 40 selected papers on various themes were presented during the two days of intellectual discourse. Ar. Nimish Patel of Abikram architects, Ahmedabad, Smt.Laila Tyabji of Dastkar, New Delhi and Guru Ravindra Sharma of Kala Ashram delivered the keynote addresses.
The second conference was held in Jan 2017 again at NIT, Calicut, supported by IIA, Calicut Center and Existential Knowledge foundation- Pune. The conference was called ‘Reimagining Aesthetic Unfolding – From Conditioning to Awakening’ The 2nd International Conference on Design Pedagogy and Contextual Aesthetics (ICDPCA) . See the link for details thanima.co.in
The third conference is being planned to be held in Feb 2020 again at NIT, Calicut, supported by IIA, Calicut Center and Existential Knowledge foundation- Pune.
Thanima conference generated a deep interest among the participants to take this search forward. There is a need for some of us to come together to deepen our own understanding about what are we trying to do in the name of Thanima. What it means to be authentic and original? Even though 'creation' of knowledge is also an important part of being authentic we are, FOR THE TIME BEING restricting ourselves to the formation of aesthetic sense. what needs to be done is to re think how foundation is conducted so that we don't condition the aesthetic sensibilities but approach it differently so that it is awakened.
The design and architectural education are unique in many ways. They are experiential to a large extent, they deal with the real world, they deal with the 'present', they encourage 'creativity' and more than all this they integrate somewhat seamlessly art, science, technology, sociology, history, psychology, culture and this would also allow one to enter philosophy.....
Second uniqueness is the foundation year that is offered which is designed to de-school the learner as the regular education that one has gone through doesn't enable them to study design and architecture. most of the habits and attitudes acquired in the teacher depended system become a hindrance to the learner led system that these disciplines demand.
So foundation being the most crucial year this needs to be the focal point of re-imagination, explorations and re-thinking....
Rethinking Foundation https://rethinkingfoundation.weebly.com/