Gamification of cultural knowledge through craft | Part 2
Ethnographic product innovation with the Terracotta Craft Community of Gundiyali, Kutch
Host: Design Innovation and Craft Resource Centre (DICRC), CEPT University
Project: Craft Colaborative Fellowship 2018 was an initiative towards meaningful collaborations between craftspeople and design fellows. The intiative was to expose craftspeople to new concepts, ideas and a new perspective to look at the craft practice, by involving fellows to be extensively involved in the community, understand the nuances of the craft, the material and the practice.
Role: Design Fellow | Ethnographer | Product innovator
(Directly collaborated with terracotta crafts community of Gundiyali, Kutch)Skills: Cultural & Visual Ethnography (Open-ended conversations & Fieldwork) Product innovation, Storytelling & Communication Design, Curation
Team: Craft Community — Anwarbhai Kumbhar, Alimamdbhai Kumbhar, Shayeraben Kumbhar, Aishaben Kumbhar, Ruksanaben Kumbhar, Anwarbhai Luhar & Abdul Yakub Kumbhar
Fellowship constraint(s): The product(s) needed to be primarily made of terracotta
Year: 2018- present
This project was exhibited at Ekatra, Kanoria Gallery of the Arts, Ahmedabad in 2019.
Problem statement
How can we bridge the gap of alienation and a loss of cultural context in migrating generations?
- Crafts are at the center of cultural dynamic, whether it is about the lifestyles, relationships and dependencies with a community, and further, social issues including economic welfare, gender roles, sociological, religious and regional practices. Crafts are an indigenous identity.
- The material culture in craft practices evolves towards future relevance, and keeps narratives from the past alive. Postmodernism lies in the co-existence of the past, the present and the future.
- Education on history, and culture at the primary schooling is often limited to texts. It has been seen how in urban scenarios, children are often alienated from their roots, or cultural context.
Gamification through crafts brings together the tangible essence of the craft, gives an insight into a culture through the interaction, and further brings a new opportunity area for craft communities for positioning fresh outcomes in the contemporary market.
The Process
The ideas were to emerge from observations, and ethnographic research, insights from the field. Working in the areas of narratives, I aimed to bring out the narratives of the community that become sources of educative interaction.
A deep ethnographic study, living with the community for over three months, recurrently, understanding the lifestyle, craft, family structure and the overall context.
Oral traditional games as board games in terracotta
- The two traditional games that were taken forward from generation to generation orally, had parameters of clarity and some parts where we needed to derive meaning, form and shape.
- Some discussions on size, shapes and form were done there as well. The traditionally played regional game of Bharat Kakri is a strategic two player game where one needs to place three of their coins in one straight line, against the opponent’s attacks. The coins are inspired from the traditional form of the ‘visi’ or piggy bank and the subtle outlying meaning here is that one loses their hard earned savings, if they’re not careful in life.
- The second game, Sih Bakri, tigers and goats known as Wagh Bakri in the rest of Gujarat, is a regional game that contains as coins, two tigers and nine goats. Here, the tiger can eat up a lone goat, it cannot destroy a herd. There are intricate meanings to it, that tell about the cultural nuances of unity and being a part of your community, and supporting your people to protect them from destroyers. It simply talks about how there’s life in unity.
Outcomes
The board games are utility for everyone. Although they have a strong cultural context, but are as universal in approach.
These products became a tool for discovery of narratives and the documentation of it, the making process generated narratives that fed back into the development.
Market scope:
- The games can be played simply as board games, and placed in curated retail stores, they could be used as a part of the hospitality and/or utility in concept stores, cafes and restaurants, there is a possibility of museums, galleries and cultural centers to make it a part of their collections.
- Although regional, these games often have a counterpart in other regions named differently, and the visual stimulation brings in a glimpse of that for many. Schools, exhibitions, fairs, cultural fests, art festivals are all good places for the product outcomes.
If you’re interested in collaborating on this further, or for purchase enquiries, please write to me at leenajain.work@gmail.com
