THAKURATA, Sudebia
Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology

BANERJEE, Probal
D.epicentre Consulting

sudebi@depicentre.in

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In the context of rapid urbanization, migration, gentrification & many other complexities & politics of our urban spaces,it becomes crucial to understand marketplaces that shape the city. Markets act as ‘centres’, holding layers of culture, wisdom, history, memory, alternative voices &peripheral narratives. Recognizing markets as archives of wisdom & sites of myriad pedagogical possibilities, thereby not limiting them to just centres of financial transactions, is an act of decolonization of knowledge in itself. Through multiple stories & examples from a few facilitated learning units, we would explore a quest designed to find different versions of a marketplace through many lenses. The perspectives found through the inquiries enabled sense-making of the co-existence of multi-layered landscapes, the interactions within these layers, & the tensions & symbiosis of the eco-systems that hold many relationships in one place while locating one’s presence in those spaces. Design was either used as a methodology to construct learning experiences using the elements of play or the principles of play were used as tools to learn design in the inquiry-led, immersive, social, experiential process. In this juxtaposition of design &play as both process &purpose, the learners were facilitated to be designers who constructed their own learning by locating &constructing narratives from different contexts, observed and questioned their own assumptions, tinkered with ideas, insights &inspirations, playfully explored places &spaces, understood about people & processes &used different modes of storytelling in order to share their journey about the market.

Communities & practices; design of pedagogy; narrative inquiry; space & place

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Sudebi Thakuratais a narrative designer, creative facilitator, educator, futurist&writer. She designs experiences, engagement & environment that allow people to think, have dialogue, make their thinking & interaction visible &thus enable them to design their own solutions &narratives using different modes &media. She emphasises on socially, environmentally &culturally relevant issues, inter-weaving design thinking, imagination, complex systems thinking, pedagogy, crafts, visual &performing arts, oral history, ethnography &research to design possibilities which are inclusive. She focuses on bringing in inquiry driven, immersive, context-based design & transdisciplinarity into her work. A facilitator at Srishti Institute of Art, Design &Technology, India, she is also a Creative Facilitator of SEAΔ, a trans-national cross-cultural global leadership programme. A global UNLEASH talent, Sudebi has co-founded the transdisciplinary design collective, D.epicentre &started a unique pedagogy, art &design-led trans-local inquiry-driven initiative “The Archival City-a Site of Learning’. Currently, some of her research areas are: understanding the role of local wisdom through narrative sources in addressing complex problems, including solving problems of governance & sustainability &understanding the intersections of pedagogy, design & inclusion.

Probal Banerjee is the co-founder & CEO of the transdisciplinary design-led collective, D.epicentre. He works on the interfaces of business, learning, design, analytics, innovation &storytelling. With leadership experience across seven countries strengthening his ability to manage cross-cultural & cross-functional virtual teams in complex matrix organisations, he has a passion for driving content & culture-driven organisations making economic, social, ecological & educational impact. He has been able to design effective, improved products/services and solutions, serve customers &build successful coalitions through processes of design-led innovation, Lean Six Sigma, learning theories &business storytelling. Previously, in different leadership roles he had managed diverse global programs in 7 countries, working with Fortune50 MNCs & FTSE10 banks. Currently, his research interests are in exploring how to design &foster emergent, regenerative & transformative leadership in a future driven way.