Dori's 2013 Design Rock Star India Tour

When I was studying anthropology at Bryn Mawr College, my fieldwork site was going to be India. I have always been fascinated by India. It is a place where binaries like modern, traditional, socialist, capitalist, etc. does not make any sense as binaries or even extremes. Perhaps in a place that is said to have 330 million gods diversity in forms and expressions is the norm.

So I am excited to be traveling to India for the first time in February. Like all my trips abroad (See my China trip in 2012), it will be a crazy schedule full of lectures, workshops, dinners, and various events. I will get to meet people whom I love and new people to love. So here is the preliminary itinerary for the trip:

07 Feb Depart MEL to Mumbai (8:35 flight departure)

PUNE
08 Feb Travel Mumbai to Pune, visit Indi Design and city. Dinner with Indi Design staff and local designers. 1/2 hour speech
09 Feb Public lecture organised by DYP DC school of Design for all six design institutes in Pune, part of iMark product event sponsored by the India Design Council
10 Feb Visit Pune and Travel from Pune to Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD
11 Feb Lecture at National Institute of Design
12 Feb Lecture at Center for Environmental Studies and Architecture
13 Feb Travel from Ahmedabad to Jaipur

JAIPUR
14 Feb Lecture at Indian Institute for Craft and Design
15 Feb Visit Jaipur, Lecture at TBD Design Institute
16 Feb Travel from Jaipur to New Delhi, afternoon meeting with local designers 

NEW DELHI
17 Feb Day trip to Agra-Taj Mahal
18 Feb Travel from New Delhi to Bangalore

BANGALORE
19 Feb Lecture at either IIT-Hyderabad or IIM-B in Bangalore
20 Feb Visit to host's, Uma Chandru, field sites in either Hampi or Lepakshi or Mysore
21 Feb Travel from Bangalore to Mumbai, Travel from Mumbai to Melbourne

Comments

[Gharp]

If in Bangalore, consider visiting and/or talking at Srishti. It may be a great connection for student exchanges, also they would love you. Yet another great site could be IIIT-Bangalore. They are the best for IT, and they are getting more engaged in open data, deliberative democracy, and in using design for civic engagement.