august ”17 @ Avani

This workshop was extraordinary for its sheer size of more than 40 participants. I prefer a batch size of maximum 15 participants to sustain the necessary intimacy and nurture the slightest chance of emotional vulnerability that creativity requires.

Besides numbers, there were few other severe challenges that this workshop posed to me. The engagement was part of the orientation session for first year architecture students. I had to run them through the concepts of abstraction & orthographic projections in a very short time. Further, perhaps owing to the socio-cultural context of Avani’s catchment area, I observed considerable gender segregation amongst students.

This workshop, however, offered the frenzy of intensity in lieu of intimacy.

Besides some play in theater, the workshop processes included discovering the archaeological remnants of their home of memories, spontaneously translating chosen words into graphic forms, creating a collage from these fragments and eventually offering their collages & participation to create a large emotive tapestries of memories & desires.

I am thankful to Murali & Abid, significant members of Avani faculty then, for creating this opportunity and Sebastian for his hospitality. Three Days in Kozhikode were indeed a wonderful experience.