Our BIG PICTURE aim entails:
Gathering cultural/traditional information worth preservation from the older generations and placing it in a functional model that caters to the questions posed by the younger generations as missing links, hence sustaining the information.
February 1, 2012
MILESTONE#1:
We (Koyal C. and Adiba M.) visited Cleta's, an Old Age home in Koramangala to meet some senior citizens to see how they respond to our proposal. The proposal in question being; the creation of an online portal where questions
about the unwritten cultural heritage can be asked and senior citizens holding the knowledge could become a network of authors providing answers.
They mostly spoke in English, that made communication easy. But alongside, they expressed an aversion to the idea of having to use the computer to be able to participate. They were open to being called and answering questions
over the phone. The areas of expertise (at that point in time) recognised were simple. Food, home remedies, medicine, healthcare and advice on home matters.
February 2, 2012
MILESTONE #2:
During and post our discussion with Mr. Ravi, we came up with ideas to make this project about both Awareness and Provision, more cyclic in it's ambition.
Some of those ideas being:
1. Classifying the knowledge as 'Lost (Near Extinction)' and 'Losing (Actively being eroded)' on the basis of the age groups that our authors fall under.
2. Classifying them categorically into aspects strongly seen in India, like: Domestic Remedies/Practices/Naturopathy/Culture/Tradition/Festivals/Rituals/Religious Practices and the stories and reasons around the same.
3. Making the point about self-sufficiency and jugaad by unfolding and back-tracking marketed items and material used commonly, to highlight the aspect that we use and waste a lot because of a nonsensical common trend. This,
when we can question their processing and find ways to arrive at remodel or reuse for the material keeping the value of the original intact. A contemporar-isation of the practices to address the issue of tested good ideas slipping
away.
4. Finding methods to create the sustainability of information outside of the online portal, to meet a larger audience and create a loop in the Awareness and Provision cycle by using a variety of data transfer methods. Catchy methods
that make the message visible to the target audience
without requiring their full attention.
5. Creating a fad, or a sustainable fashion that also suggests the conservation of a resource. Short hair--> Less shampoo --> Less water.
6. Making people question sourcing and processing to realise what goes into the making of commonly used commodities and encouraging that they keep spreading that information to younger people to safeguard the traditional
practices of saving and reusing. The practices rely on a basic understanding of material and it's value.
As of now, ideas where some of these realisations are applicable are:
* Paper Bags that we could give to the grocers and vegetable vendors in the market with some remedial recipes on them in the form of a poem or a knock-knock joke. The paper bags could be made of newspaper or remodeled using
the packaging paper of Copier Sheets
(The packet that holds A4 sheets, which can hold 1.5 kgs and is easily acquirable from photocopy
stores and other establishments using large quantities of paper).
APPROVED!
* Table-Mats with illustrated facts and recipes for small food outlets in and around localities where people can read the language used.
* Providing school teachers (Environmental Studies/ Crafts) a simplistic adoptable model so that they pass on to children a multiple usage understanding of material. Maybe even conduct workshops.
Koyal R. decided to collaborate with us for similar interests were found operable in a singular project.
February 6, 2012
We visited Miss Jaishree, a Librarian at Mallya Aditi International School who started
an initiative to recycle paper that is wasted in the school premises.
The Process she follows involves:
STEP 1: Shredding the waste paper in order to obtain fine strips.
STEP 2: Soaking the strips in a bucket of water till they become soft enough to make a pulp.
STEP 3: Using a mixer, converting this pulp into a finer pulp.
STEP 4: Spreading out this pulp evenly on a wire-mesh so as to drain the water out completely.
These wire-mesh screens are available multiple sizes.
STEP 5: Leaving these screens in the sun to dry.
The paper can be used 1-3 months post this procedure.
Although her model is adoptable wrt the essence of sustainability, it is a time taking process
that produces thick, high GSM paper that is best used as an art material.
MILESTONE #3:
We decided to stick by the idea of using the large bulk of Copier Packaging Paper that we had acquired from a Photocopy Outlet near College.
Prototype (First Attempt):
Contents that we used to test our initial proto type's capacity (1 kilogram)
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February 7, 2012
Reasons for Disapproval:
1. The paper bag does not look reusable, has no appeal and needs the graphic aspect added to suggest the flow-chain wrt sustainability and reuse.
2. It relies on non-waste products like staple pins and tape to be held together, which further digresses in its attempt to being reused.3. It needs to look and be dismantle-able for reuse (given that the instructions about reuseare provided.
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Concerns:
After much discussion and ideation we came up with a certain set of guidelines for ourselves:
Primary Concern:
WRT Gathering the material.- Pure waste.
- Easily available from source.
- Has the surface area and weight-holding capacity to serve as a grocery bag.
Secondary Concern:
WRT Assembly of the material.- No requirement of additional non- waste materials as far as possible.
- Relying on Sustainable Methods; fold/flap/string used instead of using additional non-waste.
Final Concern:
WRT Distribution of the product.- Should be made available to grocers, where it is ensured that the grocer realises the value of the product.
- Should suggest the essence of ‘ re-use’
- Finding more than one purpose in order to increase the life of the product, and indicate the same.
Language Concerns:
The recipes of the home-remedies and the instruction guide will be in English, Hindi and Kannada on a separate card attached to the bag alongside descriptive illustrations. The reason why we choose to have it in three languages is
because our target audience is mainly upper and lower middle class. Having it in a local language makes it more accessible. The recipes are in the form of two line rhymes, simplistically stating the problem and the organic solution.
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February 8, 2012
MILESTONE #4:
Flowchain:
Refuse-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle
and subsumed under it;
Dismantle-Freeassmble-Operate
(as previously coined by Adiba Muzaffar in the logo design exrcise.)
There are two types of bags:
1. General Bags- where the vegetables can be placed miscellaneously- with a recipe requiring multiple ingredients.2. Specific Bags- which the grocer needs to practice distributing the specific vegetable that it is meant for, in- with a recipe using that specific ingredient.
There will be two cards attached to the bag (punched and strung, so they do not get thrown with the bag.)
--> The first being the home-remedy recipe.--> The second card attached, one which will show the 4-step flowchain that the material of the bag has followed. Step 0 is the use to which the sheet was already employed- to package A4 sheets.
Therefore, from being a copier-paper packaging sheet to a carry bag for vegetables to a cutting sheet it lives last to become a disposal bag for vegetable waste.
This is to explain in the case of a language barrier how the user is at Step 1 of the flowchain, and they have the option of taking it to be used till Step 3 .
The Project can be called Jhol-Jhaal/ Sab-zig-zag/ Sabzi Sarvanaash/ Paper ki toh/ Vegepaper/ Kaagaz-e-Dastaan.
This project is a MODEL that can be adopted.
The material can be easily procured, but at the level of converting it into a paper-bag employment can be generated for both assembly and rectifications.
Room for Improvement:
Our observations about flaws unaddressed at this stage are:
1. Making punches isn't easy unless a laser-based machine can make the punches in stacks of sheets in one go.2. The string, a procured-waste from a fabric factory needs to complement the punch size.
3. The folds need to be measured out and dotted lines can be printed on the sheets to make the process of making these bags easier.
4. When making the larger bags (that hold upto 4 kgs) the sheets require to be stuck back-to-back. In the prototype we stitched them together, but going by what the copier-paper packaging adopted,
using a glue-gun is ideal. This glue becomes the only non-waste in the suggested model.
5. The language of the recipes need to be tested, to ensure that the common buyer can read it and understand easily.
6. A level of explanation is required at the grocer's level, so he can efficiently circulate the bags and the instructions further.
7. The first level of dismantling, when the bag becomes a mat needs to be perfected in terms of ease.
8. The Xerox Outlets need to be taught to not tear the packaging as far as possible, so there is minimum waste at this initial stage.
A System of Feedback:
The system can be made even more user friendly by accepting feedback/personally tested recipes from the vegetable buyers.
A rigorous system of printing the cards with the recipes in the three languages needs to be ensured to keep the information being circulated to it's maximum and diverse.
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