Abstract
The establishment of Indian design institutes in the late 20th century aimed to connect India’s rich indigenous craft heritage to the evolving needs of the society through their pedagogy. However, over time, designers are increasingly getting detached from the craft industry due to various reasons. Design students often favour digital tools and advanced technologies. Recognizing the importance of a sustained dialogue with craft and design, our studio tried to explore how student - craftspeople teams could effectively bridge the seemingly opposite domains of craft and technology through design. The exploratory pilot study uncovered a few promising examples where technological augmentation enriched the indigenous craft practices. However, the findings indicated that retaining the material culture aspects of the indigenous craft was often more difficult. This points to the need for structured frameworks that focus on balanced collaboration, and co-creative approaches that sustain indigenous craft values.
Keywords
Indian Crafts; Design Education; Collaborative Design; Digital Fabrication Technology
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.817
Citation
Elizabeth-Thomas, N., J, A., P, A.,and Shende, A.(2025) Bridging Craft and Technology: Insights from the Perspective of Indian Design Education, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.817
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 11 - Culture and Craft Design for Regenerative Practices
Bridging Craft and Technology: Insights from the Perspective of Indian Design Education
The establishment of Indian design institutes in the late 20th century aimed to connect India’s rich indigenous craft heritage to the evolving needs of the society through their pedagogy. However, over time, designers are increasingly getting detached from the craft industry due to various reasons. Design students often favour digital tools and advanced technologies. Recognizing the importance of a sustained dialogue with craft and design, our studio tried to explore how student - craftspeople teams could effectively bridge the seemingly opposite domains of craft and technology through design. The exploratory pilot study uncovered a few promising examples where technological augmentation enriched the indigenous craft practices. However, the findings indicated that retaining the material culture aspects of the indigenous craft was often more difficult. This points to the need for structured frameworks that focus on balanced collaboration, and co-creative approaches that sustain indigenous craft values.