I know 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and more people who have been down with fever, cold and/or other things. The 6th is me. I thought it was all fine once the fever went away and I could walk somewhat in the sun without being tired. But looks like a hot body needs a lot of water. Dehydration brought me to a night at a hospital with IV fluids. Dawn rose and in the room whose window doesn’t even tint yellow during dawn, the only marker of morning was the loud shift-handover conversations. The doctors and nurses were kind, and the room was
I have been very slow with my notes, and I’ve generally been slow and weak this week, I’m learning to drink enough water, and it already has reversed some symptoms I had been having for a few months. I am happy that some things I had not gone to a doctor for are resolving, some I continue to be criminally procrastinative about.
The School for Sensitive Ecologies at Livinglabs Institute conducted the ‘Mapping to understand socio-ecological phenomena in the place’ course as a short half day workshop with DLHSS MAHE students at Gantiganahalli Lake, Yelahanka. The course was titled Mapping to understand socioecological phenomena in the place, but more intentionally, we were thinking of making — making artifacts could guide what is by nature a very complex process of observing, reflecting and notiong.
Making allows very concrete actions in the short term to guide further enquiries. In a previous 3 hour session of the same course, which took place at the transect mired with inaccessible land near Yelahanka kere, where we had scaffolded much of their observations using the fieldguide and fieldmaps. The fieldguides were being used to annotate observations, but really, in the span of a few hours, how does one observe and document when they have not observed in the specific context intentionally previously?
A reflection from that session was that the act of annotating itself was not perceived as leading to something (we must remember that it is only 3 hours we had with the learners). Naturally there was less interest to annotate. So the annotation must lead to something! Something that would be possible within the few hours we had. It is then we settled that in this session, the ‘mapping’ or ‘making’ would actually happen after learners came back from the field, while in the field, the observations would be in the form of sketching/collecting/notating. This borrows from the course plan for “Artefact as method”
Mapping to understand socioecological phenomena was planned around the course of a stream in Bidar.
Learners will be bringing their own practice: of creative writing, of visual media, or of digital media or any related practice into a spatial domain, meaning that they will explore the emergence of a mixed and interdisciplinary form, of the map and of their own practice. This course will be relevant for all those who work across disciplines in the intersection of the urban, the non-human world, and the human interaction with it. The map will be read, made, critiqued, communicated and used in both a physical and digital form, as we understand one particular system in Bidar. We will be walking, talking and engaging with the system on the field as we use the map to document and observe.
The objective of this workshop is to use the ‘map’ either cartographic, or of memory, or of time as a field instrument to understand the socio-ecological system of the transect - the Mangarwada - Jungle Koyi - Halladhkeri stream.
From the course plan for “Mapping to understand socioecological phenomena in the place”
”Artefact as Method” was actually planned around Gantiganahalli Lake, where this workshop is taking place
Artefacts have been a driving factor of our practice. It has been the center of how we engage, collaborate in a space and also present work and learning. Artefacting as a methodology helps push back on linear approaches to research. It becomes a method that includes and encourages plurals, perspectives, complexity and nuances.
They are also primarily a way to delve deeper into ones practice and use it as a method rather than just the final component or an end product/output. For example if you are a developer, traditional methods of development involve - research, ideation, design, prototyping and development. And for someone who is not strict in their titles and identity, this framework often feels limiting as one feels that the development can not begin until prior stages are complete. It also reinforces the notion that once a step is finished, the other begins, making movement between stages less porous. Collaboration using artefacts as a method happens differently. If there is a team of multi disciplinary individuals - say a researcher, designer and developer. Each person uses their practice to make something at every stage. This artefact becomes the way to to research, way to ideate, design and develop. Artefacts by nature are complex, iterative, constantly evolving and dynamic. It ensures that the framework remains porous and iterative by intent.
From the course plan for ’’Artefact as Method”.
I attended the annual Kerala OSM State of the Map conference in Payyanur, an hour from Kannur city. It took place at the Geography Department of Payyanur College, in Edat. Somebody tells me the name means to say ‘inbetween land’. I understood a large extent of the talks, but not fully, for they were mostly in Malayalam, and not the kind with english mixed in, but in Malayalam. That is what I was facinated by, a very diverse of attendees in age and in their work: from corporate employees who work with the Kerala OSM community, a panchayat member, students of the Geography department at the Payyanur campus of Kannur University, community members interested in ecology and conservation and more. I wish to see this happen in Tamil Nadu and in Karnataka
We met Jaisen Nedumpala, who has been working in Panchayats in Kerala since 2002. Read this very detailed blog from his work in the Koorachundu Village Panchayat, ‘Mapping efforts in an unsurveyed land - Koorachundu Village Panchayat experience’, especially the ‘Need for maps’ section. It is incredible work. Work of a similar nature we require in the Samagra Arogya cluster of village panchayats in Karnataka, in Kundapura Taluk.
We met Manoj Karingamadathil, who coordinated the Mangrove walk along with VC Balakrishnan and others.
I met Arun Ganesh for the first time.
I have not often noticed festivals at the Mosque and Dargah near my house. Eid was very bright but not like the Urz, the Urz had a market lining the footpath and big boards. The area remains very clearly segregated. Only on the main road, and heading towards Doddabettahalli does one see muslim households.
