The studio was a chronicle of different Narratives that we collected, analyzed and represented. There were such five narratives made with different learnings through Ethnographic Research, making a storybook, Data recording, Communication, On-site study, Graphic Novels, Game Design, Mapping narratives. Major of the narratives focused on the people, their lifestyle and the Terracotta Craft of Gundiyali Village (Kutch).
'What's Your Story?' - As the title says, I had to a story book on my fellow batchmate Samriddhi as the final output, after interviewing her and collecting data necessary for it. Later, chose illustrator Ana Albero to graphically illustrate the story of Samriddhi. I chose to focus on her characteristic of being clumsy and hence, made a story line with series of such events based on it.Reflecting back to the previous semester, our journey was to be represented and narrated through any Indian Narrative craft form. I chose Ganjifa Cards, which were used as play cards in Mughal courts whereas a medium to tell stories of Indian epics and tales of Vishnu Incarnations to children in Maratha households. Initially a timeline was made to highlight the key events of the semester like the interview, trip to Udaipur, studying courts, mid term juries, navratri etc. Later, were representedGundiyali Village (Kutch) has the largest Terracotta Craft Cluster in Gujarat. It’s also famous for its painting in Mumbai and Bhuj. Spending four days on the field, we communicated with the people there, interviewed them and collected data. I, along with my partner Sakina, worked with Ahmadbhai Kumbhaar and his family. We studied different aspects like the process of making Terracotta Products, culture, lifestyle, relationships, religion, histories, proximities, village context mapping and muchOnce having conversation with SharifaBen (Ahmadbhai’s wife), I asked her why she didn't learn pottery. She said that it's man's job to do and they are only meant to do household work and are ‘mere workers’, but are they? The family map shows different roles played by SharifaBen which shows though she isn’t directly involved in it, but does have one of the most important roles supporting it. Bhattis are used to fire the clay products in order to make it stronger and harder, hence making itself one of the most important steps of the process. Every Kumbhaar had their different bhattis to use. “Kumbhaar ni bhatti” maps the proximity of each of the Kumbhaar’s houses we studied with their respective Bhattis.
Taking forward the study and research of Gundiyali, we had to design an educational game. ‘Enroute Clay’s Journey’ was designed looking at the contextual map on a larger scale as a base. Hence, firing clay being a part of the process, the theme of the game became the process and extended it to its journey to the market. The above image shows the Poster and the Rule booklet of the game.
There were different components designed for the game - the boards (x2), Hint Cards (to complete the process), Matla Cards (instead of Money for barter), House Cards (to know how much matlas are to be exported to which houses) and the packaging.On analyzing the stories and data collected in Gundiyali and making inferences from them, we had to make a Graphic Novel based on it. Taking the family map ‘SharifaBen Ni Bhumika’ as the base for the theme, a storyline was initially written. Later, on detailing out the story, a story board was made to illustrate all the events sequentially.
Glimpses from the Graphic Novel ‘The Fallen Fate’Glimpses from the Graphic Novel ‘The Fallen Fate’
