2017, Jalandhar, India

Designweek at Apeejay College of Fine Arts

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The Whynotcooperation was invited to curate the International Design Week at the Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar India, in February 2017: Whynot Living The City

René Pijnenburg, Gé Smit and Fleur Swildens conducted workshops with 200 students and tutors from several design and arts departments. Other team members documented this event in film, photos and blog. It all ended up with the final presentation of 20 one minute filmstatements expressing students concerns and challenges for improving city life.

 

During this week, we wrote a short day-by-day blog you can read on this site.

But how did it go? How was it? Did we got something stirred and shaken?

 

A few quotes by Rajni Kumar - Coordinator International Design Week:

​“The theme of the week WHY NOT - is an inspiration in itself. The phrase is not only good to visualize different perspectives of design as in - why not spacious, why not big, why not functional but also motivates you as an individual as Why not - you. It immediately triggers a spark that why not me who succeeds, why not me who leads.

Why not live in a Smart Jalandhar - the concept of the week has put each student participant to actually recognize the need and significance of the same. We all have been staying for years in Jalandhar and have an idea about the issues of the place. But as individuals we are not doing much for our very own city. So, my plea is why not the youth who make a wakeup call, why not the youth who create awareness and why not the youth who show the way. If you as young designers get hold of the social issues and are equipped with the tools to tackle those issues, we are certain great things can happen.”

 

“Students presented their statements on T shirts: Living the city What makes me happy, what makes me angry?

The Dutch team have done a worthy job of directing the students towards a fresh thinking process. The students were advised not to jump to the solution but to look at different possibilities for solving the problem.”

 

“The thing that attracted us the most was the research work and detailed understanding done by the students before designing any product. Our young designers got hold of generous examples and experiences to learn from.”

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If you want to read more about this project go to our blog.