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Arts Reverie Design Camp – Ahmedabad, India, September 2007

The Camp
The ambition for the Design Camp is based on a commitment to the development of local economies of practice. It seeks to support the preservation of traditional skills and their application to processes and products for national and international markets. The Camp gave an opportunity for international designers to develop their own creative practices, explore the potential for the manufacture of product in India and set up trading agreements based on ethical principles.

Eight artists, designers and designer-makers from the UK spent 21 days working together in Ahmedabad. The artists were based at Arts Reverie and the House of MG. Project managers facilitated an interface with local crafts workers and artisans, with whom the visitors worked individually and as a group. The Project also facilitated introductions and working relationships with other design studios, artists and designers active in the city along with NGOs, development agencies, promoters and industry contacts.

The idea of the Design Camp was initiated by A Fine Line, AFL, which is managing the HAT Project, a programme of 23 international research fellowships for designer makers.

The group of designers researched and developed design ideas and manufacturing processes for innovative products that relate directly to their cultural, environmental and aesthetic context. The designs were developed through a process of collaboration ensuring that they are consistent with and sensitive to the use of materials, technology and ways of working, to support sustainable production.

Within the research process, that will continue beyond the Camp itself, the designers will work with the project managers and project partners to explore market potential, distribution and routes to markets for the resulting product. The intention is that by the end of the three-week period the research findings, product concepts and production proposals will be drawn together by the group and partners, and agreements reached for taking the project/s forward.

Ahmedabad provides a rich diversity of ancient and modern, an ambitious city in a process of rapid transition that amply reflects the challenges of South Asia’s encounter with globalisation. As the context for the Design Camp the city presents very real opportunities for bringing together the traditional and the contemporary, design and making, through artistic collaboration.

Through the Design Camp, AFL and AW propose to focus on enterprise and the economic impact of the HAT project research outcomes. This part of the overall project is linked to the British Council strategic focus on creative industries as a part of its current public diplomacy campaign.

The Design Camp idea is intended to support the ambitions of the city itself and it in turn is being supported by local business, such as House of Mangaladas Girdhardhardas, House of MG.

The next mini design camp is slated for January 2008.

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