The Heroes Project: Character Design - Designing the Mantis

During his research period of The Heroes Project designer Abhishek Choudhury came across a lot of folktales which spoke of a trickster deity called /Kaggen in their stories. In folklore of the /Xam people, /Kaggen is seen as the most important deity as a trickster and a creator. /Kaggen is said to be a shape-shifting bushman shaman and often represented as a mantis. The bushman shamans often spoke about physical transformations and shape-shifting in the spirit realm. /Kaggen, the mantis, is said to be the one who created the moon and also the first Eland and other antelopes. In Phase 1, he did an analysis into the character of /Kaggen in an effort to understand the natural and cultural forces that could have moulded this character. More on the character design process.

The Heroes Project: Graphic Narrative

Natural Justice's Heroes Project is an initiative started to revive the mythology and folklore of the Khoi-san as a spiritual and cultural relief to face their present day socio-political struggles. The Heroes Project phase 1 of the project started in July 2013 which led to the creation of a workshop model for teenagers aged between 13-15.

The workshop combined elements of theatre, dance, shadow puppetry and mythology to create a space for sharing personal stories and experiences. The idea for such a space came from the ancient story-telling culture of the Khoi-san, which is almost extinct. The space was intended to be a bridge between the reality of the personal stories to the mythology/ folklore of the Khoi-San. Read more about the Project. 

LED Lab interviewed for Tactical Technology Collective

Arpitha Kodiveri of Natural Justice was featured in the micro magazine that was published as a part of the evidence and influence conference organized by the Tactical Technology Collective in June, 2013. The magazine features interviews of environmental activists from across the world who have attempted to use creative techniques for intervention. The interview highlights the role of design in the communication of law, an approach which is being experimented with at the Law,  Environment and Design Lab. The LED Lab is an innovative space set up collaboratively between the Srishti School of Art, Technology and Design and Natural Justice. This interview features its pioneering efforts to create a board game on a progressive law in India called the Forest Rights Act, 2006 as well as a paralegal toolkit that uses puppet theater to speak about this law and its importance. The interview is available for viewing here.

Second Meeting of the ARI-BCP

Natural Justice and the Law, Environment and Design (LED) Lab organised the second meeting of the Asia Regional Initiative on Biocultural Community Protocols (ARI-BCP) at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore from 18-20 February, 2013. The meeting was attended by ARI-BCP participants from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal working to support tribal rights, fishing community rights, the rights of communities affected by extractive industries, traditional healers’ rights and farmers’ rights. The meeting was supported by The Christensen Fund and the Ford Foundation. 

Participants primarily discussed how BCPs can be used in securing the rights of indigenous communities. They also discussed how domestic legislation can be used in preparing BCPs and how the experiences of BCPs can be shared across larger networks.

Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (LPPS) from Rajastan shared how the Raika community’s BCP process helped the community in forming their identity and how the BCP has been used in negotiations with government agencies. They also shared about their ongoing struggle for the recognition of communities’ forest rights and grazing rights under Forest Rights Act, 2006. Finally, they expressed deep concern about the declaration of Kumbalgarh National Park without consultation with affected communities. 

Ramesh Bhatti of Sahjeevan, a local organization working with Maldhari communities in Kachha District, Gujurat, presented on how the Maldhari BCP process and how it has enabled the community in asserting their rights and establishing their identity. 

Design students from the Law, Environment and Design Lab presented to the audience on the application of design tools in the claiming of forest rights by the Gujjar Community in Sariska and Camel Maldharis in Kutch under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. The teams presented innovatively using forum theater and film to highlight the issues being faced by these communities. The students presented some of their outcomes like the initial sketches of a board game on the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

LED Lab Mapping in Sariska Tiger Reserve

The team from the Law, Environment and Design (LED) Lab, a new partnership between Natural Justice and the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, visited three villages in the core area of the Sariska Tiger Reserve to begin a resource mapping process with the Gujjar community. The team was accompanied by KRAPAVIS, a local NGO. The team worked with the community on a cognitive mapping exercise where different groups gathered to fill the chart paper with their understanding of the space they lived in. These cognitive maps became an effective tool to document the injustices caused by the denial of their rights to access the forest after its declaration as a tiger reserve. The LED Lab team conducted meetings with the Gram Sabha in each village to understand the status of implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and through this determined that knowledge of the Act was limited. The design students accordingly decided to develop a graphic novel that chronicles the different provisions of the Act and describes its interaction with potentially conflicting laws like the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The team also visited relocated villages where communities are still struggling with the dramatic transition and heard of the lack of community consultation through the relocation process. The LED team will now work towards creating a simple relocation chart that will detail options available along with experiences and challenges faced by other villages. 

Read more about the visit to Sariska Tiger Reserve here. Learn more about the LED Lab here.

LED Lab Projects Presented

From 7-8 January 2013, the Law, Environment and Design (LED) Lab hosted presentations on projects being offered to the design students of the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology for the coming semester. Around 40 students participated in the presentations from diverse backgrounds ranging from filmmakers to textile designers. The students will be working on two projects. One will be with the Gujjar community in Alwar, living in the Sariska Tiger reserve. The other will be with the Maldhari camel breeders in Kuttchh. 

The students will embark on their first field visit from 27 January - 3 February where they will work with community members on a participatory resource mapping process with the objective of presenting it as legal evidence and as a tool for future negotiations with external stakeholders. The students will also be looking at other outcomes from this experience. At the presentations, some proposed making a documentary on the entire experience. Others suggested the creation of cognitive maps to breakdown the rights and claims over the space that they occupy. The LED Lab will commence project work on 11 January with an immersion class introducing the students to the local context. The class will be taught by Kabir Bavikatte and Arpitha Kodiveri of Natural Justice and Deepta Sateesh  from Srishti.

More information on the projects and the presentation can be found here.

Law, Environment and Design Workshop - Bangalore

Natural Justice and the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology co-hosted a workshop entitled “Engendering Dialogue among Law, Environment and Design” at Srishti's campus in Bangalore, India on 7 December, 2012. The workshop sought to share the visions of participants, discuss ways of working together, and explore possible intersections between law, environment and design. The workshop also saw the launch of the website of Natural Justice and Srishti’s exciting new joint project, the Law, Environment and Design (LED) Lab (opening January, 2013). Representatives from the Global Environments Summer Academy, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment also participated in the workshop. 

While the LED website is not yet fully populated, it can be accessed here.