Thanima 3
‘Word to the WORLD’ Exploring Experiential Knowledge
An international conference on exploring what is to be Authentic, original, and culturally rooted
3rd International Conference on Design Pedagogy and Contextual Aesthetics
The objective of the conference
The Objective of the Conference is to explore various aspects of what is to be authentic. Authenticity in terms of creation of knowledge, authenticity in terms of aesthetic sensibility and authenticity in terms being in harmony with nature
The theme
The conference is being organized to address the mechanization, standardization, and homogenization that is sweeping the world. The creation of knowledge has become the task of a few people and the rest is just made to swallow it whereas our biological make is for the creation of knowledge and not for analysis. How come why have we become analyzers first and why is creativity an afterthought and also concentrated in some sections of the society?
Why is that in the present educational paradigm most important issues are ignored and are addressed as afterthoughts when we have already crossed the tipping point, sustainability is the best example?
The visual experience of modern spaces all over the world is beginning to look alike. In this regard, architecture and artifacts are no exceptions! Until the last century, we have had diverse cultures with distinct ways of life and fitting aesthetic sensibilities. The homogenization of human cultures is one of the biggest challenges of modernity to be addressed by both academia and practice.
The real issue is to understand how knowledge gets created and aesthetic sensibilities as manifested by the things they make and the spaces they employ are inextricably linked to the lived context.
In the present era, education conditions and homogenizes the sensibility of people through the way it imparts lessons in art, architecture, design, etc. (to begin with). In the process, we are neglecting vibrant contextual elements and thereby constructing a generic world lacking humane facets of design. So if aesthetic awareness through education is reinvented as awakening the senses through creating situations to connect to the natural context of the learner, authentic diverse cultures can stage a comeback. Through this approach, the organizers sincerely hope that if not in full, at least a part of our lost sensibilities can be regained.