Industrial Visit Report: Injection Moulding

As children, we've all heard bewitching stories that encompass real life things like the grass, and the moon. As we grow up, it skips our mind, that the moon is what is common between Viraj taking his routine walk from the mess to the hostel; and a wary traveller, who's travelling under it's light in a chilly desert, for his conquest. Food for thought, is it not? :)

Display and Control Design: Dials and Mechanical Displays

Display and Control Design: Dials and Mechanical Displays

Of Dreams you Control

It was just yesterday, that my body healed out of the 2-day fever that hit me due to heat. I bet my body wasn't at it's physical maximum. At 1 pm today, I lied down on my bed, without the motive of sleeping. I fell asleep in a jiffy, and the dream started tout de suite.

I forget the exact identity of the first place I was in the dream, though it still seems familiar as I recall it. It was the home of someone close by, if not mine, and I was lying in the same position as I was in my hostel bed. I was sure at that instant that this was a dream. And I wished that instant that I did not want that place. I wanted to go somewhere else, probably a larger place, where I could go for a stroll.

It was as if the place packed itself up. I don't remember the exact details of the place, but I remember all wall-hangings, floor-tiles, ceiling fixtures, all liberated from their places, and soaring like drapery in tempest, they gathered at a single point and vanished, to reveal another more familiar environment. Well - this of course did not happen to the utmost detail of dust trails and clinging sounds like movies, but the dreamy, hazy experiences.

This time, it was my grandmother's old place, 16-Sri Krupa, in old Nasik that opened up. Here too, I landed up lying on the living room bed. My brain suggested again, that I wanted to walk, not rest, and hence this scene too, wrapped itself in the same manner! I've quickly sketched an illustration of how this place wrapped up. Hope it helps visualise!

Finally, my longing for a place to walk culminated in an all new place coming into being. A 3-floored glass building with promenades, and all that jazz. I think my image will describe this place more than my words. Tried to make it as close to my dream as possible. Though that seemed much more believable. :D

That was the the last shred of visual I could 'control' in my dreams. Of course, it wasn't exactly controlling; whatever my mind sub-consciously wanted, my brain threw at me. I am always triggered by what my dreams show me!

'New Olds' : Reliving Classics

Max Mueller Bhavan, Pune in collaboration with MIT-Institute of Design Pune has set up a 28-day long product design exhibition called 'New Olds' on the 3rd floor of our academic block. I bet all of us had a look!

This exhibition travelled all the way from Germany and was inaugurated on the afternoon of 4th April, and displays products from all over Europe. As the name suggests, New Olds is all about products that bridge the gaps of time, and bring to us a novel melange of traditions, classics with newfound aesthetics and technology.

Those lucky few students who were at the inauguration ceremony were toured through the exhibition and were told the concept and thought process behind every product by Prof. Volker Albus - Designer, Curator, Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design/Product Design.
The exhibit featured modern takes of contemporary designers on paradigmatic products like the Eames chair, or the classic wooden furniture like wardrobes and chairs. This involved an interesting intervention of modern materials into these trend-setting products. Their sense of tradition was as strong as the avant-garde use of materials. Along with the old products, there were also a number of modern products like the stackable plastic chairs made in wood. The exhibition had an otherworldly timeless feel to it. I’m sure the products – so close to us, yet so nicely tweaked – have stamped their identity and inspired minds.

The exhibition took us through a caravan of classic products from all around Europe. It surely taught us about the emotional potential of products and the ideas and feelings inanimate products can induce in humans. Professor Albus left the crowd stimulated with his concluding statement – What about India? For a country that has such affluent historical and cultural heritage, shouldn’t we – the young designers of India - inculcate those values through our designs? Something to think about, I’m sure!