The Passionate Storyteller, The Teacher and The Leader
Balaram has been a strong believer and practitioner of the power of storytelling through concepts and designs. From his early childhood, the songs and storytelling events, put up during festivals and other events, captivated him. He went ahead to explore the material and expressive qualities of ‘paper’ and used it for making the deep saturated coloured puppets. He also became a storyteller by organizing special shows of Tholu Bommalata traditional puppets; along with being the maker of the story characters [2], [5]. This sowed seeds for his lifelong love and journey to share stories of impact through a different, unique design language as part of his product designs and in the methods of his teachings.
Hanuman and Ravana in Tholu Bommalata: shadow puppet tradition of Andhra Pradesh, India | Credit: d’source: Design Mentors | S Balaram writeup
“I tell stories through products which have a lot behind them, other than serving the function or looking good.” – Balaram expressed during his TEDxDeccan talk on ‘The Indian Design Story’, 30th July 2011, city of Hyderabad [10]
According to him, some forms as products start a conversation and give a new meaning for their users (this meaning is not function or beauty per se). For instance, he explains the buying of branded jeans as an act of wearing one’s personality. The purpose is not necessarily to cover your body; but the meaningful connection of wearing the brand that uncovers your personality [10]. Another beautiful case study often discussed by him is the shape and form of the round conference table. The round form is an expression that communicates that ‘All are Equal and have an Equal Say’. It is marquee of an in-built inclusive and democratic voice of all.
Prof. S Balaram giving his talk: The Indian Design Story | Courtesy: TEDxDeccan Talks, 2011
“Culture dominates us. Products are Culture Born’ – Balaram expressed during his TEDxDeccan talk on ‘The Indian Design Story’, 30th July 2011, city of Hyderabad [10]
Balaram has strongly practiced the notion that Indigenous needs / cultural identity drives product designs. It is with the same intent that Balaram approached the design of his award winning product, the Oxygenator. The Sri Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram commissioned Prof Balram to design and develop an indigenous oxygenator. A persistent curiosity in Balaram’s mind triggered him to ask an unusual question that why the that the oxygenator was separated from the cardiotomy reservoir device? Why this compromise?...since, the use of the oxygenometer device by integrating them as twin parts would be better during a surgery. This masterstroke thinking led to the the beautiful marriage between the oxygenator and the reservoir for a senstised product semantics and this was the first ever integrated and cost-effective oxygenator-cardiotomy reservoir device, which has won the prestigious National Meritorious award [2], [5].
Institutional service - Oxygenator design (left) for Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Private Archive of S. Balaram
Imported Oxygenator, Private Archive of S. Balaram
According to Balaram in his paper, ‘Product Symbolism of Gandhi and Its Connection with Indian Mythology’, Design Issues, 5(2), 68-85. doi:10.2307/1511515, product meanings get conveyed as part of a two-way communication process. He shares that the designer, artifact and the user influence each other in a two-way interaction to become one with the emergent symbolic qualities or the meanings that product subsequently manifests. Taking examples of The Nakashima Chair of the 1940s and Le Corbusier building as exemplars of individuality; he analyzes that these designs participate in a two-way interaction by receiving the characteristics of users and also transferring the iconic design traits/ character to users [10].
George Nakashima at work portraiture, Private Archive of S. Balaram; The Grass seated chair designed by George Nakashima, Source:
George Nakashima Woodworkers | Le Corbusier with Jawaharlal Nehru. Photo: gstatic.com and Capitol Complex of Chandigarh. Photo: Sanyam Bahga, Courtesy:
worldarchitecture.org
Prof Balaram has over four decades of teaching experience who even taught environmental exposure (rural exposure or living with people), immersing them in observing the rural ways of life. He was the first to coin the term ‘majority world’ in place of the derogatory term ‘developing world’ [5].
Considering the living body of his practice-based projects at NID; it can be inferred that he was among foremost design teachers to apply and facilitate students’ learning outcomes as part of a project-based learning paradigm. With this perspective, the courses and the curriculum that made the academic culture as part of the new curriculum at NID in the 60s; devotionally followed the socio-cultural and developmental factors as prime to a foundtaion student’s complete education.
Balaram shares that the NID curriculum plan emphasized a foundation program of a year and a half duration, followed by four years of project-based learning which culminated in a comprehensive diploma project. As a pluralist nation, India required design training not in different specializations but, rather, of a broad, generalist, multi-disciplinary nature [11]. Few of the education building blocks that were implemented in the efforts through a full-fledged faculty development and students’ training programmes – Prof Balaram summarizes in his article, ‘
Bauhaus and the Origin of Design Education in India’, as follows:
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To counter the prevailing ‘rote-routine-remember’ system of Indian education, unlearning at the design institute was considered crucial.
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As most design students come from urban backgrounds while the majority of the Indian population live in villages, an experiential course called ‘Rural Exposure’ was introduced, which involved students living in villages.
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Multi-disciplinary projects where faculty, students and technical staff can rub shoulders and take on different roles were undertaken in order for students to acquire essential team-working abilities.
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Open elective courses conducted by external professionals who took on experimental themes were introduced for cross disciplinary learning.
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Constant experimentation was the motto and an exposure to experimental work happening all over the world in the field of art and technology was mandatory.
His ideas for his teaching pedagogy and methods revolved around the core of the grassroot needs, problems and contextual scenarios that capture people and ther interactions with products and spaces in India. From this perspective he wrote stories and captured events, places, practices and environments that echo the identities enamoured in the culture of India – that he carried forward as a design leader: Founder Dean to implement this as the eductaion philosophy at the DJ Academy of Design, Coimbatore [12]. At present, philosophy is former foundational beginnings for the SASI Creative Colleges, Coimbatore under his Design leadership in the role as the Director.
His article on bullock cart design was prescribed as a core course for secondary schools throughout India by the National Council of Educational Research and Training.
Electives workshop (right), Source: DJAD Brochure, 2013 [12]
During his journey to lead the DJ Academy of Design and build the education ecosystem for the institute; there were conscious contributions done from the perspective of working at the intersections of Human-centered Design, Environmental Design, Space Design and Industrial Design. This led to design courses by him for Universal Design from the perspectives of furthering the importance of students’ undertaking human-centered needs / concerns identified for problem-based learnings as part of Universal Design projects. A strong testimony of these efforts was the organization of the first conference on Universal Design and Development (UDAD 2015) under his ledership at DJ Academy, Coimbatore. The urgent issues encircled around a lacuna in the awareness of Universal Design (UD) in India as well as other developing nations. In his report on UDAS 2015, Prof Balaram shares concerns and development works needed to develop UD in India, as follows:
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Like many other ‘majority world’ (or developing) countries, the Universal Design principles which apply to rich (or developed) countries, will not work in India since the physical, economical and the socio-cultural contexts are very different. A wheelchair will not be of use in poor rural households where all activities are carried on uneven grounds. Realizing this aspect, a concerned group of Indian designers and thinkers developed Universal Design India Principles (UDIP), 2011.
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However, considering the true ‘Universal Design for Real World’ (UDFRW), the above approach in UDIP still does not confronts physical access, biological impairments, age or anomalies. Mere biological inclusiveness would be meaningless without consideration of the serious oppressive conditions and challenges that people in India face from caste discriminations, hunger, poverty to lack of literacy, malnutrition leading to ill-health, etc.
