Co-design dialogues through digital connectivity sustaining future practice for traditional textile artisan communities in India

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Presented by Deborah Emmett, University of New South Wales, AUSTRALIA.

Traditionally textile artisans in India created products for their local communities but a shift by rural village populations to larger urban centres has resulted in a disconnect between artisans and consumers of their handcrafted textiles. Discourse between textile design researchers within the theoretical framework of co-design increasingly advocate direct links between consumers, or users with the makers. They believe that the textile or garment has more intrinsic value if the maker and final user know each other, and so adding to the sustainability of the item.

Co-design theorists Elizabeth Sanders and Pieter Jan Stappers consider that digital connectivity has developed a more global inclusion in design. The proliferation of cheap smartphone technology over recent years in India has revolutionised communication access for traditional textile communities. Artisans, like others in India’s lower socioeconomic sections of society, now have access in one device to digital communication, the internet and a camera that was previously beyond their financial capacity. In this paper I will discuss two co-design projects that I initiated between a Kashmiri artisan community in India and customers in Australia to produce two embroidered pashmina shawls.

Digital connectivity between the inter-cultural participants was integral to this co-design project particularly as it continued throughout COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions. Based on a co-design approach the customers connected with artisans through digital communication including WhatsApp and Zoom. Digital communication enables inclusivity between participants with differences in language and culture. This availability for direct communication with the user will empower the artisans and provide a strategy for future sustainability of their craft.