Bricolage & Design Practice

Seal Carvings from the Indus Valley Civilization

bricolage |brēkōˈläZH|: construction or creation from a diverse range of available things

I learnt the term bricolage during one of the early lectures in the diploma course I’m doing, on Indian Aesthetics at Jnanapravaha, Mumbai. The course covers history, archaeology, architecture, anthropology, literature, philosophy and visual culture towards understanding the interlinked evolution and transformation of Indic arts, crafts and philosophic traditions. My favourite lectures in the course have been those on the principles of classical Indian aesthetics (the theory of Rasa) explored through the lens of dramaturgy, poetry, music, painting, sculpture, architecture and the crafts.

You might wonder why I chose this apparently unrelated academic pursuit. The answer lies in “bricolage”.  Bricolage (bricklaying) is adopted from the French word for “fiddle/tinker” and, by extension "to make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are at hand (regardless of their original purpose)". Interestingly, this word was originally presented as a metaphor for how mythical thought works, by selecting fragments from previous cultural formations and redeploying them in new interpretations (by Claude Lévi-Strauss). Now its use extends towards both science and humanities fields of study.

I was quite thrilled when I started reading up on the term and discovering these meanings, because it also describes, so accurately, my approach to deepening my personal design practice. Design practice too, combines using existing materials with non-conventional tools to create something completely new, and a new way of seeing the world, in the process. It is also the applied knowledge associated with practice - practical, experiential, personal, or tacit. 

Applying the concept of bricolage to our evolving practice as designers for the often cryptic, obscure, multi-dimensional industry of software tools, calls for exploration - How might we juxtapose the principles of Indic aesthetics with a contemporary lens to offer new perspectives for the challenges of a modern-day designer?  How might we use established design tools and methodologies in original, experimental, innovative  ways to  address the needs of the intertwined ecosystem of our users and the tangled technical systems in which they operate? 

So, yes, while the course has me reeling from my almost non-existent aptitude for academic rigour and the toll on my weekend, it  feeds my soul by letting me indulge in my passion for Indic philosophic & aesthetic traditions. It also sharpens my vocation of design practice by nudging me to reinvent my practice for the relatively unfamiliar domain of software tools  we work in.