Political form is aesthetic in nature, so too are political struggles as they are inextricably related. Politics is related to the sensible, as in tangible (Jaques Rancieres). It’s about who we can hear, who we can see, who we will allow into our space, or who gets to occupy space and how. These are fundamental sensory things. The image of citizen has to change. A politics in terms of sensory realities, linked to praxis, icono-praxis, sensory praxis. How you see and feel and make sense of the world. This will not come in due to a new law or a new monument, it has to be a host of new monuments, a new hegemonic order and a new regime of the senses of the body (Kagri Jain). Enabling deliberative plurality requires an open form.
OPEN FORM C.IC. was founded on the principle of an Open Collaborative network that forefronts an International Knowledge Exchange framework to tackle local and global challenges. The founding partners have collaborative experience across three continents in the field of indigenous justice. Projects include built interventions for sustainable forestry activities in the face of devastating and unregulated extraction for the Kolla community in Argentina, research into post-disaster cultural assimilation of the Orang Asli in Malaysia and post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal.
As people come together, so the walls come down.
The CoForum and ‘E Pluribus Unum’ are projects that specifically engage with deliberative processes and plurality through the crafted, non-discriminatory structure.
कार्य प्रगति पर है (A Work in Progress)
This film, set in the heart of India, Bhopal, traces the waste that flows from demolition sites in a fast growing city. The Construction and Demolition waste is a major environmental hazard. The recycling plants installed by the government are only able to address 1% of the total waste generated in the country.
Deliberative Plurality
Cognitive Justice
Building Craft
Open Forms
Investigations
De-Sign: to avert the use of signs; to erase the creators signature; to embrace ambiguity. The kinematic, ambiguous, crafted object, placed into the hands of the public, is an act of trust that is reciprocated by those who interact with the structure and each other. The care with which the structure is crafted, stimulates an equal response of care. The public realm is re-invented as one of responsive respect, rather than robust anonymity. Traversing the scale between furniture and building, reconciling the hand-constructed artefact, at human scale, with the built environment. We explore this direct line between natural material, hand assemblage and the architectural building, which facilitates the direct agency of the individual as a co-curator, not only in the constructed space but also in the object production.
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