Search for a Future of the Past
Location : Bidar, India
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Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe XD
Brief: An initiative to document the oral history and public memory of a monument.
For my thesis project, I sought to create a mobile application which could be used to navigate through a heritage space. The app enabled the user to access not just the historical narrative of the target monument, but also explore people's memories which are linked to the space. The project was a exploration into how we understand heritage, and what would occur when more of common, folk knowledge is added to our perspective of the same.
The site of this project is the city of Bidar, from the state of Karnataka in India. This in itself becomes a crucial point, because this project is borne from and dedicated to this city and its people.
The city has a long history, and its contemporary syncretic culture is the result of multiple influences which have transformed the city over the years.
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Bidar is home to 11 major monuments, out of which the monument is focus for this project, is the Bidar Fort, a 15th century sprawling fortress.
I first started out with the question,' What is Heritage?' I was able to formulate mind maps which sought to answer the same. This became a framework, on the basis of which further channels were based on.
Having identified the various avenues of heritage, I then moved on to developing a system, using which information about the fort could be collected and translated to the app. This system involves collaborations between various students, individuals and organisations to make the final outcome.
The fort would have 4 key ways of navigation. Three would be app- directed, while the fourth would be reliant on information boards on site. Keeping in mind the diverse demographic that would visit the site, I have tried to keep the modes of navigation also varied.
Each of these modes have specific characters assigned to them, which will act as mascots and will help with way- finding in the fort.
Stories for the app have been collected extensively through wide demographic, from school children and teachers, to artisans to government officials. These stories themselves reflect the diverse nature of the local community of Bidar.
