information absurdification

absurd, ridiculous, humourous things can instigate thought and provoke discusion — because they surprise people, challenge their ideas, and help them think differently.

in this workshop, we will make absurd things about topics we care about, so that we may provoke others to care about those topics too.

each participant will select a dataset (on dataforindia, etc), observe a trend in the data, interpret how that trend may continue in the future, and then create an absurd object that may exist in that future.

we will use generative tools to make visuals of these absurd objects; add a provocative caption (or poem even); and share it with people in the room, conference, or—if someone wishes to—on social media. if time permits, we can make frugal prototypes of these objects too.

here is an example of such work done by a past student (samyukta shanmugam):

after looking at rising trends of flooding in an indian city, she said that people in that city will need to walk on stilts to get-around. so, she created 2-feet-tall 'stilt shoes' for people to wear and walk-around in, so that they could experience living in such a future. that provoked them to think more deeply about flooding, climate change, civic infrastructure, etc.

i have shared a link of a course i'd taught at srishti on a similar topic. that course lasted 3 weeks. though : for vizchitra's 3-hour workshop, we will look at that work as a reference but use generative-tools in order to move fast.