Sanchari Mahapatra: Super. Thank you.
Sanchari Mahapatra: was it? Am I pronouncing your name right?
Sanchari Mahapatra: I think it started with something called a.
Sanchari Mahapatra: That student is helping you, Kim. I think they are the
Sanchari Mahapatra: A. Why, she's helping her the class right now. Come and say hello. Oh.
Sanchari Mahapatra: she's saying, Hello! Hi! There she is! Hi! Ay, sorry, I replied. Your email, but a little late. Oh, I saw that. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Kimberly Marte: What, Kadoki. So I guess, Marshall, if you want to go ahead and get started
Marshall Hamachi: terrific. We'll go ahead and get started then.
Marshall Hamachi: So first of all, welcome to everybody who is joining us with Kimberly and her intro to automotive Cmf class, and we are very happy today to be able to share with you
Marshall Hamachi: a special guest, color, and material designer. Her name is Sanchari Mahapatra.
Marshall Hamachi: and just to give you some background. My name is Marshall Hamachi, and I am the associate director of the color materials and Trans Exploration Lab at Art Center.
Marshall Hamachi: and
Marshall Hamachi: as I mentioned in the email that was sent out that Kimberly had originally invited Sanchar to talk, and we wanted to open up to the rest of the college. So, Kimberly, do you just want to give a short description of your class?
Kimberly Marte: Sure. So this term I am teaching interim intro to automotive. Cmf.
Kimberly Marte: This gives everyone an opportunity to understand how Cmf: design affects the automotive industry, how we can also design within the automotive industry.
Kimberly Marte: We're doing a heavy push with sustainability when we talk about Cmf at Art Center. So there is discussions around that to help you understand how you can apply color, material finishes, design textures and trend
Kimberly Marte: regarding sustainability to your products. So this class, this term is automotive. Last semester I did teach product Cmf.
Kimberly Marte: and we do have some other classes around that. And Christine is also here. She teaches materials, features.
Marshall Hamachi: Hi, Christina! Hi! Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming. Thanks so much, Kimberly, and so let's go ahead, and i'm going to hand it off to Centari. What i'm asking for all of those who are attending online. If you have questions.
Marshall Hamachi: please post them to the chat, and after Sanchari is done we will have a short Q. A. And we'll be able to address those questions then.
Marshall Hamachi: Okay.
Marshall Hamachi: So without further ado, Sanchari.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Hello, everyone.
Sanchari Mahapatra: first of all big. Thank you to all the students who came, and this is a 1 h schedule. So
Sanchari Mahapatra: thank you for sacrificing your 1 h of sleep, or maybe Netflix or Youtube. I don't know. But yeah, I was. I've been in your shoes, so I know this 1 h can be very precious.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and a big shout out to Kim
Sanchari Mahapatra: Marshall and Kevin, who who contacted early on to make sure that we have everything in order, but especially for giving this platform to connect with all creative minds a bunch of you in a nice room.
Sanchari Mahapatra: so it's my pleasure, and i'm very excited to share my journey
Sanchari Mahapatra: for a lot of you. Since you're in automotive, a lot of my work may feel and appear softer, but it's not about talking about talking about a particular profession, but also just like looking at
Sanchari Mahapatra: how design has played a very active voice in my life.
Sanchari Mahapatra: be it in India, where I come from, or here in the Us.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So
Sanchari Mahapatra: with that let me share my screen.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So Marshall introduced me as a color material finished designer, a textile designer. Yes, and that by profession. But in my core i'm a cultural detective. I identify myself as a detective playing in the realms of culture
Sanchari Mahapatra: growing up. I was a very big fan of this series, called X Files. We are the Mtv generation when the cable network, you know, erupted, and we were hooked to our Tvs.
Sanchari Mahapatra: we still ran with remote controls, or even switches and siblings would fight again like who would have the you know Rains?
Sanchari Mahapatra: So it was a big time Color Tvs were on in India at that time.
Sanchari Mahapatra: so I was a big fan of X files, which was like a series where 2 very good looking, well cladded, sophisticated F. Vi. Agents were trying to solve paranormal activities like Ufo hitting the earth, and they were like hiding somewhere, and they were trying to
Sanchari Mahapatra: be these great detectives on our thing like what's going on. But unfortunately no aliens were visiting India at that time. So you know, I wanted to be a detective, and I just re focused on cultural things
Sanchari Mahapatra: by by cultural things I mean is like I'm just a curious person
Sanchari Mahapatra: by nature. If i'm paid for my curiosity, I would be. It's probably very rich.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but just like looking around, trying to make sense of things.
Sanchari Mahapatra: solving pieces of puzzle together. And this kind of ability really helped me in my work. Later on, as a as a trend forecaster in my textile design, or even as a Cm. Of design.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I am a maker I love exploring things.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and that's a little bit about
Sanchari Mahapatra: me.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: I don't know how to go to the next page. This thing is
Sanchari Mahapatra: hiding.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Yeah, okay.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Are you able to see my screen?
Sanchari Mahapatra: Is everyone able to see. Okay.
Ariel Brice: yes.
Sanchari Mahapatra: thank you. As a textile designer. I have worked in the handle and handicraft belt in India for a long time.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but not before having a fair share of my experience in the fashion design world. Of what could your from home furnishing, and later on as a as a designer creating seat covers for cars.
Sanchari Mahapatra: In fact, my last role before joining Nike was to design the seat for Volvo Rocks.
Sanchari Mahapatra: which is going to be launched very soon now.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And currently, i'm working in Nike as a material designer for footwear
Sanchari Mahapatra: as a Cml designer. I have worked on projects that involve trend, forecasting, cutter color, design and development, material innovation in the soft
Sanchari Mahapatra: space as well as hard space. By hard materials I mean metal, wood, carbon, fiber, and so forth and so on.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So for today I gonna focus on like few projects handful of projects.
Sanchari Mahapatra: But before I start talking about that, I have some steps that can give you a glimpse of my life in India, or the kind of things that still fascinate me, and the day
influence my design decisions.
Even now
Sanchari Mahapatra: so
Sanchari Mahapatra: very early on I'm. Just inside, looking at my mother's approach to life, and the way she
Sanchari Mahapatra: handled limited resources or abundance of certain natural resources like water. I,
Sanchari Mahapatra: looking back now, I feel like that was sustainability practiced in, you know, complete all some way.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It was a way of life, it was not. We we didn't practice it in silo, or, in fact, we didn't even know the word sustainability. But to give you a example, what we have here in the
Sanchari Mahapatra: What you see here. In the right is pieces of textile scraps put together by local tailors. These are scraps that are uneven.
Sanchari Mahapatra: The materials are different.
Sanchari Mahapatra: The prints and colors. They have no control over what kind of scraps come out from the mills, and they just simply switch together in fascinating ways to to to become quilt covers. I have used them with some clothes pins as my cotton in a
Sanchari Mahapatra: in my hostile days.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and I find that this is a very nice example of sustainable solutions. Very simple. It doesn't use a lot of energy, a lot of resources, but also gives employment to a huge community of people.
Sanchari Mahapatra: The second is the banana lease.
Sanchari Mahapatra: which acts as a plate here that can also be thrown, or I mean, just in this dec decomposes into the soil.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And talking of sustainability, I I was talking to Marshall, and I felt like maybe I can share something that is
Sanchari Mahapatra: very important for me. Coming from a different culture. I always think of materials, culture, you know, and how each of them influence
Sanchari Mahapatra: each other.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And as an example I have Ch. I. I drink. Chai a lot. What you see here is child, a day, but back home we call it as try simple chat.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and I remember
Sanchari Mahapatra: having the joy of having having chai from a clay pot instead of a Styrofoam glass or plastic month.
because it gave
Sanchari Mahapatra: something more
Sanchari Mahapatra: that I may not
Sanchari Mahapatra: find some other materials.
Sanchari Mahapatra: The clay was
Sanchari Mahapatra: that was baked by a porter's family, by Potter's Families, in fact, was unglazed, meaning it was porous. As a result of this interaction material interactions. There was the earthy flavor that would get induced in the child.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: it's very. It's not very
Sanchari Mahapatra: start, please.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Aromatic. It's a faint hem.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and which I don't get in
Sanchari Mahapatra: imitations of clay, because these what you see on the right are blazed pottery.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So the
Sanchari Mahapatra: 4 city of the material is last year, however, aesthetically, they look like brutal systems, right?
Sanchari Mahapatra: So these are
Sanchari Mahapatra: the other sense that gets activated in this interaction of having a try. From this
Sanchari Mahapatra: school learn, we call it, is the that there is an involvement of another sense and the sense of smell.
Sanchari Mahapatra: the sense of taste, a little enhanced taste.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and these for me, feel like a luxurious experience. It triggers nostalgia in my mind, and this is this is the power of material sculptures. I believe
Sanchari Mahapatra: another unique example is Banana Lee.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And now there are many leads the one lea that you see here. These are
Sanchari Mahapatra: made, using machines with a very beautiful contrasting white stitch here.
Sanchari Mahapatra: which is again extracted from a part of a leaf.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And these are beautiful, too.
Sanchari Mahapatra: What I really like about this experience, and I would have this kind of meal every time I would be invited by my South Indian friends.
Sanchari Mahapatra: India is like a subcontinent. So the northeast, West, south.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It almost is like they are all different countries.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Culture is different food, clothing, languages, everything is different. So this is a typical meal of a South Indian family, and whenever I was called by my South Indian friends. I would be, you know, treated to a whole delicacy
that is presented here.
Sanchari Mahapatra: But the infusion of steamed rise over a banana leaf
Sanchari Mahapatra: was a very.
Sanchari Mahapatra: let's say.
Sanchari Mahapatra: an intoxicating experience for me. It's like it stays with you even after your meal is done.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: it's a beautiful example of how a material can serve a purpose it can became. It can become a product that can contain other products.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but can be sustainable.
Sanchari Mahapatra: At the same time it can itself become
Sanchari Mahapatra: product of consumption. For example, the one that you, the the photograph that you see on the right is called upon it's beetle leave
Sanchari Mahapatra: that is filled with different kind of yummy stuff.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: held together with a clove which acts like a PIN,
Sanchari Mahapatra: and These are all mouth fresheners that you eat after the after food.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And La has a, and it has many good Indian restaurants, and you can find Pond there, too, if any one of you is interested to try.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Lastly, materials Culture, from the point of view of Saudi.
Sanchari Mahapatra: so Sadi is a traditional way
Sanchari Mahapatra: that even modern women were
Sanchari Mahapatra: to this date Even I will.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It's a 6 meter yard or yardages of fabric.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and it is a drift
Sanchari Mahapatra: without any stitch or button or a hook or zip, it is held around. It is draped around a woman's body in such a way that there are plates. You can walk comfortably, and it it takes the form of the human body as you walk through it.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It's very airy good for the kind of tropical weather that India has.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Even men were
this material, but as
Sanchari Mahapatra: from it the Houthi pants are derived.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and it's just user the bottom.
Sanchari Mahapatra: But many, many, many years ago.
Sanchari Mahapatra: when our mothers and grandmothers
Sanchari Mahapatra: that generation they would repurpose the use size. Sometimes studies would become so soft, so delicate. After wash repeated, wash, and instead of throwing it. They would put layers of Saudis, maybe 6, 7 layers of Saudis and turn them into something called quilt.
Sanchari Mahapatra: What you see on the right top corner is the traditional quilt from Bengal.
Sanchari Mahapatra: That's my community, and it is heavily embroidered throughout.
Sanchari Mahapatra: The embroidery. Here not only solves the decorative element, but also functional element. It holds the very frail pieces of cotton, 7 layers of fabric together. In fact, the choice of
Sanchari Mahapatra: color
Sanchari Mahapatra: that is on the top. Most of the layer is also very.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It's a conscious choice to go light, so that all these embroidery is going to show.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and the layers beneath could also show as a surprise elements. Sometimes
Sanchari Mahapatra: the motives are
Sanchari Mahapatra: drawn.
Sanchari Mahapatra: not like by pensive, but it is drawn by needle meaning.
Sanchari Mahapatra: They are embroidered by the women of the household. In fact, these were like very luxurious pieces of dowry
Sanchari Mahapatra: when dowry system was still prevalent in India.
Sanchari Mahapatra: But you'll be surprised these takes years, and sometimes one quilt may have impressions
Sanchari Mahapatra: done by the grandmother, the mother, the daughter, the daughter-in-law.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So these are very special fabrics. A beautiful example of
Sanchari Mahapatra: how sustainability can marry different time frames
Sanchari Mahapatra: different generations, bind families together.
Sanchari Mahapatra: be functional, but also beautiful at the same time.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So these are some things that really have been very influential in my life, and
Sanchari Mahapatra: from time to time I see that whenever I design
Sanchari Mahapatra: I designed with care that is, in the core of my design approach.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and it somehow my design strategies always end up with community involvement and materials.
I graduated from
Sanchari Mahapatra: a Design institute called National Institute of Design, which was based out of the Bauhaus principle.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And interestingly, this was
Sanchari Mahapatra: formed in 1961, based out of
Sanchari Mahapatra: a report called India Report, that was put together by Charles and Ray in
Sanchari Mahapatra: It's a very fascinating story, and I I know about this background only because I've walked on compiling the 50 years. So
Sanchari Mahapatra: I
Sanchari Mahapatra: design Academy in India.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So now to give you a glimpse of what I was doing in India, and when I say like I was working as a designer in grassroots, in handleum and handicraft.
Sanchari Mahapatra: hand, lum and handicraft is still a very big source of livelihood for millions of Indians
Sanchari Mahapatra: after agriculture, and
Sanchari Mahapatra: it's a part of the life. Sometimes
Sanchari Mahapatra: the the tools that they use to make hand-based handmade products. They live in their living room, for example, this wooden room is a part of the living room.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It's not separated. Worth in life is not separated in these interiors.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Similarly, if you go to a potter's village, you will see that the potter, the we will sit very proud in the in the courtyard. In the very
Sanchari Mahapatra: first step, As you enter there
Sanchari Mahapatra: house you will be welcomed by the tools which gives livelihood to their family. So it's almost worshipped as God.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So I worked with
Sanchari Mahapatra: 21 different communities, of women
Sanchari Mahapatra: sometimes children. It's not forced labor. It's just children
Sanchari Mahapatra: help their families from time to time as a part of
Sanchari Mahapatra: as a part of ongoing work. It's also. It also becomes play for them, but also a great source of education, not in the
Sanchari Mahapatra: formal education sense of like going to school, but they also learn a lot by picking up and helping their mothers or fathers in these crafts.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So I've worked with the 21 communities across 7 Indian States
Sanchari Mahapatra: where my work was to help them look at their
Sanchari Mahapatra: own crafts, but in a modern context, so that someone design designing a nice try cup in a village in India
Sanchari Mahapatra: could
Sanchari Mahapatra: to design something that is contemporary and something that can sit in a mobile in New York, you know, or could be bought by someone in La or Japan, for that matter, thereby enlarging their scope of market, and strengthening their source of livelihood
Sanchari Mahapatra: without them sacrificing this age, old craft, and taking up something that they are not skilled in, and ending up in poverty.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So this was the prime intention of me jumping into this field of work. Because.
Sanchari Mahapatra: yeah, I was traveling a lot. I was getting to see India a lot.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but also learning a different world from my
also learning the way they looked at design
Sanchari Mahapatra: and colors and materials
Sanchari Mahapatra: and processes.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So typical
Sanchari Mahapatra: work would begin by like. Go today's go to those surveys selecting
Sanchari Mahapatra: what candidates can be part of a design, training or design workshop. Here you see the ladies
Sanchari Mahapatra: doing some color composition work for a range of stoles, but her child is also wrapped up with her. You know this is how children also start learning
Sanchari Mahapatra: in the whole process.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And these kind of design development programs or training would
Sanchari Mahapatra: last anywhere from 15 days to one year. And i'll be like staying with them, living with them, dressing up as them, you know, because I didn't know any of those languages, even though i'm from India. We didn't speak a common Indian language
Sanchari Mahapatra: to give you an example. Sometimes, if I needed hot chine a cold morning.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I would sketch a cup of tea
Sanchari Mahapatra: to them.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and then add a little steam on top of the cup to show that, hey? I need a hot cup of tea instead of, you know, cold.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And finally we will do product diversification to see what our other products that they can make.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and I use their existing skills
Sanchari Mahapatra: to give you a just a a glimpse. This is a tribal village.
Sanchari Mahapatra: The houses are thatched roof, but very, very stable and very weather appropriate.
Sanchari Mahapatra: These are a bunch of women. I'm sorry the photographs are so small.
Sanchari Mahapatra: This is the traditional shawl which was
Sanchari Mahapatra: taken as an inspiration, and then we made a collection of stores like this, just taking away a lot of visual clues, and just retaining only those clues that can
Sanchari Mahapatra: speak, that it's from the village, and it is not made in a textile mail, so that
Sanchari Mahapatra: if a buyer likes it, they they can get the order directly
Sanchari Mahapatra: to the village instead of any other company. You know
Sanchari Mahapatra: you me demonstrating how we could do some material exploration directly on the loom
Sanchari Mahapatra: with other 2 women weavers.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And yeah, some glimpses from the training program.
Sanchari Mahapatra: But these training programs would involve
Sanchari Mahapatra: color competition.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I would encourage them to source locally source materials like cotton and wool, because a lot of them had
Sanchari Mahapatra: started working with
Sanchari Mahapatra: synthetic equivalent of one which is Acrylicians.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and also encourage them to look around their house and find what are the grown plants
Sanchari Mahapatra: which can be used as source of dial. So we ended up using a child as a dye color.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and the stole that you see here on the right is basically a Marino woman and woven, stole
dipped in chai color.
Sanchari Mahapatra: original trial.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and what you see here in the curtains are hand block printed
Sanchari Mahapatra: by a community or block printers using rusted iron and jaggeries to achieve this
Sanchari Mahapatra: natural color. Of course, India is rich with indigo, so there's there's a lot going on in indigo
Sanchari Mahapatra: in certain pockets.
Sanchari Mahapatra: This is one collection. I would like to show it's called hide and seek. We were inspired by the natural hide and seek of light throughout day, evening.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and one prime thing I always
Sanchari Mahapatra: wanted to keep in focus while doing these workshops and training programs was that I should
Sanchari Mahapatra: create a platform where everyone involved should feel the
Sanchari Mahapatra: should feel empowered
Sanchari Mahapatra: that they can be involved with the kind of
Sanchari Mahapatra: things they were doing. For example, if it was embroidery, the kind of approach we took for this
Sanchari Mahapatra: embroidery was that a very simple stitch, like running stitch could appear and disappear at certain places.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: every embroider would do it differently, and we ended up with a collection of stoles where no 2 pieces were alike, and that was the unique selling point For that collection
Sanchari Mahapatra: We have, we applied a similar approach to different
Sanchari Mahapatra: techniques. Also
Sanchari Mahapatra: these are some examples. Here there are layers of fabric
Sanchari Mahapatra: which is
Sanchari Mahapatra: printed fabric.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and they have cut open at certain point. So the flowers appear, and they disappear behind the
Sanchari Mahapatra: running stitch behind the lines in some places.
Sanchari Mahapatra: so it's fun. It's also gives the freedom to the doer
Sanchari Mahapatra: to do as they please, to understand balance and composition and harmony in their canvas, it becomes like painting for them, instead of turning them into laborers or workers say, hey, i'm a designer. I've come. Fill up the space with these colors that I tell you, you know
Sanchari Mahapatra: that's not. That's not the dynamic I was looking for, and this was much more fun.
Sanchari Mahapatra: We applied the same
Sanchari Mahapatra: concept of hide and seek. In we.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and weaving is a technique where
Sanchari Mahapatra: 2 threads interlock a 2 sets of threads, interlock.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: fabric is created by that interlocking process.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So in this case we had the freedom to do something at the yawn stage where the fabric is still not produced.
Sanchari Mahapatra: You have a set of yawns on a machine
Sanchari Mahapatra: which, when walked on, can create a surface.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So we introduced the hide and seek concept by involving dying
Sanchari Mahapatra: before leaving, so that if you see this little image here.
Sanchari Mahapatra: the line appears and disappears at certain point, and that play keeps on happening in the entire surface of the scarf.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and this is called Ty Die.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So I just want to see if anyone has any
Sanchari Mahapatra: questions to ask, or if i'm just
Sanchari Mahapatra: talking a lot
Sanchari Mahapatra: before I move on to the second project.
Sanchari Mahapatra: or should we keep the question answers to the last.
Kimberly Marte: Yeah, I would suggest. And just a time note. We're at the half an hour, mark, and it looks like you have a good amount of slides left.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Oh, okay, I think i'm sorry so much.
Sanchari Mahapatra: In that case. Let me just run through the slides and then pause and talk about it. So anyone's interested to know anything more about this.
Sanchari Mahapatra: This was a project on Cardi and Kadi is a special fabric, because it's not only hand woven, but hands fun also.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and Gandhi used it as a very nice message during the Indian freedom struggle against the British, where he encouraged every household to make their own fabric PIN their own yarn and make their own fabric.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It was a very non-violent way of introducing the concept of freedom, enabling individuals to be self dependent, and also reducing the dependency on mill based product from Britain.
Sanchari Mahapatra: This is a very special fabric, and a lot of shops were struggling with left over, since what to do. They came in different shapes, different materials, different colors.
So
Sanchari Mahapatra: this is a simple concept where, similar to looking colored fabrics were bunched together.
Sanchari Mahapatra: They were cut in thin strips
Sanchari Mahapatra: and stitch together to make a new material, as you can see here on the left.
Sanchari Mahapatra: with a very simple technique of interlocking with a contrast color, and that that ways you have a new material to play with.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Either have it stitched all throughout it, just like in the cushion covers.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Make a rug or just have it around the border, you know.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Yeah, and there are other concepts like this: One is inspired by the marigold flower seller here, where marigold flowers are trunk on top of each other. Similar approach was applied to fabrics
Sanchari Mahapatra: where they were stitched.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and a new material was formed like a ribbon like structure, and they were stitched to form a product like cushion
Sanchari Mahapatra: and some other. I will not go into the details. We are running out of time.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and after 8 years of working in India, and I decided to move to the Us. To pursue my higher education.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Ccs. At that time college for creative studies had just launched the inaugural program of color and materials design.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and I was part of the inaugural program. After graduating from Ccs, I worked in the automotive space for a long time.
Sanchari Mahapatra: This is one project that I assisted a senior designer in Honda to work on the
Sanchari Mahapatra: exterior body color for the accurate typers.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and I think this is a snapshot of the thinking behind it the benchmarking like, If you're talking of blue, Why, Blue.
Sanchari Mahapatra: what space of blue are we talking of.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and the flop and the highlight?
Sanchari Mahapatra: And lastly, this is materials after life. I don't know Marshall. Should I talk about it today, or just
Marshall Hamachi: please go ahead. Go ahead.
Sanchari Mahapatra: This this will take a long time, though, but
Marshall Hamachi: perhaps perhaps a summary. Then.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Yeah, basically.
Sanchari Mahapatra: if you see this as a project. It's a circular design related project.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but in a sense it just started from. This was done in 2,015,
Sanchari Mahapatra: as the studio project.
Sanchari Mahapatra: which then I took forward in my thesis as a year long project. But
Sanchari Mahapatra: the scope of this project just went
Sanchari Mahapatra: on and growing.
Sanchari Mahapatra: which I really like, that it was so organic.
Basically I i'm raised as a Hindu.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and we believed in the concept of rebirth
Sanchari Mahapatra: and I always used to look around things non-living, so-called, non-living objects around me, and feel like, if do they have an afterlife or not
Sanchari Mahapatra: if they get reborn next life, what will they be
Sanchari Mahapatra: and this is a
Sanchari Mahapatra: This is this is something that is born out of the leather industry the seat covers, you know. These are the remains of the leather punches that you see here as a he.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and they are thrown away after processing.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: they reminded me of a food that I really like to eat.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It's possible
Sanchari Mahapatra: they are poppy seed
Sanchari Mahapatra: born from this beautiful flower.
Sanchari Mahapatra: These poppy seeds are like a size, a condiment, and
Sanchari Mahapatra: they are mixed with potatoes. And oh, yeah, it's really delicious.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It also gives you a little kick.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So I was immediately nostalgic. I started thinking of my mom and home, and I was like, okay, You know what
Sanchari Mahapatra: this be a very beautiful leather, just because it's granular, and it is so small in scale
Sanchari Mahapatra: it goes through the whole gestation, birth, life and whatnot, and then death, and then there is no life. So I really wanted to explore this, and
Sanchari Mahapatra: my first introduction to American society also happened. Through this I did not know the name of Elmer's glue like nothing. There was no reference point for me. I was still
Sanchari Mahapatra: calling objects with my Indian reference point.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So this was an introduction I I would go to hardware stores and just ask them like i'm helpless. I don't know which glue to buy. I have a student budget. I don't even know what to buy. What will.
Sanchari Mahapatra: if I apply this? What will happen? I have no idea. So I
Sanchari Mahapatra: over time what happened. My dormitory became like a laboratory
Sanchari Mahapatra: lot of fiasco's. I'm. I'm glad that I did not put it on fire. But this is
Sanchari Mahapatra: first program of color materials in Ces, so we also did not have the right kind of resources to play with.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but a lot of experimentation, and what resulted was a set of
Sanchari Mahapatra: new materials, which were.
Sanchari Mahapatra: which appears to have different properties. These were some hard and brittle, some translucent, some very soft.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and so they were almost like family, you know, like my family, everyone has a different personality. Some are stubborn, some are very
Sanchari Mahapatra: open minded. So these materials also acted like that.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and it's slowly.
Sanchari Mahapatra: you know, because of the properties you can see they have different affordances.
different applications.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and the studio project ended like that.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and I found it. It's relevance once again, when I did my thesis, which was on
Sanchari Mahapatra: enabling underprivileged children to play well.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and these are Indians, Indian children, and their favorite sport is
Sanchari Mahapatra: cricket.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and this is
Sanchari Mahapatra: this is a slide where you can see the difference between halves and have not. There's a start difference.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and i'm no specialist of creating bats and balls.
Sanchari Mahapatra: But this project was very, very.
Sanchari Mahapatra: very close to my heart. I have grown up with children like that.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and to see a certain section of society not having the right to even play its brutals.
Sanchari Mahapatra: so
that
Sanchari Mahapatra: I think I will. I will go into depths later on. I will just click through the pages, but
Sanchari Mahapatra: show you how it
Sanchari Mahapatra: hmm
Sanchari Mahapatra: grew into a very big project where not only colors were involved, but also materials.
Sanchari Mahapatra: You get into the lives of the children, understand their personas.
Sanchari Mahapatra: A lot of research, talking to
Sanchari Mahapatra: coaches, sports, journalists, manufacturers
Sanchari Mahapatra: investigating, cutting open the
Sanchari Mahapatra: that and balls to understand what they're made of, and then tying it back to my
Sanchari Mahapatra: leather work, You know that I've done in studio somehow.
Sanchari Mahapatra: The material that I made started bouncing one day, and I realized
I went back to
Sanchari Mahapatra: Google Scholar, and I realized what I had mixed. Why, I had mixed what is the ratio and how it turned into a ball.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and ultimately this was presented as a concept where children can make their own bets and balls, using natural resources.
Sanchari Mahapatra: using found objects in their vicinity, and learn and learn from their failures, learn from their successes
Sanchari Mahapatra: pretty early on it's almost very educational, but to also play like.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and I tested the bats and balls if I failed miserably a lot of times
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: ended up with a range of
Sanchari Mahapatra: bioplastics in the process.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And
Sanchari Mahapatra: yeah.
Sanchari Mahapatra: let's make and play.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Thank you. I'll open up the
Sanchari Mahapatra: Thank you, Christine.
Marshall Hamachi: Thank you, Centari.
Marshall Hamachi: So yes, let's open it. Now. Does anyone have any questions? You can either post it to the chat or just go ahead and and share it directly from Zoom.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Is everyone too overwhelmed?
Sanchari Mahapatra: Perhaps they were expecting more automotive stuff, but I cannot show them yet.
Kimberly Marte: We're all side to nda's.
Marshall Hamachi: Well, I think one thing I wanted to comment on Sanchari outside of saying thank you so much for sharing your work is
Marshall Hamachi: a different kind of view on sustainability. I know that within the industrial design programs we are investing a lot of energy trying to seek and find sustainable solutions. And yet oftentimes we don't look at what's around us.
Marshall Hamachi: and what we can, and draw from things that are not necessarily manufactured, you know, for their own sake. So I appreciated so much of the foundations of your
Marshall Hamachi: story in your early part of your life, and I think that all of us could draw from that kind of resource to change our thinking about what's possible.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Well, thank you. I couldn't have used those many words, but it sounds very poetic. Thank you.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I think I have a fascination towards things that are unloved or discarded, and even as a child I would
Sanchari Mahapatra: gravitate towards those things and try to make something useful.
Kimberly Marte: You having said that we have a question in here?
Kimberly Marte: Good! Hi! I'm! I am on the ta of it, and
Kimberly Marte: just quick curiosity that I saw. Your All the works are really oriented with the curture base
Kimberly Marte: before the car design. So what was the huge. What was the biggest change into
Kimberly Marte: that, like the cultural Cmf into like the car?
Yeah.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Oh, wow, that's a loaded question.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Yeah, I think
Sanchari Mahapatra: what you saw before I showed the textile work that I was doing in the villages. But before coming to the Us. I was also working as a Cm. Of designer in the car industry in India.
Sanchari Mahapatra: in a in a place called Tata Motors.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: the big difference was to tone it down. You know a lot of cultural influences. We still took a lot of cultural influences because we were selling cars that are made in India for India.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So
Sanchari Mahapatra: customer research consumer research made us understand that people still value some of the things, and they would like to see it in their environment, beat a card or a house
Sanchari Mahapatra: but similar to the West.
Sanchari Mahapatra: The way we would decorate a house we wouldn't decorate the same way for car interiors. We would tone it down, Use some safer colors or neutrals that can go with different personalities.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And then so that was how I approached it in India.
Sanchari Mahapatra: in the Us. I began with the question like where there's no color. Why, there is no cushia seeds.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Interestingly, that was my first question to the Cmf global leader in GM. Where I was in turning.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: I think it was just coming from the point of view of a very different world, which was very colorful.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And slowly, as I got induced to this I realized why there are certain decisions
Sanchari Mahapatra: Why, it is important to choose certain colors because they need to be production friendly. Also
Sanchari Mahapatra: they have to be efficient, and they have to be maintained for an
Sanchari Mahapatra: lot number of years as compared to a stole or a cushion or a foot. Where you know, this lifespan also plays a huge role. The scale of things also plays a huge role.
Sanchari Mahapatra: so
Sanchari Mahapatra: I would still derive inspiration from a lot of my culture back home.
but we contextualize it.
As for the needs of the consumer, always the consumer is my hero.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and if they need certain things, I will
Sanchari Mahapatra: amplify that beta color
Sanchari Mahapatra: or graphic
Sanchari Mahapatra: graphic input, or if they don't want, I will
Sanchari Mahapatra: turn down the volume and give them what I want.
Kimberly Marte: I don't know if the answer is very ambiguous to visualize, and we we and really good like, explain about like, how what is the process about that thing that to there? So thank you. Thanks for asking. It was an interesting question.
Kimberly Marte: So my question will be around
Kimberly Marte: reusing.
Kimberly Marte: I think that we are definitely in a point in the world where we have to be responsible designers as well as innovative.
Kimberly Marte: So I love the one presentation that you shared, that you created
Kimberly Marte: products from things around us, and you were able to tell your consumer how to do it themselves.
Kimberly Marte: which is really nice, because then materiality does not matter in regards to where you are financially set in the world you have the ability to make a product, no matter where you are.
Kimberly Marte: I think that that's a beautiful thing.
Kimberly Marte: So as we move into sustainability, and I'm. Sure in your current position this discussion is quite prevalent, as it is with my clients quite right now, quite prevalent.
Kimberly Marte: How do we get from innovative sustainability to mass production? Sustainability?
Sanchari Mahapatra: Hmm.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I'm. Going to marinate that for some time before answering?
Okay.
how do we
Sanchari Mahapatra: scale sustainability.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I think we have to be smart and
Sanchari Mahapatra: choosing our battle.
Sanchari Mahapatra: sustainability can be from many different
Sanchari Mahapatra: terms. There is social sustainability of the people involved in making those products.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Then there is material sustainability. Then there is
Sanchari Mahapatra: sustainability in terms of using energy, making a product, whether it is used by wind, energy, solar, and in the electricity you know. How are we doing it? So it has many
Sanchari Mahapatra: brothers and sisters.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and
Sanchari Mahapatra: depending on where our interest lies, even though if our education, and what we are trained for might be in a different line.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I think we could choose that one specific line of thought, and see how we can
Sanchari Mahapatra: scale things in that field.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So if it's about.
let's say car industry, it's such a complex product, almost
Sanchari Mahapatra: hundreds of component inside the car, right?
Sanchari Mahapatra: And
Sanchari Mahapatra: in terms of color. If we apply sustainable colors, then it it's certainly it's communicating a message. But
Sanchari Mahapatra: in terms of materiality we have to understand that even if we choose, a recycled Yan
Sanchari Mahapatra: from the plus from the plastic bottles, and we were textile seat. Put it on. Ultimately it is
Sanchari Mahapatra: glued together with form, and then it is put on a steel frame.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So I would encourage everyone to think of, Since you know system like, if you are talking of sustainability.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It Can there be a system where, when we discard a car, these things can be taken apart.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and who will do this job? Is anyone doing that job.
Sanchari Mahapatra: So what is the use of making a textile site that is recycled in content if ultimately the final thing is not recycled.
Sanchari Mahapatra: And I don't think we have found the answers. There are intention, good intentions. There are researchers that is happening to make it more achievable
Sanchari Mahapatra: in future. But
Sanchari Mahapatra: I think it's the young generation like young aspiring designers like you guys who can think in system systematic way and not
Sanchari Mahapatra: not. You could probably look into one particular thing like
Sanchari Mahapatra: the seat
Sanchari Mahapatra: or the dashboard.
Sanchari Mahapatra: or the whole concept of mobility itself, like with Waymo, and I think it is Zooke's.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and they have completely revolutionized the way. Transportation even happens, thereby reducing the concept of buying more cards. So that is also sustainable, right? And it is happening at a big, much bigger scale.
Kimberly Marte: So. Yeah, I don't know if I answered your question. Okay.
Kimberly Marte: Marshall and Christine and I have been doing materials for a little bit longer. But in general, how do you feel the growth of the Cmf industry? The profession is going, and do you see opportunities? And what type of opportunities?
Sanchari Mahapatra: Oh, certainly, yes, I think you will also agree, came
Sanchari Mahapatra: from where we had started to. Now there are so many opportunities. I only came up across the title Cmf. Design
Sanchari Mahapatra: much later, after like 7 8 years of my working after bachelor's.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I was like, what is Cms design? How can I be of any use in automotive design? I work in the grassroots with
Sanchari Mahapatra: like I'm. I'm working with bamboo and Texan and stuff like that. How can I be of any
Sanchari Mahapatra: color material design since then has played a huge role, not only in automotive, but literally anything that you touch and feel the electronics.
Sanchari Mahapatra: be it stationary goods, beat candles, be toys.
Sanchari Mahapatra: the baby products a furniture
Sanchari Mahapatra: I know furniture's. Industry does it in a a little different way.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but it's again a fascinating space where you can work with soft and hard materials.
Sanchari Mahapatra: metal, wood, and fabric as upholstery.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and also the digital world like. I know someone who has gone into Disney now as a Cm. Designer.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and there is light sound.
Sanchari Mahapatra: You can go into performance theater.
Sanchari Mahapatra: I I think the scope is humongous, and
Sanchari Mahapatra: there are so many components of Cnf trend research, color material. You could be doing all of them together as a Cmf designer in one industry. But you could also just look into one aspect
Sanchari Mahapatra: like how I am in Nike. I'm: just looking at material design. Not color.
Marshall Hamachi: Looks like we have a question from Ari.
Ariel Brice: Yeah, thanks. Thanks so much for sharing this. This has been great and
Ariel Brice: food for a lot of thought. My name is Ari, and I teach at Art Center. I teach ceramics, classes, and
Ariel Brice: yeah, and also some design fundamental one classes there.
Ariel Brice: I he came over Kimberly. It's good to see you.
Ariel Brice: So my question is about this. So when you show the Chai cups. Those are really interesting, and some of the videos that I've seen of those right they like.
Ariel Brice: You know, a lot of those are fired a little bit, and then there they you drink chai out of them, and then they're recycled back into the actual like they're remixed with water, and they're able to be
Ariel Brice: like reformed again. And
Ariel Brice: I guess the question that I have has to do with like, especially to the students who are in automotive, like
Ariel Brice: what detail like like, can you talk? You talked about scale 2 questions ago, but, like you, also showed us what it's like to have 2 threads like weaving together. Is there any detail that's too small? Is there any scale that's too small to look at these materials, you know.
Ariel Brice: for instance, like in ceramics, we talk about durability and changing
Ariel Brice: the chemical formula to increase durability. So this things around for a long time. But some of the things you showed us like the the the chai, dive, fabric.
Ariel Brice: and like, you know, those things are are sort of around, but they're not designed to be around forever, right. And so i'm curious what you thinking about, like what's the smallest scale of value for us to look at these materials. And as we're sort of innovating with them and thinking about them long term.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Wow! This is a beautiful question
Sanchari Mahapatra: I can jump into, I think. Yeah, sure, Kim.
Kimberly Marte: do you want to go ahead? Sure. So one of the things I always bring in my class is it doesn't matter about scale? Everything that we touch should be thought about, and I like to bring up glitter.
Kimberly Marte: because glitter is a microplastic that this generation throws on their face for any festival.
Kimberly Marte: and I give them an understanding that there is a glitter that is made from eucalyptus that is, a 100% plant based and will biodegrade on its own.
Kimberly Marte: So I want them to think even the smallest of things can be affected, and we can innovate around.
Kimberly Marte: and every little thing we touch should be thought about
Sanchari Mahapatra: through scms as a Cmf person, or basically, just as a human being when I see so many glitter around stationary and packaging.
Sanchari Mahapatra: i'm greatly troubled, because I know this is going to go into my trash, and then it will ultimately get dumped. And how will this disintegrate, or who will take it apart like there are millions of questions. So
Sanchari Mahapatra: That's a great point. Ken.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Thank you for telling me what ceremony I feel Textile and ceramics are like really cousin, sisters or brothers. I don't know their genders, but
Sanchari Mahapatra: the the typing. I am so glad you brought it up.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It is made with a certain thickness, so that it doesn't burn your fingers, but also. The ritual is that in one part of India where I come from, the ritual is, you drink and you crash it.
Sanchari Mahapatra: and it disintegrates into the earth eventually.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but that's why it is never glazed.
Sanchari Mahapatra: but it is.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It is heated in a certain temperature where it gets sterilized before you use
Sanchari Mahapatra: so it can.
Sanchari Mahapatra: You can refill the cup if you are the same consumer? I don't think it will be reused by other. No, that's too unhygenic, and not
Sanchari Mahapatra: it won't be accepted.
Sanchari Mahapatra: But when it comes to details it can go into the even the integrities of how someone is holding the cap.
Sanchari Mahapatra: because if you see Chai drinkers in India. Always they hold it on the tip
Sanchari Mahapatra: and not the in the body or the bottom.
Sanchari Mahapatra: so they always fill it to. They don't fill it to the brain.
Sanchari Mahapatra: It's not about. Oh, within $1 I should
Sanchari Mahapatra: drink as much chai, but it is up to. There is a certain rim to which, so the detail of a product designer could also look into. Hey, can I create a faint line so that the Chai seller can know he has to fill it all this much only
Sanchari Mahapatra: so those are the attention to detail the attention to care
Sanchari Mahapatra: for someone who is going to use it. Someone who is going to make it. Hey? Let me not make a design which is so integrated that the maker
Sanchari Mahapatra: maker's eyesight gets affected, and I learned that from my teacher because I did a very integrate textile design, and she was like this: Go, Person will go blind making that on the hand loom.
Sanchari Mahapatra: you know. So it's the attention and care to the maker also with making the T-shirt or the car.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Yeah. So attention I think studying textile really helped me to pay attention to details going in any finger or any profession.
Ariel Brice: Thank you so much. That's amazing.
Marshall Hamachi: So it looks like we're coming to the end of our time. We have perhaps room for one more question. If anyone has one last question
Marshall Hamachi: just checking. I don't see any
Marshall Hamachi: That's okay.
Marshall Hamachi: Okay. Then why don't? We go ahead and and wrap up
Marshall Hamachi: Santari on behalf of everyone here at Art Center. We thank you so very much for being gracious with your time and sharing your story and experience. It's incredibly inspiring, and we look forward to being able to share this with other members of the community who couldn't make it here with the recording.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Sure again, like I said, thanks for this opportunity. This is a great platform to share my story from India, and here as well in the Us.
Kristine Upesleja: Thank you so much.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Hopefully we'll look forward to more.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Oh, yeah, my pleasure.
Sanchari Mahapatra: Thank you so much nice to see everybody, and thank you very much, and people on the back. The students thank you for your yeah for your time. I know you are in automotive, and well, you must be wondering like, how is this useful for us?
Sanchari Mahapatra: Anyone?
Kimberly Marte: Yeah, we're good. Thank you so much. Have a great afternoon. Thank you, bye bye.
Kyu, Lee: Thank you.