Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

Social Craft, a definition: Social Craft is a framework and a method of valuing and studying the minutia of every day experiences.

This summer at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Social Craft was used as a teaching method to explore the idea of home in contrast to the academy. The radical nature of inserting the home inside a school campus, as a physical structure and as a method for learning, is not only poetic but speaks to the historical synthesis of education from the home and the family, this being our first curriculum.

To formalize the home as a site of learning, students built and used a house in an attempt to study its physical structure, its relation to the body, and its ritual use. The Social Craft of the home was juxtaposed with that of the academy. The class observed, interacted with and learned from domestic laborers whose oft-invisible presence maintains the Indian home; and even followed real estate agents to understand the marketing, valuation and accessibility of different types of homes. Students delved into and explored several interesting subjects – ancient and contemporary building techniques, conducting guerilla research in local homes, maintaining homes, cooking together, and using the home as a studio. The end result of this exercise was that students began to recognize and appreciate homes as physical, intellectual and spiritual spaces that people belong to.