Urging Re Imagination

Challenging and upsetting the status quo is what drives Jinan K.B. in his roles as educator and design researcher, and in his work with rural artisan communities

How did formal education affect your life?

JK: I never liked the idea of education, and almost always found myself below average in school. However, I was able to get admission to do engineering at the Regional Engineering College in Bhopal (MACT). Life there was just a waste of time, and I hardly attended any classes. My journey towards rebirth began when I was expelled in the fourth year. The expulsion gave me time and space to be alone, to ponder about life and how I am supposed to live. I realized that something that happens to us in childhood takes away our passion for learning and deep commitment and involvement in what we do. So I decided to ‘teach’ in a school to revisit childhood and schooling. I took two decisions at that time: never to do anything that I didn’t like to do, and never to do a 9 to 5 job.

Going to NID two years later for the PG Diploma in Product Design was a kind of homecoming. For the first time I experienced a true learning environment where even the teachers were learning and passionately involved in some exploration or the other. I was living the learning. It was a total change and I found myself sitting in the first row and very keenly doing all the work. I completely took charge of my learning. Looking back I realize that I was always more interested in the inner aspects rather than the manifestation. For me design is not a set of skills to be applied; it is an attitude where one imbibes certain fundamental qualities which became part and parcel of one’s being and affects how one looks at life.

How did you become passionate about terracotta?