Living Crafts: Craft, Community & Wellbeing

Course Brief

Abstract

This course will explore craft as a living practice shaped by histories, relationships and everyday negotiations embedded in place. Learners will dwell into the worlds that craft and craft communities occupy and the shifting landscape of wellbeing through spatial and material micro-histories.

We invite you to join us in an immersive, hands-on, field-based practicum, Living Crafts, Craft Livelihoods, and Wellbeing, situated across the dynamic cultural landscape of Northern Karnataka, encompassing Bidar, Kalaburagi (Gulbarga), and Yadgir. This is an open invitation to collaboratively question and explore the idea that modern technological advancements aren't solely Euro-American, but are deeply rooted in the everyday practices of people who have been crafting, making, and shaping technologies for generations.

In this course, we will engage directly with diverse set of craft practices as our primary texts: Bidriware , Weaving, Wood Carving, Khoudi, Pottery making, Sheep wool weaving and Lambani/Banjara embroidery.

We will investigate the resilience of these craft practices, tracking its evolution in the region, where it relied on place-based practices and natural resources, to its necessary adaptation from producing for rooted cultures to a wider consumers over time. You will further immerse yourself to understand how the craft functions as a form of embodied knowledge and cultural memory, passed down through intuition, observation, and repetition—not formal manuals. We will explore how artisans navigate material innovation, incorporating recent materials due to changing economics and aesthetic whims, revealing that the craft survives by constantly adapting, not resisting change. We ask: Can craft itself be understood as a living archive or a system of logic, embedding stories and emotion within every stitch and pattern?

To broaden our understanding of cultural persistence, we incorporate adjacent regional contexts from Kalaburagi and Yadgir.

Our methodology is grounded in "research through design", emphasizing practice-based learning, co-creation, and deep documentation. You will be asked to move beyond being mere researchers toward becoming active collaborators, co-developing artifacts and systems alongside artisans. This collaboration is a genuine act of mutual sharing and learning, challenging the notion of fixed solutions and instead exploring what alternative local techno futures emerge from this rich tradition.

Key words

craft practice, material micro-histories, wellbeing

Course objective

1. To understand craft as a living, place-based system of knowledge—shaped by histories, material practices, and everyday negotiations—and to examine how craft sustains cultural memory, livelihoods, and wellbeing through continual adaptation.

2. To engage in practice-based, collaborative inquiry with craft communities in Northern Karnataka, using research-through-design to co-create artifacts, document micro-histories, and imagine alternative local techno futures rooted in craft practice.

Learning Outcomes

1. Learners will be able to engage with and document craft practices through hands-on participation, understanding craft as embodied knowledge shaped by place, materials, and community relations.

2. Apply practice-based learning methods to co-create artifacts with artisan collaborators.

3. Understand crafts practices as resilient living practices that continuously adapt through experimentation and improvisation.

Learning modes

Learning will happen in diverse and multiple modes - baithaks, visual journaling, research through design and co-creation with artisans. The cohort will also engage with the larger publics through an exhibition as a culmination of the module.

What you bring?

This course does not require any prior training or technical background. What matters most is your orientation:

• Curiosity and openness to learn through hands-on, field-based engagement

• Willingness to learn from making, repetition and collaborative practice

• Learners are also encouraged to bring their own creative practice, experiences, and questions into the course shaping a shared inquiry for the cohort.

What will you make?

Each learner will be anchoring their own co-creation process with a crafts community based on their choice of learning track. The artefacts which will be co-produced as part of this process will come together in the form of a public exhibition to be held in Bangalore in the first week of April.

Course Fee

Fee Summary

Our course fees vary based on the total Notional Learning Hours (NLH). When you view a course description, you'll see a transparent breakdown of costs which reflects the unique structure and requirements of that particular learning experience. The published cost calculation below gives you clarity on what's included in your fees. As more learners join a course, we may adjust the per-person cost accordingly. We track all expenditures carefully against our initial estimates to ensure resources are used effectively for your learning journey. For more information please look at FAQ page.

Course fees includes:

1. Facilitator compensation - Rs. 18600

2. Accommodation (Shared room) - Rs. 18600

3. Food & Local travel - Rs. 9300

4. Community Facilitator Income - Rs. 7440

5. Materials and Supplies - Rs. 9300

6. Support and Sustenance - Rs. 11160

Total Fee per learner is Rs.74,000 (Rupees Seventy Four Thousand Only). Fee to be paid only on receiving the invitation to join the course cohort.

- In Practicum upto 50% of the NLH is compensated for our Fellow course facilitators co-desinging, facilitating and managing the entire course.
- Shared accommodation will be organised. At the time of onboarding we will ask you for preferences.
- Breakfast and Dinner costs are included in the fees. Any local commute commonly organised is covered in the Fees. There might be additional cost that the learner should factor in for any fieldwork expenses.
-In a practicum upto 40% of the NLH is compensated for learning support by our community collaborator via mentoring, maintaining, weaving, storytelling, guiding and so on.
- Cost towards any materials and supplies required during the coursework sessions. Please see the coursework (will be shared one week before the start of the practicum) for full list of materials covered in the cost.
- This amount will be utilised for extending financial support to learners who seek support (details are available in the application form). Any surplus will be added to the corpus for the sustenance of LLI.
- Our fiscal host for Trimester 03 is Aruvu LLP. As per the IT rules a GST of 18% will be charged on the fee collected for the course.

Fee does not include

• Travel cost to arriving in Bidar or return is not covered in the fees.

• Cost of any equipment or other specific materials relevant to Learner’s practice. We recommend the learners to carry any specialised equipments or materials with them to Kundapura.