For the “Practical Preservation Series” digital teaching tool for undergraduate architecture college students in Mumbai, India, so far I have prepared a broad outline of the modules that would be taught to the students and some lesson plans / readings / site visits / exercises that I intend to organize. As far as the content goes, I have most of the material and visuals, but need to compile a list of readings and video recordings that I would need to augment the modules.
The most critical question I have is “Which digital resource do I use to make this digital project?”
So far I have used WordPress, Omeka and ArcGIS StoryMaps, which I am comfortable with. I am not sure if these would work for this format. The challenges that I have faced with this digital project (and those that I have made before) is that the outcome does not come close to what I had envisaged conceptually. I realize implementation of some of the items within the project need web designing expertise, but I wish some of the digital tools offered a base format that can incorporate such features. For instance, in Omeka I cannot have background sounds for a particular landing page. Perhaps I am not conversant with it?
Next steps are detailing out the modules, fleshing out the lesson plans and organizing at least one teaching module as an example for this semester.
Mumbai has always been a migrant hub – a shining star that has attracted many an entrepreneur, who has succeeded beyond imagination. It is the City of Gold and the City that never sleeps. It is the city that has one of the most expensive real estate prices per sq.ft but also one which has the largest slum in Asia. This dichotomy is abrasive in the rush of the people but also welcoming in their acceptance. Here everyone is a Mumbaikar (from Mumbai) and everyone an Outsider. The opportunities this city offers has been captured in this quintessential song on Bombay from a Bollywood movie of 1956. It captures the vagrant yet aspirational spirit of the city through this song, now iconic with the city, and steeped in nostalgia of yesteryears. It speaks of the pollution, urban sprawl and plain hoodwinking by thugs. But it also talks about the heart of the city.
I plan to use this song within the module on Urban Conservation. The students should carefully examine the song and try to record the historic street furniture visible in it. Unfortunately most of these vestiges of the past have been completely replaced with poor designs. The exercise for the students would be to make a visual display of historic street furniture and signage and then design their own line of contemporary or historic street furniture suitable for historic spaces. While the song is in Hindi- the national language, understood and spoken by most in India, even if one does not understand the words, the exercise can be undertaken by any one. There is a whole range of elements in the song, right from Victorian benches to Art Deco railings.
The video below explains accurately the process which we undertook to nominate the Victorian and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai as a World Heritage Site. Since one of the modules is focused on this subject, it is pertinent to use it as an introduction.
The students have to identify the different organizations, professionals, and citizens that were involved in the nomination process. This list will then form a list of the major stakeholders involved and their role in historic preservation.
While these are not exactly views from the same angle the exercise for this so to speak “before and after” visual for the students would be to “Spot the indifference”. They will be given many such archival and contemporary images, and will be required to spot 6 changes in the city for the worse – could be incongruous additions, removal of historic elements, etc.