DAY 6: class sweet class.

I wasn’t going to let this day go past. A good amount of cough syrup and antibiotics kept me in bed all morning. I woke up to see that I had to make it to class today, ATLEAST. I was excited and yet terrified because I had missed out on much. On checking my pale tongue, I was excused and I was given my next assignment: a recumbent cycle that can swim across water.

The illness had made my head stop running. Not like it did otherwise, but it seemed rather worse. I thought hard. We had to make a sketch. I wanted to keep the cycle looking simple and plain. So I kept to the classic look of it. I wanted to add additional features to it and not more. I decided to make the handles adjustable (size wise), like the lock system in walking sticks. The pedals would rise up to the front wheel to make the pedaling easier with the change in posture. I want to add this long stretchable base that arises from the back of the cycle. A compressible device. The material that I want to eventually use is something I haven’t decided as yet. This sheet when expanded will have two slots for the bicycle wheels to fit in. This will make the bike move forward through pedaling. I skipped the ‘how to steer’ part. I had two complications:

1)   What material do I use for the float?

2)   How would one steer?

I could say the day was productive and unproductive at the same time.

DAY 5: where is everyone?

Another day of nothing. The flu has made me more miserable than ever. While everyone else was at the villages that we were asked to visit I lay sick in bed. However I got updates on the phone almost like I was there. So I didn’t feel like I was missing out on much. Working on anything was impossible, even my log book that keeps me good company seemed like a bad idea. Coughing and sneezing all day was all I did. 

DAY 4: down with the flu.

This day was least productive till date. I came down with a flu, the virus has been in the air for quite a bit now. I had to stay home and missed all that happened in class. But this didn’t stop me from thinking about what I would’ve done in class. My log book and some videos on innovation kept me going.

DAY 3: idea refinery.

Our previous ideas were improved and we worked on prototypes. We watched more documentaries. Between which I wandered off in my log book, scribbling and doodling away. This day was a lazy day. We were all tired from the previous days work. We took our ideas and brainstormed furthur, this time as a group. I must confess it is easier working on your own rather than in a group. Not because of any other reason but that it’s a task to come to an agreement on one particular thing which ends up taking up all your time. We saw a couple of innovative products of commoners on videos. It was amazing to see how necessity creates a need for satisfying a drive that is otherwise difficult to achieve with regular Homo sapien ‘technology’. Which brought me to a conclusion that innovation is the new “technology”. The rest of the day was spent in making technical drawings. They seemed rather difficult on paper and there was despair in faces when this assignment was given. It is time consuming but I feel that it is okay to shake up those dormant brain cells.

DAY 2: new kids in the block.

Class started as usual and there was a lot I was looking forward to. We watched videos on technical drawings. They were a little dry, which was expected. We spent time understanding how everyone earned money. I earned a total sum of Rs There were new kids in class. Kids from the Drishya foundation arrived. It felt nice that we were part of NIF, an innovation foundation. There was the “ice-breaker” session, where we got to know about each other. A good thing, since we were going to be working together now. Groups were made and we all got to work with one kid from Drishya. Our assignment for the day: to come up with designs for a lunch box. Five people, five designs. I had my ideas set, things to keep in mind, ofcourse, there were going to be drawbacks. However we all let our thoughts flow in. I came up with a lunch box for kids. An interactive puzzle. There were six small boxes that would fix into each other like a jigsaw puzzle, i.e. with a picture on top. I thought it could be made of Tupperware because of its benefits. We brainstormed in class later and everyone came up with pretty nice ideas. We realized that if we clubbed some ideas in, our boxes would be much better. So as a group we clubbed the idea of the jigsaw and a ball shaped box which had a drawer system along with wipers. Finally our product looked like a space ship and we carried on the idea designing it for children. It turned out good. We then had to make posters to tell what the product does without having us to speak. That was tiring.

I was excited to see that the kids from Drishya were creative and had nice ideas. It was inspiring. We put the language barrier behind from this day on. As Sudo says, it doesn’t take language to come up with brilliant ideas. 

DAY 1: the first day, the first sign up.

Innovation seemed to be the most interesting course to take up at this point, where I have no drive to create even though I am at art school. It was not much of a challenge to understand what we had in store for the next few weeks. Innovation is a much clearer concept now. To me innovation is something that comes as an outcome of a situation of requirement that cannot be easily satisfied with given resources. Well, I think everyone has a different definition for this considering where the idea of innovation came from.

I was glad to finally find out that I’d be making something rather than just talking about it. I’ve noticed how I’m more productive this way. The concept of the innovation foundation was interesting. Seeing how ordinary people, just anyone could make something that innovative using ordinary, inexpensive, easily accessible things. I want to be able to do something like that, right now that seems like the only thing that’d make me happy. I also do understand that it is a difficult task that is also easy in a way. So here we are starting a class thinking that maybe at the end of these weeks we might end up making something that inspires a many more “ME’S” to innovate.

The day came along with assignments, simple, yet ‘assignments’. We had to pick a random object and make the worst design possible for it. Even that is totally based on what I think could be the worst design and what someone else thinks of the same design. This shows how different people have different views on what is a bad design for something and what is good. My object was a razor. It was quite the task to come up with a bad design, because I couldn’t seem to arrive at a concept that no one else would’ve thought of.  First I flipped the blades, in such a way that they’d point towards each other, leaving very little space. So it wouldn’t work with ease, even if it worked it would pinch your skin. Next I took off the handle and mocked the entire idea of the moustache and made the handle a moustache itself. It was silly. The last modification was of the top of the blade that generally has a soapy strip is replaced by sandpaper.

I found it quite easy to come up with the new razor, all I had to do was to see what makes the object comfortable and do just the opposite.

It was a productive day.

Our homework: earning a sum of Rs.100.