How design education can help create a better world

Higher education in design has experienced significant growth in India over the past few years. A decade ago, there were a handful of design schools across the country. Today, the number stands well over 2500. Despite this, many people, or rather parents, do not know what exactly design education is. They get even more confused with the nomenclature of the courses and degrees.

Donald Schön, an American philosopher and professor in urban planning at MIT, said that design is a conversation with the situation. He meant that it is not just a technical activity but also a reflective one. He believed that designers constantly evaluate their actions, adjust their approaches, and learn from their experiences.

We are facing societal crises globally. As futurist and impact strategist Sudhir Desai says, our world, societies, and cultures are complex conceptual landscapes that, as we are witnessing today, are fraught with conflicts. Conceptual landscapes are dynamic spaces that organise, contextualise, and connect ideas. They allow individuals and groups to navigate complex topics, understanding how different concepts relate to each other and how changes in one part of the landscape can influence others.

As Desai highlights, cognitive complexity is the mental capacity to recognise, interpret, and integrate multiple, sometimes contradictory, perspectives. It allows individuals to move beyond simple, linear cause-and-effect thinking and embrace the nuanced, interconnected nature of complex systems. Cognitive complexity involves both breadth and depth of understanding diverse ideas, as well as exploring concepts in detail.

However, the cognitive complexities of our societies aren’t deep or wide enough to navigate the complex landscapes. This directly affects the perception towards higher education and the way education gets delivered, not just in art and design but in all areas and all levels. It also drives people to make simplistic and reductionistic choices when selecting courses and institutions to enrol in. Institutions also get swayed by the so-called market demands.

“Design needs to be transformed from an expert-driven process focused on objects and services within a taken-for-granted social and economic order towards design practices that are participatory, socially oriented, situated, and open ended and that challenge the business-as-usual mode of being, producing, and consuming,” says Arturo Escobar, professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

We must move beyond consumerism and prioritise environmentally responsible solutions for the greater good. The educational system has a moral obligation to produce “new world makers”. Rather than perpetuating a culture of overconsumption, we must strive to nurture individuals who can reimagine our world for the better. We must continually ask ourselves whether our institutions are contributing to this transformation.

The frenetic pace at which design colleges have started appears to have industrialised education, turning these institutions into conveyor belts that simply produce degree holders. Enlightened designers and artists can create new worlds that are just, kind and equitable. This is possible only when there is an ecosystem to support such a design and art education.

“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy”, according to Bell Hooks. We need to create these radical spaces; we need true transdisciplinary programmes and courses that are designed to develop multiple capabilities in learners, aiming to bring forth designers and artists who can become "new world makers".

The evolution of such an educational paradigm requires several years to take shape and acquire a firm foundation. The role of the educator in this landscape is important.

Expanded definition

The "classroom" should extend far beyond four walls to include diverse environments like rainforests, grasslands, rivers, museums, cities, and villages. The primary objective is not merely to teach but to facilitate learning and help aspiring designers, filmmakers, and visual artists develop the ability to see our world clearly, cutting through the clutter and through multiple lenses. This process also enables the educator to see better.

This redefinition of design education also prompts a critical examination of how knowledge is created, recorded, and valued. Historically, knowledge in India was transmitted orally and performatively, emphasising practice, or "Sadhana"—a methodical discipline to attain desired knowledge or goals.

However, the adoption of Western educational models in India has sometimes led to the subjugation of knowledge by insisting on writing and publishing in specific journals as the sole arbiter of scholarship. This raises crucial questions about what constitutes knowledge, especially in creative fields like arts and design, and whether the current demands of peer-reviewed journals, which prioritise literature review and situating ideas within known spaces, might stymie the exploratory iterative process essential to art and design.

The academic insistence on a PhD as a prerequisite for teaching also prompts the question of metrics for measuring post-PhD scholarship.

The purpose of design for social innovation is to facilitate social change, requiring designers to connect intention with outputs carefully. Similarly, educators are changemakers who must align their intentions with their outputs. This educational philosophy emphasises a moral obligation to produce "new world makers" who move beyond consumerism and prioritise environmentally responsible solutions.

This approach often finds its foundation at the intersection of society, community, culture, environment, and politics. Educators act as catalysts for innovation, inspiring and empowering the next generation to navigate the complexities of the world and foster a deeper understanding of the shared human experience.

Ultimately, the primary goal of higher education in art and design is to nurture individuals who can reimagine the world for the better.

(The writer is a Bengaluru-based photographer, polymath, and educator)