The spirit of the conference is to engage in deep explorations and question rather than ready
answers. Even when a solution is being offered seeing the same with a spirit of openness.
The reason for organizing the conference is to address the mechanization, standardization and
homogenization that is sweeping the world.
The visual experience of modern spaces all over the world is beginning to look alike. In this regard,
architecture and artifacts are no exceptions! Until last century we have had diverse cultures with
distinct ways of life and fitting aesthetic sensibilities. The homogenization of human cultures is one of
the biggest challenges of modernity to be addressed by both academia and practice. The real issue is to
understand how knowledge gets created and aesthetic sensibilities as manifested by the things they
make and the spaces they employ are inextricably linked to the lived context.
Well being and health of a culture depends on its authenticity and rootedness. The tangible- visible/
experiential- aspects of any culture is its aesthetic sensibility which gets manifested in what and how
people do.
The buildings we make, the food we eat also when and how we eat, the language we use etc etc. In fact
everything we do constitute our culture, even 'why' and 'how'. When people lose their authentic and
original aesthetic sense their culture gets destroyed.
So the most important task we need to address is the homogenization of aesthetic sense. All aspects of
our life is getting mechanized, standardized and homogenized. This is no longer a cultural question but
a deeply spiritual.
The most important thing we can learn from the non literate people/ artisan communities is about the
production of knowledge, the role of aesthetic sense in retaining cultural roots as they have been able to
keep alive the diversity to a great extent whereas the educated have been totally homogenized. So
what is in education that kills our ability to create or recreate knowledge and aesthetic sensibility?
What about art, architecture, design and fashion education which is responsible for molding and
conditioning the taste of people? What is it in their education that totally distorts and homogenizes their
aesthetic sensibility and kills their moral/ ethical sensitivity?
In the present era, education conditions and homogenizes the sensibility of people through the way it
imparts lessons in art, architecture, design etc. (to begin with). In the process, we are neglecting vibrant
contextual elements and thereby constructing a generic world lacking humane facets of design. So if
aesthetic awareness through education is reinvented as awakening the senses through creating
situations to connect to the natural context of the learner, authentic diverse cultures can stage a
comeback. Through this approach, the organizers sincerely hope that if not in full, at least a part of our
lost sensibilities can be regained. Conference is poised to be a form to do this on a continuous basis from
time to time