The Indian folk arts with printing and embroidery play important role in creating new designs. Escalating demands of consumers requires modification in the fashion industry with respect to design, colour, style and technique. So an attempt was made to develop a design pool using folk art of Uttarakhand (aipan) for applique work. This also provides the opportunity to use the adapted traditional motifs on textiles and to preserve the beautiful traditional folk art. Aipan motifs were adapted for center design, border design, and buti design. Total thirty motifs / designs were developed keeping in mind their suitability for articles like bags, pencil purse and mobile holder. All the developed designs were subjected to visual evaluation for selection of two best designs in each category by the panel of thirty judges to find out the suitability of the developed designs for applique work. Thus total six motifs were selected for preparation of the five arrangements for each article. Four final selected arrangements with applique work were prepared using different embroidery stitches (slip hemming, couching, buttonhole and chain stitch). Plain red poplin and left-out fabrics were used to prepare articles. Finally articles were prepared by using selected arrangements and these prepared articles were highly appreciated by the consumers.

http://granthaalayah.com/Articles/Vol3Iss9/04_IJRG15_B09_70.pdf

New horizon for aipan (folk art of uttarakhand) motifs

The Hill of Flutes: Life, Love and Poetry in Tribal India: A Poetry of the Santals

The Need of a Digital Typeface for Assamese Script

AbstractAccording to WHO, 15% of the world population has a disability. Achieving universal education for everyone and creating inclusive infrastructure is a part of the Sustainable Development Goal for 2030. Considering the feasibility of implementing the design and technological interventions for developing inclusive infrastructural facilities in higher educational institutes (HEIs), the current review focuses on HEIs in India. In developed countries, relevant research work is in full swing, and thus, design and technological intervention are being implemented in their HEIs. In developing countries, research has been rarely reported in this context. Moreover, data on assistive devices and human factor issues for making the HEIs universally accessible are seldom available. Hence, the present research aims to study existing assistive devices that HEIs could adopt for inclusive design for making Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) an integral part of the system. The literature search was conducted using Scopus and Web of Science databases to shortlist papers using suitable keywords and combinations while following the PRISMA framework. The collected literature was segregated under types of disabilities, difficulties faced by PwDs in HEIs, assistive devices for various limitations, application of assistive devices in the domain of services associated with education in HEIs. Further, primary research on the status of inclusive design should be taken forward, as there is a gap in research on the state of the art of inclusivity in HEI in India. Reported research would serve as the database on assistive devices for researchers working in the field of inclusivity, with particular emphasis on HEIs.KeywordsSpecially-abledTeaching and learningCampus spacePerson with disabilityArchitectureAssistive technology 

Assistive Devices Applicable for Inclusive Design in Higher Educational Institutes in India: A Systematic Review

Introduction The relationship among women, art, and society is a valuable framework for examining the changing social circumstances of Indian women artists. The cultural legacy of women artists and their visual art practices are now being accepted as an intellectual contribution in the world of art. Exposure on global platforms are motivating rural women to lead women artists from similar socio-economic backgrounds in the field of art practices. Indian art history has documented the artistic skills of rural women as house decorators. The tradition of house decoration is still prevalent in rural India in the form of painted walls, floors, and other handicrafts. Each decorated house reveals the cultural aspects of its own community, place and technique. Gond, Warli, Saura and Pithora mural paintings are known for their community art practices and Madhubani, Sanjhi, Mandana and Lippan mural arts are known for their place and technique. The cultural diversity of rural Jharkhand makes an interesting study in the fields of Cultural Studies and Women's Studies. The six districts of Jharkhand Deoghar, Dumka, Godda, Pakur, Jamtara, and Shahibganj, comprise the administrative division of Santhal Pargana. The mixed population of this area works on a single mural layout and technique annually. Generally, the local festivals, marriage ceremonies, and other occasions are celebrated in the villages with annual house repairing processes and the decorations. Nature is the main inspiration behind mural art. Rituals, myths, male-dominated art work (wood carving and pottery-making), and influences from other house decorations help these women artists to create lively paintings. This paper examines the painted mud houses of each district by the women artist for their approach, purpose, technique, layout, and design elements. This paper also discusses the lacuna of studies of the visual characteristics of the rural mural art of Jharkhand, which have not yet been documented. The aim of this paper is to study the artistic expressions (art forms) of rural women and the visual elements of rural mural art. The study focuses the social conditions, cultural significance and their reflections in the rural mural art of Jharkhand. Research Design and Procedure We pursued an ethnographic research method. Initially, a pilot study was carried out in six districts of Santhal Pargana. Afterwards, we conducted intensive research in certain areas (selected blocks indicated in fig. 1). More than two blocks were selected and three villages of each block were visited for the research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants, which clarified existing questions regarding their art forms. We then sorted and analysed the art forms by symmetric operation (3). The raw data was broken down into units of practical meaning that led to a clearer understanding of the motives behind the said practice. Field notes were thoroughly studied along with collected narratives. Data Sources and Methodology Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected from field visits, semi-structured interviews, photography, and video recordings. The secondary data were collected from libraries and the Internet. We interviewed the participants who included 24 women artists ranging from 10-50 years. Most were housewives, along with a few young female students from a mid-socio-economic background. Four participants from each districts of Santhal Pargana were selected. Among them, ten women belonged to the Santhal community. Most of the research data was gathered on site (from village houses, schools, museums, and NGOs) through observation, photography, interviews, and audio and video recording. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Discussion Rural women artists and their artwork The tradition of creating murals in the Santhal Pargana was started by women artists from the Adivasi communities such as Santhal, Oraon, Sauria Paharia, Munda, and Ghatwar. …

/pdf/rural-women-artists-a-visual-analysis-of-the-mural-art-forms-525fftcan4.pdf

Rural Women Artists: A Visual Analysis of the Mural Art Forms of Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand, India

This paper aims to identify the appropriateness of various parameters identified previously to define legibility in the context of Latin script done for the context of Indic typefaces like Bengali and Devanagari. The analysis is based on anatomical features, gridlines, letter binding, letter support, direction of stroke, stroke density, and variance. The paper also discusses various challenges of Indic scripts in terms of letter identification with respect to visibility and familiarity. Finally, various design parameters for identification are proposed for measurement of legibility of Bengali and Devanagari. The insight of the paper is to make type designers and researchers aware of effective design parameters that are necessary to understand during the design of Indic typeface.

Legibility: Same for all scripts!

Concepts of universal design are gradually making its roads in the design and development of public spaces (airports, shopping malls, metro-railway stations, etc.) and public utilitarian facilities (ATM, ticket vending machines, telephone booths, etc.). Although the educational institutions are an essential category of the public space, it is still deprived of harnessing the benefits of universal design in the majority of the countries. When infrastructures are created for educational institutions’ buildings, due considerations are given for architectural space layout, strength and stability of the architectural structure, aesthetics and functional aspects, sustainability parameters, etc. Barrier-free environments are created mainly for wheel-chair users to make the institutional space inclusive to accommodate physically challenged/specially-abled stakeholders (students, teachers, supportive staffs, and visitors). Still, the requirements of different types of specially-abled people are not aptly addressed to make the built-space inclusive. Here, it is worth mentioning that the difficulties due to their various limitations among specially-abled people are diverse. Thus, all these necessities are to be addressed collectively in the infrastructure of an educational institute. Besides infrastructures, various assistive aids are crucial to facilitate quality education among specially-abled stakeholders. Through a systematic review, the current research aimed at determining the extent to which the issues/problems of the specially-abled stakeholders have been addressed in the design and development of infrastructures and assistive aids in educational institutes.

Inclusive Design in Higher Educational Institutes for People with Disability

The rural communities of eastern Jharkhand paint their mud houses annually before the festivals. Various visual forms such as flowers, animals, birds and dancing human forms are painted on the external and internal wall of the mud houses. The placements of these visual forms on the wall vary from one region to another. To understand the concept of visual space in this art form among these communities, ethnographic research has been conducted in three administrative divisions (Santhal Pargana, North Chotanagpur and Kolhan) of eastern rural Jharkhand. Unstructured interview and documentation method were used to understand the concept of visual space in mural art tradition. Specifying the three mural-making mediums, three visual layouts are discussed in this study. Following these three layouts, the concept of physical and conceptual space of rural mural artist has been explained.

Defining the Concept of Visual Space in Mural Art Traditions of Rural Eastern Jharkhand

The elementary unit of letter construction is the basic anatomical features of letterforms. The letter identification is a process of decoding and encoding of the anatomical information of the letters. They are the fundamental components of letter identification. This paper explains the process of Bengali letter identification and reveals the crucial anatomical features for design purposes. Here, an eye-tracking study has been conducted to identify the involvement of letter features in reading. In order to reveal the letter features, we exposed the letters under low contrast conditions to establish the consequence of anatomical features. The objective of the experiment is to identify the important letters features during the reading process that aids the letter identification task. A total number of six participants had performed the task under low contrast condition, and data was captured using an eye-tracking device. The aim of the paper is to understand the role of anatomical features in the letter identification process, so that such information can be useful for the Type designers. Type designers are designers who design typefaces and develop fonts for everyday use. The saccades, fixation, and heat-signature data from eye-tracking study have provided two major sets of information—(1) a list of letter features (individually) involved in the letter identification process, (2) a list of common and unique letter features across all Bengali letters. The result indicates that there is an active involvement of letter-parts and features in the letter identification process, and the list of common and distinctive letter features has been prepared to guide the type designers.

D. Udaya Kumar

Papers

Rural Women Artists: A Visual Analysis of the Mural Art Forms of Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand, India

Legibility: Same for all scripts!

Inclusive Design in Higher Educational Institutes for People with Disability

Defining the Concept of Visual Space in Mural Art Traditions of Rural Eastern Jharkhand

The Role of Letter Anatomy in Type Design: An Eye-Tracking Study of Bengali Letters