Once upon a time, the School of Planning and Architecture needed a bit of a rebirth. When it started, in the 1950s, it was meant as a blueprint of sorts, a model for replication, for effective dissemination if goods and knowledge from the SPA school of thought. The vision was tested and challenged, it persevered for a while, but then faltered. In recent years SPA has seen a lot of doubt and little direction.
2009 finds SPA in a quagmire of red tape, controversy and even communal violence. At 50 years of age, it has become the establishment’s problem child. De-recognition from 3 accrediting bodies in quick succession has shown that SPA’s long time detractors have found means and reasons to finally diminish the institution’s somewhat dull but steady light.
Valiant fighters for the spirit of SPA survive both within its walls and outside. Many fight for their memories. SPA stands still in the warmth of a collective fuzzy level of consciousness. Individuals across the world at different stages of life and career form this collective. A collective memory of the cheerful despair of students and professionals comfortably trapped in a system they know is failing; the sweet scent of unresolved creative angst.
Above all else, SPA taught creative techniques of survival – how a flawed system could be appropriated for personal gain. A typically Indian condition was thus concentrated sharply in a semi-residential, semi-autonomous, deemed university. Appropriation meant climbing into offices, making objects vanish, deftly navigating north Delhi traffic, skipping queues and generally disregarding rules. This learning was strictly extra-curricular, but thus SPA spawned generations of small time hackers. While hacking institutional codes, legislative practices (clause 201??), assessment criteria, or attendance lists, several big time creative geniuses were born.
In this spirit of jugaad then, we propose an Open Source SPA to bring about its timely rebirth…..(open source definition to follow this.)
2009 finds SPA in a quagmire of red tape, controversy and even communal violence. At 50 years of age, it has become the establishment’s problem child. De-recognition from 3 accrediting bodies in quick succession has shown that SPA’s long time detractors have found means and reasons to finally diminish the institution’s somewhat dull but steady light.
Valiant fighters for the spirit of SPA survive both within its walls and outside. Many fight for their memories. SPA stands still in the warmth of a collective fuzzy level of consciousness. Individuals across the world at different stages of life and career form this collective. A collective memory of the cheerful despair of students and professionals comfortably trapped in a system they know is failing; the sweet scent of unresolved creative angst.
Above all else, SPA taught creative techniques of survival – how a flawed system could be appropriated for personal gain. A typically Indian condition was thus concentrated sharply in a semi-residential, semi-autonomous, deemed university. Appropriation meant climbing into offices, making objects vanish, deftly navigating north Delhi traffic, skipping queues and generally disregarding rules. This learning was strictly extra-curricular, but thus SPA spawned generations of small time hackers. While hacking institutional codes, legislative practices (clause 201??), assessment criteria, or attendance lists, several big time creative geniuses were born.
In this spirit of jugaad then, we propose an Open Source SPA to bring about its timely rebirth…..(open source definition to follow this.)
:-)
ReplyDeletegood yaar!
Love this narrative! Well done
ReplyDeleteAnd its true that the problem wayward 'child'has been told for long enough what to do, its time now for it to be confident, consolidate its success and be a '(wo)man', decide its own way forward.