Paper Ganesha

For the festive occasion of Ganesh chaturthi students decided to make a Ganesha idol of paper. For this task which required awful amount of co-ordination and man-power teams were made for distinct tasks as making pulp, acquiring the mould, setting up the place , assembling the idol and so on and so forth.

These pictures are of the stage when the idol was being assembled. The idol was put together with the effort of 20 odd students for 1 week.

‘ Theory of doing ‘

Goal

Is to attain a state of perpetual self–sustenance.

Why this idea?

The ‘theory of doing’ tries to encompass all aspects of present-day as well as future-week crisis. It identifies the crisis to be a moral one rather than economic or climatic.  These are nothing but the outcomes. They are not the cause of the deplorable state we find ourselves in. The cause is rooted in man and only if we deal with this single entity one at a time do we see a cure.

A misunderstanding, which is commonly found, is the belief that we need to improve the situation of the people in the villages. We advocate that the situation of the people in the towns/cities/metro-cities is far more deplorable increasing in the order mentioned. The idea of ‘doing’ probes into the core. We need to provide a ‘custom ‘solution that stems from a standard structure (the theory), which is applicable to any given situation

Who can implement?

Employees, Owners, Students

How to implement?

The implementation of this idea has to be done by the people to whom it will yield results. It is not a revenue generating activity for a group of people. It is an activity which makes one self sufficient and generates a cycle which keeps the activity going. The activity generates revenues and monetary incentives but monetary gain is not the ends to be met. It is merely a means to meet a moral end.

This is a profit making activity (could be papermaking, matt weaving, vermin-composting etc)  but it is mentioned again that these activities are performed to give men firm moral grounding. As mentioned above in the case of CEPT paper studio these activities have given students ownership of their place, and dignity.  This dignity comes from small acts as receiving degrees made by one-self.

Several such examples can be cited and worked out to implementation.

ABOUT THE IDEA OF ’doing’

The intent of the idea is to involve people to take charge. The intention of the exercise is to initiate in institutes of various scales from kindergartens to specialized research institutes to intuitively reuse the waste created by them.

By waste I mean various kinds and categories of wastes. Broadly speaking tangible as well as intangible wastes. To elaborate at this point, am assured we all understand what is meant by tangible waste.  Intangible waste means the waste without a physical presence. This includes wastage of time, data, human effort and et cetera.

All of the above including wastage of paper, stationery, vegetable waste, water have to be evaluated on a case to case basis and a quintessential solution should be put into action.  This method/ mode of operation is ideal and to a certain extent un-corruptible as it does not end with a monetary gain as its end; rather it is only a means to meet the end, which is, moral gain.

One such system has been realized and put into action at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. CEPT University is an institute, which offers various courses at under graduate and postgraduate level in Architecture, Planning, Engineering and Design. The amount of waste generated on campus is substantial. To name a few of the wastes generated are:

• Used paper, cartridge sheets.
• Mowed lawn
• Used model making boards
• Used paper teacups
• Ice cream wrappers
• Dried bamboo leaves

All of the above mentioned raw-materials/ wastes contain cellulose to a certain extent. Which makes them ideal raw material for making hand-made paper. At CEPT students initiated this idea as a student activity. Throughout the course of the semester student collect various raw materials. Upon the request of the CEPT paper studio (a students operated studio/workshop) students give the raw materials required example: paper, tracing sheets, corrugated boards.

Students at the paper studio use these in-house raw materials to make hand-made paper.  An important aspect of the CEPT paper studio is that; paper is looked at as a medium of expression rather than a product to be mass-produced.

Aided by the various facilities available on campus, which includes a printing studio has facilitated students to make prints on their own paper. Due to this favourable environment students have learnt several techniques as paper casting, etching, stenciling, watermarking.

This makes an accurate example where an ideal solution is worked out for a given situation. As CEPT University has substantial number of design students it makes more sense to engage them in more creatively inclined activity rather then mass-producing a ‘product’.

To a certain extent the paper studio operates as a research/ improvisation laboratory, which probes into various aspects of hand-made papermaking. Apart from making paper for printing and casting students have made boards, which act as sound absorbents/ acoustic panels and paper pulp building blocks (bricks).

Graduation degrees for the university are printed on paper made by the students at the studio; this act symbolizes the campus’s self-sustenance.

A word of caution that is also the unique characteristic of the ‘theory’ is that you consume all the waste that you generate. The institute does not buy/ import/ trade waste from other sources. Instead if such a source is identified then it studies the situation in detail and sets up a unique solution for that institute/ situation / place.

Partners (who can also be involved to implement the idea?)

Institutes of various scales,from kindergartens to specialized research institutes.

How long will take to implement?

Few months to see perceivable outcomes.

Raku Firing