David Stairs
What can be considered radical anymore?
In their day, Vikings were pretty radical
Used to be this was easy to answer. Back in the ’60s we had Abbie Hoffman and Students for a Democratic Society, and Angela Davis and the Black Panthers…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
I recently came to the end of a three-year creativity cycle. This usually means it’s time to relax, reflect, and reconsider my options. For me, a great way to do a little lateral thinking is my annual painting chore…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Ask a group of student designers, any group, to develop a campaign while working in a large cohort, and they’re likely to react the way my Central Michigan University students did when I first made an unconventional proposal to them back in November 2012…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Young boys on the beach in Allepay, Kerala, India
Designers are frequently talking about skills and aesthetics, practice and theory, and these are important topics. But when it comes to politics, man can they get it wrong!… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Winter Park, FL. train station
I’m having this printed on a t-shirt in 100 pt. demi-bold letters:
I survived Universal Studios
Over the Christmas holidays I was invited to Florida by an old friend I hadn’t seen since 2005…. Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: To celebrate the first anniversary of the Indian Journal we’ve invited our friend Sumandro to share his thoughts on contemporary discussions of the Indian concept “jugaad.”
Sumandro
In a recent essay, Hamid Dabashi has spoken out against the continuation of the obnoxious (colonial) practice of identifying European socio-cultural artifacts as the universal form,… Continue Reading →
Victor Margolin
Several months ago my wife and I had dinner in a restaurant with another couple. My wife is in her late 60s and I am in my early 70s. The other couple was about twenty years younger than us…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Amid the controversy over Guantanamo interrogation techniques resurrected by Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty I read Mark Owen’s No Easy Day, the ooh-rah first person Seal Team Six account of the assassination of Osama bin Laden on May 1st,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Cutting Corners
One of the most gratifying experiences is having one’s observations corroborated, especially when they are about another culture. Not one, but two Indian acquaintances responded to my last Indian post, Why India Does Not Need Me,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
As I come to the end of ten months of articles about India, I am a little sad. It has taken an effort, at times, to stick to my original purpose, to observe everyday design in action on the subcontinent…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
“It’s not a blue world anymore, Max.” —Chief Blue Meany speaking to his assistant at the end of Yellow Submarine
The aftermath of the 2012 election got me thinking about color. The typical red/blue dichotomy that the media has devised to represent our apparent “bad blood”… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
I once saw a mounted policeman in Philadelphia charge down a street at a full gallop chasing a felon. In my neighborhood, South 9th Street, there were even a few remaining stables. This was, of course, a 17th century city that late in the 20th century that still had a mounted police unit…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Workers unloading a truck at night
America, land of gizmos and gadgets, began its history so labor poor that it accepted the evil of slavery for more than three centuries before its Civil War eliminated the scourge…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
This article was suggested by Chris Stairs, who is also responsible for some of the photos
Urgent entreaties, Sankey Tank vicinity, Bangalore
Trees and diatoms, two of the things we most need to sequester CO2 and produce oxygen,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
In the tea shambas of the Kanan Devan Hills Company, Munnar
When it comes to tea, the Indian place names roll off one’s tongue: Assam, Darjeerling, Ceylon. Tea is grown in many other places, but it is in India that it became a world-class cash crop,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
“Oh Mother, today I remember the sindoor on your forehead, the red-bordered sari you used to wear, and your eyes—calm, serene, and deep.”
—spoken by Bimala in Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore
On the matter of women’s dress,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Sign for women’s washroom in Hindi, English, Urdu, and Bengali. The water is held by the right, or eating hand.
As goes its plumbing, so goes a nation; in this we do trust. The Romans supposedly poisoned themselves with lead piping,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Special thanks to ajantriks for help with this article.
Hindu temple, Chowdaiah Road, Bangalore
On the weekend The Avengers opened in Bangalore, one week prior to its release in America, theaters were jammed with middle class Indians flocking to view the latest exploits of some of their favorite heroes…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Adolf Hitler once referred to the British as “a nation of shopkeepers.” But the Brits had nothing on the Indians when it comes to small business. One needn’t look too far to notice the importance of commerce to India…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Madhya Pradesh, in north central India
When one thinks of France one automatically pictures the Eiffel Tower; New York and it’s the Statue of Liberty; India and 9 out of 10 people will say “Taj Mahal.” India is home to many other significant sites,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Train travel in India is popular. Is it any wonder? Domestic flights cost ten times as much as trains. In fact, train travel is SO popular here, that it’s hard to reserve a seat if not done well in advance…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
The Ganges looking north
Benares. Varanasi in modern parlance. This is the holiest city of Hinduism. The Ganges runs through it like the rainbow bridge of Asgard, but it’s so much more useful to the common man…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Among the upper castes individuals might change their religion, but lower down the scale a particular caste in a locality, or almost an entire village would be converted. Thus their group life as well as their functions continued as before with only minor variations as regards worship,… Continue Reading →
The idea of planning and a planned society is accepted now in varying degrees by almost everyone. But planning by itself has little meaning and need not necessarily lead to good results… Does the plan aim definitely at the well-being and advancement of the people as a whole,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
If you asked people to name the most durable material in the world, many would probably say steel. If you asked what is the most flexible they’d say plastic or rubber. If you asked them to describe the most economical they might say clay…. Continue Reading →
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