Learning expedition to Shimoga
In 2018 I took a group of foundation-year design students to Shimoga, in Karnataka. The idea was to learn field research and community engagement firsthand. We met interesting people and visited some unusual places, the Sanskrit-only school in Mattur and the Ninasam cultural institution, along with a trek, some temples, and the elephants at the Sakrebailu camp. The students came away understanding community engagement in design better than any classroom session would have managed, and the trip itself was the point.