A Research Proposal abstract

Enhancing a multi-layered cultural network through plural approaches

By: Apoorv Garg and Aparajita Dubey

There are multiple configurations for defining the word INDIAN with no single consensus.
Moreover, the concept is further complicated while addressing the term Indian cities. We can
probably only try to understand the way in which cities in this subcontinent have evolved in its
space and time. However, the existing urban are very different from their contemporaries and
are derived only through time or space individually. Therefore, the markers which can be
referred for defining newer directions towards solving major issues relating to contemporary
urban agglomerations (i.e. exclusion, gentrification, cultural loss and many more) are very
different and need to be identified. These can certainly be instrumental in deriving frameworks
for apparently smart cities. Todays ever growing aspirations are often incapable of quoting
this process of evolution on the grass-root level and the flexible character it offers. These flexicities are far more resilient to the urban and non-urban pressures caused by various factors as
compared to their newer counterparts (newly developed areas). Furthermore, with the current
layers of global change, the relevant context is ignored in the widely-accepted process of urban
transformation.
THE EXPERIMENT:
In order to understand the tracers and speculate the alternate strategies towards solving the
urban pressure, a city/neighbourhood can be understood during its maximum occupancy. This
is the time when the city structure goes through short term quick ephemeral transformations to
accommodate the changes. Only after understanding and analysing these changes during the
peak pressure situation can derive the markers needed to speculate this potential for further
addition in basic frameworks for any city undergoing smart transformations. Out of the multiple
possibilities to understand the same, this experiment intervenes in Ujjain, M.P. as further
described below.
Simhastha Kumbh Ujjain 2016 is a recent upcoming event to understand such transformations
in Ujjain because of which the city goes through numerous domains of multiplicity, inclusivity
and plural approaches. Here the city and its people become a part of the process and
participate in the grand month-long event in various capacities voluntarily thereby,
unconsciously grow to be a large collective. These collective acts as the birth place for a large
interchange in terms of knowledge; inter-city and intra-city cultural exchange; resource sharing
as well as capacity building.
The exercise is to explore this accommodative character of the locals of the city. Medium-scale
cities are usually close-knit formations of established rigid cultural boundaries making
negotiation with strangers limited. The experiment aims at blurring these boundaries towards
enhancing the permeability of the city fabric. The city can then be translated into various
clusters of simultaneous events in addition to the concentration being on Simhastha Kumbh
arena. The now-defined network of willing participants could help to understand these
negotiations in the city through sharing of the existing tangible as well as intangible resources.
The capacity building of these certain neighbourhoods makes them into smart communities
that allows them to participate in similar activities in the future also by being connected into a
larger system thereby integrating culture in the development process.
The observations of this experiment will provide us relevant feedback and analysis towards
deriving the markers/ tracers that define the framework for inclusive multi-layered contemporary
communities.