GUWAHATI, May 19 - The maiden edition of �Ishanya-2019�, a festival of design, technology and art of North East India, got under way at the Department of Design, IIT-Guwahati, on May 17, an e-mail received here stated.
This is the first-of-its-kind event to be organised in this part of the country. The year 2019 also happens to mark 100 years of the Visva Bharati Kala Bhavan and Bauhaus, Germany, and 50 years of the IDC School of Design, IIT-Bombay. The design festival also coincides with two decades of design education and research programmes at the Department of Design.
The festival is also being organised as part of the silver jubilee of IIT-Guwahati (1994-2019). It will mark significant landmarks of different institutes and their exemplary contribution to design, technology and art education. It will host multiple design-related activities.
The objective of Ishanya is to embark on a design journey and become the role model for design education and innovation in the North East.
The department is organising this unique festival as a platform to witness presentation by leading design visionaries, educators, entrepreneurs, technologist, artists and creative professionals, besides exhibitions of design, technology and art. Workshops on innovation and creativity for school students and teachers, including felicitation of pioneers in education, industry, practice and service for their contributions to design, technology and art, are being organised.
Some keynote speakers are Prof Sudhakar Nadkarni, founder of the Department of Design, IIT-Guwahati; Prof S Balram, professor of NID Ahmedabad; Prof AG Rao of IDC, IIT-Bombay; Rajesh Dahiya, CoDesign, Gurugram; Prof UA Athavankar of IDC, IIT-Bombay, Tanay Kumar, founder of Future Design, Mumbai; Prof Pradeep Yammivayar of the Department of Design, IIT-Guwahati; Sapna Behar of ICARUS NOVA, Bengaluru; Michael Foley of Foley Design, Bengaluru.
