Conscious Designing Inquiry Project

Phase-II - ‘Dimensions of Well-being’

Fall 2024- Summer 2025

Project aim- To explore how we can creatively design and mindfully execute while making conscious choices that cater to Holistic Well-being for all.

Project scope:-

Community involvement

Interdisciplinary,

Intercultural

Exploring Interconnectedness

Audios of Phase -I meets can be found at the end of this page. We are thankful to all the Guests, Collaborators, Volunteers of phase-I of this project for their contributions and participation.

For Phase-II we will restart ‘Making handmade’ while being mindful of Materials in relation to ‘Waters’

To participate in our activities or to join the virtual meets, submit the form on this Prep page

Some queries to ponder on

Wellness can be approached from several angles. What are the various DIMENSIONS of WELL-BEING? Are they interconnected?
What does HOLISTIC WELL-BEING look like to you?
Does CREATIVITY foster Well-being? In what manner?
Is iINDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE HEALTH INTERCONNECTED (of all species)?

More details will be added on this page as they come, Stay tuned.

Categories for Collab

Select your choice of basic category from the ones mentioned below to start the Creative Collab Inquiry. Interested members can signup for free on the Collab member page to access further information or contact us with Questions.

If none of these categories match your interest, pitch in your suggestions on the prep page so we can discuss it further.

Material- Papers/ Fibers/ Synthetics

Creative use of these Materials and alternative approaches to it.

Water- Interdisciplinary aspects, Cultural Links

Share Water stories from your culture, Explore Science-Arts-Ecology-Wellbeing

Aesthetic Inquiry- Art as Process

Process of Art-,making and developing sense of Beauty as factors of Well-being.

The content below from Phase-I of the project is archived for reference, some event links might be outdated

Conscious Designing Inquiry Project

Conscious Designing project is a creative Inquiry into the Interconnectedness of all things, and how making conscious choices can affect the

wellbeing of us all.

It aims to gather interdiciplinary groups on the creative platform of Arts.

Project opens from November ARD 2023

Formally starts from Jan 2024. Some intro talks here.

Activities can relate to ongoing talks on “Water’

Stay tuned on this page for more updates as they come.

Let’s explore how we can think Creatively and execute Consciously while having fun together!

Updates: As of June end the Phase-I of this project is over. Updates on Phase-II will be posted in September for events to take place in Fall 2024-Spring 2025. Stay tuned!

Contact here if you would like to get involved and join our monthly talks.

Some notes from the project designer-

Looking back at the first phase, it feels like a good learning curve.
This project, unlike others, was meant to be less structured and more open to be built upon by collaborative events, letting it take its own shape. In that sense it feels like a good success though some plans didnt work as we would have liked.

I purposefully avoided opening social media pages as it would affect my research and creative focus but that is also the reason why we failed to reach out to more audience and get more participation. Something to ponder on for the next phase.
Any success this far is a shared one with contributions from each collaborator and from all participants!
Though not very effective or of much impact, the phase-I seems to have laid a good foundation for the project to move ahead in more meaningful directions.

We are grateful to all the Collaborators, Guests, and participants of Phase-I of this project for their contributions. that helped give the project its shape.

Acknowledgements:

We are Thankful to:-

Phil Nyman for Co-hosting and help with planning the events.

Abigail Padfield Narayan, Hannah Smith, Julie Nieset, Claire Sullivan, Vyom Mehta , for their collaborations

Dr Sowmya Anand, Mrs Linda Thiele, Naza Agassi, Nada Sweid, Alejandra Aguero, Savannah Donovan for their support and outreach for our programs.

Kiri Fagen-Ulmschneider, Sophia Beem, Mrs Pruski, Doris Lagos Kutz, Rachel Rasmussen, Dr Stake, Dr Visse, Mrs Manjula Tekal, Meera Bharati for being our valued guest and sharing their work and insights with us during virtual and in-person events.

Sayee for her support and advice, Seth Feldman, Phil Nyman, Kuldeepa VM for our inner-outer talks that gave Conscious Designing Inquiry project, its depth.

Content below is for archival purposes. All event are closed as of June end of 2024.
Updates on Next phase will be released in September. Stay tuned!

Updates: The Book reading event in June was graced by some valuable guests and we are thankful to them all. Also grateful to Phil Nyman for beingg our co-host and to everyone who attended the event and made it meaningful with their discussions and presence. Below are some snapshots.

Join us for the concluding events as we near the end of Phase- I of this project.

Book Reading event 9 June 2:30-4:00pm at Lincoln Square Mall.

Book talks, displays and activities will revolve around the theme of ‘Wellness for All’ To join or participate, submit the form here or email for enquiry.

We are Thankful to Phil Nyman for leading this event, to Hannah Smith for making available the space and to all the guest presenters for their time to make this event possible.

Book Reading concluding event at Lincoln Square Mall

Rachel Rasmussen talks about the Books to prisoners program.

Dr Stake and Dr Visse share themes from their Book 'A Paradigm of Care'

Phil NYman talks about some Books and puzzles related to wellness and Joy

C Designing Virtual exhibit

From 12 April- 30 April, Virtual meet 14 April 3:30-4:30pm

Please do send us your reviews here and join us for the exhibit virtual meet by registering here

Updates:

This exhibit is closed, find a few snapshots of virtual displays. Thank you for all your encouraging reviews, it will help us move forward in right direction! We are grateful to all the Guest perticipants and community members for sharing their art and talks with us!

This exhibit consists of 3 sections:

I- Collaborators- This include Artworks created by or representing Collaborators.

II- Community creative works - Includes

- The creative works of participants during project workshops and a few pieces from previous workshops that are in sync with the project ideas.

- Creative Upcycling, Refurbished Fabric creations by Champaign Mixed Clovers 4 H Club

- Youth projects done as part of community work or school projects, included here for their innovative thinking for use of sustainable materials.

III- Curator’s pick- Interdisciplinary Artworks/ Multimedia, that were inspiring and potentially be collaborative.

This section opens the week of 21 April to commemorate Earth Day 2024.

We are grateful to the following Collaborators for their support and partnerships in hosting project events.

Spurlock Museums of World Cultures

Students for Environmental Concerns

Lincoln Square Mall

Ascend Art360

Phil Nyman, Julie Nieset, Vyom Mehta,

And Jona from Kunstmatrix.

It was a pleasure to be part of the many Ecology educational events for April- Earthday month. The highlight though was Sustainapalooza a big event hosted by SECS at the UIUC Quad 22 April. Some snapshots below. We are thankful to Claire Sullivan, Julie Nieset for including us in their activities.

Bubble notes made from up cycled school fliers for Teacher's appreciation week

virtual exhibit Collaborators, Guest and community entries

Tables at the Sustainapalooza hosted by SECS

Educational posters on Wetlands for an enrichment with students with Julie Nieset, wetland scientist, hosted by Urbana Park District

Some snapshots of our first event in the series-

Mosaic Crafts at Spurlock Museum- a family friendly Spurlock Sundays event.

Thanks to Ms. Abigail Narayan Padfield for all the efforts setting up and facilitating this event, and to Phil Nyman for leading the Puzzle making table.

Below are some snapshots of virtual talks/ presentations for part- I of the project. We are thankful to all the guests, participants and volunteers for being part of this important phase of our project.