Unblock 2020 is a collaborative endeavour between the students of the Undergraduate Technical Program (UGTP), Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Zwende Foundation and a community of artisans from Anantapur who are practioners of Tholu Bommalata, an ancient folk puppet tradition. Once a thriving folk form, it’s presence is slowly disappearing and there is a need to reinvent and find a new audience in order to sustain itself. Unblock 2020 is positioned as an incubator within this indigenous craft context to explore possible emergent strategies through a co-creation process with these stakeholders. Unblock 2020 arises from a felt need by these artisans that there are possibilities that could emerge with an engagement with the digital. An added dimension of the project would be to annotate this performative tradition through different forms to encourage viewers to immerse themselves into the cultural paradigm within which it is rooted.

Thematically driven, mobilising a design direction and engaging with the larger picture and client conversations. This will be the client interfacing, reporting and larger collateral development unit.