‘’Design is thinking made visual’’

- SAUL BASS

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We all know that books contain stories or stories are written in books. We read books or buy books when we want to write in them. How about creating one’s own books, with various styles and techniques, and maintain a chronicle, where the form of the book is married with what is inside? How can a story ‘’become’’ a book, or a book become a story? How does the unfolding of pages, unfold the journey of the author? Can a book become never ending? Can they have multiple layers, forms, shapes and sizes? Can books be non-linear, being able to open up from multiple sides, than just being read from left to right? We all doodle in our little notebooks and take notes, documentation and note-taking becoming one of the most boring activities. What if documentation can be storytelling where we take pride in journaling our journeys , blending what is important with what we find interesting, and in a process make our own books rather than buying them, or alter an existing book, and see the world around, reflect, ideate, imagine, making our and others’ thinking visible. While talking about ‘’making thinking visible’’, what are referred to as thinking are the specific thinking strategies and processes that one uses to build deeper understanding. By creating opportunities to think through various modes, using visual thinking, design thinking and systems thinking, and therefore by introducing various methods of questioning, listening, inter-connecting and documenting, we focused on making thinking visible , in order to draw attention to the mechanisms by which people construct their understanding.

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This blog showcases the journey of about twenty students, through the course ‘FOLD-UNFOLD-REFOLD’ facilitated by D.EPICENTRE at Ahmedabad University for their Independent Study Period 2017. The course married thinking with doing and focused on skills like observation, documentation and imagination and making as a way of thinking.