Sounding Out Emerging Designers: Experiments with Indian Classical Music Within a Design Curriculum

This paper is based on two courses around Indian classical music offered to undergraduate students at a Design institute. While implicitly evaluating the place of the auditory in a domain that is predominantly visual, the paper dwells on specific experimental tasks that were designed and carried out in these courses. The first course referred to in this paper was intended towards learning outcomes in experiential writing, critical thinking, and rudimentary research skills for the foundational study of Design. The second course, built on some insights that emerged from the first, was focused on the emotive and intellectual appreciation of Indian classical music. A further aim was to facilitate inter-sensory absorption towards reflection on intermediate learners’ own practice as evolving Designers. Outcomes from the courses strongly suggest that music can be a means to channelize emotive-reflective recall and connection to latent personal sources of inspiration. Responses to listening tasks shed light on the imaginative means that students less familiar with a certain kind of music fall back upon to grapple with the input, as also the possible constraints on creative expression that technical familiarity with such music might lead to. The paper also discusses the varied output generated by learners who forged conversations between the musical and the visual. Finally, it highlights unanticipated questions from learners that prompt further reflection on the purpose of using music towards extra-musical outcomes.