ADA was the result of the efforts of Architect Maria Aslam who began a quarterly publication focusing on documenting architecture art and design practices in Pakistan and surrounding regions in 2008. She envisioned it as a national archive of creative practices, the conceptual aspect as well as the outcomes with a focus on the connections of art and design practice with social issues and the environment. In 2018 ADA announced the ADA Awards in order to create global and local recognition for art, design and design practitioners from Pakistan. In 2018 ADA evolved into an ‘activist portal’, raising a voice for social and environmental challenges plaguing Pakistan while engaging local creative fraternity in constructive dialogues to pave the way for activism and a socially engaged practice.

For Aslam the ADA awards were always envisioned as inclusive and with a national reach. However, despite her attempts to send out nationwide open calls and holding the ceremony in Karachi (2019) and Lahore (2021), the second cycle (2020) having been held online due to Covid pandemic, the perception of ADA awards being metropolitan centered is quite deeply entrenched. “I got a call yesterday from Quetta lamenting that they had never heard of ADA” says Aslam. “I don’t want ADA awards to be about mega cities, it should be driven by the creative minds and their works where ever they may be situated.”

However, the reality is that the design landscape of Pakistan is dominated by players from the metropolitan cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. In-fact the creative industry is located primarily in these two cities. When and how this transition occurred, I am not sure, but the existence of Design education institutions in major cities means that there must have been an attempt to either cater to an existing industry or establish one. However, the centralization of artistic activity in Lahore, the cultural-hub of Mughal and post Mughal periods, and the emergence of Karachi, with colonial remnants and an economic hub, led to an establishment of an industry in these two cities. The legacy of Mayo College of Arts (now NCA) in Lahore colors perception even now. On a recent visit to Peshawar to participate in the European Film Festival, I was surprised to know that faculty members of educational institutions still thought NCA to be the only educational institution specializing in art and design, though new public and private sector institutions have risen up many years. This points to a serious issue in the art and design scene in Pakistan, a lack of linkages and communication. Adding to this, Aslam says “The scope of the term design is so vast, ever encompassing that it’s mind boggling. What is design and why design?” This vastness in scope and the failure of the educational system to assess and address the needs of design activity in a regional context might be a contributing factor. There definitely needs to be more interaction between the creative industries and academia, I want conversations and critiques, and want to listen to people’s perspective.”

As the chair for the Category of Design for the fourth cycle of ADA awards I was keen to understand the motivation and orientation of Maria Aslam in the pioneering effort of awarding excellence in art, design and architecture. The following text reproduces a conversation between Aslam and I, as we discuss the design landscape and practice while contemplating its future possibilities. It also records my own exploration of the term Design Activism in order to understand the positioning of ADA Awards as such by Maria Aslam. In this my purpose is personal and perhaps selfish and stems from a need to justify my own involvement with it.

TH: How do we define the term Design in context of Pakistan, the way it’s been thought of and the need of the current times and future? You spoke about the need for a wider ambit for design as compared to how we have been perceiving and conceiving it.

MA: I think Design takes over your life, everything we use, and sometimes abuse falls under the wider ambit of design. How design actually manipulates our life. Consciously and unconsciously. Why do we prefer a certain phone a certain laptop, why prefer a certain technology to another, why a certain app to the other? Why do I prefer from one mug to another? A helpful way to begin to think about this would be how does Design integrate into our daily lives? The creative industry in Pakistan is very small and we have not connected with the masses. From the perspective of architecture, we have failed to connect with the masses, we have failed to make their lives better? Fine Art, the group is very elite, and not everyone can afford art either. How do we bring in art from different strata of society and how do we engage with society through different methodologies of art? I understand art is part of schools and programs, but how many pursue art as art? There might be people unschooled in art, housewives perhaps who pursue it as a hobby, how do we get to them? For me unless the creative industry reaches out to the masses and impacts their lives, in whichever small way that is when we have impacted. Speaking of the design industry, there must be so many people with a plethora of skills, and I was introduced to this wide spectrum of design activity through the ADA Awards. It challenged my limited understanding of design as being logos, branding and editorial etc. I realized how it penetrates the lives of the masses. Even a layman will use an app and say this works or does not work. I am amazed at this power of technology and design to bring design activity to the people. For instance, an app that allows us to identify a problem in my side street and then people can come together to collectively solve it. …. and putting people together is also a design force.

TH: Who are the stakeholders of design? For instance, you said that design is not connected with the masses, so how do we conceive of the populace, are they the purchaser or the consumer or both?  These are two different thoughts. I think till now the way we have been defining design and its activity has been through the relationship of buying and selling and that affects the way we think about design, its activity, its funding. So, if the stakeholders are the users or the masses which is now conceived of as the users of design then we relook at the design activity. Now if this is the new ambit of the design activity then who funds this? Private capital is one thing but design as a public service or for the public sector needs to be encouraged. Because until the public sector and design industry, no matter how small, do not work together, or till design only works for the private capital which continues to view the user as the means to get optimum gain, we will not design for the population in general. So, if design continues to cater only for a handful of elites, then aren’t we missing a huge opportunity?

MA: I say designing for the masses, for the evolving society, irrespective of the various social strata’s, not all might be able to afford it but they are aware of it. This is a dicey phenomenon and I am not aiming for consumerism here but an acknowledgement of good vs bad design of a more enlightened and informed society.

TH: What do you think we can do about this?

MA: I think the communal lens needs to be engaged with. Suppose there is a public park, and someone wants to propose a bench, using reusable material, a group gets the material and others start to get funding to make it and now there is a solution. I believe if you work towards genuine collective efforts, doors start opening. When you move towards genuine initiatives you will have responses come forward to support it. Unfortunately, design has not had much support from the government and the private sector is also stretched thin, but when we work towards a collective cause or collective good, people do come forward. We might not be able to identify specific organizations, but there are even individuals, us, who realize the need and come forward. If we think in terms of materials, cement, mortar, bricks…. that’s not the way. We have to think creatively. If we say here is a pile of discarded waste, plastic bottles, let’s smash them and put them through a roller and see what happens, let’s use this discarded tub – make a bench, place it here, someone can sit on it, kids can play and so on. I am a staunch believer in reuse and recycle. There is so much brick and mortar in this city, I can’t breathe or walk or see the sky or the trees, unless I am in certain areas of the city and it should not be this way, the city is for all.

TH: We are discussing sustainability, coming back to the Awards, and now that we know how Maria thinks about design, what made you start the awards? What conflicts, what opportunities or what thoughts became your motivation for the awards?

MA: ADA magazine was launched in 2008. I came back to Pakistan from Canada in 2018 yet again (laughing). It was a time when all one could hear about Pakistan were negative stories. When you are abroad and you know that back home good projects and good work is happening, and you feel that the world is unaware? We don’t celebrate or acknowledge our own great works and also the public knows nothing about them. So, I started looking into my computer and realized that in 2013 I had initiated working on awards with the Agha Khan Award as an inspiration. In Canada, I had learnt from the Azure Awards, and so ADA awards came into being. My friends helped me brainstorm and made these awards into reality, but let me share not consciously but it so happened that primarily it is a female powered initiative. On 18-08-2018 we launched the Awards and in January 2019 the first award ceremony took place. We had an international jury, in-person for two days, A design seminar and the fourth day was the Awards night. It was so quick, almost like AI generated text. I have a picture of me from those days sitting on the steps and someone had captioned it ‘trying’. I learned about a winner’s package that should have been broad casted in the awards night. We were criticized heavily, on the missing information. In the award announcements you should have had the winner’s package but how could we have done it in such a short time. The first cycle was a huge learning. We are in the fourth cycle now and there is no looking back. To date I have not been able to see the full video which was telecasted by our partners HUM TV. Second cycle was during Covid so we had to relearn everything to make it work online. The third cycle, in Lahore and we honored the second and third award recipients collectively. It was a beautiful night and despite all the hiccups which projects like this entail, I think we did a tremendous job, we made history yet again. And we have now announced the fourth cycle.

TH: So, it was very much an endeavor of passion?

MA: Yes! It was totally organic. I was asked on stage what is the business model? And I said there is no business model. I felt there was a vacuum that needed to be filled and I stepped in.

TH: But now that you are in the fourth cycle, do you feel you need a business model?

MA: In the third cycle, two of our sponsors withdrew at the last minute. This was due to the fact that the PSL matches in Lahore were scheduled in the month of March and we had to pull up the awards to February. My jury was already in Lahore and other invitees were flying in so I just decided to go ahead. There really wasn’t much else I could do. This time round we have to work on sponsors, so we are looking towards corporates and organizations that believe in the importance and are aligned to the identity of Design and the need to celebrate Design from Pakistan. We need to highlight that we are as good as any. Our media, unfortunately, is not interested in highlighting personalities who are doing amazing work, but then, there is social media that we can use to amplify their work and show it to the world. In the first cycle we did a homage to all the design practitioners who had passed away. It was a simple presentation but so many practitioners had tears in their eyes and came to me and said, thank you for mentioning them. Coming back to your question, honestly, I do not think so but yes, we do now have a history to show what we have achieved in the pursuit of excellence in the creative industry of Pakistan.

TH: Do you think that we are still facing the aftermath of colonization in context to design activity? Are we still the labor that feeds the western interests?

MA: Absolutely, we are biased because of colonization, we are racist due to it. We grew up being racist to the Bengalis in our houses and the Christians in our homes. I think our generation has now realized that so much of what we grew up believing is disputed. But the generations prior are different.

TH: Yes, it’s become ingrained in their social fabric and mental makeup, they are not even aware that how they think is biased or constructed.

MA: But now it’s time to move ahead. Whenever we design, we look at the western? Why? The questions should be…what do we need? What is our makeup, what works for us? We have never ever strived for an identity. I have co-authored a book in conjunction with Hassanuddin Khan seven decades of Pakistani Architecture. For years we struggled on Architectural Identity of Pakistan framing and reframing it…the book will reveal.

TH: Is it published?

MA: It’s with the publisher. We have no identity; we have even lost our language. I will share a story here. I wanted to do a project in Hoti Market, it’s in the old market of Saddar, a beautiful market, and heritage property. We wanted to revive it, but before we even touched it, it was realized that there were many ethnicities there, many cuisines, many languages and unless we worked on the intangible aspects of restoration, we cannot work on the tangible realm that is the building structure. We had to sit with them, gain their trust, know them, what was it that they wanted? There was a small green space where their elders used to come and sit in the evenings while kids played. What kind of food they wanted to sell; what crafts were the women practicing but being exploited by the middle men. So, another more intangible project grew from there, before we could even lay a finger on the more tangible one. We often go for the tangible aspects while ignoring the humane angle in design. We are often influenced by the foreign visuals that are restored areas, that’s why we are losing our linguistic diversity, vibrancy, pride.

TH: And ending up with alienation between ‘us and them’. Actually, we are also ‘them’ if we look at it from the lens of the West. And if we can change this thinking and say everybody is ‘us’ or design is for ‘us’ then perhaps things will start changing?

MA: And Design will start making an impact.

TH: So, we have spoken about three primary areas today, colonization and its effects on the design industry and design activity, the lack of awareness of our own design practitioners who have worked in the field and made an impact and the lack of human centered thinking in relation to design output. How does ADA Awards address this?

MA: ADA has certain principles or values which it shares with the chairs and the jurors, of course aesthetics is a part, but for instance how does the aesthetic impact on the end user? So, for instance it’s not just a beautiful school that we will look at? How are the children being impacted, how are they moving around? Then there are two awards, the ‘Socially Responsive Award’, any project that has done something for the society, for instance Ali Rez’s ‘Bugsplat’ project on drones, won the category and the jurors unanimously felt it fit the ambit. Then there is another ‘Environmental Design Award’ but so far there has been no winners in this particular category. The second socially responsive award winner was in the last cycle. This is an architectural project for children born in the prison environment, where a small play area was developed for kids in the prison environment. So, it wasn’t the scale of the project, this small project took the big award. You look for something beyond the visual. A beautiful residential project that did not win because the maid’s room was only given a space of 6ft by 6ft, a double bed is 3 by 6ft so how small was this? Even though others said that the client determines the space allocated for the various areas, this one juror stood his ground and said that it is the designer’s duty to educate the client as well. Some of the dialogues during the juries have profound influences, it makes you realize the limitations of your own thought or your own perspectives. Educational institutions need to have more dialogue within each other. This is also the legacy of colonization ….

TH: Yes, divide and rule….

MA: We have no books on our local designers or architects, which are taught in any of the design schools. There are some books on artists but very few.

TH: What do you see as the future role of ADA?

MA: I want to see ADA become a media house centered on a research cell on all things design. Design is a huge colloquium in today’s time. Academia in the West has publishing houses, but we don’t ape the good things right! None of our universities have publishing houses, and no great libraries either. Libraries abroad are spaces in which you can get lost, I actually got lost in one. Then there are rare manuscripts, rare books. We have individuals who have such books in their possession, but no libraries. Yasmeen Lari might have some rare books; Arif Hassan, Kamil Khan Mumtaz, Fakir Aijazuddin and others might have some but apart from that there is no accumulation of knowledge. I desire to publish many books and research papers conducted in our environment. For the Awards, a lot of people have told me to open it regionally because our system is now well developed and established. But my fear is when I  open it up to India, Bangladesh, where will we stand? Bangladesh won not one but two cycles at the Agha Khan Awards. These are fantastic projects, not huge, not corporate, very communal, not too much money has been spent on them. But it’s the thought that’s beautiful. Where do I get that? I wish we can learn that it’s not about scale or how much funding you have put into a project? Some of the projects were conceived by architects but executed by bringing in other actors who together worked to implement it. We don’t think beyond ourselves. I am sick of hearing that the government does not support art and culture. I also went to the government who said to me we cannot do much beyond ‘Roti Kapra Aur Makan’, and cannot pander to your dreams. And I said to them these dreams are not mine but the people of Pakistan and this conversation was with the Minister of Culture!

TH: Maybe it is time we start a conversation that designers can be part of the Roti Kapra Aur Makan cause too! It’s just that we haven’t been included in it and actually we can help there.

MA: Yes! In all their plans of building skyscrapers around the beachfront have they spoken to any architects, urban planners about ecology, environment, landscapes? Even something as simple as a view! When you turned on Khayaban-e-Mujahid, (Karachi DHA) you could see a shimmer of the sea, the view was beautiful. When they decided the new routes and made Mujahid one way, we lost the view forever.  We don’t talk, we don’t converse, the government does it amongst themselves, the private sector amongst themselves and the people who listen to them. There is a conference happening on environment and sustainability and who are the practitioners from the creative industry invited there? The corporations will sit and think with the government. Where is the design there?

TH: I think this last thought is important here, the need for design to be more integrated in the various activities, whether economic, manufacturing, agricultural whatever. Especially since all of these are undergoing new challenges due to economic and environmental change and upheavals, where new structures need to be developed to address the upcoming challenges. Since we are now rethinking old models, the stakeholders need to be together from step1. We can no longer say that all the thinking is done by the bosses and designers are called in to only execute things. Their input into what is possible, what is not and what can be tried, must be there from the initial stages. Perhaps we can look at a new category of collaborative design or interdisciplinary design projects. Perhaps a homage to public and design collaborations. Like public service messages have been successful mixing advertising and public health like child vaccination advertising campaigns.

TH: So where do you see ADA Awards going or its future development?

MA: I think ADA Awards have evolved as Design Activism, we do make a lot of noise and we do ask hard hitting questions in our talks and dialogues. We do not follow the herd mentality. Let’s start reaching out to people whether it is about inclusivity, the question of community, even if it’s a question of aesthetics, do they even apply in these times of challenges such as climate change and sustainability? Some people don’t like us, they say we ask too many questions, but then some will say, ADA Awards have forced us to look at our projects critically – with a different view, which says a lot!

Notes

Design Activism has been understood as facilitating social change, creating awareness and critical reflection about values and beliefs and raising questions about the relationship of mass production and consumerism and people’s lives, (Markussen, 2013).  However, he goes on to elaborate on how design activism goes beyond the anti-establishment goals of art activism and political activism, instead “it lends its power of resistance by precisely being the designerly way of intervening in people’s lives” (Markussen, 2013, 38). Markussen proposes design activism as a “disruptive aesthetic practice” (Markussen, 2013, 42) referring to and building upon Dilsalvo’s distinction between design for politics and political design. Dilsavo defines political design as that which reveals, contests and creates “dissensus” (Markussen, 2013, 43). Building on this he explains aesthetic dissensus as the introduction of heterogeneous artifacts that challenge our existing understanding of “socio-culturally entrenched ways of belonging and inhabiting the everyday world” (Markussen, 2013, 44).  Dissensus reveals a gap between what creatives do and how they feel about it. In this way designers can be subject to renegotiation of their own practice leading to new ways of belonging and inhabiting the world.

Julier (2015) defines Design Activism as relational to design culture and neoliberalism. Design culture is a result of certain pre-existing conditions, socio, political, economic and is therefore “reactive” (Julier, 2015, 219). Design Activism is a sensitive and informed response to this culture and therefore political. Thus, Design Activism enters the space of design culture and neoliberalism, and uses the tropes of frameworks embedded within these, to create an alternative future.

In this way Design Activism functions in both a utilitarian sense as well as the political. Design activism looks outside itself, mobilizing underused assets and leveraging enthusiasm to look for future sources of value, by persuasion as well as artifacts that open up our perception to other possibilities. It is then up to us to decide which possibilities we want to pursue.

References:

Julier, G. (2015, April 21). From Design Culture to Design Activism. Design Culture the journal of design studies forum, 5(2), 215-236. doi.org/10.2752/175470813X13638640370814

Markussen, T. (2013, Winter). The Disruptive Aesthetics of Design Activism: Enacting Design between Art and Politics. Design Issues, 29 (No. 1), 38-50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24267101