Designer/ Researcher/ Photographer
Working at the nexus of culture, economics, and politics of sustainability.
Designer and researcher working at the intersection of sustainability, community, and systems — using ethnographic, participatory, and visual methods to understand lived experiences and support equitable transitions.
I would like to collaborate on research oriented projects.
Picture courtesy: Gunnar Bäckman
Photo Stories
Camera trapping for small wild cats in North-East India
Goodu factory
Kani Livelihood Solar Project
Bhavani River Basin
Ragihalli
Spectacular Specimens (2024)
Changing landscapes and perturbations
Analogue Adventure
Portfolio
Handmade: Designing with raw materials
An opportunity to explore art-based practices and processes as part of a course in university led me to create an installation using Finnish lamb wool. The process involved intimate, political and philosophical engagement in which I traced through nostalgia, feeling a deep sense of attachment to a memory, that involved lives and activities that were attuned with nature.
Visualisation of a projected future cityscape at the Jätkäsaari shopping mall, Helsinki.
Citizens of Helsinki have been offered a chance to experience a new local community hub in Jätkäsaari. The location has been transformed from a boring barren sea-side site to a thriving shopping- complex, designed for prioritising community interaction and local economy by engaging local inhabitants through co-creation. The design of the complex encourages the use of public transport such as trams and bicycles.
Developing a Toolkit for Physical
Education Teachers in Tanzania
The sustainability challenge by Liike Sport & Development presented the need to improve physical education (PE) within Tanzanian schools. The client believed from earlier work that PE has a positive impact on girls’ empowerment, improved pupil health, and reduced absenteeism at schools.
We designed and proposed a mobile application for PE teachers called “Toolkit for Physical Education Teachers“. Click here to read more about this project.
Camera trapping for small wild cats in North-East India
I worked as a research assistant in the project “An integrative approach for designing and evaluating networks of protected areas under climate change: A test using small felids in India”. The project is a collaboration between Uppsala University, Sweden, the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History *SACON), Coimbatore, India and the national Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore India.
Woollulose
Material exploration with wool and nano-cellulose to create a series of material that provokes sensorial experiences through touch and sight. Wool, considered a sustainable, natural fibre, and nano-cellulose are combined to create earth friendly materials for further application.
Contact
surabhi.nadig@gmail.com
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India