Month: February 2018

Gathering research perspectives

Based on the secondary research, you will with your group prepare to have the first contact with the families in Santiago Mezquititlan.

Introduction:

Last year, we were working with a family: Araceli and her father Don Jose. They are both still learning the traditional methods of agriculture. They are both open to sharing their know-how and their experience. Based on our personal experience in Santiago we believe that it its their family that most holds a grip on indigenous thought and traditional processes.  However we understand that the source of all knowledge in the family lies with Araceli´s Mom. She is quite reserved, and talks sparingly. Our main mission would be to gain the humble confidence of this family to share their experiences.

Then we shall move on to have lunch with Doña Vicky and her family. They too store maize and have their own Milpa. Vicky is rather modern in her thought process, but her mother is quite traditional.

This is our one chance to get to know our community in study.

Our preparation

We shall on the first site visit, focus on anthropological research: listening, observing, documenting. While we already have our groups, our research questions and our methodologies in mind. We shall not impose the methodology on them on the first visit. This visit is a chance to tune our understanding, refine our questions and rethink our methodologies.

We shall be documenting all our research, as a continuous document . Images shall be uploaded on this folder. You shall upload your written experience and images by 9:00 am on 6th March 2018.

Schedule

9:45: Briefing and Meeting at Hotel Escuela, Amealco: with Eugenio

10:00: Driving to Santiago Mezquititlan

10:30: Arrival at Home of Don Jose

2:00: Lunch with Doña Viky

3:00: Visit to home of Doña Vickys moms house.

4:00: Departure from Santiago Mezquititlan

Rules

1. Introduce yourself, your motive with love.
2. Be humble, as much as possible.
3. Do not have a preconceived notion of anything.
4. Do not take anything for granted.
5. Keep a notebook and a pen handy all the time.
6. Bring cameras: Take photos, with permission.

Secondary research methods (Deadlines: 19th Feb, 26th Feb,  28th Feb)

Here we shall explore a collaborative research method towards our first objective.

You are to work individually, depending on your specific interests in our main objective. 

Here are the rules.

1. You shall start using the document, sign in and strictly work on the space allotted to you. Do not worry about formatting as multiple editors will be working at the same time. The moderator (varun) will intervene if a clash exists.
2. You are allowed to use and cite any secondary research material: research papers, conferences, articles, music, documents, movies, books, magazines, stories, historic documents.. etc. 
3. You are not to edit others words (all edits are saved in google docs). However you can comment or suggest edits.
4. You are to read/ browse the research material of each of your colleagues and to comment on each.

Your grading breakup

Grading – 25% of the terms grade is dependent on the results of this objective.

1. 10% on the appropriateness of the citations and your own comments.
2. 10% on the commentaries on material cited by others.
3. 5% on the quality of the research questions asked individually

We shall use this document for collaborative research

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mvoK1DCK8wA7wC2_d_5XDz7WRivvnBxL_KTJ-FMK558/edit?usp=sharing

Introduction

Santiago Mezquititlan, Amealco, is a small town of 6 barrios where the circle of life seems intact in certain pockets.

The objective of this semester will be in the direction of

“Traditional methods  of food storage, Amealco, Queretaro”

The Phases of this Semester

Part 1: Secondary Research (week 3-4)

Part 2: Primary Research (week 5-9)

Part 3: Design and Implementation of leanings (week 10-12)

The Outcomes of this semester

Outcome 1: A document based on seconday research (25% of the grade)

Outcome 2: A research Paper based on primary research (50% of the grade)

Outcome 3: Design and implementation of a construction and the collaborative documentation of it (25% of the grade)

Guidance:

1. Work individually for objective 1. You are to keep research directions based on your interest and experience. Keep it realistic yet sufficiently ambitious. A research is never an end, there is always a continuity. Raise questions, answer a question and leave further questions unanswered.
2. You are to approach your research subjects, for outcome 2, with humiliy and considerable amount of sensitivity. The connection as ethnographers we have with this indigenous community is extremely valuable. All actions will be thoughful and shall not jeopardize the human connection.
3. You are to approach outcome 3 with sufficient passion and time, you will have to self organize to participate actively in the construction process.

Primary contacts

Your primary contact of Santiago mezquititlan, shall be through previous work use them to gain access to the community.

It is highly recommended that you participate in the workshops and tours they organize to understand the previous expereince with the community. https://www.facebook.com/ExperienciaLabor/

https://www.experiencialabor.org/

Wishing you a very successful learning experience with love,

Varun Thautam

+52 442 461 9551

varun.thautam@gmail.com

www.varunthautam.com

 

Image; Varun thautam, http://www.varunthautam.com/index.php/2017/03/25/houses-of-the-indegenous-people-san-miguel-tlaxcaltepec-amealco/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main design philosophy can be summarized with the following points

1. Use of local materials, techniques, resources and local skills.
2. Integrating your building with the land, site and surroundings.
3. Thinking about building processes as a cycle and not a straight line.
4. Design considering the fact that everything is connected to everything else.

Presentations

1. Presentation on the above design principles – Varun Thautam
2. Images of current research on Bovedas – Varun Thautam
3. Projects and works – Varun Thautam

Readings suggested

1. Ianto Evans – Natural building Chapter 1