05.2011 - 06.2011 Ahmedabad, India
Role: Ethnographer
Theme: Industrial ethnography of welding environment in rapidly developing manufacturing sectors in emerging economy.
The aim of this ethnography work project was to understand key design issues within the Indian welding industry ecosystem. Our contect was the rapidly growing industrial belt of Ahmedabad, Gujarat in northern India. I worked as an ethnographer and cultural mediator as part of the R & D team from Kemppi via a consultancy service Gemic, using a combination of design interventions and Industrial Ethnography best practices.
My own observation techniques were focused mainly on issues such as Workarounds, Interruptions and Triggers, Applications, Features and Functionality, Environment and Artifacts and analysis of assimilated data.
Due to some of the fuzzy and haphazard nature of the visits to the factories, a lot of open ended inquiries had to be traced back to these categories too. Social, cultural and environmental factors within Indian heavy industrial environments added an anthropological dimension.
The findings and subsequent analysis eventually went into the design of a new custom welding machine by Kemppi.
Culturegram of a qualified welder from vocational school, developed post-interview.
On the field, a video based ethnography session with one of the Kemppi board members.
Getting familiar with the ruthless conditions of Indian welding community
