Writing
My writing underlines an integrated worldview where as my mentor Mary Catherine Bateson writes, "multiple small spheres of personal experience both echo and enable events shared more widely, expressions of moments in a world in which we now know that no microcosm is completely separate, no tide pool, no forest, no nation.” [With a Daughter’s Eye: A memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson]
As an engaged observor and thinker especially about the arts, education and technology in society, my thoughts can be read @
https://scroll.in/author/18874
https://www.theatlantic.com/author/krina-patel/
Other Writing
A summary of my doctoral dissertation is here.
Embodied thinking and learning in artisanship
There is a quality of attention required in experiencing an activity in which the body is completely involved as when making food and appreciating its taste. This analytic sensory attention that immerses us into real moments in time in other words, real time thinking is central in this discussion of what I have termed embodied thinking and learning. This aspect of thinking and learning emerged from my recently concluded doctoral study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Read More
Here I call for re-thinking the false dichotomy between arts and crafts in India.
Contentious Categories
Picture this. Tiny circular mirrors embedded into the wall reflect lights that are angled just so. Visitors glide gently, their fine fabrics rustle softly, hushed tones echo quietly in the appropriately lit white cube where the "artwork" is on display. The placement of the mirrors mimic the traditional abhla embroidery patterns done by the women of Kathiawad in their desert dwellings during long, hot afternoons. The abhlas — small mirrors — used in embroidery grace functional objects of everyday and ritual use in the harsh, parched lands at the western tip of India where my ancestors settled. Read More