A group of students from a design college in Bengaluru have come up with an innovative project that attempts to shed light on what artists and designers do.
Srishti TV started by 14 final year students of the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, is a YouTube channel with a vision to "humanize art and design in India".
The channel is also the thesis project of the students, who are pursuing various disciplines in their final semesters. Its makers say it is dedicated to the creative student community in India, and will serve as a platform to showcase art and design through a digital platform.
"You do see a lot of Indian YouTube channels that are doing very well, but there is no channel as such that caters purely to the creative community or has to do with art and design," said Devika Sandill, a Contemporary Art Practices student who is in charge of Marketing and Communications of Shrishti TV.
"We also felt that in India a lot of people still really don't understand the creative industry and there is this perception that artists and designers are different from everybody else. And that's not really true. We are trying to make the art and designing community more accessible to even somebody from outside (the community)," she added.
The Srishti TV team.
While work started on the project mid-January, the channel went live on April 19.
As part of the project, students will produce nine segments in five episodes that will be published every consecutive Wednesday for five weeks.
A sound recording session.
"We wanted to cater to as many different people and interests as possible through our segments," said Devika.
So "Excerpts from Experts" profiles successful creative professionals who speak about their careers and journey, "Design Local" is a travelogue that uncovers the traditional art and craft practices of Karnataka and "Design Dictionary" explains complex design terminology.
There's also a music segment called "The Vent" and even a fictional mini-series, "My Best Friend Art", which explores an artist’s relationship with art.
They have a segment on experimental animation.
Students shooting in Chamundi Hills for their travelogue.
Once the current group of students wrap up their project, the channel can be passed over to the next batch.
"We wanted to set up a framework which could be taken forward. We have kept it very flexible so that every set of students can interpret it differently and can come up with different content," said Devika.