Goals of the Power of Seeing Project

Apart from the technology of mindful, sustained, proactive seeing, the Power of Seeing Project uses photography, film, print, internet, and CD-ROMs to achieve the following goals.

Short Term Goals (till end of 2010)

Educational Toys & Methodologies: Our present focus is on developing educational tools and toys, methodologies & solution-oriented exercises through a series of workshops with experts from various fields aimed at making the child more design-sensitive, skill-oriented, observant, organized and interactive with the environment.

Exhibitions: Publicize pertinent information, insights, observations, data collected by children through exhibitions within schools

Posters: hold poster making workshops to create installations and make informative posters and banners to be displayed on school buses. Petrol pumps and other public spaces

Emergency Helpline Numbers: We plan to organize the children from various schools to lobby for emergency helpline numbers as well as phone numbers of municipal agencies directly accountable for common civic amenities and publicize them on boundary walls of schools for the benefit of the neighborhood

Include in School Curriculum: Our effort will be to lobby for the inclusion of the "Power of Seeing: Humane Urban Design Project" as a part of school curriculum

Long term Plan (till end of 2011):

Prepare a Replicable Blueprint of the Project: Our ongoing long plan is to document the project very closely at each step, and by the end of two years to consolidate all the information collected through workshops, fieldtrips, presentations by experts plus the observations, case-histories, insights, narratives and data collected by the children into one consolidated document so that a tried and tested, replicable blue print of the project can be prepared to be adopted in schools in other cities and towns across India.

Text Book: And finally to convert the assimilated material into a handsomely produced work-book for schools which will include hands-on exercises, tasks, assignments, worksheets with interactive CD-ROMs and cut-out report cards that can be filled and sent by the children to the concerned municipal agencies in their respective town/city.

Our Mission:

First of all to make the child (an adult within the next ten years) become more aware, more observant, more mindful, more respectful and most importantly more connected with the environment. We have seen that the children strike a very strong identification with their chosen element and then perforce get concerned, curious and connected to a larger network of interdependent relationships of things, amenities, services and real people within the urban grid. And this alone fulfills our primary aim.

The reporting and lobbying prove to be bonus add-ons. The whole exercise of seeing, documenting, organizing, sharing and reporting leading to lobbying, converts children-citizens to become "seeing and concerned citizens." The message that gets circulated is that we care, we see, we register, we know and expect better, thus we expect change! And conversely the message that reaches the authorities is that "the people are seeing, they are looking!" and that is enough! Today we have all other resources in plenty; the only thing missing is a sense of identification with the environment on one hand and lack of accountability and will on the other. The exercise of mindful, proactive and most importantly sustained seeing instills just that!!!