Madhushree Kamak and Brian Neizil DSouza

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will facilitate research towards creation of a physical exhibition, accompanied with an interactive web-based experience, focussing on five to six objects from the collection of the Rani Abbakka Tulu Nadu Museum. Based on a preliminary enquiry and visit to the museum, the Project Coordinators aim to explore the narrative of Birth to Death, by selecting objects that connect to each of the phases of life – birth, childhood, adolescence, matrimony, parenthood and death. This project is in collaboration with Rani Abbakka Tulu Nadu Museum in Bantwal, Karnataka. The museum is dedicated to preserving and showcasing the rich cultural heritage of Tulu Nadu. Named after the queen Rani Abbakka, who valiantly fought against Portuguese colonialism, the museum is a tribute to her legacy and the lush history of Tulu Nadu. Founded and curated by a retired history Professor Dr Thukaram Poojary, the museum houses an extensive collection of artefacts and historical relics that tell the story of the region's past. In addition to the artefacts, the museum houses a library named after SU Paniyadi, a numismatics section, and an art gallery dedicated to Rani Abbakka. Madhushree Kamak and Brian Neizil DSouza are the Project Coordinators for this project. 

Madhushree Kamak and Brian DSouza are both designers who are deeply interested in creating engaging experiences for the public. Madhushree has worked as the Head of Exhibitions and Programme Manager at Science Gallery, Bengaluru. From 2019 to 2024, she has been part of the curatorial team at Science Gallery for their exhibitions – Carbon, Psyche, Contagion, Phytopia and Elements. In addition, she has been part of Berlin Biennale Curatorial Workshop (2022) and Khoj Curatorial Intensive South Asia Fellowship (2021). Madhushree was the winner of Adobe Top Talent in 2019 and NASSCOM Design4India Award in 2018. In addition, she was a Brooks Fellow at Tate Modern. Madhushree has a Master’s degree in Biological Sciences from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai and an MDes Information Design from National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. Brian works as a design professor and game experience designer, specialising in creating games for children. He has designed over seven educational games for Playshifu, a gaming company. In addition, he has designed and published a learning kit on social emotional learning with Tillikids which was supported by UNICEF. This venture was the winner of Tool Competition 2023. Brian has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from St Joseph’s Engineering College, Bangalore and an MDes in Digital Game Design from National Institute of Design(NID), Ahmedabad. Given their work experience and interest in the domain of museum, design, learning and education, Madhushree and Brian are best suited to be Project Coordinators for this Foundation Project of IFA. 

The Rani Abbakka Tulu Nadu Museum has a rich collection of objects, covering a range of aspects of Tulu culture and community life. For this project, Madhushree and Brian will focus on a small selection– about five to six objects from the museum – in an in-depth manner. The project will engage with three different forms - a physical exhibition, an allied interactive web experience and a printed booklet with activity sheets. These three outcomes seek to make the museum accessible to young audiences, especially children in schools. Through a multi-format storytelling approach offering exciting learning opportunities it reinforces the role of the museum as a discursive and pedagogical institution. The exhibition will be activated by guided tours for young visitors and public programmes will be organised for local educators to familiarise them with the museum as a space to engage with curriculum beyond the classroom. In order to facilitate this and keeping in mind the limitations of internet accessibility, the Project Coordinators will also create audio-visual outputs based on the web experience that can be shared online and offline, ensuring portability of the learning resources. The digital outputs will also allow the narratives around the objects to be accessible even in the absence of the curator. The web experience and audio-visual outputs will have a creative sound design, making the experience a multi-sensorial one. Additionally, this will create awareness about the museum amongst the local community, build familiarity with Tulu cultural history and expand the reach of the museum locally and nationally. Given the linguistic landscape of the region, the exhibition, the web experience and the digital outputs will be presented in Kannada, Tulu and English. Brian who is proficient in Kannada and Tulu will assist with language requirements, and the Project Coordinators will also engage with a translator to work with the nuances of the languages. 

For the research phase the Project Coordinators will focus on conducting in-depth study of object histories of the selected objects. Oral history will be an important methodology that will involve interviewing Dr Poojary who will add information about the historical context, and impulse of collecting these objects. In addition, Madhushree and Brian will also conduct interviews with community members to gather their insights, knowledge and personal narratives thus centering the community in the project. The Project Coordinators seek to create museum narratives which are not mere academic reconstructions but an account of living stories which capture the emotional and personal lives of people who were makers and users of such objects. While Madhushree will anchor the research aspect of the project, Brian’s experience as a game designer will aid in creating a unique visual language for the project. They will study the aesthetic traditions, symbolic representations that define Tulu visual culture to develop a distinct visual mood board and illustration style. In order to develop this, the Project Coordinators intend to collaborate with local artisans. Even for the exhibition design, Madhushree and Brian will seek inputs from local artists and makers to ensure that the exhibition materials highlight the traditional artisanship and techniques. 

Madhushree and Brian have divided the project term into five main phases. The first phase will focus on comprehensive object history research, collection of oral history, analysis of visual culture and engagement with local artists. The next phase will be towards creative ideation, development of the visual mood board and illustration styles, creation of the narrative and storyboard for the exhibition and web experience, design of booklet and activity sheets, and collaborations for the exhibition. The third phase of production will include working on the detailed object illustrations, narrative text, web experience, physical production of the exhibition and printing of the booklets. The exhibition will be launched in the fourth phase, with public programming and guided tours being organised around the exhibition. The final phase will take care of the documentation of the entire process.  

The primary outcome of the project will be a physical exhibition and interactive web experience. Along with it the Project Coordinators will also create a printed booklet with activity sheets to accompany the exhibition, audio-visual outputs based on the web-experience and have guided tours and public programmes for local educators. The Project Coordinators’ deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be images from the exhibition, the web-based interface, the audio-visual outputs from the web experience, physical and/or digital copy of the booklet and audio-visual documentation of the public programmes.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is supported by Tata Trusts.