Behind the Scenes at CONTAGION
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, museums and galleries across the world closed their doors and began moving online. Science Gallery Bengaluru put out an open call inviting the world to submit their proposals for an online exhibition-season that would explore all things infectious. We received submissions from artists, scholars and young people keen to explore the transmission of diseases, behaviours, emotions and information.
Conceptualising, designing and producing a living exhibition like CONTAGION—which explored exciting methods of virtual engagement such as our online mediator sessions, our #TakeItFurther resources, and live experiments—was an exciting, organic and messy process. In this interactive session, the Science Gallery Bengaluru team shared their insights and learnings from the exhibition.
Gayatri Manu is a writer and researcher with work experience in the field of reporting, publishing, and digital media. Recently, she completed her Masters in Creative Writing and Literary Arts from Ambedkar University Delhi, where she focused on literary devices and narrative techniques employed in the Speculative Fiction genre. Apart from fiction, Gayatri writes about gender, culture, and other subjects that pique her interest. Her work has appeared in Firstpost, The Better India, The Ladies Finger and Yahoo India.
Komal Jain, a Design Associate with Science Gallery Bengaluru, focuses on the spatial design of the SGB Complex. Freshly graduated with a Bachelors in Exhibition Design from the National Institute of Design, her work revolves around museums, game strategies and its applications, and digital media to create memorable learning experiences. Early this year, she presented her graduation project at the “Designing for Children” Conference organised by IDC School of Design—Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Madhushree Kamak is a maverick scientist, illustrator and information experience designer. As the Programme Manager at Science Gallery Bengaluru she develops exhibitions, programmes and learning experiences. She has been a part of several public engagement with science events over the years at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research including Frontiers of Science and Chai and Why?. While she completed her first masters degree in neuroscience from TIFR, her other passions are illustration and User Experience design. She also completed her Masters in Design from National Institute of Design focussing specifically on accessible graphic representations of complex scientific topics. She has worked as a freelance science illustrator and her design work has been showcased in the Helsinki Visualising Knowledge 2018 showcase and won the 2018 Design4India and 2019 Adobe TopTalent awards.
Sankalp Singh is an electronics and communication engineer and an audio visual communication designer. He completed his bachelors in technology from IIMET Jaipur in 2013, after which he did his Postgraduate diploma in commercial visual communication in photography from Light and Life, Ooty. Sankalp is going to complete his post graduate from the National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar in 2021 (hopefully). His work paradoxically centers around contemporary commercial visual practices, and late stage capitalism. He has also worked toward documentation and conservation of the built heritage of the former state of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, and is looking forward to working with the world heritage city trust of Ahmedabad for his upcoming project.
Shweta Jangir is a graphic designer and a documentary photographer. She graduated from Symbiosis International University in 2015, in Audio-Visual production, and directed a few short films before working with the acclaimed filmmaker Anand Gandhi, at his production house in Mumbai. She is interested in the fusion of social concerns, arts and communication. Examining how to use visual media for social change and exploring critical theory around society and identity. In 2020, her photo work ‘17-15’ was exhibited at FotoFestival Schiedam in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In 2018, she was the creative director at Artem, an independent print magazine that celebrates works-of-art and artists from Northeast India. During this time, she became increasingly interested in publications, print media and editorial design.
Vasudha Malani majored in English literature at Ashoka University. She is passionate about interdisciplinary work, and hopes to do a masters in Health Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. Her research till now has sought to understand dust in literature, and how it may be connected to ideas of modernity and colonialism.
Jahnavi Phalkey is the Founding Director of Science Gallery Bengaluru, and the Sir Asutosh Mukherjee Visiting Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies. Formerly based at King’s College London, Jahnavi was Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute of Advanced Study, Berlin). She was also external curator to the Science Museum London, and has been a Scholar-in-Residence at the Deutsches Museum, Munich. She is the author of Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth Century India and has co-edited Science of Giants: China and India in the Twentieth Century. Jahnavi read civics and politics at the University of Bombay, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. She holds a doctoral degree in the history of science and technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.