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Emily Carr University of Art + Design has been helping to make Vancouver awesome for 85 years. One of Canada’s premier, post-secondary universities, they're the only university in Vancouver to specialize in undergraduate and graduate art and design education and research. Their graduates are innovative, inspiring, award-winners who make significant contributions to the world of art, design and media. In this new V.I.A. series, we catch up with some alumni who are making a difference. To learn more about what they do, visit their website, www.ecuad.ca. |
Tobias Ottahal and Hamza Vora are 2009 graduates of Emily Carr’s Bachelor of Design program. Currently residing in Karachi, Pakistan, the pair are team-teaching an interdisciplinary design course, Design for Disaster Relief, to 3rd year students at the University of Karachi in response to the massive Pakistani floods of 2010.
Ottahal had been planning to head to Tanzania to teach screen-printing (hey, Emily Carr is multi-disciplinary!) and Vora had plans of his own, namely to reconnect with his hometown of Karachi. Both were anticipating putting their newly acquired BDes degrees to use. One night, Vora mentioned he had been speaking to some people at the university about teaching and the collaboration bloomed from there.
The concept was to teach a project-based design course aimed at connecting the stagnated rural crafts areas of Karachi with design students. The hope was that the crafts-people would benefit from design process and ideas, and the design students would be able to reconnect to their heritage, its philosophies and production methods.
Then the devastating floods occurred, displacing millions, and they felt that the only right thing to do was to address the current situation.
Under the supervision of Durriya Kazi – head of the Visual Studies Department at the University of Karachi, Ottahal, Vora, and their students have been working directly with the inhabitants of the displacement camps set up around Karachi, researching needs and developing ways to better the current situation.
In addition, the pair has been assisting a displacement camp outside of the city, handing out necessities, such as food and toiletries. Most recently, they held a fundraising campaign to purchase charpais (cots) for camp members who have been sleeping on the ground…quite literally, with snakes and scorpions. In just 10 days, they raised enough funds through family and in large part, their Vancouver friends and colleagues, to provide beds for the entire camp of 200 people. They are now trying to find a company to match funds in order to purchase blankets and pillows as the camp prepares for the cooler season. You can find out more about their fundraising efforts at www.upwardsonwards.com/charpai.
When asked what they have taken away from their studies at Emily Carr, Vora responds “For me, it was learning to work together with other people and integrating their desires and your own, as well as using one's own practice for the betterment of your community.”
Says Ottahal, “I think I have become more aware of the holistic perspective of things. Everything is connected, and as soon as you effect or affect one part, you have an impact on an unknown number of other parts. I think that knowledge has informed my choices, not only personally but also professionally.”
So, what’s next for these two?
“I want to take some time off to digest and reflect on the experience – think about what the next big step will be,” says Ottahal. “I really want to see what I can do to promote solar and geothermal energy in places where these resources exist in abundance. In the meantime, I would like to do a road-trip through Canada.”
Adds Vora, “I’ll probably take a nice long nap, and then move on towards the next most challenging project I can find. I have also been thinking about a cycling trip along the Coast, so maybe I’ll start planning that.”
You can learn more about the course, and Ottahal and Vora’s experiences in Karachi at learningkarachi.wordpress.com.
