Visual Cultures: India

Curation of Diverse Experts

To unpack India’s visual culture and build a rich set of insights about India’s local visual culture, we curated and recruited an eclectic panel of experts belonging to the fields of visual arts, academia, cinema, design, film and photography. The idea was to bring together diverse voices who could articulately contextualise opinions and perspectives while representing India and its different facets through images. We engaged these experts in an interactive, hands-on online co-creation workshop, which was also attended by the Editorial Design Team as observers.

The experts, all experienced image-makers themselves, were expected to critically read and analyse images from across the spectrum of India’s visual culture landscape — from commercial and mainstream to nuanced and alternative, to widely accessible stock images. The objective of the study and who it was commissioned by was communicated to the workshop participants in full transparency. The experts felt a clear responsibility to represent what is relevant, meaningful and important for their country as a whole. They focussed on the whole population and culture, across religious, sexuality, ethnic and other affinities. They contextualised any personal opinions and insights they generously shared. For instance, while discussing the use of stock photography to represent certain geographical subregions or cultures, there were spirited discussions about how to avoid flattening the idea of India to any one cuisine, symbol, or monument. Instead, recommendations were made to look beyond “postcard” versions of cities and states, to embrace how people inhabited spaces, artefacts and moments that could capture more local nuances and moments, and images of local hotspots or placemaking that captured the contemporary lived experience of daily life.

Recommendations included exploring India’s vibrant diversity through its subcultures, avoid stereotypical representations of gender and tradition, and acknowledging how lines between imaginations of the city vs rural, national and international are fast blurring as young Indians express themselves in ways beyond the conventional. Design facilitation proved key in allowing all the experts to contribute to a vibrant yet balanced discussion, and in steering the conversation agreeing on an actionable set of insights.

Collaboration Tools for Engagement

A highly interactive virtual co-creation workshop enabled us to derive a richly detailed and diverse set of insights from the panel of experts. Images served as the raw material, and participants were encouraged to bring selections they considered desirable or undesirable within India’s current visual landscape. These included personal photographs, internet stock images, and works by iconic Indian photographers. The group conversations were conducted via Zoom, supported by a Miro board using images participants provided, along with Indian playlist covers selected by the music platform that participants were asked to comment upon. A visual analysis of these images combined with notes from the workshop discussion was done through clustering, using the detailed workshop documentation on Miro.

During the workshop, we facilitated discussions that prompted participants to be visually descriptive and specific, analysing the imagery for different styles, meanings, and embedded symbols. We also examined various Indian playlist covers designed by the streaming platform. Through a series of activities, experts identified and discussed trends in Indian photography, cultural stereotypes, and best practices for depicting communities, spaces, places, subcultures, regional identities, and local flavours.

Emphasis was placed on deconstructing culture beyond tropes and the tourist gaze. We explored vernacular expressions, focused on real people and a spectrum of emotions, and delved into visual themes of nostalgia and everyday objects to evoke specific emotions related to spaces and places. Additionally, we collaborated with the experts to build a repository of local image banks, publications, and image sources. This resource will enable the client to commission or draw inspiration for contemporary and relevant imagery in the future.

Richness of a Global Study

Participating in a global study focused on local cultures required us to contribute locally relevant guidelines and insights while contextualising them as globally applicable principles. Beyond recruiting pertinent stakeholders and experts, Quicksand’s key contributions included sense-making, cultural interpretation, and analysis that balanced global and local perspectives for the client. By adopting a collaborative mindset and approach at every level—engaging local experts and participating in regular debriefs and check-ins with research teams from other countries—we were able to distill the abstract and expansive concept of visual cultures into a specific and rich set of guidelines on the appropriate use of photographic imagery in various contexts.

This project was one of many research initiatives undertaken with the global music platform, encompassing user-focused studies on colour usage, typography, imagery, podcasts, and music preferences, as well as creator-focused studies on podcast creation tools and monetisation, and foundational research exploring new market segments for the platform. As part of Reach, a global network of agencies specialising in human-centred design research and service innovation, Quicksand has collaborated with numerous multinational companies and non-profit organisations. This collaboration has enabled us to enhance existing services and develop new offerings across multiple foreign markets.