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CROSSROAD
Ancestral Wishdom & Future Systems
INTER-DISCIPLINARY ELECTIVE
B.Des | Semester VI
2nd March 2026 - 13th March 2026
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN, ASSAM
About the Interdisciplinary Elective 2026
For 2026, the Interdisciplinary Elective invites course proposals that navigate the expansive spectrum between Primitive Roots and Futuristic Horizons. The overarching theme of the elective is built on the belief that the most profound design provocations emerge at the intersection of art, science, and technology.
The trigger here is whether the design narrative from traditional problem-solving can be shifted toward a space of civilizational inquiry. By using artistic imagination, scientific investigation, and technological evolution, the elective examines the ‘Crossroad’ where traditional knowledge systems meet speculative futures.
Interdisciplinary Elective Tracks:
Living Matter & Bio-Experiments
Explores materials and systems not as inert objects, but as living, evolving, complex entities. Harnesses natural phenomena in design, mimicking life.
Prompts : Biodesign, Bio-art, Biomimicry, Material experiments, Ecological systems
Human senses and Perceptions
Critically investigates how humans sense, feel, embody and embed interaction within hybrid environments/experiences such as- physical-digital, traditional-modern, and/or past-present
Prompts: Embodied interaction, Sensory augmentation/experiences, Traditional knowledge systems
Speculative Worlds & Social Prototypes
Uses narrative world-building & design fiction to rigorously inquire, envision, and prototype alternative futures, artifacts, and better socio-technical/socio-cultural systems & ways of life.
Prompts: ‘What-if’ scenarios, Future Urban/Rural needs, Design Fictions, Imagined Future, Artificial Intelligence, Generative Systems, AI-assisted storytelling.
Courses Open For अंतरविषयक ऐच्छिक - 2026
Designing New Social Contracts for an AI-Integrated World
Course Keywords: Design Fiction, Socio-Technical Systems, Algorithmic Governance...
Green mosaic: Design with nature
Course Keywords: Ecological system, landscape, design, art
Remembering Without Photographs: Memory, AI, and Material Image-Making
Course Keywords: Memory, Human Perception...
Speculative Ecologies: Ancestral Materials & Future Worlds
Course Keywords: Biodesign, Bio-art, Biomimicry...
Living Memory: Oral Traditions & Narrative Futures in North-East India
Course Keywords: Multisensory experience, Oral History, Living Knowledge system, Culture, Tradition.
Playable Futures: Designing Societies Through Game Systems
Course Keywords: Design Fiction Through Play, Speculative Political Economy...
Student's registration Form
All Semester VI students are required to complete and submit this form within the stipulated timeframe. Students who fail to submit the form will be allotted courses based on availability.
Please note that all courses have limited seats, and course allotment will be carried out on a first-come, first-served basis. Students must select exactly one course. Selection of more than one course will result in automatic disqualification of the submission. In such cases, students will not be permitted to resubmit the form and will be assigned to any remaining available course.
