Selected Papers
> Design, Technology and Culture
> Design Education
> Designing for Children - Collaborative Environments
> Interaction Design
> Design in India
> People
> Retail and Identity Systems
> Selected commissioned articles for the media
> Across other media publications
Design, Technology, Sustainability and Culture:
- Sen Ajanta, Poovaiah Ravi, "Asia’s Hidden Treasure: Prudence vs. Profligacy as basis for an East-West binary model of Sustainability Education," A Community of Practice for more effective implementation of Higher Education for Sustainability in Asia, 2016, NTU, Singapore- Ajanta Sen and Ravi Poovaiah, "Design & Development: ," INSIDE INDIA’S ETERNAL “TIMELESSNESS” – does design throw up more questions than answers? . ed. Gabriel Patrocinio, Sao paulo, Ano de Publicação: 2015 (Book Chapter).
- Ajanta Sen, Ravi Poovaiah, "In the Cycle of Nourishment, the role of ‘Time’ in constructing culture: Is it food from the Supermarket or is it food from Mother Earth? ," Cumulus Milan 2015 Conference - The Virtuous Circle, 2015, Milan, Italy
- Ajanta Sen, "Sowing the Seeds Right - the struggle for cultural preservation vs. ‘cultural loss’ in a globalized world – an innovation framework:," ICCIG - Third International Conference on Creativity and Innovation at Grassroots, 2015, IIM Ahmedabad - Ajanta Sen and Ravi Poovaiah, The Thresholds Project - Umbartha - the threshold area between the inner and outer living spaces of Mumbai homes. ed. , , Online Publication. 2013
- Ajanta Sen and Ravi Poovaiah, From intuitive (mythos) to the counterintuitive (logos) and back (mythos + logos) – mapping technology over emotive design - paper at Cumulus Design Research Conference, Denver, USA October 2012
- Ajanta Sen and Ravi Poovaiah, Innovation as a matter of ‘cultural losses’ in a globalised world: the need for a framework for preservation – the case of India - paper at Cumulus Design Research Conference, Paris, France, May 2011 (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen, Sowing the Seeds Right - the struggle for cultural preservation vs. ‘cultural loss’ in a globalized world – an innovation framework, Invited Talk at H&SS, NTU Singapore, 2011
- Ravi Poovaiah, Ajanta Sen, “Innovation as a matter of ‘cultural losses’ in a globalised world: the need for a framework for preservation – the case of India” - paper at Cumulus Design Research Conference, Paris, France, May 2011 (pdf)...
- Ajanta sen, The Inheritance of Knowledge – why we practice (sustainability) the way we do, Some pointers for design, AEC, Delhi, March 2009
- Ajanta Sen, Sustainability as a Cultural Construct in the context of India - the symbolisms of the ‘sacred grove’ as a basis for best practices - paper at Cumulus Design Research Conference, St Etienne, France (2008) (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen and Ravi Poovaiah, New technologies for underserved communities: proposing a cultural framework driven process for constructing interactive social spaces (multicultural) - paper at ICSID Congress, San Francisco, June 2007 (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta: Cultural Clashes and Convergences, and the Bollywood Masala – does the ‘B’ word help to define a design idiom? Invited talk at Icograda World Design Congress, Havana, Cuba, 2007
- Sen, Ajanta: "Crossing Borders in a Connected World - exploring an idiom of translation defined by sensory technology- media convergences in an emerging networked landscape", UGC National Seminar: ‘Transcending Borders and Cultures: Translation and Interdisciplinary Studies’, Baselius College, Kottayam, Kerala, 26-27 Mar 2007 (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta: ‘Magicians who script the world, silently! Inspirations for innovative thinking’, Be Inspired, IA&B, Goa 2006
- Ravi Poovaiah and Ajanta Sen, Design by People within Culturally-rooted Idioms – the new ‘cool’ in a globalised world: - paper at ICSID Educational Conference at Copenhagen, Sept. 2005 (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta: "The Metaphors of New Technology - where do we fit in the concept of cross-cultural collaborative leaning?", keynote address at Computer Aided Design in Education (CADE) Postgraduate Conference, Falmouth College of Arts, Falmouth, UK, July, 2000 (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta: "Ethnography – definition, evolution and method", - the FAQs of ethnography by the design community in terms of its why, what, when, where, how, etc. 2007 (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta: "The interlocking Paradigms of design and development experiences from Italy" (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen: "Hiroshima my love - to live or to die?" (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen, Colonisation of culture: African cinema's dilemma in resonance with ours (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen, Colonisation of culture: a "take-off' from African cinema -- towards potential comparative categories for India - part 2 (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen, Colonisation of culture: a "take-off' from African cinema -- towards shifting levels of powerplay make the winner a loser (c) Colonisation of culture and shifting levels of powerplay: no permanent winners here - part 3 (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen, Through the Looking Glass: from architecture deserted to architecture revived ‐ industrial architecture's passage across time (pdf)...
Design Education:
- Ajanta Sen, “Asia's Hidden Treasure - Prudence vs Profligacy: proposing an East-West Binary Model for Sustainability Education”, Conference on ‘A Community of Practice for More Effective Implementation of Higher Education for Sustainability in Asia’, NTU Singapore, April 2016- Ravi Poovaiah and Ajanta Sen, Mapping the design mindset at IDC, IITB - in line with a country finding its foothold in a gradually industrializing market: 1969-present. MSR Faculty Summit, Redmond, 2006 (pdf)...
- Ravi Poovaiah and Ajanta Sen, A blueprint for design education and practice: using emerging technologies and traditional knowledge systems to widen design's constituency in India - paper at ICSID Educational Conference at Hanover 5-7 Sept. 2003 (pdf)...
- Sen Ajanta and Pulley, Robert, "The School of the Future: the time-space meltdown" - selected paper presented at ICSID/ICOGRADA/IFI, Millennium Design Conference, Sydney, Sept-Oct 1999
- Ajanta Sen, Does smart designing make smart business sense? Reflections on IDC's designing in its silver year of 1994 (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen, Mickey Patel's conflicts with design: IDC as a metaphor for an artist - designer interface (pdf)...
Designing for Children - Collaborative Environments:
- Sudha Srinivasan, Siddhi Patel, Avadhut Khade, Gaganjot Bedi, Jyoti Mohite, Ravi Poovaiah & Ajanta Sen, ‘Efficacy of a novel, icon-based, child-friendly Augmentative and Alternative Communication tool in promoting requesting skills in school-age children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in India: A pilot study’, submitted to Journal of Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 2022- Ravi Poovaiah & Ajanta Sen, ‘Jellow- an AAC Communicator for Children with Speech Disability’, National Convention on Digital Best Practices with emphasis on NE States for States for Persons with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities, July, 2021
- Ravi Poovaiah B A & Ajanta Sen, Designing for children with speech disability – a case study of Jellow communicator system’, 4th Asia Oceanian Congress on Neuro Rehabilitation (AOCNR 2021), Aug 2021
- Ajanta Sen & Ravi Poovaiah B A, ‘Design of an Icon-driven Augmentative and Assisted Communication System for Children experiencing Difficulty with Speech and Language’, International Conference on Designing for Children with focus on 'Play and Learn, IDC, IIT Bombay, January 2021
-Ajanta Sen & Ravi Poovaiah B A, ‘Design of an Icon-driven Augmentative and Assisted Communication System for Children experiencing Difficulty with Speech and Language’, International Conference on Designing for Children with focus on 'Play and Learn, IDC, IIT Bombay, January 2021
-Ravi Poovaiah B A & Ajanta Sen, ‘Technology options for Persons with Communication Disbaility’, Fourth National Disability Conference, TISS, Mumbai, Nov, 2019
-Srinivasan S., Sen, A, Poovaiah, R., Insights from user testing of Jellow: A communication aid for children with developmental disabilities, paper at ICoRD 2017, IIT Guwahati, January 2017
-Priya Ganadas, Ravi Poovaiah, Ajanta Sen, Remote Gaming as Social Tool for ‘Learning through Play’ for Children – with reference to Spunk (Space and Universe for Kids), paper at ICoRD 2015, IISc, Bangalore
-C Praneeth Kumar, Ravi Poovaiah, Ajanta Sen, Priya Ganadas, Single Access Point based Indoor Localization Technique for Augmented Reality Gaming For Children, IEEE Technology Symposium, IIT Guwahati, 2014
-Ajanta Sen, and Ravi Poovaiah, Into a world of the "really not real": leveraging a child's make-belief abilities for design clues to build a cross-cultural collaborative environment on the Internet - paper at ICSID Educational Conference at Hanover 5-7 Sept. 2003 (pdf)...
-Ajanta Sen, Ravi Poovaiah and Robert Pulley, Across the Web: the Colors of India as a cross-cultural collaborative initiative for learning, 2002
-Ajanta Sen, and Ravi Poovaiah, "Analysis of Games as a point of reference for building a learning driven environment for children" - as part of KidLearn Project (pdf)...
-Ajanta Sen, and Ravi Poovaiah, A technology-non-technology alliance: does it really work towards learning? Invited paper at the 4th National annual conference for academic education covering New Technologies and Methodologies in Arts, Media & Design around the topic "Teaching - learning and research for the creative professions" held at Bangkok, Thailand, 27-29 November, 2001 (pdf)...
-Ajanta Sen, Ravi Poovaiah and Robert Pulley, Across the Web: the Colors of India as a cross-cultural collaborative initiative for learning (pdf)...
-Ajanta Sen and Robert Pulley, Carnivals, cultures and daisy-chains: Project Solar Eclipse as a case study for sustainable use of new media (pdf)...
Interaction Design:
- Theng, Y.L., Fernando, O.N.N., Deshan, C., Goh, L., Y., Q., Hong, J., Poovaiah, R., Sen, A., & Foo, S. , "CuePbox: An Integrated Physical and Virtual Pillbox for Patient Care," ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, 2013, Paris, France- Ravi Poovaiah and Ajanta Sen, "New technologies for underserved communities: proposing a cultural framework driven process for constructing interactive social spaces (multicultural)" - paper at ICSID Educational Conference at San Francisco, November. 2007 (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen, From Human Experience to XP Design, Invited paper presented at UMO Conference, February 2007 (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen, Defining Usability, Lecture notes - 2007 (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta: "Art at the threshold of claiming space on the Web: Can the City Gallery, extend its constituency via the computer-mediated technologies?", keynote paper for City Gallery, Leicestershire, UK, July, 2000
- Ajanta Sen, and Ravi Poovaiah, "New technology's New Home - Internet within India’s cultural paradigm" - Keynote paper as part of the theme Design, Knowledge and Technologies - presented at Fiera De Santana, Bahia, Brazil, as part of the 2nd International Congress of Graphic Engineering in Arts and in Design, and the 13th national Symposium on Descriptive Geometry and Technical Design, 14-18 Sept, 1998 (pdf)...
- Ravi Poovaiah and Ajanta Sen, A paradigm-shift towards user-centred methodology in interaction design: the case of an icon-driven interface product, Invited paper presented at International Conference on Multi-Media, held at Delhi, January 1998 (pdf)...
Design in India:
- Ajanta Sen, Design in India: in its paradigmatic or pre-paradigmatic state? An Indian response. (pdf)...- Ajanta Sen, Design-writing as a clue to informing a country’s design paradigm and practice. (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta, “The Telephone as an Icon of Change for a Developing Economy - the case of India” as part of sub-theme ‘Communication, Connections and Society,’ selected paper presented at the Humane Village Congress, as part of the biennial design meet of the International Council for Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), Toronto, Canada, Aug,1997
People:
- Ajanta Sen, Another sun, eclipsed, on Gangubai Hangal, July 2009 (pdf)...- Ajanta Sen, Modernism’s Twisted Rectangular Volumes - The Sculpture of Clement Meadmore, Indian Architect and Builder, Vol. 11 (9), Mumbai, May 1998 (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen: “Poetry in Concrete" - a journey into the world of Charles Correa deciphering the vision that forges his work, Dec, 1994 (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta: "Reflections on design through a letter from a Japanese to a Japanese" (pdf)...
- Sen, Ajanta: "Silk sands and rivers: Gautam Ghose's intrepid quests." (pdf)...
- Ajanta Sen: “Bengal Tiger” (on designer Deborani Duttagupta’s typography), 'Going Global', The I.D. Forty - Trekking Design's Frontiers, The International Design Magazine, New York City, Jan-Feb 1998 (pdf)...
Retail and Identity Systems:
- Ajanta Sen, and Ravi Poovaiah, Petroleum retail outlets as the mother of all POP’s – the case study of BPCL: (pdf)...- Ajanta Sen, Designing Corporate Cultures and the next big wave – cultural branding as a local tool for a global market: (pdf)...
Selected commissioned articles for the media:
- Sen, Ajanta: "Through the Looking Glass" - from architecture deserted to architecture revived: industrial architecture's passage across time, Vol 15 (11), Aug, 2002- Sen, Ajanta: "E-Space - Technology Updates and Insights" Vol 15 (08), May, 2002
- Sen, Ajanta: "Vending smiles", POP Today - India's first magazine on point-of-purchase advertising, 1st Anniversary Issue, Vol 2, Issue 1, Bangalore, Dec 2001-Jan 2002
- Sen, Ajanta: "Waiting to Thaw" - Anniversary Focus on ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) in Architecture, 14th Anniversary Issue, Indian Architect and Builder, Vol. 14 (10), Oct, 2000
- Sen, Ajanta: "The Soup Can as Sex Symbol" - manipulating used materials or deification of trash: has a culture become cynical or is it a new paradigm in creativity? Indian Architect and Builder, 12th Anniversary Issue, Vol 12(1), Sept, 1998
- Sen, Ajanta: "Where the Sen, Ajanta: “Bengal Tiger” (on designer Deborani Duttagupta’s typography), 'Going Global', The I.D. Forty - Trekking Design's Frontiers, The International Design Magazine, New York City, Jan-Feb 1998 lead" - doorknobs by Ricardo Bofill, Indian Architect and Builder, Vol. 11(12), Aug 1998
- Sen, Ajanta: "Fuel's Paradise" - a vibrant new corporate communication package for the hitherto faceless Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Indian Architect and Builder, Vol 11 (11), July 1998
- Sen, Ajanta: "Nuclear yet Universal" - a letter from Miyake to Noguchi over their anguish over Hiroshima, Indian Architect and Builder, Vol. 11 (10), June 1998
- Sen, Ajanta: "The Bionic Bug" - insects inspiring a slew of zany designs, Indian Architect and Builder, Vol. 11 (9), May 1998
- Sen, Ajanta: "The importance of being Clement Meadmore" - Clement Meadmore's Modernist interpretation with a twist, Indian Architect and Builder, Vol. 11 (9), Mumbai, May 1998
- Sen, Ajanta: “Bengal Tiger” (on designer Deborani Duttagupta’s typography), 'Going Global', The I.D. Forty - Trekking Design's Frontiers, The International Design Magazine, New York City, Jan-Feb 1998
- Sen, Ajanta: ‘Ajanta’s Column’ - a design column for Industrial Design Centre (IDC), IIT Bombay's newsletter (1997-98):
‘Between the designer and the user’ (Nov’97)
‘At the end of the tunnel’ (Dec’97),
‘The speed with a different high’ (Jan’98),
‘Here comes the Sun’ (Feb’98),
‘Weaving Dreams’ (Mar’98) and
‘Inventing the future’ (April’98)
- Sen, Ajanta: "Design and Business Sense", Guest Column, Business India, Dec19 1994-Jan11995
- Sen, Ajanta: “A Trifle Reductionist” - a critique on innovations made by young designers in India, ‘Design’ (weekly column), Economic Times, July 28, 1994
Across other media publications:
- Sen, Ajanta: “Poetry in Concrete" - a journey into the world of Charles Correa deciphering the vision that forges his work, Dec, 1994- Sen, Ajanta: “The Friendly Savage” - a profile of the late cartoonist Mickey Patel, Oct-Nov,1994
- Sen, Ajanta: “Whitewashing African Cinema”- a critique on how African film makers work on films for the Western market in the absence of an audience for African cinema within Africa, September, 1994
- Sen, Ajanta: “Silk, Sands and River" - exploring film-maker Gautam Ghosh’s intrepid quests, July,1994
