Design for virtual nations | Prakriti Mukhopadhyay | TEDxEmilyCarrU

As the virtual space increasingly becomes a part of our ‘real-life’ existence, Prakriti reminds us to be mindful of not creating global villages, but instead building culturally rich ‘Virtual Nations’. Prakriti Mukhopadhyay is a service designer pursuing her MDes at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Vancouver, British Columbia) Born and raised in India, Mukhopadhyay graduated with a degree in fashion and worked in the e- commerce industry for 6 years. During her time there, in 2014, India felt the full-boom of electronic commerce. Mukhopadhyay found herself asking which side of technology did her work reside? One that organizes information for its own short-term benefits or one that liberates. Back in design school, her work, now questions social acceptance and affordances in design and their implications in the face of globalization. Her research interest lies in designing a platform for geographically displaced immigrants to network and share culturally relevant knowledge to better integrate into society. Mukhopadhyay is presently co-designing this platform in collaboration with PICS, Surrey. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@sayantibhattacharya]

Brilliant! Love this.