4/7 - Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

Hello, today I will try to speak about the school how it's working: buildings, courses,... To don't do bad choices and waste time.

You have Four buildings: Old Campus, N2, N3 and N4 building.

Old Campus: 5 minuts by rickshaw from the other part of the school (N2,N3,N4). This campus is shared with another school, you will find a library, a football field (you can play at 5PM with other Srishti students ;) ), workshops (wood and steel), a printing workshop and the secretary. It's a really nice place.

N2 campus: The common building, where you will have the first presentation, there was only one floor for the school but I'm already speaking in the past because they will change soon. The new place should be nice too. So if you have a "general course" I mean where you have to sit and listen the teacher it should be in this building, you also have the international secretary with Ksenia who will help you during all your stay. On the rooftop there was a canteen.

N3 campus: I went there only for a graphic course, you can also find the "Nantes Atlantique - école de design"'s classes. If you are leaving in a PG they will give you your lunch in this place.

N4 campus: I never went because it's basically the Animation and filming place, we said me it's a nice place to study in peace.

So if you want to use the workshop try to choose courses which are in Old campus !

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 Courses

So when you will arrive you will have a presentation and then, depending of your school level, they will give you a list of courses and you will have to do your choices.

If you are in Fourth year (M1) you will have to choose one project on a list, you will work on this during your all semester. These projects are real and full, with the list there is a description which explain what kind of design they want (communication, branding, web,...I don't really know)

If you are in Third year (L3) you will have to choose different courses on a list (I give just after):

- 1 course of general studies  -  I chose "Tracing Art Histories": Basically Story of Art and Architecture in India

- 2 courses for cycle 1 and then 2 for cycle 2 - I chose "Inspired by Insects" which was Experimental Art (I didn't know), "Layout" which was Graphic design, "Navigating Choice" which was knowledge on interior materials and "Light and Space" which was knowledge on light.

- 1 course for the workshop (2 weeks working on one project/ where you can get new knowledge) - I chose "Thinking with material" which was doing a maquette of a product (you can choose: car, airplane, chair,...)

- 1 course for the charette (1week working on one project/where you have to apply your personnal knowledge).- I was forced to do "Inspired by Insects", I didn't know it but I basically finished my project of the cycle 1 Inspired by Insects.

So basically you have to choose 7 different courses.

There are lists of these courses and I personally think being in third year is better, firstly, because in fourth year, these projects could be the same as in your school so you will work in group and alone on a real project, which is nice, but what is the goal to go abroad to have the same kind of projects?

And secondly because you come to learn a new culture and to have some new knowledges... and courses of third year will give you this opportunity.
So you will maybe not progress as much but you can take this like an opportunity of creativity: choose courses about Indian culture, about different kind of design or try to improve where you think you are bad. The amount of work is not really hard but it will be interesting to develop yourself, they will generally provide documents to read, videos,....

PS: if you are in fourth year like me, you can ask to go in third, no problem for this.

Courses details:

Cycle 1 and 2

Charette courses

General Courses

One more advice courses will be interesting depending of the faculty and the building where you're working so try to ask to Srishti students before, they will say you which "teacher" is boring or interesting (I'm sorry to say this but it's also a part of it). You can also check the level on the list, try to choose level 2 or it's going to be really basic, or as I said enjoy a new thing (printing, filming, photography, textile design,...). And you also have to check days if you choose a course which is on "Monday, Tuesday", after you must choose a course on "Thursday, Friday" and not "Monday, Tuesday" again, there are also courses which are all the week.

If you choose something you finally don't like, as an expat student, you will have a possibility to change but say it fast, insist and explain why (when I say insist, I insist on the word insist :p).

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Blackboard

It's a website where you will have to do everything, choose your courses (if it's not done when you arrive), give and receive your homework, see teachers messages, download ressources,... you can also see works of the other students (sometimes).... it's quite interesting but also boring because they will often give you homework for the weekend and you will have to upload your paper before 5pm on sunday... So you have to check everytime because they can give you some work and if you don't check it will be your fault.

As an expat student you will probably don't have any problem, for exemple, if you have internet problem, if you're late or if you want to give handwriting papers... just speak with your faculty, everything will depend of your faculty but they are generally nice (more strict with Indian students).

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 Some projects I've done during this semester:

Mimicry of the future (Inspired by Insects):

One homework of Light And Space course:

One homework of Layout course:

Thinking with material: Doing a cheap maquette with wire, paper and then resine. (Panton Chair)

One photo of the workshop in the Old Campus:

PS: This school is moving a lot, I studied in 2014/2015 and apparently every year is different (I guess in a better way) so courses, buildings, way of studying will probably change for you... I know the N2 building already moved to another place.