Tactics in India

Another culture, so also new tactics when approaching people in the project. The main things that are important here are:

The place where I collect makes a lot of a difference whether people join. In parks where mostly the upper class comes, it’s easier than in a city village on the street or in a train. This isn’t just the language barrier but has more to do with conveying the concept and that people draw a beautiful moment or good memory from last week. In some places getting the message across is hard and people just draw and smile. Showing examples is than an easy and good way to familiarize people with the concept and explain people have about what you really mean. Further it lowers the expectations how good their drawing has to be.

Although English is an official language here, the proficiency level isn’t always that good. An explanation in the mother tongue helps a lot and gives an extra level of familiarity.

In places where it was somewhat more difficult to collect was, it appeared that people just needed time because they are curious enough. I was for instance in the train and the first couple of people, except one said no. No problem. I was glad with the one person who drew and I went to read a book. Next to me my box with markersand cards was standing and when I looked up from my page I saw someone just taking a card and beginning to draw. This got noticed by the other ones in the train carriage and they started to ask for markers and cards. Before I knew half of the carriage was drawing.

Instead of showing a handwritten card in Hindi with the question “Do you want to draw a beautiful moment from last week?”, it works better to show the backside of the collecting card. This one is printed with an address on it so it looks more official.

People are not used to draw and at school there not a lot of attention for drawing. So they hesitate to join. The drawing is here a bigger obstacle than in other countries so far.  Once drawing you see a lot of houses being drawn because this is one of the first things children learn at school. In a lot of cases this is where the drawing skills end. Because of the unfamiliarity of drawing using only one color is the standard case. Saying to people explicitly they can use more colors helps to elevate the quality of the drawing.