Dr. Annapurna Mamidipundi is the founder of an NGO that supports vulnerable craft livelihoods in South India. She recently presented a lecture at the School of Human Ecology entitled Telling Color by Smell, Memory and Song:The Innovation of Traditional Craft in South India.
In this edition of Radio Chipstone, Dr. Mamidipundi takes a break from navigating Ho-Chunk Finger Weaving to share her experience with weaving communities in South India. She tells contributor gianofer fields that learning to weave is essential to understanding how to share the stories of the weavers. And while she trained in engineering and communications, those are just as few of her titles.
About the Host:
gianofer (JON nah fer) fields is an Art Historian and Material Culture contributor and curates the Radio Chipstone series. The project is hosted by the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and funded by the Chipstone Foundation; a decorative arts foundation whose mission is preserving and interpreting their collection, as well as stimulating research and education in the decorative arts.
About the Guest:
Dr. Annapurna Mamidipudi was trained as an engineer in electronics and communications, in Manipal, in South India. She set up an NGO that supported vulnerable craft livelihoods and worked with artisan production for nearly two decades in South India. She is currently a fellow at the The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
Image: Participants in a Ho-Chunk Finger Weaving workshop led by Bonnie Bird in the School of Human Ecology on the UW-Madison campus; Dr. Annapurna appears at left. Photograph courtesy of gianofer fields.
