DIS;Ease
Hidden Narratives of Textile Mills
The Project Crux
Context & Research
Research & Discovery
Insights
Output (Design Inquiry)
UX Research Lens
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Source: Archival Bombay block-printing blocks (19th–20th century).
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Spark: Designs → imagination trails → new surfaces & interfaces.
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Inquiry: What hidden stories do these blocks and textiles carry?
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Focus: Textile mills of Bombay — city of hidden histories.
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Observation: Lakhs of workers, untold stories, health toll.
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Challenge: Diseases, disorders, mental health struggles were silenced.
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Health issues often ignored until fatal → survival prioritized over wellbeing.
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Emotional & psychological struggles = “hidden illnesses” similar to cancer cells.
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Parallel with today’s world: we still silence emotions & bargain with health.
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Two “sets” in visuals:
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Diseases/disorders of past textile artisans & mill workers.
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Today’s silent emotional/mental disorders.
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Visual strategy: Bridge past & present through design storytelling.
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User Needs: Recognition of hidden struggles, empathy, wellbeing.
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Design Role: Translate historical narratives into visual interfaces & stories.
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Impact: Create awareness → shift perception → provoke dialogue.
This artwork is intentionally crafted with vivid colors and intricate patterns to first draw viewers into its beauty. Yet, beneath each circle lies a deeper narrative—each representing the painful illnesses and hardships endured, and often still endured, by the artisans behind these textiles and block prints. The collection seeks to raise awareness of the arduous, often invisible labor and the health toll woven into the making of intricate fabrics and designs. By juxtaposing beauty with suffering, the work invites the audience to engage beyond surface aesthetics, urging them to acknowledge the unseen pain, resilience, and human cost behind every handcrafted piece.”
Dis-Ease
During the course Imagining New Worlds from the Old, we worked with Bodhi’s archival collection of 5,000 hand-carved wooden blocks once used in Bombay’s textile industry. These blocks—spanning traditional, nationalistic, political, modernist, and Bollywood motifs—were not just design tools but cultural documents of a city that housed nearly 100 mills and lakhs of workers. Bombay, once called the ‘textile city,’ prospered economically, yet its workforce bore silent struggles: long hours, poor wages, and illnesses that were normalized and brushed aside in the name of survival. This tension between beauty and cost continues today—where health, particularly mental health, is often neglected or dismissed as weakness. Just as mill workers silently endured disorders that claimed lives, we too bargain with our well-being under the illusion that ‘it will be fine.’
This project attempts to bridge past and present: uncovering the hidden health narratives behind India’s celebrated fabrics while questioning the way we normalize emotional and physical suffering today. The exploration reveals that while textiles embody elegance, grace, and cultural pride, they also carry histories of human endurance and exploitation. By reimagining these blocks, the project reflects on resilience, neglect, and the cost of creating beauty in both past and present.