Nishra Ranpura

Work / WRITING

From published pieces to random rhymes, and anthropological essays to research reports, Nishra writes about the things she wonders about.

Crafted Identities • 2021-2024

Research Essay on the technological transformations in textile design

AP CSP Curriculum Design • 2023

Visual curriculum and website design

Digital Fabrication • Spring 2023

Teaching an undergraduate class focused on modern fabrication processes and technologies around socially and culturally relevant themes

xFab Lab • Fall 2022

Teaching an MFA class focused on modern fabrication processes and technologies around socially and culturally relevant themes

Speculative Spaces • 2022

An illustrated talk about Speculative Spaces and infrastructures of the futures with a multi-disciplinary cohort of creators

The Weaver • 2022

A multi-sensory mixed-media installation and performance about embodied weaving

Crafted Machines • 2022

A talk on cultures and communities of machines

Jugaad: about a culture of looms • 2022

Accessibility and frugal innovation around novel DIY looms

Interweaving Interfaces: A Memoir • 2022

A critically fabulated memoir about collective intelligence through theories, philosophies, and applications of textiles

Tex-taal • 2022

Dancing speakers and whispering ghungroos, an e-textile dialogue

Materiality of Time: Wonderings • 2022

Musings about materiality of time and temporal experiences through materials

Brushwork • 2011-present

Weaving Time • 2022

What is it like to experience time and temporalities through weaving?

Touch me or not • 2022

An emotional textile that remembers a touch, an e-textile exploration

Bridging Exchange • 2021

A proposal to redesign Thomas Greene Park in Brooklyn, NY

Core Studio 1: 3D • Fall 2021

Teaching an undergraduate class focused on exploring the fundamentals of 3D media- materials, form, space, and installation

Contemporary Weaving • 2015-present

Workshops teaching handloom, powerloom, and/or computational weaving techniques

An animated short film

What the duck! • 2021

Toy design methodology and prototyping

Trackster • 2021

A new species of surveilling cyborgs is breeding amongst us...

Boxie (he/him/his) • 2021

Shipping boxes coming alive

Baby-Oxy (she/her/hers) • 2021

Oximeters coming alive

Once upon a time in NYC • 2021

Animated shorts anthropomorphising New York city's inanimate objects' feelings during Covid-19 lockdown

Dark Data • 2021

a web-zine design on the topics of data privacy, surveillance, misuse of data, and data speculations

સ્વ- (Self-) • 2021-present

Research paper on an ongoing inquiry into representation of the self through data physicalization and the birth of 'Ethnocrafting'

E-Rigveda • 2020

A data-feminism map of the oldest sanskrit scripture

About personal space • 2020

A soft-structure motion library and proposed installation of different non-verbal communicative gestures around the notion of personal space

Textile Industry's patronage toward a polarized Ahmedabad • 2020

An overview of how the textile industry shaped the urban and cultural landscape of Ahmedabad (India).

Mirror Mirror • 2020

A week of vanity, a data-portrait

Nishra's Fortress of Solitude • 2020

An autobiographical experience game

Carnatic clock • 2020

A clock based on Indian Carnatic music

Room Scenes • 2020

Interior design and modelling for area rugs

Heimtextil • 2020

International trade fair display of material research, forecast analysis, and design development for home textiles

Prathaa • 2016-2019

Bringing the essence of several traditional Indian crafts into a commercial dobby-loom-woven collection

Phygital Pixtile • 2019

Illustration and printed-textile design

Humanium • 2019

Textile research, forecast analysis, and a narration, for 2020's Spring Summer woven fabrics

The Curator: Keeper of the arts • 2018

Textile research, forecast analysis, and a narration, for 2019-2020's Autumn Winter woven fabrics

Ashima • 2018

Website design, branding, styling, and photography

Retreat: Inspired living • 2018

Textile research, forecast analysis, and a narration, for 2019's Spring Summer woven fabrics

Riverberation • 2017

Textile research, forecast analysis, and a narration, for 2018-2019's Autumn Winter woven fabrics

Psychology • 2017

Textile research, forecast analysis, and a narration, for 2018's Spring Summer woven fabrics

Hoot • 2014-2016

Materializing the enigma of Owls into textiles

Materializing different types of lights into textiles

Handloom Weaving • 2011-present

Handwoven swatch gallery

Architecture Ethos • 2015

Materializing architecture into textiles

Hide and Seek • 2015

A recycled organic cotton, indigo and non-indigo apparel collection, for kids

Pandora's Box • 2015

A mixed-media installation and performance about the tale of Pandora's Box

Colourcall • 2015

Spatial design and visual merchandise for NIFT

Matrimandir • 2015

Materializing architecture into textiles

My Tsunami Story • 2014

Painting and textile skill development workshop for women seeking to support their families affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

A play of Taana Vaana (warp weft) • 2014

an ethnographic craft research and documentation of brocades of Gujarat, India

Aquabloom • 2013

Object study of water lily through material-texture explorations and print design

Poetry • 2011-present