Jagrut Amuri

The bridge: Bridging human and non-human intelligence through making. Using the art of origami as a way to observe, understand, and appreciate the ingenuity embedded in natural structures.

Participants observed patterns and forms in nature, then translated those observations into folded paper — working through spirals, tessellations, and flight mechanics with their hands. By understanding how and why natural structures such as insect wings and leaves fold, we explored how shape, function, and movement can emerge from simple rules, experimenting with multiple folding approaches along the way. Origami became a way to notice how nature uses the principles of folding to solve complex problems, elegantly.

The bridge: Understanding how meaning shifts as stories move across mediums and senses.

This two-week, full-day workshop on visual narratives was designed and co-facilitated for second-year undergraduate students at Srishti Manipal University, developed with only three days of lead time and an open-ended brief. The workshop took shape iteratively, adapting day by day in response to the group, with assessment growing directly out of student work and prioritising reflection and process over conventional evaluation.

We began by sharing personal stories and examining how narratives shape meaning, before tracing the roots of visual storytelling and exploring its cognitive dimensions. We broke down the anatomy of a story and investigated how its elements translate across different design contexts — working through sound, music, and text as visual mediums, and using objects, origami, and stop-motion to animate ideas. Movement and gesture opened up questions of embodied and non-verbal communication, and the workshop culminated in final projects where each student translated a chosen narrative into a photo series.

The bridge: Bridging nature and technological wonder through close observation of marine and terrestrial organisms, exploring how nature solves problems and adapts to complex conditions.

This workshop was designed and conducted while volunteering with Reefwatch, a marine conservation organisation, on the southernmost tip of the Andaman Islands in a place called Chidiyatapu — built for government school students to help deepen their understanding of their surroundings. We walked through intertidal zones and coastal areas, observing organisms in their natural habitats, identifying species, and discussing how they function. Conversations moved between ecology and adaptation — exploring how animals manage heat, salinity, and movement.

Students drew their favourite organisms, picked out their most distinctive traits, and began thinking about how specific biological abilities might translate into human use. Biomimicry became a way to notice that sophisticated problem-solving already exists all around us.

The bridge: Bringing together art, ecology, and community knowledge through shared time along the river.

These workshops were conducted across multiple locations along the Khandepar–Mahdei River in Goa, in collaboration with Bookworm Trust and OurRiver OurLife as part of a larger conservation effort in Goa. As part of the on-ground team, I was simultaneously conducting field surveys and designing and facilitating community workshops alongside local libraries. We walked the river with field experts, identifying plants and species while weaving in traditional and lived knowledge that participants brought with them. Zines and artworks made from leaves, mud, and sand became a way of processing what we observed, and conversations opened up around local socio-ecological pressures like sand mining, fishing practices and the slow changes people had witnessed over lifetimes. Much of the work was simply about listening: exchanging stories across generations, asking questions, and spending time with the river together. We also introduced simple tools such as a flood monitoring app to support ongoing care and monitoring.

Intention: Synthesising ideas in response to who I was speaking with, without losing complexity or wonder.

Conversations emerged through individual attention rather than scripted explanation. Mediation became a way to translate complex ideas into digestible chunks while preserving nuance.

Intention: Creating conditions for curiosity and participation within structured learning settings.

Sessions worked with the energy students arrived with, gradually shaping it into shared attention and wonder. Objects became portals for discussion allowing linear learning to occur without relying on rigid instruction.

Intention: Using meticulously researched themes to encourage deeper connections with familiar topics, enabling novel experiences of the same space.

Created sessions on the concept of Umwelt, and designed walkthroughs that explored human sensory systems and the experience of slowing down time. These formats were used to examine how perception shapes understanding.

Developed Visual Bingo using close-up images to deepen engagement with the exhibits, inviting visitors to search for and notice elements that are often overlooked, and rethought feedback systems to encourage higher quality responses.

Intention: Strengthening informal learning through behind-the-scenes systems and creation of artefacts that extend the life of the exhibition.

Alongside mediation, I worked on coordination, scheduling, and review processes that enabled the gallery to function day to day.

This included coordinating with and maintaining records of SLEs, reviewing and onboarding mediators, and contributing to the designing of learning resources that carried the exhibition's ethos forward.