Vathsala.Gunasekara

Short exchange programme

Tandemize 2.0 - London - Sri Lanka

Short exchange programme at the London Metropolitan University as part of their studies at the University of Moratuwa.
Tandemize 2.0 for me is a project that brought me and the world closer. As a cross cultural and cross disciplinary programme it made us understand the values each of us have within us, in our cultures and traditions. London, a dream coming true through an amazing programme named Tandemize . Tandemize brought me to London giving a lifetime experience and memories with wonderful people. As we arrived at London on a very cold day around 11 or 12 degrees Celsius, I actually wanted to go back, no matter how much I dreamed about London, as I was not being able to bear that cold. Then as the days passed though I got used to the coldness a bit, my love for tropical climate grew. But now I miss London chill. No matter what the outcomes, aims, goals of the project were, what I all got was people, feelings, emotions we shared as people. We were from different cultures, we knew different things, we had different religions, races; nothing was a problems, we were together as people from the same world. Cross culture, cross discipline were all benefits for the project to go forward.
 As   we   did   a   public   participatory   event   in   Galle ,   Sri Lanka  inspiring   from   the  traditional   craft  of  Bobbin  lace   (which  we  got from   Portuguese)   and   with   public  participation;   as   a   pilot   to   the   main project  for London   Craft  week  was  a   success.  It  taught  how  to  get  the involvement of people in to a project, how different people react to the same question, which we asked 'what was the thing that you made last?' . Our location was Galle Fort which is a tourist destination in Sri Lanka and as we expected the curious tourists were the people who most stopped by and participated. Most of the curious locals watched from the distant , two or three locals participated. All these behaviours of different people from different   parts   of   the  world   were   interesting   observations.   It   was interesting to observe how our question made each and everyone think.Question   was  simple  but   it   took  quite   few  seconds   may be   one  or  two minutes   to     give   the   answer.   And   it   was   nice   to   see   their   happy expressions   when   writing  what   they   made  on  the   calico   fabric   because making gives you self satisfaction and happiness. Each and everyone was proud of what they made except one as he wrote 'a mistake' as the answer :) .   weaving the fabric stripes together into one single piece making we all makers together who were from different cultures traditions made me happy and inspired because I got the feeling that we all were sharing our making experiences with each other in a creative way. You , me , him,her may come from different countries traditions cultures but we all are humans who are filled with humanity which weaves us together in to a beautiful pattern.     The project brought different people to same place   through   same   question   making   a   positive   effect   on   their   lives making them inspired in making. For   me  Tandemize  is   the   weave   which  brought   world  closer   to  me.   We made a beautiful weave among people and I am glad I became a pin which strengthened the weave to get its shape. project opened up me into the world   and   showed   different   paths   that   I   could   take   in   my   career   as   a designer. Do some thing to 'make a positive effect on people's lives' was the sentence that carved on my heart from the beginning and I am glad that it became a success through making