Barcelona Masala

Narratives and Interactions in Cultural Space
Robert E. D’Souza, Daniel Cid Moragas (eds.)

Barcelona Masala documents an innovative educational design project conducted in the Raval district of Barcelona over a three-year period. Winchester School of Art and the Elisava, Barcelona School of Design and Engineering have formulated a series of workshops that have challenged design students to develop inter and transdisciplinary methods and strategies of working applied to the changing needs of an urban community in Barcelona. The projects and associated workshops were conducted to promote cultural understanding and exchange while developing dialogues between the Asian immigrant population of the Raval and the wider city in a period of time that the Raval has transformed through migratory change. This publication looks at how design activism and social engagement could contribute to better understanding of peoples and societies within the context of the globalised urban situation. Essays from Spanish historians, anthropologists, artists and designers that locate this project within a framework of history, cultural change, social politics and contemporary visual arts/design. Three separate workshops/projects are documented here instigated by Ed D’Souza from Winchester School of Art in the UK in collaboration with Daniel Cid at the Spanish Design School Elisava in Barcelona.