Lecture Series
Exploring Design Anthropology: Copper(smiths) in India
Prasad Boradkar
Online event
30 April 2025, 14.00
This talk will offer a design and anthropological analysis of a material in the context of a community of coppersmiths (known in the local language Marathi as tambats) located in the heart of the city of Pune in Western India. As the tambats shape this malleable material into a variety of objects, copper has in turn, shaped the community into what it is today. The presentation will include theoretical perspectives and examples of designed objects. Prasad Boradkar is dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. He is a designer and an anthropologist with experience leading design and research teams in both academia and industry, including his most recent role as UX research and sustainability lead at Google.