The layered nature of experience resists singular description. Simone Weil reminds us that attention is an ethical act through which the world becomes legible not as isolated parts, but as an interdependent field of relations.¹ In contemporary art and design practice, such attentiveness has become increasingly urgent, as creative production is shaped by overlapping technological, ecological, social, and epistemic forces that cannot be understood in isolation.
It is within this expanded field that the second volume of the IEDAs Journal takes up the theme Intersectionality: Creative Inquiries. While “intersectionality” originates in feminist legal thought as a framework for understanding the co-constitution of race, gender, and class, its conceptual elasticity now allows us to consider how multiple systems of relation, material, institutional, sensory, and infrastructural, shape creative production itself.² In this sense, intersectionality becomes not only a lens for identity, but also a method for understanding art and design as entangled systems of knowledge.
From the perspective of the UNESCO Chair on Inclusion through Art, this shift is significant. Our work at the Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design, Beaconhouse National University, has consistently approached inclusion not as representationally alone, but as a structural and epistemic condition. Inclusion, in this expanded sense, is not simply about visibility within systems of production, but about how those systems are formed, sustained, and transformed through encounters across difference.
This volume of IEDAs makes such encounters visible through diverse methodologies and situated practices. Across archaeological archives, digital game worlds, ecological field sites, pedagogical experiments, and embodied artistic interventions, contributors demonstrate that intersectionality is not merely a theoretical framework applied to practice, but a condition already embedded within practice itself. What emerges is not coherence but productive dissonance, a field of overlapping temporalities, materials, and epistemologies that resist simplification.
In this regard, Achille Mbembe’s notion of the “becoming world” of relations is instructive, where boundaries between human and nonhuman, local and global, historical and contemporary are constantly reconfigured.³ Within artistic and design practice, such reconfigurations are methodological as much as they are thematic. They shape how materials are selected, how narratives are constructed, how technologies are mobilised, and how audiences are implicated.
Importantly, the contributions in this volume also suggest that intersectionality is not only about convergence, but also about friction. It is in the friction between systems, cultural history and representation, ecology and extraction, embodiment and data, that new forms of inquiry emerge. These frictions are not obstacles to be resolved but generative tensions through which knowledge takes shape otherwise.
Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ notion of an “ecology of knowledges” becomes particularly relevant here.⁴ It reminds us that no single epistemic system can claim completeness, and that knowledge is always produced through partial, situated, and often unequal exchanges. Within art and design education, this challenges assumptions of disciplinary mastery and instead foregrounds relational literacy as a central pedagogical orientation.
The UNESCO Chair on Inclusion through Art has sought to support such relational approaches by creating platforms where disciplinary boundaries are intentionally unsettled. The Interdisciplinary Expanded Design and Art (IEDA) – the chair’s key initiative – comprising a degree program, journal, festival, studio projects and a range of collaborative activities– continues to evolve as an ecosystem in which making, thinking, and teaching are inseparable. Within this ecosystem, intersectionality functions not only as a theme, but as a mode of institutional practice.
Several contributions in this volume embody this attentiveness. Whether through material investigations of extraction landscapes, reimaginings of cultural legacy through gamified environments, or explorations of air as both ecological and social medium, these works demonstrate how creative practice operates as situated epistemology. They ask not only what is represented, but how representation itself is structured through intersecting forces of history, infrastructure, and imagination.
From a pedagogical perspective, this carries important implications. It suggests that art and design education must move beyond discrete skill acquisition toward an integrated understanding of knowledge as relational and processual. In this sense, the classroom becomes not a site of transmission, but a site of intersection, where diverse experiences, materials, and epistemologies encounter one another in unpredictable and generative ways.
The second volume of the IEDAs Journal thus stands as both reflection and continuation. It reflects the multiplicity of ways intersectionality is being reimagined across creative fields, and it extends an invitation to think beyond inherited boundaries. In doing so, it affirms that art and design are not peripheral to knowledge production, but central to it.
I extend gratitude to all contributors, reviewers, and collaborators whose work makes this volume possible. Collectively, they demonstrate that intersectionality is not a fixed framework but a living practice, one that continues to evolve through the entanglements of art, design, and the worlds they seek to understand and transform.
Prof. Rashid Rana
Patron, IEDAs Journal
Chairholder, UNESCO Chair on Inclusion through Art
References:
¹ Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (Routledge, 2002).
² Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex,” University of Chicago Legal Forum (1989).
³ Achille Mbembe, On the Postcolony (University of California Press, 2001).
⁴ Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide (Routledge, 2014).
UNESCO Chair Holder / Dean’s Message (Volume 01)
Ibn Arabi’s aphorism, “The gnostic is not he who knows many things, but he who knows the connections between things,”¹ gestures towards a paradigm of knowledge that subverts the fragmented nature of disciplinary specialisation. This notion converges with the principles of polymathy, wherein multiple epistemological frameworks intersect to refract a complex understanding of the world. As we inhabit the interstitial spaces between disciplines, and the boundaries between them begin to blur, we may uncover new modalities of knowledge that challenge the reified distinctions between fields of study. The mirror of knowledge is always already fragmented, and yet, it is in the act of reflection that we may glimpse the interconnectedness of things.
Intersectionality posits that individual and group experiences are shaped by multiple factors, including social, cultural, and epistemological contexts. In the context of polymathy and inclusion, intersectionality reveals the ways in which disciplinary boundaries intersect with demographic categories, revealing multifaceted experiences of inclusion and exclusion. By examining these intersections, researchers can gain a deeper understanding of how knowledge production and dissemination are shaped by power dynamics and social contexts.
The recognition of disciplinary inclusion as a crucial aspect of promoting diversity and inclusion is central to the mission of the UNESCO Chair on Inclusion through Art at the Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design (MD-SVAD) at Beaconhouse National University (BNU). By focusing on disciplinary inclusion, the Chair aims to create a more nuanced understanding of the relationships between knowledge production, power, and identity. Through its work, the Chair seeks to promote an environment that values diverse forms of knowledge and expertise, cultivating innovative solutions to pressing issues. Relative to EART², the Chair aims to ignite a discourse around expression elsewhere – locating the discourse of creative expression beyond the arts.
The recent surge in global tensions has raised concerns about the possibility of a nuclear war, highlighting the fragility of our highly polarised world, shaped by the nation-state paradigm that has dominated the past century.³ This paradigm is closely tied to the forces of industrialisation and overt nationalism,⁴ which have contributed to the compartmentalisation of knowledge.⁵ Such compartmentalisation has led to disciplinary siloing, where knowledge production and dissemination occur within isolated domains, limiting interdisciplinary approaches and resulting in a fragmented understanding of global issues.
In this context, rethinking the nation-state paradigm becomes essential. By adopting more inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches, we can gain a deeper understanding of global issues and work towards more collaborative and equitable solutions. The mirror of knowledge reflects back our own limitations and biases, and it is only by acknowledging and addressing these that we can move towards a more comprehensive understanding of the world.
In the contemporary era, the prospect of hope emanates from the confluence of minds, transcending the boundaries that have long compartmentalised knowledge. The UNESCO Chair on Inclusion through Art at MD-SVAD, BNU, seeks to dismantle these barriers, cultivating a paradigm where inclusivity is not merely an adjunct but a fundamental aspect of our pursuit of knowledge. By expanding the notion of inclusivity beyond the traditional categories of class, gender, race, and ethnicity, we aim to create a more nuanced understanding of the complex relationships between art, design, and society.
At BNU, the UNESCO Chair on Inclusion through Art finds a natural habitat, one that is deeply rooted in the institution’s 21-year history of bringing together a diverse and vibrant academic community. Through its nonprofit ethos and scholarship programs, BNU has cultivated a rich environment that transcends traditional boundaries. The university’s pioneering regional partnerships, including the UMISAA Scholars program, bring together talented students from across the SAARC region, rendering SVAD a singular art institution in South Asia.
MD-SVAD’s curriculum has consistently defied geographical and political borders, embracing an interdisciplinary approach that permeates all its programs in Visual Arts and Design. The newly established Interdisciplinary Expanded Design and Art program (BA Hons IEDA) further pushes the boundaries of transdisciplinarity and polymathy. Under the aegis of the UNESCO Chair, IEDA has evolved into an initiative that encompasses a diverse set of activities, including the degree program (BA Hons IEDA), a festival, an incubation centre, and this journal, all interconnected through an ecosystem of transdisciplinary explorations that leverages the power of creative expression.
As we launch The IEDAs Journal, a platform that navigates the intersections of art, design, and polymathy, we inhabit the threshold between past, present, and future. This inaugural issue, a testament to the complex relationships between art, design, and society, seeks to disrupt the boundaries between disciplines, generating a deeper understanding of the world through the convergence of diverse perspectives and methodologies. In doing so, we aim to create a forum for critical inquiry that unsettles our assumptions and complicates our understanding of the world, leveraging the power of the written word to traverse time and space.
Through the lens of art and design, we aim to excavate new narratives, challenge disciplinary boundaries, and forge connections between creative individuals and communities. In the words of Rabindranath Tagore, “The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.”⁶ As we cultivate harmony and understanding through the IEDAs Journal, we invite scholars, artists, and practitioners to join us in this journey of exploration and discovery.
Prof. Rashid Rana
Patron-in-Chief, IEDAs Journal
Chairholder, UNESCO Chair on Inclusion through Art
Refrences
¹ Ibn Arabi (1165-1240 CE), Islamic philosopher and mystic.
² EART: A MANIFESTO OF POSSIBILITY – 01 was conceived in 2017-18 by Rashid Rana, in collaboration with Madyha Leghari, with contributions by Dr. Ijlal Muzaffar, Natasha Jozi, Pablo Baler, Quddus Mirza and Aroosa Rana, and was presented at the Manchester International Festival 2021.
³ Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton University Press, 1993). Chatterjee critiques the Western model of nationalism and its implications for postcolonial societies.
⁴ Shiv Visvanathan, “The Future of Futures Studies: A Democracy of Knowledges,” Futures, 41(6), 715-722 (2009). Visvanathan advocates for a more inclusive and decolonised approach to knowledge.
⁵ Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge (Harper & Row, 1972). Foucault argues that the compartmentalisation of knowledge is a key feature of modern power structures.
⁶ Rabindranath Tagore, “The Philosophy of Leisure,” in Towards Universal Man (Asia Publishing House, 1961).