OCO Programme Structure
Odisha Craft Odyssey (OCO) is structured as a long-term research ecosystem rather than a standalone event. Each annual cycle focuses on a single craft tradition and unfolds through interconnected stages of research, field engagement, documentation, interpretation, and public dissemination.
The programme is designed to build a comprehensive body of knowledge around Odisha’s living crafts while creating meaningful opportunities for researchers, artists, designers, curators, writers, photographers, filmmakers, and artisan communities to work together.
01. Craft Selection & Research Framework
Each cycle begins with the selection of a specific craft tradition. A research framework is developed to identify key questions surrounding its history, material culture, artisan communities, production systems, social significance, design language, and contemporary challenges.
This framework guides all subsequent fieldwork, documentation, and knowledge production.
02. Residency Programme
The Residency Programme brings together a multidisciplinary cohort of practitioners for intensive field immersion across Odisha.
Residents travel through craft clusters, workshops, temples, markets, archives, and community spaces, engaging directly with artisans and local knowledge systems. Through observation, conversations, documentation, and collaborative learning, participants gain firsthand insight into the realities of craft practice.
The residency serves as a shared platform for exploration, dialogue, and discovery.
03. Exhibition
Research findings are translated into a public exhibition that presents craft beyond conventional notions of heritage or product.
Through objects, photographs, films, texts, archives, and contemporary interpretations, the exhibition creates new ways of engaging with craft as a living system of knowledge, labour, memory, ritual, and design.
The exhibition serves as a space for dialogue between artisans, researchers, cultural practitioners, and the wider public.
04. Fellowship Programme
The Fellowship Programme supports long-term, focused research on the selected craft tradition.
Fellows undertake extended fieldwork, archival investigation, oral history collection, visual documentation, and critical analysis. Their work contributes substantially to OCO’s growing archive and forms the foundation for future exhibitions, publications, and educational resources.
The fellowship enables deeper engagement with the cultural, historical, economic, and ecological dimensions of craft.
05. Documentation & Archive Building
Throughout the programme cycle, extensive documentation is undertaken across multiple formats.
This includes:
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Oral histories
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Artisan biographies
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Photographic archives
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Video documentation
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Process documentation
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Material studies
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Design analysis
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Historical research
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Community narratives
Together, these records contribute to a growing archive dedicated to preserving and understanding Odisha’s craft knowledge systems.
06. Publication
Each cycle culminates in a comprehensive publication that serves as the permanent scholarly record of the programme.
Combining historical research, field documentation, essays, interviews, visual archives, and artisan narratives, the publication preserves knowledge generated during the research cycle and makes it accessible to future generations of researchers, practitioners, institutions, and communities.
07. Public Engagement & Knowledge Sharing
Beyond the core programme, OCO facilitates talks, workshops, screenings, lectures, digital content, and community interactions that extend the reach of the research.
These activities encourage broader conversations around craft, culture, heritage, sustainability, design, and contemporary practice.
A Multi-Year Journey
OCO studies one craft at a time, allowing each tradition the depth, attention, and rigor it deserves. Over multiple years, the programme aims to create one of the most comprehensive bodies of research on Odisha’s living craft traditions while placing artisans at the centre of knowledge production.
The artisan remains the primary knowledge-holder. Every other discipline finds its position in relation to that fact.
