Searching for Nirvana

This project is a digital and physical exploration of an incongruency of very western, American aesthetics within a first-generation migrant community from (current day) North India. This community lives in a previously segregated area of a city (Polokwane) In the Northern Province of South Africa and most of its residents – including my grandparents and family - migrated from India around 1940 – 1950, to escape the Muslim persecution due to the India Pakistan divide. My interest in this topic lies within the question of how and why a community, that was almost completely cut off from the rest of the world in terms of access to media and information because of Apartheid sanctions and regulations, emulated popular design choices seen in American media. This neighbourhood remains largely unchanged in terms of resident demographics and original architecture, allowing the exploration to still be a true one in a more modern context.