Product Designer
Kites of Kanpur
User Research, Visual Ethnography, Course Project
Collaborator(s)
Abhigyan Deka, Ishita Srivastava
Acknowledgement
Parnavi Dinkar, Ankush Kumar, Rishab Gautam
Project Overview
Kite-making and flying are deeply rooted cultural practices in many parts of India, often tied to seasonal festivals, community identities, and intergenerational knowledge. This exploratory study investigates the cultural ecosystem surrounding kite-making and flying in Kanpur, a city renowned for its vibrant kite-flying traditions, especially during festivals such as Makar Sankranti.
Using ethnographic research methods, including participant observation, in-depth interviews, and visual documentation, the study aims to uncover the social meanings, craft techniques, and evolving dynamics embedded within these practices. It focuses on understanding how communities engage with kite-making as both craft and commerce, the role of local artisans and family-run workshops, and the ways in which skills and stories are passed down across generations.
The research also explores how traditional practices are adapting to changing urban contexts, shifts in material availability, and the influence of modern media and commercialization. Through these narratives, the study seeks to highlight the richness of intangible cultural heritage and its relevance in contemporary society.
The insights from this research will culminate in an exhibition that brings together kites, tools, archival photographs, oral histories, and video documentation. This exhibition will serve as both a research dissemination platform and an experiential space, enabling audiences to engage with the cultural practices of kite-making and flying in Kanpur through multiple sensory and narrative layers.
January 2025
A Visual Ethnographic Account
This exhibition maps the shifting skies of a tradition once shared across rooftops: a visual ethnographic account tracing how urbanization has redrawn the windlines of kite flying.
Through interviews, visuals, soundscapes, and materials, the display captures the quiet retreat of kites from bridges and metro lines into the heart of Kanpur. Where rooftops once teemed with spools and shouts, today’s skyline is carved by high-rises, flyovers, and dense electric grids. Kite-filled skies now appear only in scattered patches, in old neighborhoods, at the city’s edges, and in narrow gullies untouched by new development.
This display shows more than what remains; it brings forth the voices of those who keep the craft alive, the karigars, shopkeepers, children, and veteran flyers who carry the memory of a more open sky, holding thread against the changing wind with unwavering spirit.
This ethnographic study aims to dive deep into these places where kites still rule the skies, and present through visuals and insights the accounts of those who keep it alive.
Kites of Kanpur_Ethnographic Study
Conclusion
The study highlights how the tradition of kite-making and flying in Kanpur is gradually changing under the influence of urbanisation. Shrinking open spaces, evolving skylines, and shifting lifestyles are altering the ways in which communities gather and celebrate.
Traditional workshops face new economic challenges with the rise of mass-produced materials, and younger generations are engaging with the practice in different ways. Through ethnographic methods, the research captures this period of change, offering insights into how cultural practices adapt within urban contexts. The concluding exhibition presents these observations, encouraging reflection on the evolving relationship between cultural traditions and urban growth.