On our environmental exposure trip to Sikkim in first year of study at Srishti, we had to do primary research on themes given to us, which was 'Locating and documenting the stories around the appropriation of digital technology'.
Our project called 'PostMore' is a offline campaign to promote the usage of postal services, to stay connected to one's loved ones, through incorporating the native identity of their culture, like traditional food, drinks, animals, religious symbols and artifacts, sceneries and mode of transport.
A three-part project, PostMore has:
1. Newspaper Campaign: A postcard out of the 24 we have made, would be attached to the local newspaper every fortnight, including a pre-included postage, ready to be posted anywhere in India, is an incentive to encourage tourists and natives of Sikkim to post more, and visit their central post offices to know more about programmes by the Indian Post.
2. Ashtamangala, a Premium Kit for tourists: This kit includes a set of 8 postcards, a tribute to the Buddhist Heritage, with 8 auspicious signs of good fortune. It also includes a stamp of the 'endless knot' which is one of the signs, with a stamp-pad, a pen and sikkim-related postage stamps.
3. Exhibition: To create a context and awareness for our project, we replicated how a booth at the post office would look, with its different services and displayed a short time-lapse of our visit to the Central Post Office in Gangtok. Along with it, we also displayed philately stamps and the MyStamp- existing programs by the Indian Post, to encourage people to have a collection of historic and upcoming stamps, along with the latter, to personalise postage stamps for people and organisations.
