Souvenirs of a Modern Voyage: Desmania Designed for Good
What does it mean when a small island ecosystem becomes the unwilling archive of post-industrial excess?
What can waste and marine debris that washes ashore tell us about the systems that put it there?
"Souvenirs of a Modern Voyage" is an exhibition and interactive session tracing the journey and impact of marine debris as it arrives on fragile island ecosystems. It emerges from Zero Waste CarNic, a Designed for Good initiative documenting the mounting waste crisis in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Through objects gathered from the remote shores of Car Nicobar Island, maps, interactive exercises and visual storytelling, the session explores the relationship between the “centres” where goods are produced and the “peripheries” where the waste ultimately accumulates.
These remote islands sit at the receiving end of waste flows that do not respect geographic or political boundaries. The exhibition uses this reality to interrogate UNCLOS — the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — asking why the primary international framework governing the world's oceans has so little to say about the global corporations whose products generate that waste, and nothing to say to the communities with limited infrastructure left to manage it.
The session offers a tangible way into a much larger conversation about consumption, waste, ocean systems, and environmental justice. It asks participants to consider not only where waste ends up, but the economic and material journeys that connect distant communities to one another.
What to expect
An exhibition, presentation, participatory activity, and live podcast — moving from encounter to analysis to making together.
Participants will engage with objects and stories from Car Nicobar, map the systems behind marine debris, and work collectively to trace broader questions of consumption, waste, and responsibility.
Who this is for
This session is for people working across climate, oceans, design, conservation, waste, circular economy, philanthropy, and environmental justice, and those curious about how visual storytelling and design research can make global environmental systems visible.
What you will get out of it
A visual and tangible perspective on the movement of marine debris across borders and oceans
Insight into the waste challenges faced by indigenous communities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
A deeper understanding of the relationship between ‘centres’ of consumption and the ‘peripheries’ where waste accumulates
An opportunity to explore decision making around waste management on a fragile island through participatory design exercises.
New questions about corporate and governmental responsibility under international frameworks like UNCLOS
Hosted by
Desmania Designed For Good. An interdisciplinary social design studio creating research-led campaigns, strategies and systems grounded in stories that drive change.