As part of the 2024 AA Summer School unit Carpets, this project reexamined Tipu’s Tiger — an 18th-century anti-colonial automaton commissioned by Tipu Sultan and now housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Through historical research and speculative reconstruction, the work highlighted the instrument’s layered symbolism as both a mechanical artwork and a political artifact of resistance against the British East India Company. Using narrative timelines, sectional analysis, and spatial design proposals, the project proposed an alternative display strategy — one that reflects the complexity of the object’s history and its contested presence in the museum. The final design used the carpet as a storytelling device, inviting viewers to confront themes of colonial violence, erasure, and symbolic reactivation.

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