1,720,964 research outputs found
From mat weavers to box-makers: agency, development, and the production of heritage in Sri Lanka
Get PDFThe mediation of development agencies is a growing concern for the Global South. Further research is needed to explore the manner in which authorised notions of development cascade down to the more discrete levels of society and alter understandings of heritage. This paper presents everyday narratives of craftswomen working in an export production village, discussing how development brings significant social, cultural, material, and economic changes. Highlighting the paradox of development – that it can intensify the very marginalisation it seeks to overcome – the paper suggests the need for careful integration of heritage within development activities
Local needs and Global desires
No full textPurposeThere is renewed interest in combining traditional and contemporary making cultures for textiles (Ravetz et al. 2013), but while resulting design collaborations might freely use terms like design responsibility, cultural appropriateness and authenticity, due concern is not always given to how systematic differences between craft and design might effect this cultural exchange.MethodologyThis paper investigates attributes of craft and of design with a view to identifying socio-cultural differences according to context of production. An ethnographic approach was taken to compare craft intervention projects in Sri Lanka to a Scottish/ Indian residency. Participant observation, interviews and content analysis from practitioner logs reflect makers’ and designers’ engagement with traditional skills, under influence of western design practices and markets.
FindingsContrasting the experiences from designer and maker perspectives in both settings brings to attention how differently local needs and global desires can be reflected in seemingly parallel projects: The transnational residencies between India and Scotland highlighted making practices that thrived on exchange of knowledge within and beyond communities whereas the observed communities in Sri Lanka had largely replaced an inherited craft tradition by division of labour and jealous guarding of design skills more akin to behaviour in the industrial revolution. Originality/ valueThis research has implications beyond the confines of craft survival, as results may serve to inform designers to re-think craft engagements in the Global fashion arena. A need for such expression is in demand within global consumerism when fashion trends occupying traditional skills are supposed to create and evoke artisanal values through products (WGSN 2014, CBI 2014) Keywords: craft communities, design interventions, commercial drivers, making traditions, meaningful craft<br/
Match Making:Broadening cultural exchange opportunities through digital access to crafts
No full textThe paper describes research conducted into the engagement potential of social networks in the field of cultural exchange about making. It was conducted alongside a Creative Scotland funded residency programme between designers in India and Scotland that had public engagement as one of its aims. During the actual residencies, which might be described as the analogue phase of the reSIde project, the occurrence of appresentation of cultures was identified as a key factor in successful engagement of the public in a culturally informed making process. The potential of social media and other digital tools to prolong and enhance this environment is the object of this paper. A qualitative approach of participant observations and content analysis of interview data from the digital media used by the residency team was applied, and social network and hyperlink analysis was conducted through open source software NodeXL with visualisation through Gephi. Textual data analysis of individual and collective dialogue amongst large groups was also employed.Analysis revealed that what was shared online in this project did not fully replicate all the descriptive and layered information afforded to participants who were witnessing and sensing the events live and in person, with far distant geographic locations and dramatically diverse practices being suspected to be factors. However, a certain degree of the implicit knowledge often considered as a key achievement of the analogue experience of residency was clearly identified as present in online users as they engaged with previously unknown or assumed characteristics of culture through live debate of various viewpoints and through multiple stimuli. The paper concludes by indicating the need for further study of the motivations and techniques employed by emerging collaborative cultures such as the one considered here.<br/
Makers in the classroom:Understanding ‘the real making of true practice’ through craft collaborations
No full textThere is resurgence of interest in design education in recent years, yet only a handful of studies are available on craft education, and specifically on teaching and learning methodologies exploited in class rooms (Venla Moilanen et al 2012). What might safely be assumed is that the existing art and design teaching -learning techniques in class room practices will increasingly become more complex in the context of multiculturalism. An area of specific interest is how students get associated with these vivid socio cultural discourses, and how they integrate them into their learning practices, if the efficacy of such relationships is determined by the modes of practices and the contents of instructions. This paper brings to our attention ways in which we might change current design pedagogy in the class room context by identifying the modes of engagement students prefer, and by suggesting which instrumental approach could be used as a spring board when interacting with peer students, teachers and external artisans on a cross cultural knowledge exchange. The study uses a twofold methodology placing students on a restricted and a non restricted design context enabling to capture the more subtle and overt practices of design, reinterpreting work when responding to cultural influences. It is part of an artists’ residency exchange programme(ReSide) funded by Creative Scotland where a group of three artisans shared their experiences of culturally rich Indian textile craft making in Kutch Gujarat with two groups of students studying arts and design in two Scottish schools. The paper discusses methodologies employed in the workshops to study and analyse the probable outcome of students’ cognitive and behavioural approaches, level of engagement, their individual and collective learning styles including methods of capturing knowledge and materialization using their own creativity and imagination in response to the distinctive design paths they employed in capturing the cross cultural experiences. The data gathering employed a qualitative driven approach using creative interviewing, participant observation and audio and video recording of conversations. Findings reveal that students appreciate a freedom of choice when they engage in creative practices as they not only respond to a cultural exposure as a practice of work but that they also build links between their immediate culture and backgrounds creating an expanded awareness of construction of knowledge and practice. Whilst building a sustainable discourse on creative craft practices a new model of pedagogy could be achieved through a more haptic mode of design engagement, suggesting that spontaneity would fuel students’ lateral thinking and problem solving skills through a practiced based curriculum with wide ranging consequences for a future generation of designers. <br/
Makers in the classroom:Understanding ‘the real making of true practice’ through craft collaborations
Get PDFThere is resurgence of interest in design education in recent years, yet only a handful of studies are available on craft education, and specifically on teaching and learning methodologies exploited in class rooms (Venla Moilanen et al 2012). What might safely be assumed is that the existing art and design teaching -learning techniques in class room practices will increasingly become more complex in the context of multiculturalism. An area of specific interest is how students get associated with these vivid socio cultural discourses, and how they integrate them into their learning practices, if the efficacy of such relationships is determined by the modes of practices and the contents of instructions. This paper brings to our attention ways in which we might change current design pedagogy in the class room context by identifying the modes of engagement students prefer, and by suggesting which instrumental approach could be used as a spring board when interacting with peer students, teachers and external artisans on a cross cultural knowledge exchange. The study uses a twofold methodology placing students on a restricted and a non restricted design context enabling to capture the more subtle and overt practices of design, reinterpreting work when responding to cultural influences. It is part of an artists’ residency exchange programme(ReSide) funded by Creative Scotland where a group of three artisans shared their experiences of culturally rich Indian textile craft making in Kutch Gujarat with two groups of students studying arts and design in two Scottish schools. The paper discusses methodologies employed in the workshops to study and analyse the probable outcome of students’ cognitive and behavioural approaches, level of engagement, their individual and collective learning styles including methods of capturing knowledge and materialization using their own creativity and imagination in response to the distinctive design paths they employed in capturing the cross cultural experiences. The data gathering employed a qualitative driven approach using creative interviewing, participant observation and audio and video recording of conversations. Findings reveal that students appreciate a freedom of choice when they engage in creative practices as they not only respond to a cultural exposure as a practice of work but that they also build links between their immediate culture and backgrounds creating an expanded awareness of construction of knowledge and practice. Whilst building a sustainable discourse on creative craft practices a new model of pedagogy could be achieved through a more haptic mode of design engagement, suggesting that spontaneity would fuel students’ lateral thinking and problem solving skills through a practiced based curriculum with wide ranging consequences for a future generation of designers. <br/
Design charrette:Co creating design possibilities for the future
No full textThis paper discusses how multidisciplinary groups approach co-creational design possibilities through craft, potentially moving from shaping the future through individual design practice to making sense of the future with the help of co-creators as they do. (Sanders and Stappers 2014) It reports on observations from a recent Design Charrette on Scottish basket making where makers, designers, architects, engineers, heritage specialists, curators, academics and design students attempted to co create heritage craft practices within a contemporary design context. Multiple data gathering methods illuminate how these heterogeneous actors (Emilson and Hillgren 2014) contribute and negotiate different ideas and maker practices, and how they resolve conflict in order to “open-up” design possibilities. By envisioning the complex relationships people build with each other and with the material and object cultures in the fuzzy front of end of the design processes (Sanders and Stappers 2008) the paper discusses how new communities of practice may emerge from people who have different ways of knowing and doing. Furthermore, it explores how co creational and participatory methods contribute to convergences between heritage and design
Design charrette:Co creating design possibilities for the future
No full textThis paper discusses how multidisciplinary groups approach co-creational design possibilities through craft, potentially moving from shaping the future through individual design practice to making sense of the future with the help of co-creators as they do. (Sanders and Stappers 2014) It reports on observations from a recent Design Charrette on Scottish basket making where makers, designers, architects, engineers, heritage specialists, curators, academics and design students attempted to co create heritage craft practices within a contemporary design context. Multiple data gathering methods illuminate how these heterogeneous actors (Emilson and Hillgren 2014) contribute and negotiate different ideas and maker practices, and how they resolve conflict in order to “open-up” design possibilities. By envisioning the complex relationships people build with each other and with the material and object cultures in the fuzzy front of end of the design processes (Sanders and Stappers 2008) the paper discusses how new communities of practice may emerge from people who have different ways of knowing and doing. Furthermore, it explores how co creational and participatory methods contribute to convergences between heritage and design
Design and the evolving tradition of Sanganer hand block printing:Formation and negotiation of artisanal knowledge and identities
Get PDFTradition has been described by heritage studies as a transformative process that is being ‘enforced, reinvented, transformed, denied, or contested’ (Varutti 2015: 1038), with heritage seen as a construct of the past, present and imagined futures. (Smith 2006) The role of craft and design interactions in safeguarding and rejuvenating cultural practices has yet to receive extensive attention against this theoretical backdrop1. In order to discuss how design discourse affects craft practices we studied Sanganer hand block printing’s development amidst increasing design influences in post-independence India. We especially consider the way in which artisanal practices and identities are formed and negotiated when engaged with specific design scenarios and actors; and by studying the varied attitudes and realities of contemporary Sanganer hand block printing, this paper identifies a broad range of modern, ‘traditional’ and ‘heritage’ craft identities and practices that here co-exist
Postcolonial and Global Heritage Narratives from Communal and Individual Perspectives in Dumbara Weaving – Sri Lanka
No full textThis chapter examines colonial, post-colonial, global and local perspectives in constructing living heritage by considering specific examples from a textile weaving tradition in Sri Lanka. The work is based on observations and conversations with artisans during extended field work in 2014 in Sri Lanka, and is informed by archive research as well as interviews with government and other institutional officials who classify this craft as traditional and seek its preservation, promotion and development as a distinctly national and local cultural identity.Dumbara textiles weaving in Talagune, Ududumbara in the Kandyan region represents a unique site since the Kandyan region as the country’s highland is widely regarded as authentic and indigenous, when the identities of lowland and costal areas were considered ‘hybridised’ due to repeated colonial invasions of the Portuguese, Dutch and the British (Jones 2008). In this paper, we will pay attention mainly to the British interventions in the early 20th century alongside revival of traditions promoted by proponents of the British Arts and Crafts Movement, such as the Anglo-Ceylonese geologist, art historian and philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy. Looking at Dumbara weaving in the Kandyan region as a craft practice that has been relatively free from outside influences and might thus be considered indigenous, provides us with a case study where we can trace how recent heritage actors utilized the writings of Coomaraswamy and the perceived image generated by the British. We find that state parties, design and craft councils, museums, national and international designers, businesses and the press are constructing a particular image of Dumbara textiles weaving which continues to have romantic connotations of its truly vernacular status.We will present examples of artisans having re-appropriated, responded to and redefined these multiply constructed narratives of Dumbara weaving heritage to strategically break free from the oppression of a caste based system, to improve their economic condition and to progress within their own communities. We will identify issues relating to such multiply constructed heritage practices as they become contested through identity, labour, professionalization and occupational aspects of craft making. In doing so we pay attention to the contemporary craft practices which artisans engage with on a day to day basis, and discuss the way in which they negotiate between the ‘Authorized Heritage Discourse’ (Smith 2006), or official heritage implemented by the state parties and institutions, as opposed to artisans’ contemporary expressions about living traditions. We will argue that Dumbara weavers do not construct heritage only by focusing on the material, process and object culture of their tradition, or on what is presented to them as official heritage, but that instead they consider past, present and future from various perspectives and at various levels, and that they make opportunistic and strategic choices to define what Dumbara weaving means to them. We present examples of such subjectively constructed living heritage of Dumbara weaving, and attempt to answer how a heritage narrative can inflect the production and marketing of a local craft in a post-colonial and global context, and lead to construction of own individual heritage within contemporary and innovative maker practices
Match Making:Broadening cultural exchange opportunities through digital access to crafts
Get PDFThe paper describes research conducted into the engagement potential of social networks in the field of cultural exchange about making. It was conducted alongside a Creative Scotland funded residency programme between designers in India and Scotland that had public engagement as one of its aims. During the actual residencies, which might be described as the analogue phase of the reSIde project, the occurrence of appresentation of cultures was identified as a key factor in successful engagement of the public in a culturally informed making process. The potential of social media and other digital tools to prolong and enhance this environment is the object of this paper. A qualitative approach of participant observations and content analysis of interview data from the digital media used by the residency team was applied, and social network and hyperlink analysis was conducted through open source software NodeXL with visualisation through Gephi. Textual data analysis of individual and collective dialogue amongst large groups was also employed.Analysis revealed that what was shared online in this project did not fully replicate all the descriptive and layered information afforded to participants who were witnessing and sensing the events live and in person, with far distant geographic locations and dramatically diverse practices being suspected to be factors. However, a certain degree of the implicit knowledge often considered as a key achievement of the analogue experience of residency was clearly identified as present in online users as they engaged with previously unknown or assumed characteristics of culture through live debate of various viewpoints and through multiple stimuli. The paper concludes by indicating the need for further study of the motivations and techniques employed by emerging collaborative cultures such as the one considered here.<br/
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