Reflection on design and human condition 5 — Artisans
I’ve have concisely discussed the contrast between artists and designers, in a preceding blog on design and human condition. The 5th lecture on design and human condition by the guest lecturer Arnab Chakravarty made me reflect upon the role of artisans in society and how I think artisans are significantly more like designers than artists. My understanding of an artisan is that it’s someone who makes something of high-quality usually with their hands or using traditional methods and serves the community with whatever it is they make or do but in all cases the person who puts care, knowledge and practice into making something and making it well and I in my opinion that’s the beauty of an artisan, an artisan isn’t a hobbyist who just pokes at something when they have time they have passion and desire to learn everything there is to be learned about their craft they study the history they want to learn the ways things are made so they can make them properly, they spend hours honing their craft to the point that they are persnickety retentive about the process and that is something that is necessary to be a true artisan (I developed this understanding about artisans by watching a Crafts Documentary Intelligent Hands: Death of the Craftsmen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foIk89ak0Wg). Whatever an artisan makes or does has a practical and functional purpose however when it comes to an artist, whatever they make is something to either adorn or it has to do with a representation of beauty of some kind etc, that isn’t necessarily functional. What an artisan makes will enhance your life and sometimes the lines between the term artist and artisan can overlap when you’re dealing with, for instance a potter or a jeweler, but that overlap is based on a misconception, yes a jeweler or a potter can make lines that are perhaps more beautiful or more elaborate but since the jewelry and pottery they create are functional those people would be jewelry designers while being artisans at the same time since their design is heavily connected with their craft and they do both themselves.
Now I’m going to talk about why I think artisans are paramount for keeping our culture alive. Learning to do things the traditional way is a beautiful way to make sure that the skills of our previous generations don’t disappear, in my opinion artisans are the heralds of our culture they sing the praises of our past and they make sure the cultures and traditions of our past aren’t lost forever because they could be. A couple of months back I was watching an anime Kamisama Hajimemashita, that is a romantic comedy written by Julietta Suzuki published by hakusensha, and in one of the episodes was about the Japanese kimono. Now to illustrate the point of view I built by watching that episode. I would like to take my readers to japan and talk a little bit about the kimono. Did you know that the kimono has been around for 1200 years, the history goes back as far as 800 A.D and it’s not just about the garment itself but a lot about what makes the kimono so culturally rich is how it’s made, each different type of pattern means something and it can be woven into the fabric getting painted, embroidered but it’s all still done by hand and the majority of traditional Japanese kimonos are still made this way over a thousand years later, I find that astonishing! And something that’s really impressive is that kimonos have held up as a cultural staple of japan even though they are mostly worn for special occasions now. It’s a huge marker for their identity and it’s important that the original traditions of their creations stay the same. Now to become a kimono artisan and be considered a master of your craft you have to apprentice for 11 years, that’s longer than going to med school. And you don’t go to school for this you study under a master and they teach you the traditional skills so that you can than pass them on to the next student who you take on under you. But these skills are at risk of being lost with the average age of kimono related artisans is 80 years old and where they use to take on 30 apprentices now they are getting less than 10, the younger generation isn’t interested in spending time to learn traditional ways of creating things that are so vital to their culture, it’s not outrageous to think that in 50 years it could be lost forever. [1] However, we are seeing it all over the world people want to go into industries that are faster to learn and are more profitable. You can buy a good now for less money than you can make it, and if it’s not of quality people don’t care because they can just buy another one. it’s a 4000rs shirt from levies not something to pass onto your kids. So now we have started to appreciate quaintly over quality which is the opposite of what it used to be before because most people used to be artisans.
Lastly, I would like to mention how it was a great opportunity for us to get a lecture from Arnab Chakravarty someone who is from India sitting in Pakistan while he is all the way in New York, learning about his unique way of looking at design and asking him questions was an overall appreciable experience. And it would be a great learning experience for us if we have more guest lecturers like Arnab come and share with us their views about design.
