Traditional Crafts Creat Connections: Adding Gezelligheid to Design in an Era of Globalization
Article published in the November 2005 issue
of the Dutch design publication Morf
...
by Arlene Birt
Schipol is a porthole to everywhere. Awaiting
my flight to the United States, I wonder what space in Dutch design is left
for the comfortable and untranslatable, gezelligheid (meaning something
similar to coziness) when you’re a quick flight from anywhere in this
era of intense globalization. Moving from modernism to Droog-conceptualizations,
design has left this word that is so common to daily Dutch life to the farmhouses
and knitting grandmothers.
A contradiction to much of design, gezelligheid
is not often found in the airport or any other symbol of this era of globalization.
We hop from continent to continent as easily as we purchase Indian silk in
Oslo; skipping over the connectivity and experience that give objects elements
of coziness. Distribution becomes more widespread, at the same time loosing
the unique histories of products: a disconnection from where they come.
Recently, steps have been taken toward a modern
context for gezelligheid by going global to rediscover connection and
by looking to the roots of design: to traditional handicraft. In this context,
connection is about understanding where an object has come from, who made
it, the intention of that person, what it was made with and appreciating the
object’s unique history and human roots.
Feeling a bond to an object is coziness with
this object because it leaves no unknowns. Through understanding the details
of how something was made, the consumer can take satisfaction in knowing that
it was created with good production practices. A calmness and pride can be
felt for an object by knowing that object’s story. The textural sensibilities,
human attention to detail and individual uniqueness in products that result
from handmade creation warm these products in the minds of western consumers
and add to their gezelligheid. The sensitivity for culture found in
handicraft propels globalization of cultural diversity rather than plowing
through it.
I was last in Schipol airport a few months
ago, disembarking from a 6-week design-crafts study trip in India, where I
became a convert to crafts myself. Before the experience of working with master
weaver Shamji Vishram Vankad, I didn’t think handicrafts were more
than romanticized icons collected by tourists to fill their shelves as memories
of their vacations. But, in addition to skill, what I found was the connection
of an entire community to their craft: the whole village participating in
the process. Working as hard as the men who weave, women and the elderly prepare
the looms and finish the edges; keeping the operation running smoothly. Production
mingles with family and a chat over tea. The culture of these people became
visible to me through the process of their weaving.
Crafts in the context of globalization represent
a balance between the preservation of tradition and global awareness of the
diversity of culture. It offers linkage to other people and ways of life;
elements that add gezelligheid to this too-often homogenized world.
No better can we see the global effect of our
purchasing decisions than now: as a liter of gasoline is directly tied to
oil wars around the world. As communication technology allows us to be always
better connected it’s ironic that, showing connection between a product
and its production has slipped from priority. With the Industrial Revolution,
things created became disengaged from their own histories, origins, and production
processes. There is opportunity and desire for a renewed bond to our global
surroundings. Design can both participate in this, and facilitate it by exploring
handmade craft as the foundation of design. By building from our ties to the
past, we can better understand the historical basis of what we make and the
processes involved, and thereby develop products distinct with time-honored
gezelligheid for today’s industrialized lifestyles.
Craft and the qualities of gezelligheid
Consciousness to all parts of design is evident
in the final product and can be felt by western consumers tired of the sameness
of industrial production. Traditional crafts contain the story of the object
in layers of social, religious and regional histories and meaning. One can
see how the threads have been woven and visualize the process: A world away
from black-box industrial production where the focus is on cutting corners,
handicrafts have sensibilities no industrial process can replicate. Craft
production leaves impressions on the products created by it that are visual
reminders of the making process.
Within the framework of craft, custom production
is easy and already an integral part of the production system: considerations
that Do-It-Yourself and mass personalization design trends find difficult
to integrate. In these systems personalization happens as an afterthought
– permitting choose-your-one-size-fits-all solutions that can only try
to become unique items, but lack the human touch.
Humanity in a product can be sensed. In crafts,
the emphasis is ‘made by people’ – skilled craftspeople
with highly developed sensibilities. The handloom has not forgotten the weaver
as an integral part of the weaving process: a step the industrial mechanized
loom inadvertently tripped over in its jump for market saturation. Craft-made
designs are steeped in history, knowledge and skills that come from generations
of evolution. Though what we see may be the work of one weaver, what he stands
for is generations of evolution, culture and economic development.
Traditional handicraft is also a more sustainable
manner of working, a practice that carries its own gezelligheid. Using
natural and local materials, techniques of cultural and traditional significance,
and employing skilled workers in healthy atmospheres, handmade craft is one
of the most sustainable options of production available.
Modern applications
Laden with these timeworn ideals, handicraft
design is not necessarily a stoic or static practice stuck in antiquity. A
substantial industry in India, crafts continually undergo new development.
Though one camp of thought advocates that traditional crafts be preserved
strictly in their original form, much of the craft industry has survived because
of its response to changing market demands. During my time working with Shamji,
I learned of his family’s very recent innovation in yarn dyeing. To
cater to a client’s needs, they half-dyed skeins of yarn to imitate
the specific effect of a difficult-to-collect type of sheep wool. Handicrafts
are an evolving entity – like small-scale industry. And they can continue
to evolve: Combining elements of these history-rich practices with conceptual
design has potential to bring about the cozy qualities that much Dutch design
currently desires.
Many international organizations work to encourage
the introduction of contemporary methods, materials and applications into
the practice of handicrafts. There is much talk about the emergence of crafts
and their place in design. The 2004 Prince Claus Fund’s traveling exhibit
and accompanying journal, The Future is Handmade: The Survival and Innovation
of Crafts highlights the “changing role of crafts in contemporary
life”.
Recent directions in global business have also
shaped a modern definition of cozy to fit a global society: sustainability,
corporate social responsibility, fair trade, sustainable development and treating
workers like family, to name a few. With the developing countries in which
they work, companies increasingly set up initiatives from which to market
their concern for the global impact of their business.
Inspiration from crafts can be seen on fashion
catwalks, high design and through academic-initiated study exchanges. No one
is advocating we leave our laptops for the loom or start carving wooden blocks,
but there are generations of knowledge that can connect us to the cozy elements
of craft. But we have to realize that craft, like coziness suggests, happens
at a different pace than western design practices. Crafts call for a slowed
appreciation of the global origins of products. As designers, we can take
comfort in the past of our profession. By strengthening the bond between products
and where they come from, we can reconnect consumers with gezelligheid:
an environment where people can be at ease, knowing there are no secrets.
Crafts can serve as inspiration to develop more meaningful connections –
more coziness – within this era of globalization.
So I board my flight from Schipol knowing that
the departure gate and the destination are important, but it’s feeling
a bond to the places passed in-between, where things come from, that add gezelligheid
to the journey.
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Article published in the November 2005 issue of the Dutch design publication Morf