Designers + Artisans = Sustainability
I would love to present my manifesto to all of you, who believe in a better world. We are aware that we all have to work very hard to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) until 2030. I am so grateful to be part of this incredible and rewarding opportunity given by UNLEASH. I never imagined myself to be able to share with the world my beliefs and thoughts, ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to impact positively the world, even if only by a little. Now, thanks to Unleash, I hope to inspire peers and mentors and also to be inspired by them. I appreciate the chance to share my thoughts and contribution to the world. I know this event UNLEASH Innovation Lab 2017 in our lives will be the beginning of a long and hard journey, but it’s worth it! Thank you Unleash for believing us!
I was not supposed to follow this path, but somehow life made me change the way I see the world. The passion about design, arts and crafts and nature, made me change my lifestyle from the past two years. I was living in London and pursuing a career in the film industry. After 5 years, I thought I would be happy working in the film industry, but I wasn’t, I was devastated, unsatisfied and empty inside. I was not alone. I had my boyfriend, loads of incredible friends, family… I realized I was homesick. I missed the sea so much, the hills, valleys and specially the sun! In just a couple of months, I gave up on everything I had conquered and came back to the village I was raised in, with the objective to create a collective warehouse for designers and artisans to work together and convince people that the rural environment has a lot of rewarding things to give! Where I am from, most young people left to the cities and the region is missing youth and creativity. I support the urban exodus, even if I can not live without going to the city sometimes. I am grateful for not being a slave to the stressful city lifestyle anymore and I’m trying to find a better balance to things in life where I don’t have to be in the big cities to succeed and lead a creative and meaningful life.
“The constant multiple uncertainties that are currently present in Western civilization as a consequence of deregulatory neo-liberal policies reinforce the need for social and environmental sustainability. A sustainability that implies the resources to factors that are counter-tendency to the current global economy and that simultaneously is receptive to the values of the global identity.” (Steiner 2007) in “Looking for wise practices — À procura de Práticas Sábias”
I start my manifesto from this statement, because I totally agree with that. My life’s experience is not much, but enough to see the world we are living in. I spent 5 years of my life in central London and those years taught me a lot about how the world runs, especially the western world. Soon, I realized I was home sick and desperate to return to my village where I was raised. I was fed up with this great metropolis, with the excessive consumerism, with a technology-reliant lifestyle and a lack of nature and Human interactions.
Once at home, I realized that most people and the values I was raised on, were disappearing. For example, my grandparents’ traditions, customs and know-how are quickly fading away.
Last year, I was invited to join a non-profit association in my village. The 54 years old association, Folkloric Ranch of São Guilherme, exists to preserve memories, local traditions and ancestral techniques and objects. Thanks to the community, a museum was built in the village to keep alive our grandparents history and to allow a younger generation to learn from them. Back then, they had to know how to live with less, how to ration food, water and how to recycle and repurpose clothing and other tools. At the time, Portugal was under a dictatorship and helping the family, friends and neighbors was natural. Every little helped. And did so while also respecting the environment and all the animals living with them. There was no river passing by, but that didn’t stop them to created sustainable solutions to survive.
Nowadays, we have an abundance of things and pollution has become a major problem. We, as Humans, need to take a good look at the past if we want to evolve and live in harmony with our surroundings. This next sentence says it all: “The relationship between Humans and Nature cannot be conceived in a reductive or separate way. Humanity is a planetary and biospheric identity.” (Morin, 2007: 164) in “Looking for wise practices — À procura de Práticas Sábias”
Fortunately, Portugal still has places like this, where nature, cultural heritage and crafts are cherished. Craftsmanship is special and valuable in terms of cultural heritage, because it defines the cultural identity of a community.
For all these reasons, and as a lover of arts, crafts and design, I think it would be great to keep this heritage alive and go back to its origins by uniting artisans (traditionally associated with local) and designers (traditionally associated of an idea of global) in a workshop, to create unique pieces that respect the natural process of creation, based on the slow design movement and old times traditions. This natural process implies the use of natural resources like wood, iron, glass, clay, plaster, natural fibers and other renewable raw materials or recycled materials. In addition, this natural process implies, in terms of human relationship, a collective and cooperative organism, which reinforces labor relations based on teamwork and creativity as opposed to the current system.
In Portugal, I am supported by CEARTE.pt, an institution that represents artisans and their knowledge. This institution also supports a crowed of designers. Even though I am not a designer, I keep on studying about it and I believe Design can be a sustainable solution to keep alive small villages / places filled with traditions, ancestral knowledge and humble people.
Design is the bridge between the past and the future, the tradition and innovation. Design embraces the ecology of knowledge and transforms it along with arts and crafts into sustainable value-added products. It is the link between technique and creativity. Design is the communication between local and global, between artisans and designers. Design brings meaning to forgotten places and adds value to them, and as a result of this promotes the urban exodus and tourism. Design transports the identity and history of ancestral craftsmanship to the present and into the future. It is a sustainable solution that fights against unbridled consumerism and the waste of utilitarian products in fashion, architecture, interior and industrial design. Based on the assumptions of the craftsmanship and ancestral techniques still exercised by a few master craftsmen, Design emerges as an added value to an erased economy, but that was once lit even after the industrial revolution, thanks the Bauhaus movement and Glasgow School, for example. There is an urgent need for a change of mentalities, mostly in the younger ones, to acquire the ancestral passions left by older generations that are, unfortunately, disappearing.
In my point of view, it is our duty to keep these values alive and to share them. We live in an era dominated by computers and robots, but the human touch needs to stay if we want to preserve memories and create new ones that will be shared for centuries. People come and go, but the memories prevail.
Thanks to UNLEASH, the world is definitely taking a step towards success!
