Untangling collaboration: a critical study on the relationship between natural fibres artisans and designers in Chile
Creators: name: Cattan Lavin, Magdalena
Publisher: name: The University of Edinburgh
Year: 2023
Subjects: craft
Latin America
collaboration
designer-maker
critical design

description: This thesis discusses the relationship between artisans and designers in the Chilean context, based upon a reflection on collaboration. In particular, the study tackles a gap in the literature by problematising the role of designers as ‘facilitators’ within social Design-led intervention initiatives, attending concerns about tensions in projects whose purpose is to aid and revitalise traditional artisanal practices through problem-solving approaches centred –generally– on the commodification of artisanal objects. The research centres its findings on three Chilean artisanal epicentres known for their craftwork in natural fibres and where artisans have developed partnerships with designers, namely: Chimbarongo, la capital del Mimbre [the capital of wicker]; Rari, well-known for their miniatures made of Crin (horsehair); and Puerto Saavedra, where Mapuche Lafkenche families have maintained the production of Pilwa, a carrier bag made of dried Chupón leaves, a endemic bromeliad plant. Crucial to this study was the awareness of my biased position as a designer/researcher and prior participant in a revitalisation initiative. Aiming to prevent the interference of any preconceived assumption on the topic, I positioned the research within the context of reflexive standpoint theory and critical methodologies in the domains of situated knowledge, representation, de-colonial theories and indigenous research. Fieldwork was carried out in Chile in 2017 and 2019, respectively, where I approached artisanal communities building on an ethnographic approach guided by design anthropology principles and qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews, open interviews, participant observation, visual records and field notes. In parallel, I conducted one-to-one interviews with designers involved in partnerships with local artisans and key actors from institutional artisanal sectors such as academia, State offices and NGOs. The findings evidence four modes of associations, where successful partnership initiatives have positioned natural-fibres artesanías as commodified goods within marketplaces where the handmade (as technique, material and narrative) is praised and paid for. However, within this frame of associations, raised issues of inequality, lack of authorship recognition, asymmetrical relationships and creative constraints from the artisans’ side, have been overlooked due to a prevalent notion of design’s intrinsic goodwill. Thus, it is discussed that a number of these initiatives has unwillingly reinforced artisans’ subsidiary position within the local cultural milieu, instead of actively collaborating with artisanal communities by contemplating and fostering their creative autonomy and validating their practice-based knowledge. In this regard, the study debates that current object-centric approaches rooted in hegemonic problem-solving models preponderant since the establishment of the Design profession in Chile, are at the core of these tensions. Focused only on the tangibles, these models tend to contemplate Artesanías as a fragmented and compartmentalised activity, separating the value of craftworks as commercial products, from the maker’s expert knowledge (techne, experiential and embodied) and likewise from the narratives contained in the practice; whilst, as evidenced during fieldwork, all these components are in intrinsically interwoven in a complex locally based cultural matrix. Responding to these findings, the thesis establishes three propositions grounded on reflexivity and based on critical and decolonial perspectives, aiming to guide social designers to rethink their groundings and reorient their agency by participating, researching, and acting reflexively and consciously as intervenors within culturally significant contexts such as traditional artisanal communities. These propositions, then, foster a situated stance –from within– where the creative autonomy and experiential knowledge carried by the practitioners, are considered in equivalent profundity to formal design knowledge, allowing then, for the shared construction of respectful and meaningful collaborative associations between artisans and designers in Chile.