TRADITIONAL WOODEN WHISK
The Spreewalders are sometimes superstitious and also practical. So it shows here with the wooden whisk. When the Christmas tree stands in the room for a long time, the wood of the trunk hardens and dries. Whorls were now carved from the ends of the sacred tree by shortening the branches and sawing off the whisk stick to the desired length. A new kitchen mixer is ready. Traditionally, these whorls were made to over 1 meter long. Source
WEAVE WATER
These are Marshall Islands stick charts and they were made using the midrib of coconut fronds. The Marshall Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean within a region of islands known as Micronesia. Historically, the Malayo-Polynesian seafaring population from this part of the world used the stick chart as a kind of navigational device. But what the map visualises are not contours of land surface. Instead, the curving intersecting lines, supported by a skeletal framework, represent major ocean swells as well as how the location of islands, represented here with seashells, would change those wave patterns. Unlike how we rely on our Google map or Waze while driving on the road today, the charts were not used or consulted during a voyage. Instead, the information was memorised before embarking on a journey by an expert sailor who was trained to sense how the outrigger canoe would roll over the swell. Kinda like how Google map was used, well, before the advent of smartphones.
NEW WORK: MUZZLE FOR CATTLE
Weaving origin: Portugal
Material: Esparto
Length: 6m
How to hypnotise a chicken
Animals can be hypnotised in direct relation to their ability to concentrate their attention. While there seem to be no obvious reason for doing this, other than sheer entertainment value, the technique is in fact useful for farmers who need to slaughter a chicken, but do not have assistance at hand. It has also been said that the birds being relaxed beforehand, make more tender, tasty meat.
WARAZAN: JAPANESE DATA STORAGE
With special knotted cords, data were stored until the 20th century on the Japanese Ryukyu Islands. With rice straw, nodes were arranged according to a certain system and represent quantities in the decimal system. This made it easy to record information without knowing the characters.
A similar method is also known by the Inca Empire. There, the cords (Quipu) were used for records in the administration, with which religious, chronological and statistical data were stored. For bookkeeping, especially the understanding of the individual calculation steps and to make sense for the intermediate results.
Artefact from Okinawa, 1930
Suquamish basketmaker, Ed Carriere explaining and performing the lost art of clam basketmaking.
A non-traditional woven sculpture teaching method by Artist Nathalie Miebach based on data collected.
THE ANCESTRAL FOOD OF CHINA
“One layer of salt, one layer of fish.
All fish overlap and intertwine with each other.
According to tradition, fish heads are placed counterclockwise.
This is to show respect to customers.”
THE HUNTER-GATHERER CULTURE
The Matagi tribes are traditional winter hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. Because of the geographical conditions, the tribes had to hunt for survival. Their lifes are sustained through hunting, firing fields, and making wooden and basketry objects.
With the introduction of guns in the 20th century, the need for group hunting for bear has diminished, leading to a decline in Matagi culture.
MUZZLES FOR CATTLE
These muzzles would be fitted to cattle to prevent grazing when crossing fields with crops. The bentwood model is a particularly well made and pleasing object and probably less irritating for the cow or bull to wear than the rope one.
Explore book: The Hard Life by Jasper Morrison
WORKING WITH REDUCTION
Japanese chopstick rests
Source: Takayuki Shimizu
THE MESOPOTAMIAN MARSHES OF IRAQ
The photos are a fascinating account of the lives of indigenous ‘Marsh Arabs’, whose lives in the marshes of Iraq were devastated by large scale draining of their homeland by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. After the fall of the regime the arid marshes were re-flooded when people broke through the embankments holding back the water. The return of the plants, animals and community to this unique landscape speaks of the resilience of people and environment to respond and be restored after ecological destruction and crisis.
First constructed in the marshes of what is now southern Iraq over 5,000 years ago, the ‘mudhif‘, the huge parabolic arched construction, is a unique local meeting place constructed entirely of reeds, straw and other natural materials.
KENYAH ANCESTRAL MUSIC
The sape' is a traditional lute of the Orang Ulu. These indigenous ethnic are mainly the “Kayan” and “Kenyah” groups who settle near the rivers of Central Borneo. They are known for their traditional musical instrument, jatung utang (wooden xylophone), sape' (a type of guitar), sape' bio (single stringed bass), lutong (a four- to six-string bamboo tube zither) and keringut (nose flute).
Listen to Matthew Ngau Jau
WOVEN BAMBOO HOUSE — TRADITIONAL GREEN BUILDING
We study material folk-cultures not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.
The film was captured in Ethiopia by Gordon Clarke of the Institute of Nomadic Architecture.
Link
JAPANESE FOLK CULTURE
Extremely fascinating functional artifact:
Insect cage made in cycad leaf
via aguni archive
ON WEAVING A BASKET
“The world of our experience is, indeed, continually and endlessly coming into being around us as we weave. If it has a surface, it is like the surface of the basket: it has no ‘inside’ or ‘outside’. Mind is not above, nor nature below; rather, if we ask where mind is, it is in the weave of the surface itself. And it is within this weave that our projects of making, whatever they may be, are formulated and come to fruition. Only if we are capable of weaving, only then can we make.” — Tim Ingold
Listen to the sounds:
The Growth of Artifacts by Yannick Dauby
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
The blog post section claims no possession for the materials use, nor for the purpose of commercial use. Some of the contents are either depicted with the knowledge of the owner, or without, due to the unaccessible origin of the information. If you are the owner of the content, and forbid sharing, please do not hesitate to contact me. In any case, your content will always be credited, direct or indirectly.
TRADITIONAL WOODEN WHISK
The Spreewalders are sometimes superstitious and also practical. So it shows here with the wooden whisk. When the Christmas tree stands in the room for a long time, the wood of the trunk hardens and dries. Whorls were now carved from the ends of the sacred tree by shortening the branches and sawing off the whisk stick to the desired length. A new kitchen mixer is ready. Traditionally, these whorls were made to over 1 meter long. Source
WEAVE WATER
These are Marshall Islands stick charts and they were made using the midrib of coconut fronds. The Marshall Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean within a region of islands known as Micronesia. Historically, the Malayo-Polynesian seafaring population from this part of the world used the stick chart as a kind of navigational device. But what the map visualises are not contours of land surface. Instead, the curving intersecting lines, supported by a skeletal framework, represent major ocean swells as well as how the location of islands, represented here with seashells, would change those wave patterns. Unlike how we rely on our Google map or Waze while driving on the road today, the charts were not used or consulted during a voyage. Instead, the information was memorised before embarking on a journey by an expert sailor who was trained to sense how the outrigger canoe would roll over the swell. Kinda like how Google map was used, well, before the advent of smartphones.
NEW WORK: MUZZLE FOR CATTLE
Weaving origin: Portugal
Material: Esparto
Length: 6m
NORTHERN LUZON HATS
Link
Pictures credit to Penn Museum
How to hypnotise a chicken
Animals can be hypnotised in direct relation to their ability to concentrate their attention. While there seem to be no obvious reason for doing this, other than sheer entertainment value, the technique is in fact useful for farmers who need to slaughter a chicken, but do not have assistance at hand. It has also been said that the birds being relaxed beforehand, make more tender, tasty meat.
WARAZAN: JAPANESE DATA STORAGE
With special knotted cords, data were stored until the 20th century on the Japanese Ryukyu Islands. With rice straw, nodes were arranged according to a certain system and represent quantities in the decimal system. This made it easy to record information without knowing the characters.
A similar method is also known by the Inca Empire. There, the cords (Quipu) were used for records in the administration, with which religious, chronological and statistical data were stored. For bookkeeping, especially the understanding of the individual calculation steps and to make sense for the intermediate results.
Artefact from Okinawa, 1930
Suquamish basketmaker, Ed Carriere explaining and performing the lost art of clam basketmaking.
A non-traditional woven sculpture teaching method by Artist Nathalie Miebach based on data collected.
THE ANCESTRAL FOOD OF CHINA
“One layer of salt, one layer of fish.
All fish overlap and intertwine with each other.
According to tradition, fish heads are placed counterclockwise.
This is to show respect to customers.”
THE HUNTER-GATHERER CULTURE
The Matagi tribes are traditional winter hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. Because of the geographical conditions, the tribes had to hunt for survival. Their lifes are sustained through hunting, firing fields, and making wooden and basketry objects.
With the introduction of guns in the 20th century, the need for group hunting for bear has diminished, leading to a decline in Matagi culture.
MUZZLES FOR CATTLE
These muzzles would be fitted to cattle to prevent grazing when crossing fields with crops. The bentwood model is a particularly well made and pleasing object and probably less irritating for the cow or bull to wear than the rope one.
Explore book: The Hard Life by Jasper Morrison
WORKING WITH REDUCTION
Japanese chopstick rests
Source: Takayuki Shimizu
THE MESOPOTAMIAN MARSHES OF IRAQ
The photos are a fascinating account of the lives of indigenous ‘Marsh Arabs’, whose lives in the marshes of Iraq were devastated by large scale draining of their homeland by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. After the fall of the regime the arid marshes were re-flooded when people broke through the embankments holding back the water. The return of the plants, animals and community to this unique landscape speaks of the resilience of people and environment to respond and be restored after ecological destruction and crisis.
First constructed in the marshes of what is now southern Iraq over 5,000 years ago, the ‘mudhif‘, the huge parabolic arched construction, is a unique local meeting place constructed entirely of reeds, straw and other natural materials.
KENYAH ANCESTRAL MUSIC
The sape' is a traditional lute of the Orang Ulu. These indigenous ethnic are mainly the “Kayan” and “Kenyah” groups who settle near the rivers of Central Borneo. They are known for their traditional musical instrument, jatung utang (wooden xylophone), sape' (a type of guitar), sape' bio (single stringed bass), lutong (a four- to six-string bamboo tube zither) and keringut (nose flute).
Listen to Matthew Ngau Jau
WOVEN BAMBOO HOUSE — TRADITIONAL GREEN BUILDING
We study material folk-cultures not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.
The film was captured in Ethiopia by Gordon Clarke of the Institute of Nomadic Architecture.
Link
JAPANESE FOLK CULTURE
Extremely fascinating functional artifact:
Insect cage made in cycad leaf
via aguni archive
ON WEAVING A BASKET
“The world of our experience is, indeed, continually and endlessly coming into being around us as we weave. If it has a surface, it is like the surface of the basket: it has no ‘inside’ or ‘outside’. Mind is not above, nor nature below; rather, if we ask where mind is, it is in the weave of the surface itself. And it is within this weave that our projects of making, whatever they may be, are formulated and come to fruition. Only if we are capable of weaving, only then can we make.” — Tim Ingold
Listen to the sounds:
The Growth of Artifacts by Yannick Dauby
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
The blog post section claims no possession for the materials use, nor for the purpose of commercial use. Some of the contents are either depicted with the knowledge of the owner, or without, due to the unaccessible origin of the information. If you are the owner of the content, and forbid sharing, please do not hesitate to contact me. In any case, your content will always be credited, direct or indirectly.