Cultural Assets & Vernacular Material

Deepening Understandings of the Role 'Cultural Assets' can Play in Enhancing the Creative Economy in Borneo, SE Asia: Everything You Need to Know

Cultural Assets & Vernacular Materials a.k.a C&VM is a collaboration between The Glasgow School of Art and Borneo Laboratory, funded by the British Council.

The aim of the project is to explore and highlight the significance of craft practice and vernacular materials through commissioning 10 short craft-based projects inspired by a key sustainability challenge.

C&VM will conclude with 'Gotong-Royong,' a collaborative event and exhibition in November 2022 to showcase the practitioners' work and further explore local cultural assets and key sustainability challenges with broader networks and stakeholders.

5 Sustainability Challenges

There are numerous articles, books, studies, and other resources that touch on sustainability issues. Sustainability is all about organising civilizations and human activities so that society and its economies can meet their needs and express their full potential in the present while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, planning for, and acting to ensure the availability of these essential resources for future generations.

In layman's terms, sustainability refers to meeting our own needs without jeopardising future generations' ability to meet theirs.

All human activities have a negative impact on the environment. We consume more resources than the Earth can provide. Correspondingly, we harm the ecosystems through intensive and polluting practices to meet the increasing demand for raw materials,

Reflection on the conditions and consequences of human activity for current and future generations is required. Our future is dependent on the decisions that society and governments make right now. Each of us, our daily choices also influence these decisions.

Sustainability is not only concerned with environmental issues. It is also linked to economic development and social equity. We must safeguard and keep our cultural assets and traditions alive and promote innovation without compromising our way of life to maintain our planet’s fragile ecosystem. Sustainability will always be the preservation of a communal environment for future generations.

Here are the 5 Sustainability Challenges that we focus on for this project:

#1 Changing Landscape & Scarcity of Natural Materials

#2 Engaging Younger Generations

#3 Reconnecting to Tradition

#4 Equality in Craft

#5 Mass production & Sustainable Livelihood

Changing Landscape & Scarcity of Natural Materials

Scarcity of natural materials are the result of changing natural and environmental conditions; there is insufficient land available for the materials to grow and thrive (e.g. decline in soil quality, deforestation, land conversion for industrial large scale plantation and housing, etc.). There are difficulties in obtaining raw materials due to lack of conservation efforts. Not only that, there are also shifts/changes into utilisation of alternative materials as a result of complicated access to raw materials supply.

2. Engaging Younger Generations

Traditional crafts are losing popularity among the younger generations. In the knowledge transfer process, there has been an intergenerational gap; the elderly face difficulties in passing on their knowledge and skills. Traditional crafts are thought to have low economic value and therefore young generations have a low appreciation for it; craft knowledge is perceived as no longer relevant to the current context and modern challenges confronting young people. There are no/few opportunities, space, or facilities for young people to engage with and learn about their cultural assets, tradition, and crafts.

3. Reconnecting to Tradition

Many of the younger generation do not understand or value the history, local wisdom and knowledge that lies within the handicrafts e.g.; Philosophy and the meaning behind a motif etc. Local wisdom is connected to the material processing that is in harmony with nature and culture and the younger generation needs to learn about ancestral wisdom. A lot of this knowledge that exists within the handicraft practices is tacit knowledge and therefore there is no written record of it. For that matter, pursuing traditional crafts has been deemed unprofitable and irrelevant to today's challenges and needs, so an increasing number of people are leaving the profession and pursuing other avenues of income.

4. Equality in Craft

Economic inequality: Improving the welfare of craftsmen. Craftsmen, particularly women, have limited access to finance and education. Building capacity and increasing women's active participation in rural creative economic development is crucial. They should have access to training programmes, capital, and alternative funding/means support. Economic well-being that protects women and children from all forms of exploitation should be practised due diligence. The impact on family resilience will be felt if women are able to improve the economy.

5. Sustainable Livelihood in the era of Mass production

Most times, local craftsmen face challenges in scalability and competition with mass produced crafts. For the locals, crafts are a means of subsistence and source of income while preserving important aspects of identity and values in craft, social, and cultural practices. Crafts should always maintain a sense of place/local identity.

Cultural assets and traditions of a nation or ethnics are unique and have a very high value. It is an identity that makes a nation or ethnic stand out in the eyes of the world. It reflects on one's heritage and origin, which shapes one's beliefs, aspirations, and values while upholding people's integrity. The best way to preserve a cultural heritage, whatever it may be, is to share, practice, appreciate and be proud of it.

Sustaining cultural assets starts with awareness. Cultural heritage conservation efforts involve a wide range of experts, from conservators to law enforcement, architects to programme managers. Saving cultural assets can help us overcome our flaws of intolerance and prejudice toward our future generations, as well as our ignorance and arrogance about our role and impact on the planet. It can help us appreciate the planet Earth that we live in right now and be reminded that it can still be sustained this way for the next generation.

‘C&VM’, a collaboration between The Glasgow School of Art and Borneo Laboratory, is made possible with the support from the British Council. We are grateful for all of the contributions made to the project by people in our network and beyond. If you'd like to connect with us in the future, you can do so via our Instagram accounts:

@glasgowschoolart

@borneolaboratory

@my_british

For more information about The Glasgow School of Art and British Council Malaysia, please visit: https://www.gsa.ac.uk/ and https://www.britishcouncil.my/

Visit our other projects that might pique your interest! Please see the links below!

Curatorial Projects:

http://borneoartcollective.org/curatorialprojects

Design & Make:

http://borneoartcollective.org/designmake

Research:

http://borneoartcollective.org/researchthinktank

Publication:

http://borneoartcollective.org/book