Exploring Indigenous Craft Materials and Sustainable Design—A Case Study Based on Taiwan Kavalan Banana Fibre

Abstract

For a long time, local craft traditions were passed on through apprenticeships. Consequently, new generations of designers and industries cannot easily intervene or produce new designs. This inability to integrate craft traditions in a modern context and changing cultural environment has resulted in the stagnation, decline, or even elimination of such crafts. This study focused on the use of banana fibres in the craft traditions of the Kavalan people of Taiwan, and research-through-design concepts were applied to the creative study of materials that are essential to ecological sustainability and cultural heritage. The method, Material Driven Design (MDD), was implemented through participation to experience traditional processes and explore the visible properties of craft materials. The goal was to gain a holistic understanding of materials and leverage the participants’ expertise in determining which steps in the methods could be improved. This process was supplemented with grounded theory, which was used to analyse and summarise the data in order to understand the factors influencing the creations of participants. Lastly, in addition to producing semifinished and finished products in our experiment, we believe that our findings regarding the examined materials and material tinkering to develop a material-tinkering loop based on the MDD can be (i) combined with the unique insights and technical expertise of designers and (ii) used alongside contemporary technical and digital aids to effectively support the continued development of innovative craft designs.

Creativity and Sustainable Design of Wickerwork Handicraft Patterns Based on Artificial Intelligence

“…However, compared with the real and traditional wicker pattern design, the definition of the generated image is relatively low, and the quality of the picture needs to be further improved. The reasons may be as follows: (1) The traditional wickerwork pattern is more complicated, it usually has a variety of pattern textures, but due to technical instability, DCGAN can only learn and make blurred images, so it could not present the specific details of the patterns. (2) The size of the network can only generate a rough image of 64 × 64, so we cannot see more details.…”

“…The sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage is a hot topic, and among these categories of intangible cultural heritage, traditional crafts are one of the most important categories. The current academic research on handicrafts is mainly focused on an anthropological perspective, that is, discussing handicraft features [1,2], discussing handicraft problems and suggestions, formulation of new policies [3], mechanism of inheritance of traditional Chinese crafts [4], and workshops [5] promoting the sustainable development of traditional crafts. In recent years, with the rapid development of research and application of network technology, 3D printing, virtual reality, augmented reality and other technologies, digital technology is playing an increasingly important role in the field of cultural heritage protection and inheritance, and it also contributes to the sustainable development of traditional folk crafts.…”

Inheritance Patterns under Cultural Ecology Theory for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Handicrafts

“…From the perspective of their relationship with society, traditional handicrafts have both practical functions and aesthetic functions, containing traditional craft knowledge, skills, and techniques that are essential in maintaining community cohesion. The study of traditional craftmanship mainly focuses on transferring intangible cultural heritage to promote the creative industry [13,18], protecting ecological and sustainable management in the realm of sustainable design [19], using sustainable materials, and incorporating local cultural values through cultural knowledge and practices [8].…”

“…Among these categories of ICH, traditional craftsmanship is one of the most important. The current study of craftsmanship is mainly focused either on the anthropological perspective, which discusses the handicrafts themselves [8,9], or the overall ICH protection perspective, which discusses problems and suggestions for handicrafts, such as the establishment of new polices [10,11], the development of tourism, and the construction of heritage sites that improve the sustainable development of a handicraft [12,13]. Little attention has been paid to the incentive mechanism of craftsmanship inheritance [14].…”

Sustainability|Special Issue: Cultural Industries and Sustainable Development

“…With regard to tangible heritage, contribution 4 focuses on the use of banana fibers in the craft traditions of the Kavalan people of Taiwan, and research-through-design concepts were applied to the creative study of materials that are essential to ecological sustainability and cultural heritage [5]. The goal was to gain a holistic understanding of materials and leverage the participants' expertise in determining which steps in the methods could be improved.…”