An Interpretation Case Study of Cultural Creativity in Design

Exhibition of “Taiwan Artisan”

Jun-Liang Chen 1,5

, Yu-Ju Lin 2,5

, Jui-Ping Ma 3,5

, Mei-Ting Lin 4,5

1 Freeimage Design Studio, Taiwan.

2 Department of Visual Communication Design, Taipei College of Maritime Technology Taipei 25172,

Taiwan. 3 Graduate School of Creative Industry Design, National Taiwan University of Arts New Taipei City 22058,

Taiwan. 4 Department of Commercial Design, Design College, Hsing Wu University, Taipei, Taiwan.

5 Graduate School of Creative Industry Design, National Taiwan University of Arts Ban Ciao City, Taipei

22058, Taiwan.

Abstract. The Executive Yuan in Taiwan began promoting the Challenge 2008 - The New Six-Year

National Development Plan of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the goals of which are to nurture creative

skills and promote the combination of culture with entrepreneurship to develop cultural industries. If the

“Craft” is derived from the practical needs of human life, then every country and ethnic groups will develop

its own unique craft culture. The craft culture is reflecting the local economic status, social customs and the

natural environment status of each ethnic group. Thus also reflects the residents’ attitude in life, their ideal

and visions. These are some the reason why local ethnic craft culture is extremely precious and also valuable

cultural assets. The domain of Taiwan’s crafts creation has expanded, but the type of exhibition still cannot

break through tradition. Ever since the concept of curatorship was introduced to Taiwan in the 90’s, it

developed rapidly and quickly became a popular trend. This study tries to explore how Taiwan Artisan

viewpoint is shaped in the process of collaborative curating and in the presentation of the final exhibition.

This thesis Carried out those Taiwan craft artists and from their perspective to focus on topics of artisan

contemporary art, to address important information that an exhibitor may need, and planning exhibition

methods in hopes to bring out artisan contemporary art through proper exhibition to entertain the spectators.

Keywords: Cultural and Creative; Design Exhibition; Taiwan Artisan.

1. Introduction

Taiwan has gradually become more industrialized. This change to the industrial structure has caused the

rapid demise of various local and uniquely Taiwanese industries that relied primarily on selling traditional

handicrafts. Local industries gave rise to creative cultural industries and, thus, the preservation of local

industries has become a crucial process in the strengthening of creative cultural industries and the unification

of national identity. In response to this trend, college-level design students have become increasingly focused

on learning and implementing the information provided in cultural creativity courses. This trend has been

proven by the increasing number of award-winning Taiwanese students at international competitions in

recent years. By contrast, studying traditional handicrafts has become unattractive and outdated to them and

their familiarity with local traditional culture has dwindled. To address this discovery, the Taiwanese

government has continually promoted the transformation of local industries into local creative cultural

industries in an attempt to create an image of a “Cultural Taiwan” and a “Creative Taiwan.”The forefathers

of Taiwan created handmade traditional handicrafts that are rich in character and regionally diverse. The

Corresponding author.

E-mail address: freeimage5361@gmail.com.

2014 4th International Conference on Education, Research and Innovation

IPEDR vol.81 (2014) © (2014) IACSIT Press, Singapore

DOI: 10.7763/IPEDR.2014.V81.1

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creation of these crafts, however, largely depended upon master tradesmen who verbally and physically

passed on their skills to the next generation. Without successors, these crafts are lost to history with the death

of each master. In this study, the “Taiwan Artisan” exhibition content was used as the research sample. It is

hoped to examine the concept, and the pros and cons of the current exhibition system, so as to propose

adjustments in response to the changes in time and compile issues worth reviewing in contemporary craft

creation and exhibition interpretation, ultimately provide exhibition organizers and the audience with more

diverse clues when contemplating the subject of viewing exhibitions.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Experience

Experience is obtained from the interaction between the mentality of a person with a certain event.

During the process of gaining experience, the senses, feelings, mentality, and behavior of a person constantly

interact with the surrounding environment. People feel emotions and gain empirical knowledge from these

interactions, thus creating personal experiences. Pine II and Gilmore (1999) proposed a construct for

consumer experience: (a) consumer participation—divided into active and passive participants; (b) the

correlation between consumer status and environmental status—divided into absorption and immersion.

These two major dimensions form four types of experiences: (a)aesthetically pleasing experiences that

compel consumers to enter a space, sit down, and fully appreciate the surroundings; (b) an escape from

reality that allows consumers to become immersed in specific activities; (c)educational experiences that

require active participation from the consumers similar to the level of participation involved in escape-from-

reality experiences; (d)similar to aesthetics, entertainment is a passive experience. When customers are

happy, they are not required to be active, but are merely responsive to the experience.

2.2. Knowledge and attitude

Cognition refers to the understanding of human behavior and the analysis of mental processes and

memory structure. Therefore, cognition is the knowledge and opinions that people have and form following

internal information processing that analyzes the stimulations resulting from the messages conveyed by

external events and objects. Cognition is a process where people attach meaning to the environment,

organize and interpret objects and events, and obtain information by using the senses. Cultural awareness is a

psychological process where humans, through the use of their senses, create various spiritual and material

activities for a particular survival mode or lifestyle and subsequently develop recognition and understanding.

In people’s recollection, the context of culture has become interpreted lifestyles, cognitive experiences

derived from surrounding cultures, self-interpretation, and an extended worldview.

Attitude directly affects how experiences are conveyed. Therefore, regarding the exhibition, the attitude

of the audience must be understood. The message conveyed through the contents of the exhibition illicit a

certain response from the audience. Through the rationalization and emotional recognition processes

undertaken by the audience, an attitude toward the viewing is evoked. Specifically, the cognition aspect

refers to the understanding and evaluation of the audience regarding the content of the viewing experience,

and the emotional aspect signifies the degree to which the audience enjoyed the viewing experience.

2.3. Cultural identity

Cognition is an evolving behavior and a phenomenon that can be elicited through only explicit

participation in events and an implicit feeling of actual experience to create a goal or value that becomes

internalized by an individual or a group. Cultural recognition or awareness is typically related to cultural

activities. During the course of an activity, the transfer of information and emotions, and thus an increase in

cultural recognition, can be achieved through the means of observation, experience, bonding, and

enhancement. A lively viewing experience also assists in developing a sense of recognition.

2.4. Cultural exhibition and curatorial

Cultural demonstrations, such as craft exhibitions, often involve the collective demonstration and display

of craft objects or non-art objects. The purpose of these demonstrations is orientated toward knowledge

building and the collection of research. Burcaw (1987) stated that a display is where objects are arranged in a

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designated fashion with explanatory details to achieve the purpose of communicating with the viewer

through a public exhibition. Therefore, display is an art form and interpretation outcome, where objective

display skills are used to enable the communication between the audience and the implications and charm of

ancient artifacts.

In Taiwan, independent exhibitors are required to be proficient in various areas. They must possess

qualities such as strong organizational and social skills, an understanding of current trends and contexts in

society, and grasp the underlying functional operations conducted in the art industry. The exhibitor must

have professional and technical knowledge regarding the designation of a theme, the presentation method of

an exhibition, media promotion and application, and marketing strategies. Cultural exhibitions are an

ongoing process. During the process of cultural participation, people internalize particular cultural objectives

and values. Subsequently, the cultural similarities between individual people are emphasized, and a sense of

belonging to a certain cultural group is instilled. Regarding the curatorial tasks of creating a modern

exhibition, how an exhibitor should present an exhibition has become the most critical topic in the discussion

of cultural curatorial activities.

3. Artisan Taiwan-Curatorial Research & Analysis for Cultural and Creative Exhibitions

The term “artisan” in Japanese meant craftsmen or technicians in old times, and is now broadly used to

indicate “professionals”. The artisans usually possess of sufficient skills for occupations in all sorts of

industries and fields. Artisans are those who refine their outstanding skill by time and devote their lives in

one art as artists. Therefore, the primary spirit of “Artisan Taiwan” exhibition is: Spirit of Artisan, Soul of

Taiwan Cultural and Creative Activities. For the five elements－metal, wood, water, fire and earth－the

exhibition invited local craft artisans of bamboo weaving, dyeing, jade carvings, silver art and solid

sculptures to participate in the event, as well as design elites of the 50s to the 80s to spark new creativities,

presenting the extraordinary skills of the intergenerational artisans refined by time and their lifetime devotion

and passing on the artisan spirit of tradition inheritance.

Despite of accumulated cultural and creative events in Taiwan, changes in school system has caused a 15

to 20-year gap in fundamental professional subjects and craft skills. As much as a civilized and mature

community cannot sustain without artisans, it is worried that the lack of artisan skills are harming the cultural

inheritance. In order to inherit and preserve the skills and to retain the wisdom and dignity of our

predecessors, the imperative curatorial of "Artisan Taiwan" aims to emphasize a new era of "More Local,

More International".

3.1. Exhibition content display and design considerations

The curator Jun-Liang Chen selected for the exhibition the hundred nearly lost craft arts which have

undergone changes in the past decades in Taiwan, and made each change visible by the staunch of "craft

artisans" and the insistence of "design artisans". The philosophy to influence the times by wills and realize

the future by time has created the contemporary and classic Taiwan culture and ceaseless homogeneous

beliefs. The exhibition venue is divided into two major blocks, namely:

3.1.1. Five-element categorized craft arts

(Metal) Silver Helmet─Jian-an Su, (Wood) Bamboo Weaving─Jin-duan Chiu, (Water) Fabric and

Dyeing─Da-lu Yo-ma, (Fire) Solid Sculpture─Ang-Fu Huang and (Earth) Jade Carving─Yi-Sheng Wu.

Silver helmet artisan: Jian-an Su, a four time winner of National Crafts Awards who devoted himself

in the long tradition of silver helmet crafts for holy statues; he is specializes in the flexible use of

silver plating and bicolor paintings which decorate the silverware a colorful look.

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Fig. 1: Silver helmet artisan─Jian-an Su

Bamboo weaving artisan: With the superb bamboo weaving techniques, Jin-duan Chiu utilizes a

variety of weaving techniques in her creations. In recent years, she also actively cooperates with

designers, in order to break through the restrictions of traditional bamboo weaving techniques. The

"Carbon Bamboo Chair" comprises a body of carbon fiber wrapped by laminated bamboo and flora

decoration on the hexagon socket, presenting a trendy and retro bamboo pattern; the carbon fiber is

elastic and weight resistant thus the chair is light, pretty and practical.

Fig. 2: Bamboo weaving artisan─Jin-duan Chiu

Atayal weaving artisan: Ms. Yo-ma devotes her life to the promotion of Taiwan's Atayal weaving

skills and has created Beishih bridal gown, tiara and portable weaving tools. In her thirties, she

planned a 50-year vision for the tribes, visiting every corner of the world to investigate nearly a

hundred Atayal tribes and domestic and to conduct researches and analysis on foreign and domestic

Atayal artifacts; finally she completed the organization and categorizing of traditional Atayal fabrics

and costumes, expecting to piece together the Atayal weaving culture, train young weaver girls

through education of ethnic dyeing and weaving culture, and root the cultures skills through

preschool education, in order to continue and promote the Atayal weaving skills.

Fig. 3: Atayal weaving artisan─Da-lu Yo-ma

Solid sculpture artisan: Ang-Fu Huang specializes in the solid sculpturing method and creates works

of five topics, including animals, plants, ocean, insects, myths and characters. His new creations

include Taiwan orchid, focusing on the "local Taiwan culture".

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Fig. 4: Solid sculpture artisan─Ang-Fu Huang

Jade artisan: Yi-Sheng Wu has delved into jade carving for a long time and is known for his

impressive carving techniques. It took nearly three months to complete the exhibition original black

jade stone "Flora Smoke".

Fig. 5: Jade artisan─Yi-Sheng Wu

In addition to the top skills of the craft artisans, design artisans of different generations also show their

creative energy refined in time.

3.1.2. Five generations of design elites

Xing-Gong Wang, Pang-Xong Lin, Ching-Yang Hsiao, Chia-Hsing Ho, Jing-Yi Huang and Zhi-Jieh Yen.

Xing-gong Wang: The exhibition presents the "clay movable types" collected long time ago in Hong

Kong, showing the declined clay movable types industry after lead types was introduced to China in

the 19th century. The 1800 clay movable types displayed in a cross layout in the exhibition is the first

exhibition of his private collection.

Fig. 6: Design Elites─Xing-Gong Wang

The creative theme of "Family Letter to Taiwan" is based on Taiwan, an island shaped into infinite

styles, to have the beauty of Taiwan seen in the "Family Letter to Taiwan", hoping to attract more

people to see Taiwan, cherish Taiwan and care for Taiwan.

Fig. 7: Design Elites─Pang-Xong Lin

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Ching-yang Hsiao has designed more than 1000 music albums and is the first Chinese three times in

four years nominated for packaging award of the Grammy. To express the admiration to his father

and to memorize the family operated bakery, Mr. Ho exhibits the molds his father used to make rice

buns, and further pays tribute to the artisans who adhere to the tradition and focus on techniques.

Fig. 8: Design Elites─Ching-Yang Hsiao

Chia-hsing Ho firstly published his experimental writing of variant seal characters in 2000, and

continued to apply painting and calligraphy in art and design fields in creations including the poster

of "Taiwan Banjo Ballad Festival" which is composed of textual logic of Taiwanese temples for the

textual and image layout, attempting to provide a new look to the Taiwan Banjo and presenting a

lively atmosphere, guiding the audience to see the land they grew up on from new aspects of

reflection, groundbreaking, inheritance and innovation.

Fig. 9: Design Elites─Chia-hsing Ho

It took a year to interview 52 Taiwanese traditional craft artisans for the design of a year of "Artisan

Journal", aiming to emphasize the impressive "artisan spirit" by which they hold on to the crafts they

love.

Fig. 10: Design Elites─Jing-Yi Huang and Zhi-Jieh Yen

3.2. Space considerations for the curatorial design

Taking into account the interaction between spatial normalization and emotional aspects, the curator

shall ensure good communication between the organizer, artworks and the audience during the entire

curatorial design process. Jun-liang Chen, the curator, broke through the time and spatial restrictions with his

innovation energy as a design artisan over the past decades and gathered local craft artisans and

intergenerational design artisans for the eliciting of creativity, beautiful skills and refined values. The spatial

design of the "Artisan Taiwan" exhibition includes the three following features:

3.2.1. Promotion of artisan spirit

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The characters are a work of calligraphy master Yang-tze Tong. The ending of the word "Artisan"

supports "Taiwan", symbolizing that artisans are the supporting force behind Taiwan industries, and the

golden dot on top of "Artisan" represents the artisan spirit rising like a morning sun.

Fig. 11: Calligraphy Master─Yang-tze Tong

3.2.2. Refining artisan value

The two clocks are to express that "the life-time hard work of an artisan shall be evaluated in a life time".

In such a modern society with thriving industries and commerce, the traditional industries have declined and

handicraft industries are hidden in small alleys, no longer needed by the world. However, while unable to

activate domestic economy, such humble evening industries and those silently working on their positions

have protected their own beliefs with passion and make us understand the precious cultural assets.

Fig. 12: The two clocks─"Craft Artisans" and "Design Artisans"

3.2.3. Gathering of artisan elites

A hundred students sketched basic vertical and horizontal lines to complete the spatial concept, to create

a spatial legend of artisan wills with a three-dimensional cultural orientation. The black likes on the walls

and booths are not printed but drawn by our young students, reflect the artisan spirit of the new generation.

Fig. 13: A hundred students sketched basic vertical and horizontal lines

3.3. Considerations for time lapse record

The time-lapse photography recorded the exhibition little by little from scratch to completion. From the

aspect of time lapse photography, the record videos are composed of time-lapse photography and video

recording, by which the audience are moved by the focused expression on the staff's faces in the videos and

grasp the outline of the exhibition by the fast pace of the time-lapse photography, containing both

microscopic and macroscopic views. The exhibition is expected to serve as memorandums for our next

generation, by which they learn to take responsibilities from what they see, learn to undertake tasks through

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practices, make significant changes, and build contemporary classics by hands through eyes and minds.

Proved with concentration, only insistence can bring us closer to the dreams, and leave a piece of

wonderland for Taiwan.

Fig. 14: Considerations for Time Lapse Record

4. Conclusion

After the transition of Taiwan towards an industrial country, changes have also produced over the

societal and the business models, so traditional industries could not meet the market’s demands and would

eventually disappear. For the young learners of the latest generations, there are industries that they have not

heard neither been in touch resulting in their cognitive distancing. Through the exhibition design and

planning as well as book publishing after the exhibition, the experience of the audience from the content can

be extended as to create a resonance with them. Looking to the future, it is possible to use cultural traditional

artistry when designing exhibition to trigger emotional sympathy and to root the local consciousness.

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