Explaining Diverse Frames: The Story of Radit and Cilacap’s Craftswomen

attention to the codesigning work of one designer with two craftswomen in Cilacap, Central Java Province, and seeing how they have adjusted and reconciled their different ways of thinking.

This time, I attended the final meeting of the designer and the craftsmen as well as their exhibition at Trade Expo Indonesia 2017. I highlight three diverse frames I found during the design process, which acted as the main obstacles to success and hampered the design progress.

They were the programs of the design center, the market needs the designer targeted, and the demands of the craftsmen.

4.1.1 The target from IDDC and the market needs

Before the designers went into the field, a brief meeting took place to discuss the objectives of the DDS program, its schedule, and other technical requirements. This involved three advisors from the center: an academic who was a design researcher from ITB, a design professional who has a long experience working in the electronics industry, and a staff member from IDDC. They have roles as mentors for all participants, and they supervise the design process, set the design targets, and make sure the program succeeds in a timely manner. In fact, before going to the field, the designers had to present their plans, explaining the targeted market

and the tentative proposal for each design idea. In this program, the center allowed the designers to penetrate any kind of market, as long as it was an export market. The important point is that the project should take place in 8 months, and there should be a proper exhibit in the trading expo, where foreign potential buyers gather.

To understand the characteristic of the targeted market, the designers could utilize trend-forecasting platforms such as Stylus and Euromonitor to research the market behaviors, the on-going trend of design, including the colors, patterns, materials, and the most purchased products in particular countries in the world. The platforms provide detailed information about shipping requirements, including size and weight, and restrictions on chemical usage in the materials. All this information assists the designers to construct the initial idea and to imagine future products that are far more suitable for the targeted markets. Radit, who is the designer I consulted, has aimed for two places: France and Europe in general. Although France itself is in Europe, he found distinct traits, and he decided that he should treat the two regions differently by carefully creating a specific form of design for each targeted market. He planned to create household products, specifically products used in the living room and in the kitchen, though at this stage he had not started the sketching process.

The design center organized evaluation meetings (monev) every time the designers finished meeting with the craftsmen. During these meetings, the designers, including Radit, had an opportunity to report on progress every time he returned from meeting with the craftsmen.

On at least four occasions, there were monevs to monitor and evaluate the work. In the meetings the supervisors, the staff of the design centers, and high-rank officers from the Directorate attended, each designer presented his or her progress. Radit explained:

The meetings were important moments for me to share my findings in the field, and I could also consult with other members about the difficulties I encountered during the

designing process with the craftsmen. The session was useful to get insights about the design process and to evaluate my design for the targeted markets.

In fact, during this meeting, each of the designers encountered various constraints, such as limited tools, different languages and habits, religious rituals, material availability, and so forth.

One of the participants explained how the local craftsmen were suspicious of him at first; thus, until the middle of projects, the craftsmen worked with him reluctantly. The disparity of infrastructure between Java and the other islands was one of the major factors in the limited distribution of the resources necessary for the designing process. The unfamiliarity of working with a new drawing and the different working patterns between designers and craftsmen were also challenging factors. This is because the designers almost all received training in a mass-produced industrial style, while the craftsmen had different rituals and paces of work depending on their places of origin. Radit, in particular, also had to think radically about a new design for the targeted market, considering the limited variety of tools and skills of the craftswomen in Cilacap. For instance, the craftswomen were a group of mothers in a village who had limited time to work, as they had to deal with daily housework and farming labor.

Despite such limitations, the design center required the designers and craftsmen to make progress within relatively a short time, as it had to report the results of the program to the directorate. The consequences of not achieving the target would be fatal: there would be cuts in the budget, and the design center might close. However, to achieve the target, designers had to be able to find quick ways to develop suitable products for the global market. We have explored the different targets and frames of the design center and the designers. What, then, is the

motivation of the craftspeople?

4.1.2 The motivation of the craftswomen

Driving about an hour and half from the city center of Cilacap, Radit visited a group of mothers, called Rizki Kelipuk, most of whom were weavers of eceng gondok (water hyacinth).

The group consisted of over 10 mothers, and it began about 5 years ago. It started after the Department of Cooperative and Small-Medium Enterprise invited the eceng gondok weavers from Tasikmalaya Regency to teach some of the mothers the technique of weaving. Initially, it aimed to provide a skill for the mothers to have an alternative source of income, as they are mostly part-time farmers, working mainly in the morning. Mrs. Sumiarti, the leader of the group, explained that the families of the group members were mostly living under the poverty line, because the husbands worked as laborers in factories or as part-time farming laborers.

Therefore, as wives and mothers in the family, the members attempted to work together in a group, and they expected to have more earnings from crafting than from merely relying on laboring in a farm or a factory. Another member of the group explained why she started craft-making: “Working on a farm is an arduous job. I am getting older, and perhaps in the next couple of years, I will not be able to work there. Therefore, I must find other jobs.”

In fact, this group of craftswomen has already exhibited its works in small-scale

exhibitions, such as small bags, pouches, and cutlery sets. However, few customers showed the interest in their work. Furthermore, Mrs. Sumiarti explained how the group faces difficulty finding potential customers, because they have no expertise in marketing, and nor can they develop new products suitable for the markets. She felt that simply joining the exhibition would not affect the growth of the business, because essentially, they lack the know-how to make a product suitable for the market. She further explained:

This situation increases my motivation to join the DDS Program. I need the

government’s help in expanding our business. I believe that working with a designer, like Radit, will bridge us to the new market and provide new information on how to create a good product.

Radit explained that the reason he selected this group is because this group consists of mothers in a small district, and he wanted to provide a larger social impact and to improve their economic conditions by helping them to penetrate the export market. He believed that by targeting a group of people, the impact would be broader than merely working with a single artisan. Looking at the potential of the craftswomen in this group, he developed the idea of designing a product that a group of people could make.

On the other days of the trip, Radit met Mrs. Yanti, a craftswoman who specializes in ecoprint. This is a dyeing technique using natural materials, such as leaves, cloves, roots, and so forth. She started learning dyeing technique less than 5 years ago, but she has extensive

experience of dyeing the cloth or fabric. Mrs. Yanti works usually alone, although sometimes she hires a few assistants. One of the reasons is that the dyeing technique is unpredictable, and it relies on the crafter. In contrast to the Rizki Kelipuk group, Mrs. Yanti became a craftswoman specializing in a dyeing technique to practice her hobby, although she also expected to have an extra income from her work. Looking for the potential of Mrs. Yanti’s work, Radit wanted to create an apron and oven mitt to target the European market. As the demand for eco-friendly products has been increasing in recent times, especially in the European market, Radit felt it right to collaborate with Mrs. Yanti to cultivate the natural dyeing technique, as well as the water hyacinth weaving in which the Rizki Klipuk group specialized. Importantly, Radit wanted to embrace the craft community to make new products that can absorb large numbers of craftsmen based on the sharing of values; thus, the economic impact will spread widely and effectively.

After identifying the diversity of needs and skills of the main actors here, then, how can designers and craftsmen collaboratively achieve the set target? What kind of obstacles have remained and changed during the working process? In the following section, I show in detail the work of Radit and the craftswomen to build the new products, by focusing on the role of

sociotechnical instruments to underpin the codesigning process.