Long walk in East London trying to rationalise thesis and the new the challenge of having to produce visual work. You know when you really long for something for so long, that by the time you actually get it you just think it is too late. I always wanted to do visual work for MA. I took on a felt making course with the Folk Art Association of Bekes County in their summer camp learning all about traditional Hungarian motifs, felt making techniques and natural dying. It was great fun. I remember cycling from the train station every day and it was so hot my clothes that got soaked by the felting water dried during the 10 minutes bike ride back to the station. I also remember the conductor one day telling me off for taking my bike on the Intercity (international `posh`) train. I did have a bike ticket and my point of argument was that almost all the trains to my village from town were Intercity trains, so I had to transport my bike on them somehow. He very quickly lost his argument.
I do feel a bit like it is a bit too late now. 6 weeks until hand-in and getting started on visual work now, is a bit too ambitious I believe. I have to say I can`t really remember why at the end I didn’t do the visual bits. I remember someone saying once I shouldn`t and I remember once being very concerned about the financial side of it and all the laser cutting and digital printing was going to cost a lot of money I didn’t have. It might have been that I decided myself not to do it. That area is quite blank. But I do remember having a tutorial once before I got ill and coming away with a sad face, but it might have been that I wanted to change my subject and it was a `no` for that. I really can`t remember, but this whole visual work got wired in me as a greatly missed opportunity to show my design skills on the final exhibition.
Well, I set in the living room with Rachel yesterday afternoon and combed the wool I have washed with mum back in the village over the summer. Our hands got sticky from the lanolin and we managed to comb 3 bags of it, which am going to try to felt this afternoon. I also found some merino wool from my BA final project, which I could use for decoration and I have the bolts already, so it is only a matter of willingness to work on it. I also decided to carry on with the thesis, I have done so much research on it. It would be a real shame to abandon it 6 weeks before hand-in and start everything all over again. Also I really don’t think it is realistic at all.
Conclusion from Case Studies:
The cases suggest, that some of the women in Hungary have the same will to be able to earn money to support their families as those in Africa. Getting out of the benefit system would be B’s and C’s main priority but currently, because of the low wages and high taxes, their products are not competitive with those brought in from abroad. This is a direct result of Hungarian women not supported by their government’s policy making to be able to use their skills as artisans and use their initiative to become entrepreneurs in the English sense and without paying extremely high entrepreneurial taxes in the African sense. As it was examined in detail the lessening of the local artisans is a direct result of their high entrepreneurial taxation (D to Fodor). This process put artisans in a position, where they either have to have a main job to be able to carry on with their craft - skill (Petrovszki to Fodor, 2009) or they are unemployed and living on benefits while carrying on practicing their artisanship to earn some extra money (Ékes). Currently there is no legal opportunity in Hungary to practise a craft skill, unless high taxes are being paid to the government from the moment of registration, regardless of making any profit or not (Source from APEH to Fodor, 2009).
The three case studies were taken from County E. The struggle with the financial part of becoming artisans either they live in a village or a town is the same. This conclusion and the extensive research leads the author to believe that this is a nationwide problem, which is cannot be resolved by only helping individuals. This needs be addressed on a wider scale by embracing on Hungary’s heritage, building on community spirit and collaboration, creating jobs through empowerment and building trust within people, amongst people and between the state and its residents.
Although the government has initiatives to train people to be able to either get back to employment or start their own businesses, because of the same problems mentioned above it is not effective. Considerable amount of the young unemployed have already obtained six - seven OKJ14 certificates in different professions, some of them became artisans by qualification (Rural source to Fodor, 2009), but unable to start a small business due to lack of financial, business and marketing support.
`…policy making plays a major role in the future of Hungarian artisans and their opportunities for empowerment. The global economical crisis could open up new opportunities in regional development, which could affect the relationship between traditional craft and contemporary fashion. Glocal Trinnovation is set to investigate the possibilities of bringing artisans and policy makers together. Rethinking what artisans can offer, what the consumer needs and what the possibility to combine these to come out with a creative solution is the challenge of the future. Adapting the same strategic thinking that global players use when revaluating and acting on the structural changes on the consumer side (Ohmae, 1990) could be the way forward. In “The Future of Work” Charles Handy writes, that “the status quo cannot be the way forward –we shall have to change one way or another. How we change is however, largely up to us.” (Hardy 1984). The future change could be the most effective if its results conclude from the constant dialog between the individual and the state. The change of policy making and lowering the taxes might be the way forward to job creation in Hungary by embracing on local heritage and artisans. Parallel with this the increase of the standard of living and wages could also help local development on the long term. The close relationship between makers and consumers could even create a natural flow of financial growth for the revival of …’ Hungarian artisanship. (Fodor, 2009 The Loss of the Sunday Dress.)
No comments:
Post a Comment