IN-PERSON: Prague – Section B

Abstract

In the conservation of creative heritages, often things are not what they seem. Naturally, in every culture traditions are continuously being created, evolving and being invented. Yet, sometimes the act of conservation is often just freezing of a specific historic moment of creativity – arrested design development. This is when we should ask why is a certain tradition being conserved? Who benefits from the conservation? What part of the traditional processed is conserved? And what changes can be made while still considering a process or a creation as traditional? As a researcher focusing on design in Africa, I will consider conservation, evolution and the invention of tradition in different African contexts. My previous research “The Invention of a Chair Tradition in Ethiopia: A Case Study of Liminoid Design” described the development of a new chair through a design hybridization process, emphasizing a contemporary connection to Ethiopian tradition. In continuation, in this paper I hope to gain further insight on conservation reasons and evolution of tradition when considering more African examples, like: the development and production of souvenirs for the tourist infrastructure by UNESCO in the project Capacity Building for Human and Social Resources for the Conservation and Development of the World Heritage of Lalibela that was promoted in Ethiopia 2005; examining the evolution in usage of the traditional Baganda bark cloth manufacturing in Uganda, inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity; And looking at the conservation rationale of the traditional pottery only of the Bakgatla ba Kgafela in Botswana and was inscribed by UNESCO in 2012 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding even though there are other ethnic groups that have traditional pottery.