weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 47
take the disinterestedness of the outsider, the craftsman or
artist, to make us critical of the consequences. We are used
to seeing new needs stimulated and new forms emerging
for their satisfaction. Our urge for possessing is constantly
nourished; again and again throughout history it has been
an underlying cause for war. We will have to be more
sensitive to the effect of things on us and to be aware of the
implications that come with possessions. For things such as
tools call for action; objects of art, for meditation. Things of
our more passive existence, those which protect and serve us,
give us rest and ease; others may burden and annoy us. We
shall have to choose between those bringing distraction or
those leading to contemplation; between those accentuating
anonymous service or self-centered individualism; between
the emphasis on being or having.
Very few of us can own things without being corrupted by
them, without having pride involved in possessing them,
gaining thereby a false security. Very few of us can resist
being distracted by things. We need to learn to choose
the simple and lasting instead of the new and individual;
the objective and inclusive form in things in place of the
extravagantly individualistic. This means reducing instead of
adding, the reversal of our habitual thinking. Our households
are overburdened with objects of only occasional usefulness.
Created for special demands and temporary moods, they
should have no more than a temporary existence. But they
cling to us as we cling to them, and thus they hamper our
freedom. Possessing can degrade us.
Having fewer things sets for the designer or craftsman a
fundamentally new task, as it implies designing things for
more inclusive use. Their attitude will have to be changed
from exhibiting personal taste and the exaggeration of
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personal inclinations in designing to being quietly helpful.
They will have the focus on the general instead on the
specific, on the more permanent instead of on the merely
temporary. Giving up continuous change does not necessarily
mean that we reach a state of stagnation or boredom; it does
mean overlooking moods and modes. Designing in a manner
to hold our interest beyond the moment. Instead of adjusting
our work to the public demand of the moment, so often
misinterpreted and underestimated by our industry, which is
concerned with fast-moving mass consumption, let us direct
into this true sense of value underlying public demand.”59
Written in 1942, this text now appears almost prophetic in its
anticipation of the future design landscape, where the spotlight is
on the economy and its current production priorities, rather than
on considerations of care, wellbeing, and sustainable, long-term
existence. The slanted worlds carry obvious references to our work
in Weaving Voices. However, I find a deeper connection to the lower
voice, more than the collective ‘us’ as crafts(wo)men, resonating with
the loom — the central, silent protagonist, and in the act of weaving,
serving as an underlying bass note during our singing. The text
suggests a dichotomy: a choice between an emphasis on being or
having. Remarkably, this choice seems to have already unfolded, 80
years later. However, the leading focus on possession and on mass
production does not diminish the efforts of smaller-scale inclusive
and participatory art projects and other collective initiatives. On the
contrary, it appears to emphasise how crucial this work is in today’s
context.
59 Albers, A. and Danilowitz, B. (2000) Anni Albers: Selected Writings on Design. Hanover: University Press of
New England, pp. 17-21.
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