Journal articles on the topic 'Wood-carving industry'

This study aims to reveal three main issues that are the focus of this research, namely (1) how is the potential of wood carving art in Karduluk village as an artistic and cultural heritage of the Sumenep Madura community, (2) how is the promotion strategy of wood carving by craftsmen, and (3) what is the role of the government area in promoting the wood carving art of Karduluk village as the center of the craft industry in Madura. This study uses qualitative research to explore the promotion strategy of Karduluk village carving as a cultural heritage of the Madurese community. Data collection techniques in the field use three techniques, namely observation, interviews, and documentation. Meanwhile, the analytical method used is deep analysis to process empirical data in the field. In conducting data analysis, the researcher carried out several stages: data reduction, presenting empirical material, and verifying. There are three main findings in this research. First, is the potential of the wood carving art in Karduluk village, namely the economic potential, the potential for carving tourism development, and the potential interest of foreign consumers. Second, promotion strategies for wood carving art are done by participating in art exhibitions, personal selling, online promotion, increasing the variety of wood carving art models, maintaining product quality standards, and mentally competing. Third, the role of the government in promoting the wood carving art of Karduluk village, namely holding an exhibition of wood carving art products, establishing Karduluk village as a carving village, providing marketing capital assistance, assisting in partnership, and facilitating business licensing.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of capital, labor, and raw materials on production in the ukir kayu industry in Sukawati District, Gianyar Regency. The data analysis technique used in this study is path analysis. Capital, labor and raw materials directly have a positive and significant effect on production in the wood carving industry in Sukawati District, Gianyar Regency. Capital, labor, raw materials and production directly have a positive and significant effect on income in the carving woodwork industry in Sukawati District, Gianyar Regency. Capital, labor, and raw materials have an indirect effect on income through the value of production in the carving woodwork industry in Sukawati District, Gianyar Regency.

Bali Province is one of the tourist destinations and there are also many wood carving crafts. The export level of wood carving handicrafts in Bali Province has fluctuated every year, the fluctuating export value of wood carving crafts is due to global economic conditions. This research was conducted in Bali Province. The type of data used is quantitative data with secondary data. Data collection was carried out through non-participant observation methods, which came from books, records and reports from related sources or agencies, namely the World Bank, the Bali Provincial Statistics Agency, the Bali Provincial Tourism Office, and the Bali Provincial Industry and Trade Office. The analysis technique used is multiple linear regression using time series data from 1996-2019. The results of data analysis show simultaneously the US dollar exchange rate, tourist visits, length of stay of tourists, and the average tourist expenditure have a significant effect on the export of wood carving handicrafts in Bali Province. Partially, the US dollar exchange rate and the length of stay of tourists have a negative effect, but tourist visits and the average tourist expenditure have a positive and significant effect on the export of wood carving handicrafts in Bali Province.
 Keywords: Export, US Dollar Exchange Rate, Tourist Visit, Long Stay of Tourists, Average Tourist Expenditure

With the development of Taiwan’s economy and increasing revenues of the people, people are increasingly interested in tourism and leisure lifestyles. Local governments in Taiwan develop their own unique shopping areas based on the considerations of their own characteristics. Woodcarving works display commercial, artistic, practical, aesthetical, and other features. From the heyday of export and domestic sales, the global downturn, and the establishment of the woodcarving museum, the industry experienced changes like the business cycle. During this period of thriving export, every household in Sanyi was creating wood carving products day and night. Due to the flourishing export of the wood carving industry of Sanyi, outside wood carvers came to Sanyi and introduced new artistic styles, resulting in different creative concepts of wood carving works. The majority of residents in Sanyi are Hakka, and over 50% of the people are engaging in the woodcarving industry. Presently, due to time, space, external, and internal factors, the woodcarving industry of Sanyi has gradually passed the heyday of export. Through qualitative and quantitative methods, this study analyzed the status and process of the development of the Sanyi woodcarving cultural and creative industry, as well as the change of marketing models. We explored whether emotional marketing methods can arouse the perception of consumption situations, and individual intrinsic emotions and feelings, while promoting proactive participation and purchase of woodcarving products to enrich the life of consumers. Moreover, this study discussed the depth and width of the impact on existing consumers and potential community members. By analyzing the woodcarving industry in Sanyi, Miaoli, as based on a conversion from the past, as well as current development and future vision, this study proposed marketing strategy suggestions as reference for the woodcarving industry.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of social capital on human capital; the effect of social capital on transaction costs; the influence of social capital, human capital and transaction costs on empowerment; the indirect effect of social capital on empowerment through human capital; and the indirect effect of social capital on empowerment through transaction costs in Bangli Regency. Design/methodology/approach The population in this research is all wood carving business in Bangli Regency, in all districts some 366 business units. The number of respondents surveyed were 191 business units in all sub-districts. The sampling technique used is stratified random sampling, with strata of business area. Inferential analysis is preceded by using factor analysis techniques to obtain factor scores on each latent variable, followed by path analysis to answer the research objectives. Finding Based on the analysis, the following conclusions are drawn: social capital has a positive and significant impact on human resources; positive social capital and significant positive to transaction costs; social capital and human resources have a positive and significant effect while transaction costs and no significant positive effect on empowerment; human resources partially mediate the influence of social capital on empowerment; and transaction costs do not act as a variable, mediating the influence of social capital on empowering small woodcraft industry in Bangli Regency. Originality/value This study is one of the few to investigate the role of social capital, human capital and transaction cost on empowerment of small industries, especially wood carving in Bangli District. This small woodcraft industry is famous for its uniqueness that characterizes Balinese carving ornaments. But lately, the productivity of handicrafts wood carving, especially in Bangli District, fluctuates tend to decline. Social capital, in addition to human capital and technology, also plays an important role in the production process. Social capital equals other physical capital and can increase productivity and economic efficiency. Higher social capital owned by individuals or groups can reduce transaction costs; thus economic activity can run efficiently. Social capital is the information, trust and norms of reciprocity inherent in social networks.

Industri furniture di Jepara sedang mengalami proses perubahan dalam mengatisipasi pasar ekspor. Desain-desain fuirniture yang diproduksi cenderung mengikuti keinginan dan kebutuhan pasar global yang nyaris tidak menampilkan ukiran kayu dalam desain furniturenya. Padahal, ukir kayu Jepara merupakan keunggulan Jepara yang telah berkembangn secara turun-temurun, beratus tahun lamanya. Tampaknya potensi ukir kayu tersebut tidak diberdayakan sebagai alat daya saing ekspor. Oleh sebab itu, diperlukan pengembangan desain furniture ukir kayu yang disesuaikan dengan tuntutan keinginan dan kebutuhan konsumennya di pasar ekspor. Di dalam konteks penelitian ini, pengembangan desain dilakukan setelah melakukan identifikasi pasar ekspor di pasar global dan mengidentifikasi potensi produksi yang dimiliki oleh kalangan industri Jepara. Identifikasi pasar menghasilkan karakteristik desain furniture yang sesuai dengan tuntutan ekspor, adapun identifikasi potensi produksi sebagai pertimbangan di dalam pengembangan desain. Luaran yang dicapai adalah desain furniture ukir kayu, prototype furniture knockdown dan beragam jenis desain ukiran, baik diproses manual maupun masinal. Penelitian kualitatif ini menggunakan pendekatan multidisiplin bidang desain, teknologi, dan manajemen pemasaran. ABSTRACTThe furniture industry in Jepara is undergoing a process of change in anticipating the export market. Furniture designs produced tend to follow the desires and needs of the global market which barely displays wood carvings in their furniture designs. In fact, Jepara wood carving is an advantage of Jepara which has been developed for generations, hundreds of years. It seems that the potential for carving wood is not empowered as a means of export competitiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to develop wooden carved furniture designs that are tailored to the demands and desires of consumers in the export market. In the context of this research, design development is carried out after identifying the export market in the global market and identifying the production potential of the Jepara industry. Market identification produces furniture design characteristics that are in line with export demands, while the identification of production potential as a consideration in design development. The achieved output is wood carved furniture design, prototype knockdown furniture and various types of carving designs, both processed manually and masinal. This qualitative research uses a multidisciplinary approach in the fields of design, technology, and marketing management.

The art of teak wood carving was one of the leading export commodities, especially wood carvings with flora and fauna motifs. Javanese culture and Hindu mythology influenced the flora and fauna motifs, so they had their meanings. This research aimed to develop carvings of flora and fauna motifs inspired by classic batik motifs using wood media. The results showed that the media used was teak wood with a finishing process without painting to produce a natural color. It was adjusted to its function and use in creating teak wood carvings. Wood carving did not only function to be enjoyed for its aesthetic value but as a decorative and sacred medium where each motif influences one's beliefs when creating artwork. In addition, teak wood carvings were used as symbols of a culture, and the designed motifs often contained the meaning of teachings to humans in carrying out life. Based on the economic aspect, the teak woodcarving industry strategically improved the community's income, especially for craftsmen in tourism centers. By making woodcarving crafts with flora and fauna motifs, it hoped that woodcarving crafts would not only use as decorative objects, but it used as an educational media for fine art, history, and Javanese culture, which were full of meaning to the broader community so that they could increase knowledge and encourage people to behave following the concept of cosmology.

<p><em>The purpose of this study is to find out geography rhythm procurement of raw materials, marketing destination, and problems with production factors sculpture and carving industry in the center of the sculpture and carving industry center in Mulyoharjo Village, Jepara District. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method. The respondent is a sculpture and carving industry entrepreneur in Mulyoharjo Village whose population is 104 industries and 30 industries are sampled. Data collection by interview, documentation and observation. Data analysis used a descriptive qualitative interactive model technique. The results of the study concluded that 86.6% of the industries experienced capital problem,73.3% of the industries experiences raw material problem, 66.6% of the industries experiences marketing problem, and 73,3% of the industries experiences finding workers problem. The most difficult workforce to find is engraver because absence of engraver regeneration. The raw materials used are teak wood and tamarind. In 1990 the raw material came from Jepara. In 1997-2005 the origin of raw materials expanded into the Java Island region. In 2006-2019 the origin of raw materials moved out of Java. The current availability of wood is not experiencing scarcity but the price is increasing. In 1990-1992 the destination areas for product marketing were in the Jepara Regency area only. In 1993-1995 product marketing could reach big cities in Indonesia. Marketing of products to international markets occurred in 1996 until now. In 2013 the number of exports increased with a value of 7,505,772.91 US $. In 2014 to 2018 the number of exports decreased.</em></p>

The global demand for agarwood (Gyrinops verstegii) is immense, hence the market price is skyrocketing. Sapwood (gubal) is the most valuable derivative product of the agarwood commodity. However, such derived compounds are not without value. White aloeswood, which is then processed into black magic wood (BMW), is one of the items that was once deemed trash but eventually saw tremendous demand. The purpose of this research is to investigate the flow of transformations in products from beginning materials to BMW manufactured products, the added value gained by every involved party, and the power relations among the parties in the BMW value chain. Data was gathered through observation, in-depth interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), and document analysis. All the data was analysed descriptively. Several key results were achieved from this research: (1) commodities transformed from raw materials to finished products: wood waste carving→ making of imitation carving→ imitation carving processing→ finishing → BMW products. (2) The biggest benefit gained by upstream players and leaving farmers and craftsmen behind. (3) The power relations among the parties revealed that large business actors control power and profit. Farmers and craftsmen only offer cheap wage labour in the midst of BMW industry with multiple profits.

Since 2004-2015, there has been a decline in the number of Jepara woodcarvers. This phenomenon is allegedly caused by the lack of interest as woodcarvers. Ironically, those who are survive today, actually sell the carving at any price. The study about woodcarvers happiness was conducted to determine the effect of interest on happiness based on socioeconomic characteristics. The population of this study was all of the small-micro wood carving industries. The sampling was carried out using the stratified systematic sampling method with sample framework SE 2016 listing data. A total of 837 industry were allocated to 100 industry and were stratified into centers of 53 industries and non-centers of 47 industries. The analytical method used descriptive analysis and inferencing analysis. This study revealed that interest has a tendency to influence woodcarvers happiness, but the amount of income becomes its highest factor.

Seni ukir kayu Bali adalah hasil karya dari para seniman ukir kayu asli Bali yang memiliki bakat luar biasa dalam beberapa dekade. Mereka bekerja dengan konsisten dan penuh dedikasi untuk menciptakan karya yang terbaik dan berkualitas tinggi. Selain itu, mereka selalu menyertakan filosofi spiritual yang mendalam dalam hasil karyanya. Begeh Ukir adalah UKM yang bergerak dalam industri seni ukiran Bali yang telah berdiri sejak tahun 2000. Produk utama yang disediakan adalah sanggah, yang secara harfiah berarti tempat ibadah. Kepercayaan Hindu percaya bahwa roh nenek moyang keluarga mendiami sanggah, di mana mereka ditempatkan di dalam sudut sakral atau di area kosong rumah. Dalam memfasilitasi dan meningkatkan pemahaman manajemen sumber daya manusia yang tergabung ke dalam UKM Begeh Ukir melalui KMS yang bertujuan agar pengetahuan bisa dapat berlanjut pada generasi penerusnya. Pengetahuan yang disimpan pada KMS berhasil dipetakan dalam bentuk Knowledge Mapping yang terdiri dari sanggah, bale, bahan dan filosofi. Metode KMSLC diterapkan pada pengembangan KMS berhasil mengembangkan chatbot AI berbasis NLP dengan presentase kebenaran knowledge yang dihasillkan sebesar 75%. Kata kunci: Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Management System, Website, Ukiran Bali Abstract Balinese wood carving art is the work of original Balinese wood carving artists who have extraordinary talent in decades. They work with full consistency and dedication to create the best and highest quality work. In addition, they always include a deep spiritual philosophy in their work. Begeh Ukir is an UKM engaged in the Balinese carving art industry which has been established since 2000. The main product provided is sanggah, which literally means a place of worship. Hindu beliefs believe that the spirits of the family's ancestors inhabit sanggah, where they are placed in sacred corners or in empty areas of the house. In facilitating and increasing understanding of human resource management who are members of the Begeh Carving UKM through KMS which aims so that knowledge can continue in the next generation. The knowledge stored in the KMS has been successfully mapped in the form of Knowledge Mapping which consists of objections, bale, materials and philosophy. The KMSLC method applied to the development of KMS succeeded in developing an NLP-based AI chatbot with a percentage of truth of the knowledge generated by 75%.

Jepara's reputation as “The World Carving Centre” is suspected of experiencing an identity crisis, marked by the decline in export value during the covid19 pandemic, the absence of regeneration of wood craftsmen, and other problems. The Jepara people's belief in the power of carving as local wisdom that is preserved needs to be accompanied by social capital consisting of the government, industry players, entrepreneurs, and craftsmen. Social capital has a role in building Jepara's reputation as a City of Carving with a Public Relations approach. Therefore, this study implemented the Reputation Management Theory by applying a qualitative method with a case study approach. After observation and in-depth interviews were conducted with the government, furniture entrepreneurs, and artisans, it was found that social capital becomes a relational dimension to achieve the goals of regional public relations reputation. Public Relations is recognized as an organizational function that includes boundaries responsible for communication engagement with various stakeholders to facilitate social relations, co-creation, and communication. Community involvement and social life, such as building relationships, norms, and trust, enable them to manage their reputation effectively. Social capital is due to various elements, including trust, rules, and norms governing social action, social interaction, and network resources.

The problems of this research are; 1) The process of making wall decorations in the village of Tonga Kesu District 'North Toraja District? 2) Inhibiting and supporting factors in making wall decoration in Tonga Village Kesu District '. The type of this research is survey research that aims descriptive qualitative to describe the process of making carving wall hangings and supporting factors and inhibitors experienced by crafters. In this research, there are 2 groups of artisans in Tonga Village in the North and the South. The result shows that the technique of making wall decoration is done manually from the material processing process until the final step of manufacture by using the tools that have been provided. The first stage in making these wall decorations are: Measurement and cutting of wood, second stage of surface and wooden cuttings, third stage of surface painting and periphery, stage four painting with black paint, the sixth stage of pattern making, the seventh stage of engraving and stage next coloring carving and the last is finishing. 3) Supporting factors in the process of making wall decoration of wooden decoration are easy to obtain, the availability of labor, the availability of tools and additional materials and the existence of self-taught craftsmen. Inhibiting factors are lack of capital, high cost of raw materials, equipment that tends to be a very simple, production marketing process that is only traditional.

<p class="Default"><em>Ivory carving from Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the Indian state of Kerala, was once appreciated internationally for its outstanding craftsmanship. The origin of the industry can be traced back to 17th century CE or before that, and grew as a full fledged industry under the patronage of the Maharajas of Travancore from the 19th century onwards. During the old period it was practiced by Brahmins and goldsmiths, and later by the carpenters (achary) as well. Though they are very few in number, some craftsmen are now continuing the art on alternatives to ivory such as rosewood, white cedar and, even more rarely, sandalwood. After the ban on ivory in 1990, this practice—emblematic of Intangible Cultural Heritage—looked on the brink of disappearing. In an example of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) success, the traditional carvers of Thiruvananthapuram were shifted to sandalwood carving. Presently, sandalwood is a vulnerable species and extremely expensive. In addition to the threats mentioned in the UNESCO Paris convention (UNESCO 2003), some elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage are also disappearing due to the conflict that arises from the cultural use of natural heritage, leading nature’s beings toward extinction. The aim of the current research is to analyze these problems and to formulate fruitful strategies for the safeguarding of the age-old craft with sustainable use of natural raw materials and alternative materials. </em></p>

Bali island is an island that is well known for its beautiful nature and wonderful culture. The combination of both culture and nature, makes Bali unavoidable place to visit. The Balinesse culture is greatly influence by Hindu, a religion for most of Balinesse people. The ceremony ang religious activities called as “yadnya” has generated many small industries to fulfill the need for yadnya instrument. The raise of this industries marked by balinesse traditional cake like uli, begina, sirat, matahari, etc. Another industries arising as the result of ceremony and religious activities are tumpeng banten, canang and sampian, plangkiran and wood carving, bokor and keben, and wastra. This industry are generated as impact of yadnya activity in Bali Island especially Hindu’s religion.

Abstract The present paper introduces computer-aided methods for the transposition of ornaments inspired from the textile heritage into the surface furniture decoration. Using digital technology, the furniture industry may bring into modern life the traditional motifs, contributing thus to the preservation of the cultural heritage from the region Ţara Bârsei, located in Transylvania. Two motifs inspired by the traditional costumes from South-Eastern Transylvania were digitized using CorelDraw software. They were imported in AutoCAD and the information was transferred both to CNC router and laser equipment. The CNC routing of ornaments was simulated with two types of tools and two processing methods (engraving and carving) using CAD-CAM-CAE software and the models were afterward processed on wood panels by CNC router and laser equipment and then visually analysed, concluding which method and tool is suitable for each type of ornament, so to transpose better the original motif on furniture wood surface.

<p>The furniture industry is an industry that processes raw materials or semi-finished materials from wood, rattan and other natural raw materials into finished products that are ready for use and have higher added value. There are many furniture industries spread across Indonesia, with quite large centers located in Jepara, Sukoharjo, Surakarta, Klaten, and others. Along with the development of industrial technology, making work becomes more efficient and easier. Therefore, it is necessary to apply technology in the industrial world in Indonesia, especially in the furniture industry. The current technology commonly applied to the furniture industry is the CNC milling machine. The use of this CNC machine aims to solve problems in the production of wood carving crafts or furniture, such as mass products that cannot be the same and product processing time that cannot be ascertained. Besides, the use of this CNC machine can reduce cycle times and increase the work efficiency of the furniture industry. Based on this information, we had the idea to make this CNC milling machine to support the progress of the Indonesian furniture industry. During the manufacturing of this CNC machine, we carried out theoretical research and field surveys. The research stages we carried out were identification of needs, problem formulation, synthesis, analysis, evaluation and presentation. Based on these results, it was found that the workable raw material had a maximum dimension of 40 × 40 [cm], a maximum feed rate of 192 [mm/min], a maximum spindle rotating speed of 12,000 [rpm] and a cutting velocity of 75.4 [m/min].</p>

Blitar memiliki beberapa potensi industri yang menunjang perekonomian masyarakat salah satunya adalah industri mebel kayu yang bernama Dida Mebel. Industri mebel kayu ini terletak di Kabupaten Blitar. Beberapa aspek yang dapat dipelajari dari industri tersebut yaitu teknik pembuatan dan visual desain produknya. Aspek-aspek tersebut menjadikan objek ini menjadi menarik untuk diteliti. Pene­litian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis hasil produk kerajinan Dida Mebel dan visual ornamen kera­jinan Dida Mebel. Penelitian dilakukan dengan pendekatan deskriptif kualitatif. Observasi, wa­wan­cara, dan dokumentasi dilakukan di awal penelitian untuk mengumpulkan data. Data yang telah ter­kumpul akan direduksi dan dianalisis, kemudian disajikan dan ditarik kesimpulan. Pada tahap akhir dilakukan triangulasi data untuk mengecek keabsahan data yang diperoleh. Hasil penelitian me­nunjukkan bahwa produk kerajinan Dida Mebel sangat beragam, seperti pintu gebyok, kursi lincak, dan meja segi enam. Selain itu, diketahui juga bahwa gaya dan visual ornamen yang ada di Dida Mebel berakulturasi dan menghasilkan visual dan teknik ukir yang berbeda-beda. Kata kunci: kerajinan, Dida Mebel, desain The Dida Mebel Craft Design Blitar Regency Blitar has several industrial potentials that support the economy of the surrounding community, one of wich is a wood furniture industry called Dida Mebel. This wood furniture industry is located in Blitar Regency. From this industry, there are several aspects including manufacturing techniques, and the aesthetic aspect of the product design. Therefore, it is very interesting to research. This study aims to analyze: (1) Dida Mebel craft product (2) visual ornaments of Dida Mebel. The research was conducted with a qualitative descriptive approach. This research begins with observation, interview, and documentation with the aim of collecting data and analysis carried out with the stages of data collection with the aim of collecting data and analysis carried out with the stages of data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. By means of triangulation of sources and method and by connecting data observation with a theoretical basis to check validity of the data. The validiti of the data is done by reducing the data, presenting the data and drawing conclusions. From the result of the study, it was found that the styles and visual ornaments in Dida Mebel were acculturated and different visual and carving techniques. Keywords: craft, Dida’s Furniture, design

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are industrial sectors that are very important to sustain the economy of Jepara Regency. There are 18,695 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Jepara Regency in 2016, including wood carving, troso weaving, chopper brass (monel) jewelry, sculpture, rattan crafts, calligraphy, and reliefs. The number of SMEs in Jepara makes buyers or tourists have many choices in buying products of varying quality and competitive prices. In addition, sometimes they are also confused in finding the location of SMEs. Therefore, this application is made to solve these problems by making an application that provides location-based information center industrial services. This application is expected to facilitate tourists in finding the location of the industry to be addressed. Geolocation technology is used to identify real-world geographic locations that can be applied to the Android operating system. So this application provides store description services, product photos, and maps. SMEs are presented in the application in the map using the k-mean algorithm. The parameters used are the type of industry, number of employees, turnover per year, tools used. For the clustering have 3 categories, there are namely small, medium and large. The advantages of this algorithm can group data according to the similarity of data used in one group and minimize the same data between groups and cannot process data that is a missing value.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are industrial sectors that are very important to sustain the economy of Jepara Regency. There are 18,695 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Jepara Regency in 2016, including wood carving, troso weaving, chopper brass (monel) jewelry, sculpture, rattan crafts, calligraphy, and reliefs. The number of SMEs in Jepara makes buyers or tourists have many choices in buying products of varying quality and competitive prices. In addition, sometimes they are also confused in finding the location of SMEs. Therefore, this application is made to solve these problems by making an application that provides location-based information center industrial services. This application is expected to facilitate tourists in finding the location of the industry to be addressed. Geolocation technology is used to identify real-world geographic locations that can be applied to the Android operating system. So this application provides store description services, product photos, and maps. SMEs are presented in the application in the map using the k-mean algorithm. The parameters used are the type of industry, number of employees, turnover per year, tools used. For the clustering have 3 categories, there are namely small, medium and large. The advantages of this algorithm can group data according to the similarity of data used in one group and minimize the same data between groups and cannot process data that is a missing value.

This paper takes into account the methods of adaptations to the extreme situations of floods in the rainy season of 2020 in the rural and urban areas of Darbhanga district in northern Bihar, India. Boats made of different types of woods are the first choice of people. The region has a sprawling boat industry that provides a basis of livelihood to the wood smith community. Boats are generally made available to the needy people by the agencies of Government. However, those deprived of the boat facility adapt to the situation by carving makeshift devices made from banana pseudo stems, water hyacinth fronds, dry wood pieces, pitcher floats, bamboo rafts, cement bowls for feeding the livestock etc. High floods of 2020 witnessed people using boats of thermocol and rubber tubes on a large scale. All these devices, whether natural or man-made, work on the principle of Archimedes. The paper reports an innovative practice of using the hollow gas cylinders intricately strung in the fashion of an open boat that was used for about 15-20 days till the high floods receded in the village Harichanda of Hanuman Nagar C.D. Block of Darbhanga district India. The system was devised by local young men to tide over the crisis of ferrying people to local orchards for defecation and also for maintaining the supply chain of drinking water, cooking gas and other essential services. The plant items achieve buoyancy due to their density lower than water. Those made of flattened wood or tin plates achieve floatability on account of large volume of water that they displace. The weight of people carried on these boats is lighter than the weight of the volume of water displaced in the process.

The art of chisel mask is developed in Tumpang Malang area as part of dance costume fairs, puppet show andcultural ritual, although in its development, this mask sculpture is also sold and become a tourism commodity. The potentialsales of mask sculptures is increasing, especially because of the demanders are foreign tourists, cultural enthusiasts andcomponent of tourism activities. That is, Topeng Malangan has the potential to be developed as an export commodity. Thesales system is still limited to cultural events or when there is a visit of education and tourism to the arts-padepokan. Thisprompted some people around the padepokan to start a home industry to meet the availability of the mask. In general, theproblems encountered by the craftsmen are (1) availability of raw materials, especially for suitable wood species, (2)production equipment, especially for pre-carving process and preservation of product, (3) there is no standard marketingscheme, (4) does not have a business management system, and (5) highly skilled craftsmen are still very limited. The solutionsoffered are divided into three stages: (1) technological strengthening, including strengthening production process technologyand increasing the number of craftsmen; (2) establishing business management; and (3) establishing trademarks, copyrightsand product marketing expansions

Forests of Indian subcontinent are one of the biodiversity hot spots of the world. They are the second-largest inland use next to agriculture, yet possess a high degree of endemism. Plantation forestry in India was initiated mainly for the production of industrial raw materials as well as fuelwood and fodder from exotic species. The increase in demand for industrial raw material has spurred the rise in plantations of fast-growing native tree species. Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser is a native tree species whose wood has been largely used in the pulpwood and pencil industry for making boards, plywood, packing cases, tea-boxes, carving and turnery articles. Supplementation of these native trees with effective bio inoculants will improve and maintain the soil fertility and sustainability in the natural soil ecosystem besides providing economic benefits. In the present study, the diversity of PGPR was assessed in the rhizosphere of N. cadamba plantations in Narasipuram, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. 33 PGPR isolates from N. cadamba rhizosphere were isolated viz. four species of Azotobacter, three species of Azospirillum and six different PSB species. The isolates were studied for their plant growth promotional abilities such as Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) production and phosphate solubilization.

Seni ukiran Palembang telah dikenal luas, seni kerajinan ukir kayu yang lazim disebut Ukiran Palembang. Adapun sentra industri seni kerajinan ukiran kayu Palembang berada di Kampung 19 Ilir, Kecamatan Bukit Kecil, sebelah Barat Masjid Agung Palembang. Kampung 19 Ilir, memproduksi berbagai bentuk perabotan, alat-alat rumah tangga, dan hiasan rumah dengan ukiran kayu khas Palembang. Kegiatan mengukir di Palembang sebelumnya memiliki hubungan erat dengan rumah tradisional adat Palembang, yakni rumah Bari atau rumah Limas. Rumah tradisional yang saat ini masih digunakan oleh masyarakat Sumatera Selatan, khususnya di Palembang dengan segala perlengkapan rumah tangganya. Pertumbuhan ukiran kayu Palembang mengalami pasang surut dengan kondisi sosial dan ekonomi di wilayah tersebut. Seni kerajinan ukiran kayu ini hanya diproduksi oleh keluarga-keluarga tertentu saja, masih banyak masyarakat Palembang dan para perajin beralih mengandalkan penghasilan ekonomi dengan mencari profesi lain. Perubahan yang terjadi pada proses pengolahan bahan kayu yang semakin sulit digunakan, kreasi motif ukiran, dan teknik pengukiran telah bercampur dengan daerah lain seperti Jepara, dan negara luar India, Eropa dan China. Akulturasi ragam hias ini telah menghasilkan suatu bentuk, gaya dan cita rasa baru menambah khasanah ukiran kayu Palembang. Kajian utama penelitian ini dititik beratkan pada kontinuitas, perubahan dan analisis ragam hias pada motif ukiran kayu. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan multidisplin, yakni pendekatan sosiologi, dan estetika. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode kualitatif, dengan analisis deskriptif analitik. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis dan mengidentifikasi perkembangan seni kerajinan ukiran kayu Palembang terhadap kehidupan masyarakat, terutama bagi pelaku budaya tersebut, mengkaji terjadinya perubahan dan perkembangan bentuk, motif ragam hias seni kerajinan ukiran kayu Palembang dan menggali pengetahuan secara mendalam mengenai kebudayaan Palembang.Woodcarving arts from Palembang are widely known and commonly referred ro Ukiran Palembang. The center of woodcarving art industry of Palembang is in Kampung 19 Ilir, District of Bukit Kecil, West of Palembang Grand Mosque. Kampung 19 Ilir, produces various forms of furniture, and home decoration with wooden carving typical of the Palembang style. Woodcarving arts from Palembang previously fostered a very close ralationship with the traditional homes of Palembang, known as the Bari or Limas houses. Bari or Limas houses are Traditional houses that are still used by the people of South Sumatra, especially in Palembang equipped with household accessories made in Palembang. The growth of Palembang woodcarving has experienced fluctuation relative to regional economic conditions Art craft woodcarving is continued only by certain families, as the economic situation of the region causes many craftsmen to search for employment in other industries and professions. Changes in wood processing procedures have caused materials to become increasingly difficult to use. Also, carving motive creations, and engraving techniques have been hybridized with other regions such as Jepara, and countries outside India, Europe and China. The acculturation of this decorative variety has resulted in new forms, styles and flavors adding to the treasures of Palembang woodcarvings.

"One Life’s Mission: Lajos Pákei’s Role in Establishing the Industrial Museum and the Industrial School in Cluj. The development of museums and schools of industry took place in some important industrial cities of the Dual-Monarchy, a part of the capitals in Salzburg, Graz, Prague, Brno, Czernowitz starting from the 1870-1880s. In the last quarter of the 19th century several school and some museum buildings of industry were erected in Hungary. Some of these new edifices were capable of performing dual, educational and museum tasks due to their special spaces: their list includes Ödön Lechner’s Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest, Alajos Hauszmann’s Technologic Museum of Industry in Budapest and Lajos Pákei’s Museum of Industry in Kolozsvár (Cluj Napoca). It is exactly in this period that Lajos Pákei graduated from Theophil Hansen’s studio in Vienna, and soon after, in 1880 he became chief architect of the city of Kolozsvár. In his new position the young architect played a prominent role in the infrastructural and institutional modernization of the city. One of the biggest investments of the city focused on the reshaping of the industrial institutional structure – this process was articulated around the foundation of the Museum and School of Industry of the city. Acting also as the director and professor of architectural disciplines in the school of industry of the city he had a significant impact on the development of a master builder, stone and wood carving classes and moreover in the curriculum of the educational profile of the institution. Lajos Pákei followed the architectural principles of Camillo Sitte in terms of urban city planning in Kolozsvár under the influence of the Austrian architects work published in 1889 entitled Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen. Kolozsvár, the par excellence renaissance town of historic Hungary. The town was the birthplace of the last great medieval king of Hungary, the earliest renaissance ruler over the Alps, King Mathias (1443-1490) whose political and cultural legacy as national king and the town’s long goldsmith and woodcarving activity have become a points of reference the late 19th century discourse on the modernization of Kolozsvár. Lajos Pákei was one of the members of the first generation of architects having accomplished their studies in the new political circumstances related to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Lajos Pákei in Kolozsvár has completed diverse missions simultaneously such as did Camillo Sitte in Vienna or Joseph Leitzner in Czernowitz: he actively reshaped the urban spaces of his city, made architectural plans for the industrial museum and school, as director he influenced the educational profile of the school of industry and the acquisition policy of the museum of industry. Lajos Pákei prepared several plans for this building of dual function through almost first fifteen years. After a number of design changes the museum-school building was finally built between 1896 and 1898. Due to the rapidly growing collection, the shift in the acquisition policy from technological profile to applied arts objects, the growing number of students soon it became too small, and the construction of a purely museum building has become necessary. The building of the museum of industry has been erected in 1903–1904 opposite the previous one, according to the plans of Lajos Pákei. The first, museum-school building followed the construction principles of Hungarian secondary school architecture of its time, including a centrally positioned external wing for the technological collection. The second one – planned purely for museum purposes – followed the latest example of applied art museum buildings, the one of Joseph Schulz in Prague built in 1897–1901. The history of two buildings of Lajos Pákei in Kolozsvár reflect the specialization of educational and museum spaces, the characteristics of the changing models in industrial education and presentation of the changing profile of the collection as “ideal of a modern museum” as an attempt to develop. The study interprets the foundation and the management of the museum and school of industry as the lifetime project of Lajos Pákei in the context of architectural modernization (both in education and practice) in the Dual Monarchy and in the theoretical framework of urban planning. Keywords: urban planning, museum of industry, vocational education, decorative arts, museum of decorative arts "

Introduction. The post-reform era was characterized by the rapid growth of handicrafts. This phenomenon was noted not only in the Russian, but also in the Mordva village. In some Mordva villages there was a concentration of a wide variety of types of handicrafts and they began to represent a kind of handicraft centers. The article pays attention to the study of the distribution of handicrafts among Mordva villages. On the basis of pre-revolutionary statistical documents, reports of provincial and county zemstvo committees, the level of development of fishing activity among the Mordva has been considered. Materials and Methods. The research is based on the following methods: comparative-historical, historical-genetic, problem-chronological, structural-systemic. As the general scientific research methods, logical, descriptive-narrative, generalization, classification and systematization have been involved. To achieve the results of the study, archival sources, reports of county and provincial statistical committees, journals of meetings of county zemstvo assemblies have been used. Results and Discussion. Mordva artisans lagged behind the Russians in terms of the rate of development of the handicraft industry. The same types of bushcraft were common among Mordva as among Russians. Handicraft production gradually expanded in the Mordva villages in the second half of the XIX – early XX century. Peasants begin to specialize in a certain kind of handicraft. Usually in the Mordva villages there were several handicrafts at once, but there were also those that specialized in one craft. In such settlements, as a rule, artisanal artels were created. So, in the Spassky district of the Tambov province, woodworking crafts dominated, in the Alatyr and Ardatov counties of the Simbirsk province – wool-cutting and felting, in the Saransk district of the Penza province, crew fishing was widespread. P. S. Pallas, I. I. Lepekhin, V. N. Kuklin, I. I. Firstov, A. S. Luzgin, N. F. Mokshin, G. A. Kornishina, E. N. Mokshina and others made a significant contribution to the study of traditional crafts and occupations of the Mordva. Conclusion. Currently, certain types of craft activities are preserved in some Mordva villages. For example, felting is widespread in the villages of the Ardatovsky district of the Republic of Mordva – Urusovo, Zhabino, Old Ardatovo. In the village of Podlesnaya Tavla, Kochkurovsky district, Mordovian craftsmen are engaged in wood carving, making wooden toys. Crafts such as knitting, basket weaving, carpentry, birch bark weaving, cooperage are preserved.

This article is the result of a typical Palembang wood carving work. Starting from the increasingly few antiques in the antique gallery owned by Ibu Hj's family. Roswati made him intrigued to grow and develop his business since 1974 and to preserve the carving art furniture in the form of Palembang wood carving. Then continued by a similar craftsman in the Home Industry Q Laquer owned by Mr. Jaja is a typical Palembang wood carving art craftsmanship in Kelurahan 19 Ilir. The purpose of this research is to find out and describe the process of making Palembang's unique wood carving arts. The research method used is a qualitative descriptive method using data collection techniques of observation, interviews, and documentation. The types of decoration in the wood carving art are the decoration that characterizes the city of Palembang as from the motifs of plants with golden, black, and red patterns. The variety of wood carving that is applied to handicraft objects is basically a pure decoration, which functions solely to decorate or beautify. The results of typical Palembang carving crafts include decorative cabinets, chairs, tables, wardrobes, frames, and various kinds of furniture. Through this research by examining how Palembang wood carving art in particular the manufacturing process, is expected to contribute to the people of Palembang City in order to develop and preserve these cultural assets.

This paper aims to elaborate on how the roles, responsibilities and good practices can join in the enterprise of sustaining the heritage of Malay wood carving as reflected in the case of Adiguru kraf (master craftsman), Abd. Muhaimin Hasbollah from Temerloh, Pahang. The rationale is that virtues of research in understanding the roles and responsibilities of Adiguru Kraf, through his craft practices in sustaining the heritage of Malay wood carving is relatively novel and vital for recognition. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to identify the key components of his involvements in sustaining the wood carving industry. This is essential as the Malay wood carving is traditionally associated with the making of craft that requires manual skill and craftsmanship, while its production is to exercise skill based on knowledge and experiences. A qualitative interview with Abd. Muhaimin was conducted and it has set out the context of a master craftsman, an inheritor of heritage carving and practices, in relation to his roles and responsibilities that reflect his title as Adiguru Kraf. The investigation has led to the understanding of his characteristics and how he produced his works with some levels of exclusiveness, peacefulness, and purposefulness. The outcome and contribution of the paper is a better understanding of the roles of the master craftsman, which may become inspiration for the younger generation of woodcarvers to excel in their profession. Understanding of his roles in relation to the professional virtues and craft production is essential because of the potential and value of eliciting and transmitting of his knowledge and skill for the development of wood carving craft and industry.

Mulyoharjo is the center of wood sculpture and sculpture industry which is included in Jepara regency, Central Java. Mulyoharjo is now developed into a tourist village of creative industries that began to favor a lot of local and foreign tourists. Mulyoharjo has excellent potential such as sculpture or wood carving. Local tourists and foreign tourists need information about the carving industry in Mulyoharjo to be visited. But to find the carving industry in Mulyoharjo is still limited in the website that takes a long time in the search process. So to know the carving industry information is less effective and efficient. Utilization of the progress of smartphone technology is one solution to this problem. Therefore, researchers apply an information-based android mobile app that provides information about the potential of existing industries in Mulyoharjo Village, based on location/map. Development method used in making this application is waterfall method using the ionic framework which is devoted to building a hybrid mobile application with HTML5, AngularJS, and CSS. The development of this application in the form of images, data and map location is included into the firebase database so that application renewal becomes young, fast and efficient. Based on the assessment by the respondents as a whole, the New Jepara application scored 81.3% with criteria very feasible to use.Keywords: Mobile application, waterfall method, carving industry center.

Empowerment of small entrepreneurs (MSMEs) is very important, collaboration is the main driver and always synergize. Effectiveness and efficiency are the targets of every entrepreneurs and one of the strategies is cooperation. The aim of this research is to make the production line effective from upstream to downstream of craft making and maximize the understanding of Balinese carving craftsmen community for exporting, where the craftsmen are constrained by information and access to start the export process. The method in this research is qualitative with FGD from planning, mentoring and evaluation. The results of this research were the establishment of collaboration between small entrepreneurs and academics, empowerment resulting in an increase in product output from 5-6 carving products to 9-11 carving products. Carry out online marketing so that you can be known internationally and hold international exhibitions.

<p align="center"><strong>Abstract</strong><strong></strong></p><p><em>This article is the result of a typical Palembang wood carving work. Starting from the increasingly few antiques in the antique gallery owned by Ibu Hj's family. Roswati made him intrigued to grow and develop his business since 1974 and to preserve the carving art furniture in the form of Palembang wood carving. Then continued by a similar craftsman in the Home Industry Q Laquer owned by Mr. Jaja is a typical Palembang wood carving art craftsmanship in Kelurahan 19 Ilir. The purpose of this research is to find out and describe the process of making Palembang's unique wood carving arts. The research method used is a qualitative descriptive method using data collection techniques of observation, interviews, and documentation. The types of decoration in the wood carving art are the decoration that characterizes the city of Palembang as from the motifs of plants with golden, black, and red patterns. The variety of wood carving that is applied to handicraft objects is basically a pure decoration, which functions solely to decorate or beautify. The results of typical Palembang carving crafts include decorative cabinets, chairs, tables, wardrobes, frames, and various kinds of furniture. Through this research by examining how Palembang wood carving art in particular the manufacturing process, is expected to contribute to the people of Palembang City in order to develop and preserve these cultural assets.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords </em></strong><em>: Wood Carving Art, Decorative Variety</em><em>, Palembangs</em></p><p align="center"><strong>Abstrak</strong></p><p><em>Artikel ini merupakan hasil penelitian karya seni ukir kayu khas Palembang. Bermula dari semakin sedikitnya barang antik di galeri antik milik keluarga Ibu Hj. Roswati membuat beliau tergugah untuk menumbuhkembangkan usahanya tersebut sejak tahun 1974 serta melestarikan kembali kerajinan seni ukir berbentuk mebel dengan ukiran kayu khas Palembang. Kemudian diteruskan juga oleh seorang pengrajin serupa di Home industri Q Laquer milik Bapak Jaja merupakan kerajinan seni ukir kayu khas Palembang di Kelurahan 19 Ilir. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui serta mendeskripsikan proses pembuatan kerajinan seni ukir kayu khas Palembang.</em><em> Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif dengan menggunakan teknik pengumpulan data observasi, wawancara, dan dokumentasi.</em><em> Ragam hias pada kerajinan seni ukir kayu tersebut ialah ragam hias yang mencirikhaskan kota Palembang seperti dari motif tumbuh-tumbuhan dengan corak warna kuning emas, hitam, merah.</em><em> Ragam hias ukir kayu yang diterapkan pada benda-benda kerajinan pada dasarnya adalah ragam hias murni, yang berfungsi semata-mata untuk menghias atau memperindah. Hasil karya kerajinan seni ukir khas Palembang tersebut diantaranya berupa lemari hias, kursi, meja, lemari pakaian, bingkai, dan aneka macam mebel. Melalui penelitian ini dengan mengupas bagaimana seni ukir kayu khas Palembang khususnya proses pembuatannya, diharapkan dapat memberi kontribusi kepada masyarakat Kota Palembang agar bisa mengembangkan dan melestarikan aset budaya tersebut</em><em>.</em><em></em></p><strong><em>Kata kunci :</em></strong><em> Seni Ukir Kayu, Ragam Hias, Palembang</em>

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis bagaimana ibu rumah tangga yang bekerja sebagai tukang amplas kerajinan ukir kayu menjalankan peranannya dalam rumah tangga dan bagaimana peran mereka dalam industri kerajinan ukir kayu di Desa Keling Kecamatan Keling Kabupaten Jepara. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dapat dilihat ibu-ibu tukang amplas mempunyai peran penting sebagai “penyempurna produk” dalam industri kerajinan ukir kayu. Namun disisi lain sebagai ibu rumah tangga, mereka tidak dapat melepaskan tanggung jawab sosial budaya sebagai “pengurus rumah tangga”. Dengan demikian pekerjaan mengurusi rumah, melayani suami dan anak – anak tetap mereka lakukan bersamaan dengan peran mereka sebagai pekerja tukang amplas. Peran ganda yang mereka jalani tersebut membawa dampak secara sosial mereka memiliki prestise lebih dibanding ibu yang tidak bekerja, namun disisi lain peran ganda tersebut menyebabkan para ibu rumah tangga tukang amplas tersebut menjadi terbebani baik dari segi waktu maupun tenaga mereka.The purpose of this study is to analyze the domestic burden of a housewife who worked as a wood carving craft sandpaper and the role they play in handicraft industry. The research is conducted in Keling, Jepara. The research results show that these women have important role in wood carving handicraft industry as ”product perfector” and in their house hold as ”domestic manager”. As a housewife, they can not leave their domestic responsibilities regarded by society as their main tasks. Consequently, they have double tasks, serving her husband and children in the house as well as performing their roles as labours. This dual role gives them more prestige than women who do not work, but on the other hand this dual role also give them double burden.

The study was undertaken with the objectives to survey the source and chain of procurement process of the various types of wood being used in the market, assess their requirement of the kind of suitable wood preferred for a particular item of woodcraft for marketing in the particular countries and to explore the potential of alternate wood species which can be adopted by an artisan with existing technology/up-gradation of technology. The study was conducted through the collection of secondary data and primary data. The primary data was collected through a preliminary survey, a standardized questionnaire survey of various components of stakeholder’s namely (a) manufacturers and exporters, (b) commission agents/brokers, (c) traders, and(d) artisans. The present study revealed that 58% of manufactures and exporters and 86.38% of craftsmen agreed that the raw material procurement chain starts from the farmer’s field to Middleman then Commission agents and goes to the Craftsman. The majority of stakeholders responded that the middleman is the most important in the supply chain of the wood procurement process. The survey indicated that there is 0-5% incremental cost in every stage of the raw material procurement process and the approximately total incremental cost of wood is between 5-10% due to the existing supply chain. The data analysis related to a sequence of most demanding wood species for wood carving work indicated that 60% of commission agents/brokers responded for the sequence of Mango>Shisham>Poplar>Other, whereas 56.50% manufacturers and others. 83.33% commission agents/brokers, 85.71% manufacturers, and exporters, 97.87% traders, 98.26% craftsman responded negatively to the existence of imported wood species in the Saharanpur wood market.

AbstractThis paper aims to analyze the institutions involved in the conservation management of Litsea leytensis Merr., with the trade name Medang, a wood species preferred by carvers in the Philippines, particularly in Paete, Laguna. The art of wood carving is thriving as a culture and as a wood-based industry for Filipinos, intertwined with natural resource management, where the seeds and wildlings are collected as planting materials for the nationwide greening program, while the wood as raw material is carefully selected from a list of Philippine native species. Litsea leytensis Merr. represents the many endemic trees in the country that need serious attention for conservation because of their continuing decline in habitat and population. The study highlights in situ and ex situ conservation of L. leytensis by institutions in Laguna and Quezon. The results suggest that the rules-in-form guided the institutions in conservation management, and their interactions in the action arena were in downward, upward, and horizontal patterns. The outcomes of their interventions for L. leytensis were relevant, coherent, effective, and efficient, while project impact and sustainability were implied by the participation and community ownership of conservation activities, government policies, and funding.

Handicraft Industry of India is one of the most important sectors for economic, social and cultural point of view. Handicrafts of Gujarat such as Hand embroidery, Pottery work, Bamboo work, Hand-made jewellery, Bead-work, Tie-dye work, Patolas, Woolen blankets and shawls, Tangaliya, Namdhas, Wood carving, Lacquer work, Ivory inlay boxes, Patara making, Zari-work. Pithora painting, Kalamkari, Warli painting, Metal art, Stone carving, etc. are famous worldwide. But the scenario has been changing in the present era of heavy industrialization, technological advancement and globalization. Despite various government and non government programmes, policies and schemes to protect the interest of handicraft artisans, the result is still not satisfactory. There must be proper means, methods and efforts to enhance the income of the artisans so that they can be economically and socially powerful. It is required to have the fair opinion of experts who have been directly or indirectly involved in the field of handicraft promotion programmes. Hence, the experts like government officials, NGO workers, fashion designers, handicraft project coordinators, trainers, etc have been selected as respondents so that we can come to know about grass-root realities and the prevailing facts. For this purpose opinion and suggestions of 40 experts have been collected and analyzed so that appropriate strategies and policies can be designed keeping in view the priority of actions needed.

The art and craft of traditional Malay woodcarving may be forgotten by the modern generation. Consequently, it would gradually become an extinct craft in Malaysia if without effort to save its legacy. This paper aims to uncover traditional woodcarving's art and craft heritage and its visual attributes and craftsmanship in the works of a master craftsman, Allahyarham Wan Mustafa Wan Su, who was actively involved in the craft industry before he passed away in 2019. Traditional Malay wood carving is synonymous with the Malay heritage, especially in the Northern Eastern states of Peninsula Malaysia. Safeguarding of this intangible heritage is crucial after the departure of the master craftsman, who had contributed a lot to the woodcarving industry. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to analyse his works concerning his crafts and styles of craftsmanship. His opinions that served as inferential evidence were obtained through a face-to-face interview conducted within an informal setting. The semi-structured conversation focused on the craft and craftsmanship of woodcarving, with particular emphasis on the visual attributes and technique used. Observation and photographic documentation of his works were necessary measures to complement the interviews. Hence, this paper also addresses the examination of the woodcarvings produced by the master, which exemplifies his distinctive craftsmanship. The research founds that additional values, including artistic and design skills, further enrich the products of the master carver, which not only provide a stimulus for admiration but also serve as valuable references for the present and future generation of woodcarvers. Thus, from this research, the knowledge about woodcarving could spread for further research to ensure the future survival of the craft heritage.

AbstractThe purpose of this project is to be able to find out the design and the performance of wood cutter with PWM based speed regulator driven by AC motor 1 phase capacitor start type with transmission system using v-belt and pulley, covering current, power, voltage, time cutting and costs required. This tool is expected to increase production and quality in souvenirs craft industry and carving craft.The method of making wood cutting device with PWM-based speed regulator driven by AC motor 1 phase capacitor start type with R & D approach (Research and Development). Stages consisting of 1) Needs analysis, 2) device designing, 3) device making, 4) device testing, 5) implentation. The mechanism of this cutting device will produce a motion force which will then move the driving shaft that works principle such as the piston on the vehicle, then will move the saw up and down by using AC motor 1 phase capacitor start which is equipped with PWM-based speed controller, pulley transmission system and v-belt. Results from wood cutter with PWM-based speed regulator. This tool is able to cut wood with a circle from the thickness of 0.5 cm / 88 s, 1 cm / 135s, 2 cm / 180s, and 3 cm / 1560s with good cut quality and with a diameter of 12 cm circle. Then the measured power starts from 255.75 watt-333 watts depending on the thickness of the sawed timber. Keywords :Cutting wood device, PWM, AC Motor 1 fase AbstrakTujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk dapat mengetahui rancang bangun dan mengetahui unjuk kerja dari pemotong kayu dengan pengatur kecepatan berbasis PWM yang digerakkan oleh motor AC 1 fasa jenis kapasitor start dengan sistem transmisi menggunakan sabuk v-belt dan pulley, meliputi arus, daya, tegangan, waktu pemotongan dan biaya yang dibutuhkan. Alat ini diharapkan dapat meningkatkan produksi dan kualitas pada industri kerajinan souvenir dan kerajinan ukir. Metode pembuatan alat pemotong pemotong kayu dengan pengatur kecepatan berbasis PWM yang digerakkan oleh motor AC 1 fasa jenis kapasitor start dengan pendekatan R&D (Research and Development). Tahap-tahap yang terdiri dari 1) analisis kebutuhan, 2) perancangan alat, 3) pembuatan alat, 4) pengujian alat, 5) implentasi. Mekanisme alat pemotong ini akan menghasilkan gaya gerak yang kemudian akan menggerakan poros penggerak yang prinsip kerjanya seperti piston pada kendaraan, kemudian akan menggerakkan gergaji naik turun dengan menggunakan motor AC 1 fasa jenis kapasitor start yang dilengkapi dengan pengendali kecepatan berbasis PWM, sistem transmisi pulley dan sabuk v. Hasil dari pemotong kayu dengan pengatur kecepatan berbasis PWM. Alat ini mampu memotong kayu dengan lingkaran dari mulai ketebalan 0.5 cm/88 s, 1 cm/135s, 2 cm/ 180s, dan 3 cm/1560s dengan kualitas potongan yang halus dan baik dengan diameter lingkaran 12 cm. Kemudian daya yang terukur mulai dari 255.75 watt-333 watt tergantung dengan ketebalan kayu yang digergaji. Kata kunci: Alat pemotong kayu, PWM, motor AC 1 fasa

Abstract 
 From 1995 to 2014, Cibeusi Village was well-known among the people of West Java and Indonesia as a producer of souvenir handicraft products. Tourist souvenirs are one of the factors that contribute to the overall success of tourism in Bandung and West Java. The article aims to explain the results of the region’s notable creative and artistic products that support tourism by raising city icons, potential natural resources, and artisan resources from the local environment as a result of Community Service activities. Some of Bandung's icons are used as inspiration for the creation of souvenir products made from wood waste by wood carving craftsmen in Cibeusi Village. This Community Service activity employs the Participation Action Research (PAR) method and the Penta Helix system approach in its implementation. This activity has resulted in the enrichment of knowledge and technical skills, the development of creativity in the form of design, and the motivation and regeneration of craftsmen following the Covid-19 Pandemic period, which has been relatively inactive for two years and has severely paralyzed the production activities of Cibeusi village craftsmen.
 
 Keywords: Revitalization, Creative industries, Craftsmen, Cibeusi Village
 
 
 Abstrak 
 
 Desa Cibeusi, sejak tahun 1995 hingga tahun 2014 banyak dikenal masyarakat Jawa Barat sebagai penghasil produk kerajinan cinderamata. Produk-produk cinderamata wisata menjadi salah satu aspek yang sangat mendukung terhadap kelengkapan pariwisata di wilayah Bandung dan Jawa Barat. Artikel ini merupakan salah satu hasil dari kegiatan pengabdian pada masyarakat yang memiliki tujuan menghasilkan produk kreatif seni unggulan daerah yang mendukung pariwisata dengan mengangkat ikon kota, potensi sumber daya alam dan sumber daya perajin dari lingkungan setempat. Beberapa ikon kota Bandung dijadikan sumber inspirasi palikasi produk cinderamata khas Jawa Barat yang dapat dikerjakan oleh para perajin ukir kayu desa Cibeusi. Kegiatan PpM ini menggunakan metode Participation Action Research (PAR), dengan pendekatan sistem Penta Helix. Hasil kegiatan ini mencakup pengayaan pengetahuan dan ketrampilan teksnik, pengembangan kreativitas bentuk desain, serta motivasi dan kaderisasi para perajin pasca masa Pandemic Covid 19 yang relatun dua tahun mengalami kefakuman yang sangat melumpuhkan aktivitas produksi perajin desa Cibeusi. 
 
 Kata kunci: Revitalisasi, Industri kreatif, Perajin Kriya, Desa Cibeusi

Introduction This article explores the phenomenon of the Creative City in the context of Aberdeen, Scotland’s third-largest city. The common perception of Aberdeen is likely to revolve around its status, for the last 50 years, as Europe’s Oil & Gas Capital. However, for more than a decade Aberdeen’s city planners have sought to incorporate creativity and culture in their placemaking. The most visible expression of this was the unsuccessful 2013 bid to become the UK City of Culture 2017 (CoC), which was referred to as a “reality check” by Marie Boulton (BBC), the councillor charged with the culture portfolio. This article reviews and appraises subsequent policies and actions. It looks at Aberdeen’s history and its current Cultural Strategy and how events have supported or inhibited the reimagining of Aberdeen as a Creative and Cultural City. Landry’s “Lineages of the Creative City” tracks the rise in interest around culture and creative sectors and highlights that there is more to the creative city than economic growth, positing that a creative city is a holistic environment in which “ordinary people can make the extra-ordinary happen” (2). Comunian develops Landry’s concept of hard (infrastructural) assets and soft (people and activity) assets by introducing Complexity Theory to examine the interactions between the two. Comunian argues that a city should be understood as a complex adaptive system (CAS) and that the interconnectivity of consumption and production, micro and macro, and networks of actors must be incorporated into policy thinking. Creating physical assets without regard to what happens in and around them does not build a creative city. Aberdeen: Context and History Important when considering Aberdeen is its remoteness: 66 miles north of its closest city neighbour Dundee, 90 miles north of Edinburgh and 125 miles north-east of Glasgow. For Aberdonians travel is a necessity to connect with other cultural centres whether in Scotland, the UK, Europe, or further afield, making Aberdeen’s nearly 900-year-old port a key asset. Sitting at the mouth of the River Dee, which marks Aberdeen’s southern boundary, this key transport hub has long been central to Aberdeen’s culture giving rise to two of the oldest established businesses in the UK: the Port of Aberdeen (1136) and the Shore Porter’s Society (1498). Fishing and trade with Europe thrived and connections with the continent led to the establishment of Aberdeen’s first university: King’s College (Scotland’s third and the UK’s fifth) in 1495. A second, Marischal College, was established in 1593, joining forces with King’s in 1860 to become the University of Aberdeen. The building created in 1837 to house Marischal College is the second-largest granite building in the world (VisitAberdeenshire, Marischal) and now home to Aberdeen City Council (ACC). Robert Gordon University (RGU), awarded university status in 1992, grew out of an institution established in 1729 (RGU, Our History); this period marked the dawning of the Scottish Enlightenment when Aberdeen’s Wise Club were key to an intellectual discourse that changed western thinking (RSA). Gray’s School of Art, now part of RGU, was established in 1885, at the same time as Aberdeen Art Gallery which holds a collection of national significance (ACC, Art Gallery). Aberdeen’s northern boundary is marked by its second river, the River Don, which has also contributed to the city’s history, economics, and culture. For centuries, paper and woollen mills, including the world-famous Crombie, thrived on its banks and textile production was the city’s largest employer, with one mill employing 3,000 staff (P&J, Broadford). While the city and surrounds have been home to notable creatives, including writers Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Lord Byron; musicians Annie Lennox, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and Emeli Sandé; fashion designer Bill Gibb and dancer Michael Clark, it has struggled to attract and retain creative talent, and there is a familiar exodus of art school graduates to the larger and more accepted creative cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London. In 2013, at the time of the CoC bid, ACC recognised that creative industries graduates leaving the city was “a serious issue” (ACC, Cultural Mapping 1). The City of Culture Bid This recognition came at a time when ACC acknowledged that Aberdeen, with already low unemployment, required an influx of workforce. An ACC document (Cultural Mapping) cites Richard Florida’s proposal that a strong cultural offer attracts skilled workers to a city, adding that they “look for a lively cultural life in their choice of location” (7) and quoting an oil executive: “our poor city centre is often cited as a major obstacle in attracting people” (7). Changing the image of the city to attract new residents appears to have been a key motivation for the CoC bid. The CoC assessor noted this in their review of the bid, citing a report that 120,000 recruits were required in the city and agreeing that Aberdeen needed to “change perceptions of the city to retain and attract talent” (Regeneris 1). Aberdeen’s CoC bid was rejected at the first shortlisting stage, with feedback that the artistic vision “lacked depth” and “that cultural activity in the city was weaker than in several other bidding areas” (Regeneris 3). In an exploration of the bidding process, McGillivray and Turner highlight two factors which link to other concerns and feedback about the bid. Firstly, they compare Aberdeen’s choice of a Bid Manager from the business community with Paisley’s choice of one from their local arts sector in their bid for CoC 2021, which was successful in being shortlisted, highlighting different motivators behind the bids. Secondly, Aberdeen secured a bid team member from “Pafos’s bid to be 2017 European Capital of Culture (ECC), who subsequently played an important role” for Kalamata’s 2021 ECC bid (41), showing Aberdeen’s reluctance to develop local talent. A Decade of Investment ACC responded to the “reality check” with a series of investments in the hard assets of the city. Major refurbishment of two key buildings, the Music Hall and the Art Gallery, caused them both to be closed for several years, significantly diminishing the cultural offer in the city. The Music Hall re-opened in 2018 (Creative Scotland) and the Art Gallery in 2019 (McLean). In 2021, the extended and updated Art Gallery was named “Scotland’s building of the year” by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) (Museums Association). Concurrent with this was the development of “Europe’s largest new events complex, TECA [now P&J live] part financed through a £370 million stock market bond issue” (InvestAberdeen). Another cultural asset of the city which has been undergoing a facelift since 2019 is Union Terrace Gardens (UTG), the green heart of the city centre, gifted to the public in 1877. The development of this asset has had a chequered history. In 2008 it had been awarded “funding from Aberdeen Council (£3 million), the Scottish Arts Council (£4.3M) and Scottish Enterprise (£2 million)” (Aberdeenvoice) to realise a new multi-disciplinary contemporary art centre to be called ‘Northern Light’ and housed in a purpose-designed building (Brizac Gonzalez). The project, led by Peacock Visual arts, a printmaking centre of excellence and gallery founded in 1974, had secured planning permission. It would host Peacock Visual Arts, City Moves dance company, and the ACC arts development team. It echoed similar cultural partnership approaches, such as Dundee Contemporary Arts, although notably without involvement from the universities. Three months later, a counterbid to radically re-think UTG as a vast new city square was proposed by oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood, who backed the proposal with £50 million of his own funds, requiring matching finance by the city and ownership of the Gardens passing to private hands. Resistance to these plans came from ‘Friends of UTG’, and a public consultation was held. ACC voted to adopt Wood’s plans and drop those of Peacock, but a change of administration in the local authority overturned Wood’s plans in August 2012. A significant portion of the funding granted to the Northern Lights project was consumed in the heated public debate and the remainder was lost to the city, as was the Wood money, providing a highly charged backdrop to the CoC bid and an unfortunate divide created between the business and culture sectors that is arguably still discernible in the city today. According to the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce (AGCC) 2022 Investment Tracker, the nearly complete UTG transformation has cost £28.3m. The AGCC trackers since 2016 provide a useful reference for a wider view of investment in the region over this period. During this period, ACC commissioned two festivals: Spectra (ACC, Culture Programme 5), a festival of light curated by a Manchester-based organisation, and NuArt (VisitAberdeenshire, Nuart), a street-art festival curated by a Stavanger-based team. Both festivals deliver large-scale public spectacles but have little impact on the development of the cultural sector in the city. The drivers of footfall, income generation, and tourism are key motivators for these festivals, supporting a prevailing narrative of cultural consumption over cultural production in the city, despite Regeneris’s concerns about “importing of cultural activity, which might not leave behind a cultural sector” (1) and ACC’s own published concerns (ACC, Cultural Mapping). It is important to note that in 2014 the oil and gas industry that brought prosperity to Aberdeen was severely impacted upon by a drop in price and revenue. Many jobs were lost, people left the city, and housing prices, previously inflated, fell dramatically. The attention of the authorities turned to economic regeneration of the city and in 2015, the Aberdeen City Region Deal (UK Gov), bringing £250m to the region, (REF) was signed between the UK Government, Scottish Government, ACC, Aberdeenshire Council, and Opportunity North East (ONE). ONE “is the private sector leader and catalyst for economic diversification in northeast Scotland” with board members from industry, enterprise, AGCC, the councils, the universities, the harbour, and NHS. ONE focuses on five ‘pillars’: Digital Technology, Energy, Life Sciences, Tourism and Food, and Drink & Agriculture. A Decade of Creativity and Cultural Development Aberdeen’s ambitious cultural capital infrastructure spending of the last decade has seen the creation or refurbishment of significant hard assets in the city. The development of people (Cohendet et al.), the soft assets that Landry and Comunian agree are essential to the complex system that is a Creative City, has also seen development over this time. In 2014, RGU commissioned a review of Creative Industries in the North East of Scotland. The report notes that: the cultural sector in the region is strong at the grass roots end, but less so the higher up the scale it goes. There is no producing theatre, and no signature events or assets, although the revitalised art gallery might provide an opportunity to address this. (Ekos 2) This was followed by an international conference at which other energy cities (Calgary, Houston, Perth, and Oslo) presented their culture strategies, providing useful comparators for Aberdeen and a second RGU report (RGU, Regenerating). A third report, (RGU, New North), set out a vision for the region’s cultural future. The reports recommend strategy, leadership, and vision in the development of the cultural and creative soft assets of the region and the need to create conditions for graduate and practitioner retention. Also in 2014, RGU initiated the Look Again Festival of Art and Design, an annual festival to address a gap in the city festival roster and meet a need arising from the closure of both Art Gallery and Music Hall for refurbishment. The first festival took place in 2015 with a weekend-long public event showcasing a series of thought-provoking installations and events which demonstrated a clear appetite amongst the public and partner organisations for more activity of this type. Between 2015 and 2019, the festivals grew from strength to strength and increased in size and ambition, “carving out a new creative community in Aberdeen” (Williams). The 2019 festival involved 119 creatives, the majority from the region, and created 62 paid opportunities. Look Again expanded and became a constant presence and vehicle for sectoral and skills development, supporting students, graduates, volunteers, and new collectives, focussing on social capital and the intangible creative community assets in the city. Creative practitioners were supported with a series of programmes such as ‘Cultivate’ (2018), funded by Creative Scotland, that provided mentoring to strengthen business sustainability and networking events to improve connectivity in the sector. Cultivate also provided an opportunity to undertake further research, and a survey of over 100 small and micro creative businesses presented a view of a tenacious sector, committed to staying in the region but lacking structured and tailored support. The project report noted consistent messages about the need for “a louder voice for the sector” and concluded that further work was needed to better profile, support, and connect the sector (Cultivate 15). Comunian’s work supports this call to give greater consideration to the interplay of the agents in the creation of a strong creative city. In 2019, Look Again’s evolving role in creative sector skills development was recognised when they became part of Gray’s School of Art. A partnership quickly formed with the newly created Entrepreneurship & Innovation Group (EIG), a team formed within RGU to drive entrepreneurial thinking across all schools of the university. Together, Look Again and EIG ran a Creative Accelerator which became a prototype for a validated Creative Entrepreneurship post-graduate short-course that has supported around 120 creative graduates and practitioners with tailored business skills, contextual thinking, and extended peer networks. Meanwhile, another Look Again collaboration with the newly re-opened Art Gallery provided pop-up design events that many of these small businesses took part in, connecting them with public-facing retail opportunities and, for some, acquisitions for the Gallery’s collection. Culture Aberdeen During this time and after a period of public consultation, a new collaborative group, ‘Culture Aberdeen’, emerged. Membership of the group includes many regional cultural and arts organisations including ACC, both universities, and Aberdeen Civic Forum, which seeks “to bring the voice and views of all communities to every possible level of decision making”. The group subsequently published Culture Aberdeen: A Culture Strategy for the City of Aberdeen 2018-2028, which was endorsed by ACC in their first Cultural Investment Impact Report. The strategy sets out a series of cultural ambitions including a bid to become a UNESCO Creative City, establishing an Aberdeen Biennale, and becoming a national centre of excellence for an (unspecified) artform. This collaboration brings a uniting vision to Aberdeen’s creative activity and places of culture and presents a more compelling identity as a creative city. It also begins to map to Comunian’s concept of CAS and establish a framework for realising the potential of hard assets by strategically envisioning and leading the agents, activities, and development of the city’s creative sector. Challenges for Delivery of the Strategy In delivering a strategy based on collaborative efforts, it is essential to have shared goals and strong governance “based on characteristics such as trust, shared values, implicit standards, collaboration, and consultation” (Butcher et al. 77). Situations like Aberdeen’s tentative bid for UNESO Creative City status, which began in late 2018 but was halted in early 2019, suggest that shared goals and clear governance may not be in place. Wishing to join other UNESCO cities across Scotland – Edinburgh (Literature), Glasgow (Music), and Dundee (Design) –, Aberdeen had set its sights on ‘City of Craft and Folk Art’; that title subsequently went to the city of Perth in 2022, limiting Aberdeen’s future hopes of securing UNESCO Creative City status. In 2022, Aberdeen is nearly halfway through its strategy timeline; to achieve its vision by 2028, the leadership recommended in 2014 needs to be established and given proper authority and backing. Covid-19 has been particularly disruptive for the strategy, arriving early in its implementation and lasting for two years during which collaborators have, understandably, had to attend to core business and crisis management. Picking up the threads of collaborative activity at the same time as ‘returning to normal’ will be challenging. The financial impacts of Covid-19 have also hit arts organisations and local councils particularly hard, creating survival challenges that displace future investment plans. The devastation caused to city centres across the UK as shops close and retail moves online is keenly felt in Aberdeen. Yet the pandemic has also seen the growth of pockets of new activity. With falling demand for business space resulting in more ‘meanwhile spaces’ and lower rents, practitioners have been able to access or secure spaces that were previously prohibitive. Deemouth Artists’ Studios, an artist-run initiative, has provided a vital locus of support and connectivity for creatives in the city, doubling in size over the past two years. ‘We Are Here Scotland’ arrived in response to the resurgent Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, as a Community Interest Company initiated in Aberdeen to support black creatives and creatives of colour across Scotland. Initiatives such as EP Spaces that re-purpose empty offices as studios have created a resource, albeit precarious, for scores of recent creative graduates, supporting an emerging creative community. The consequences of the pandemic for the decade of cultural investment and creative development are yet to be understood, but disrupted strategies are hard to rekindle. Culture Aberdeen’s ability to resolve or influence these factors is unclear. As a voluntary network without a cohesive role or formal status in the provision of culture in the city, and little funding and few staff to advocate on its behalf, it probably lacks the strength of leadership required. Nevertheless, work is underway to refresh the strategy in response to the post-pandemic needs of the city and culture, and the Creative Industries more broadly, are, once again, beginning to be seen as part of the solution to recovery as new narratives emerge. There is a strong desire in the city’s and region’s creative communities to nurture, realise, and retain emerging talent to authentically enrich the city’s culture. Since the 2013 failed CoC bid, much has been done to rekindle confidence and shine a light on the rich creative culture that exists in Aberdeen, and creative communities are gaining a new voice for their work. Considerable investment has been made in hard cultural assets; however, continued investment in and commitment to the region’s soft assets is needed. This is the only way to ensure the sustainable local network of activity and practice that can provide the vibrant creative city atmosphere for which Aberdeen has the potential. References Aberdeen Civic Forum. 4 June 2022 <https://civicforumaberdeen.com/about/>. Aberdeen City Region Deal. 5 June 2022 <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/city-deal-aberdeen-city-region>. Aberdeen Timelines. 24 Feb. 2022 <https://localhistories.org/a-timeline-of-aberdeen/> and <http://www.visitoruk.com/Aberdeen/13th-century-T339.html>. ACC. "Aberdeen Art Gallery." 19 Mar. 2022 <https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/AAGM/plan-your-visit/aberdeen-art-gallery>. ———. “Aberdeen City Council Investment in Culture; 2018/19 Impacts.” 19 Mar. 2022 <https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2019-12/Aberdeen%20City%20Culture%20Report%202019%20.pdf>. ———. “Aberdeen City Council Cultural Mapping of Aberdeen; Final Report, July 2013.” 3 June 2022 <https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2020-10/FOI-19-1479%20-%20Cultural%20Strategy.pdf>. ———. “Culture Programme 2014 – 2019.” 2014. 6 June 2022 <ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL>. AGCC. 2022 Tracker. 3 Jun. 2022 <https://www.agcc.co.uk/images/Investment-Tracker-2022-Online-final.pdf>. ———. 2019 Tracker. 3 Jun. 2022 <https://www.agcc.co.uk/files/investment-tracker-2019.pdf>. ———. 2018 Tracker. 3 Jun. 2022 <https://www.agcc.co.uk/files/Investment-Tracker-Sep-2018.pdf>. ———. 2017 Tracker. 3 Jun. 2022 <https://www.agcc.co.uk/files/Investment-Tracker-Sep-2017.pdf>. ———. 2016 Tracker. 3 Jun. 2022 <https://www.agcc.co.uk/files/Investment-Tracker-Nov-2016.pdf>. BBC. “Aberdeen City of Culture Bid ‘Lacked Vision’.” 2013. 10 May 2022 <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-23371660>. Brisac Gonzalez. 6 June 2022 <http://www.brisacgonzalez.com/aberdeen1>. Butcher, John R., David J. Gilchrist, John Phillimore, and John Wanna. “Attributes of Effective Collaboration: Insights from Five Case Studies in Australia and New Zealand.” Policy Design and Practice 2.1 (2019). 19 Mar. 2022 <https://doi.org/10.1080/25741292.2018.1561815>. Cohendet, Patrick, David Grandadam, and Laurent Simon. “The Anatomy of the Creative City.” Industry and Innovation 17.1 (2010). 19 Mar. 2022 <https://doi.org/10.1080/13662710903573869>. Comunian, Roberta. “Rethinking the Creative City: The Role of Complexity, Networks and Interactions in the Urban Creative Economy.” Urban Studies 48.6 (2011) 1157-1179. Creative Scotland. “Cultivate: Look Again’s Creative Industries Development Programme in North East Scotland.” 24 Feb. 2022 <https://www.creativescotland.com/explore/read/stories/features/2019/cultivate-look-agains-creative-industries-development-programme-in-north-east-scotland>. ———. “Restored and Re-Imagined Aberdeen Music Hall to Open to the Public in December.” 2018. 19 Mar. 2022 <https://www.creativescotland.com/what-we-do/latest-news/archive/2018/10/restored-and-re-imagined-aberdeen-music-hall-to-open-to-the-public-in-december>. Cultivate. “Cultivate: Creative Industries in the North East.” 10 May 2022 <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bd1cecc8155121e0614281b/t/5ef49de0036c70345dabc378/1593089519746/ CULTIVATE_project+report+2018.pdf>. Culture Aberdeen. “A Cultural Strategy for the City of Aberdeen 2018-2028.” 24 Feb. 2022 <https://www.cultureaberdeen.org/>. Deemouth Artist Studios. 5 June 2022 <https://www.deemouthartiststudios.co.uk/>. Ekos. “Creative Industries in North East Scotland.”. 2014. 10 May 2022 <https://www3.rgu.ac.uk/download.cfm?downloadfile=6117EE60-FB84-11E3-80660050568D00BF&typename=dmFile&fieldname=filename>. EP Spaces. 5 June 2022 <https://www.craftscotland.org/community/opportunity/low-cost-studio-spaces-ep-spaces--978>. First Group. The First Group Timeline. 24 Feb. 2022 <https://www.firstgroupplc.com/about-firstgroup/our-history.aspx>. Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books 2002. Investaberdeen. “The UK’s Most Sustainable Venue.” 24 Feb. 2022 <https://investaberdeen.co.uk/flagship-projects/the-event-complex-aberdeen-(teca)>. Landry, Charles. “Lineages of the Creative City.” 24 Feb. 2022 <http://charleslandry.com/panel/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/03/Lineages-of-the-Creative-City.pdf>. McGillivray, David, and Turner, Daniel. Event Bidding: Politics, Persuasion and Resistance. Abingdon: Routledge 2018. McLean, Pauline. “Aberdeen Art Gallery Reopens after £34.6m Revamp.” BBC News, 2019. 24 Feb. 2022 <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-50263849>. Museums Association. “Aberdeen Art Gallery Wins Architecture Award.” 24 Feb. 2022 <https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2021/11/aberdeen-art-gallery-wins-architecture-award/#>. Opportunity North East (ONE). 5 June 2022 <Who We Are | ONE (opportunitynortheast.com)>. P&J. “12 Pictures Show the ‘Golden Age’ of Broadford Works.” 2015. 24 Feb. 2022 <https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/591034/12-memorable-pictures-rolling-back-through-the-years-of-the-broadford-works/>. ———. History. 10 May 2022 <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/aberdeen-press-and-journal>. Peacock Visual Arts. 6 June 2022 <https://peacock.studio/>. Port of Aberdeen. 24 Feb. 2022 <http://aberdeen-harbour.co.uk/about-us/history/#:~:text=Aberdeen%20Harbour%20was%20established%20in,has%20spanned%20almost%20900%20years>. Regeneris Consulting. “Aberdeen: Initial Bid for UK City of Culture – Feedback Points: UK City of Culture 2017.” 3 June 2022 <https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/297184/response/736087/attach/3/2017%20pt%201.pdf>. RGU. “Creative Accelerator Programme.” 2019. 10 May 2022 <https://www.rgu.ac.uk/news/news-2019/1902-rgu-launches-accelerator-to-support-next-generation-of-creatives>. ———. "Our History." 24 Feb. 2022 <https://www.rgu.ac.uk/about/our-history>. ———. “Creating a New North.” 2014. 10 May 2022 <https://www3.rgu.ac.uk/file/creating-a-new-north-pdf-1-7-mb>. ———. “Regenerating Aberdeen: A Vision for a Thriving and Vibrant City Centre.” 2014. 10 May 2022 <https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/248420/regenerating-aberdeen-a-vision-for-a-thriving-and-vibrant-city-centre>. RSA. “The Scottish Enlightenment and the Aberdeen Wise Club.” 2020. 24 Feb. 2022 <The Scottish Enlightenment and the Aberdeen Wise Club - RSA (thersa.org)>. Scottish Government. Creative Industries Policy Statement. 2019. 10 May 2022 <https://www.gov.scot/publications/policy-statement-creative-industries/>. Shore Porters Society. 24 Feb. 2022 <https://www.scotland.org/about-scotland/facts/worlds-oldest-transport-business>. UK Government. “City Deal: Aberdeen City Region.” 6 June 2022 <https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2F government%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2F file%2F576627%2FAberdeen_City_Region_Deal_.docx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK>. University of Aberdeen. 3 June 2022 <https://www.abdn.ac.uk/about/history/our-history.php>. Visit Aberdeenshire. "Marischal College." 5 June 2022 <https://www.visitabdn.com/listing/marischal-college#:~:text=Marischal%20College%20is%20said%20to,more%20austere%20architecture%20(1837)>. Visit Aberdeenshire. "NuArt Aberdeen." 5 June 2022 <https://www.visitabdn.com/listing/nuart-aberdeen#:~:text=Originating%20in%20Norway%20in%202001,public%20art%20event%20to%20Aberdeen>. Williams, Eliza. “How the Look Again Festival Is Carving Out a New Creative Community in Aberdeen.” Creative Review (2019). 3 June 2022 <https://www.creativereview.co.uk/how-the-look-again-festival-is-carving-out-a-new-creative-community-in-aberdeen/>.


 
 
 From elephants to ABBA fans, silicon to hormone, the following discussion uses a new research method to look at printed text, motion pictures and a teenage rebel icon. If by ‘print’ we mean a mechanically reproduced impression of a cultural symbol in a medium, then printing has been with us since before microdot security prints were painted onto cars, before voice prints, laser prints, network servers, record pressings, motion picture prints, photo prints, colour woodblock prints, before books, textile prints, and footprints. If we accept that higher mammals such as elephants have a learnt culture, then it is possible to extend a definition of printing beyond Homo sapiens. Poole reports that elephants mechanically trumpet reproductions of human car horns into the air surrounding their society. If nothing else, this cross-species, cross-cultural reproduction, this ‘ability to mimic’ is ‘another sign of their intelligence’. Observation of child development suggests that the first significant meaningful ‘impression’ made on the human mind is that of the face of the child’s nurturer – usually its mother. The baby’s mind forms an ‘impression’, a mental print, a reproducible memory data set, of the nurturer’s face, voice, smell, touch, etc. That face is itself a cultural construct: hair style, makeup, piercings, tattoos, ornaments, nutrition-influenced skin and smell, perfume, temperature and voice. A mentally reproducible pattern of a unique face is formed in the mind, and we use that pattern to distinguish ‘familiar and strange’ in our expanding social orbit. The social relations of patterned memory – of imprinting – determine the extent to which we explore our world (armed with research aids such as text print) or whether we turn to violence or self-harm (Bretherton). While our cultural artifacts (such as vellum maps or networked voice message servers) bravely extend our significant patterns into the social world and the traversed environment, it is useful to remember that such artifacts, including print, are themselves understood by our original pattern-reproduction and impression system – the human mind, developed in childhood. The ‘print’ is brought to mind differently in different discourses. For a reader, a ‘print’ is a book, a memo or a broadsheet, whether it is the Indian Buddhist Sanskrit texts ordered to be printed in 593 AD by the Chinese emperor Sui Wen-ti (Silk Road) or the US Defense Department memo authorizing lower ranks to torture the prisoners taken by the Bush administration (Sanchez, cited in ABC). Other fields see prints differently. For a musician, a ‘print’ may be the sheet music which spread classical and popular music around the world; it may be a ‘record’ (as in a ‘recording’ session), where sound is impressed to wax, vinyl, charged silicon particles, or the alloys (Smith, “Elpida”) of an mp3 file. For the fine artist, a ‘print’ may be any mechanically reproduced two-dimensional (or embossed) impression of a significant image in media from paper to metal, textile to ceramics. ‘Print’ embraces the Japanese Ukiyo-e colour prints of Utamaro, the company logos that wink from credit card holographs, the early photographs of Talbot, and the textured patterns printed into neolithic ceramics. Computer hardware engineers print computational circuits. Homicide detectives investigate both sweaty finger prints and the repeated, mechanical gaits of suspects, which are imprinted into the earthy medium of a crime scene. For film makers, the ‘print’ may refer to a photochemical polyester reproduction of a motion picture artifact (the reel of ‘celluloid’), or a DVD laser disc impression of the same film. Textualist discourse has borrowed the word ‘print’ to mean ‘text’, so ‘print’ may also refer to the text elements within the vision track of a motion picture: the film’s opening titles, or texts photographed inside the motion picture story such as the sword-cut ‘Z’ in Zorro (Niblo). Before the invention of writing, the main mechanically reproduced impression of a cultural symbol in a medium was the humble footprint in the sand. The footprints of tribes – and neighbouring animals – cut tracks in the vegetation and the soil. Printed tracks led towards food, water, shelter, enemies and friends. Having learnt to pattern certain faces into their mental world, children grew older and were educated in the footprints of family and clan, enemies and food. The continuous impression of significant foot traffic in the medium of the earth produced the lines between significant nodes of prewriting and pre-wheeled cultures. These tracks were married to audio tracks, such as the song lines of the Australian Aborigines, or the ballads of tramping culture everywhere. A typical tramping song has the line, ‘There’s a track winding back to an old-fashion shack along the road to Gundagai,’ (O’Hagan), although this colonial-style song was actually written for radio and became an international hit on the airwaves, rather than the tramping trails. The printed tracks impressed by these cultural flows are highly contested and diverse, and their foot prints are woven into our very language. The names for printed tracks have entered our shared memory from the intersection of many cultures: ‘Track’ is a Germanic word entering English usage comparatively late (1470) and now used mainly in audio visual cultural reproduction, as in ‘soundtrack’. ‘Trek’ is a Dutch word for ‘track’ now used mainly by ecotourists and science fiction fans. ‘Learn’ is a Proto-Indo-European word: the verb ‘learn’ originally meant ‘to find a track’ back in the days when ‘learn’ had a noun form which meant ‘the sole of the foot’. ‘Tract’ and ‘trace’ are Latin words entering English print usage before 1374 and now used mainly in religious, and electronic surveillance, cultural reproduction. ‘Trench’ in 1386 was a French path cut through a forest. ‘Sagacity’ in English print in 1548 was originally the ability to track or hunt, in Proto-Indo-European cultures. ‘Career’ (in English before 1534) was the print made by chariots in ancient Rome. ‘Sleuth’ (1200) was a Norse noun for a track. ‘Investigation’ (1436) was Latin for studying a footprint (Harper). The arrival of symbolic writing scratched on caves, hearth stones, and trees (the original meaning of ‘book’ is tree), brought extremely limited text education close to home. Then, with baked clay tablets, incised boards, slate, bamboo, tortoise shell, cast metal, bark cloth, textiles, vellum, and – later – paper, a portability came to text that allowed any culture to venture away from known ‘foot’ paths with a reduction in the risk of becoming lost and perishing. So began the world of maps, memos, bills of sale, philosophic treatises and epic mythologies. Some of this was printed, such as the mechanical reproduction of coins, but the fine handwriting required of long, extended, portable texts could not be printed until the invention of paper in China about 2000 years ago. Compared to lithic architecture and genes, portable text is a fragile medium, and little survives from the millennia of its innovators. The printing of large non-text designs onto bark-paper and textiles began in neolithic times, but Sui Wen-ti’s imperial memo of 593 AD gives us the earliest written date for printed books, although we can assume they had been published for many years previously. The printed book was a combination of Indian philosophic thought, wood carving, ink chemistry and Chinese paper. The earliest surviving fragment of paper-print technology is ‘Mantras of the Dharani Sutra’, a Buddhist scripture written in the Sanskrit language of the Indian subcontinent, unearthed at an early Tang Dynasty site in Xian, China – making the fragment a veteran piece of printing, in the sense that Sanskrit books had been in print for at least a century by the early Tang Dynasty (Chinese Graphic Arts Net). At first, paper books were printed with page-size carved wooden boards. Five hundred years later, Pi Sheng (c.1041) baked individual reusable ceramic characters in a fire and invented the durable moveable type of modern printing (Silk Road 2000). Abandoning carved wooden tablets, the ‘digitizing’ of Chinese moveable type sped up the production of printed texts. In turn, Pi Sheng’s flexible, rapid, sustainable printing process expanded the political-cultural impact of the literati in Asian society. Digitized block text on paper produced a bureaucratic, literate elite so powerful in Asia that Louis XVI of France copied China’s print-based Confucian system of political authority for his own empire, and so began the rise of the examined public university systems, and the civil service systems, of most European states (Watson, Visions). By reason of its durability, its rapid mechanical reproduction, its culturally agreed signs, literate readership, revered authorship, shared ideology, and distributed portability, a ‘print’ can be a powerful cultural network which builds and expands empires. But print also attacks and destroys empires. A case in point is the Spanish conquest of Aztec America: The Aztecs had immense libraries of American literature on bark-cloth scrolls, a technology which predated paper. These libraries were wiped out by the invading Spanish, who carried a different book before them (Ewins). In the industrial age, the printing press and the gun were seen as the weapons of rebellions everywhere. In 1776, American rebels staffed their ‘Homeland Security’ units with paper makers, knowing that defeating the English would be based on printed and written documents (Hahn). Mao Zedong was a book librarian; Mao said political power came out of the barrel of a gun, but Mao himself came out of a library. With the spread of wireless networked servers, political ferment comes out of the barrel of the cell phone and the internet chat room these days. Witness the cell phone displays of a plane hitting a tower that appear immediately after 9/11 in the Middle East, or witness the show trials of a few US and UK lower ranks who published prints of their torturing activities onto the internet: only lower ranks who published prints were arrested or tried. The control of secure servers and satellites is the new press. These days, we live in a global library of burning books – ‘burning’ in the sense that ‘print’ is now a charged silicon medium (Smith, “Intel”) which is usually made readable by connecting the chip to nuclear reactors and petrochemically-fired power stations. World resources burn as we read our screens. Men, women, children burn too, as we watch our infotainment news in comfort while ‘their’ flickering dead faces are printed in our broadcast hearths. The print we watch is not the living; it is the voodoo of the living in the blackout behind the camera, engaging the blood sacrifice of the tormented and the unfortunate. Internet texts are also ‘on fire’ in the third sense of their fragility and instability as a medium: data bases regularly ‘print’ fail-safe copies in an attempt to postpone the inevitable mechanical, chemical and electrical failure that awaits all electronic media in time. Print defines a moral position for everyone. In reporting conflict, in deciding to go to press or censor, any ‘print’ cannot avoid an ethical context, starting with the fact that there is a difference in power between print maker, armed perpetrators, the weak, the peaceful, the publisher, and the viewer. So many human factors attend a text, video or voice ‘print’: its very existence as an aesthetic object, even before publication and reception, speaks of unbalanced, and therefore dynamic, power relationships. For example, Graham Greene departed unscathed from all the highly dangerous battlefields he entered as a novelist: Riot-torn Germany, London Blitz, Belgian Congo, Voodoo Haiti, Vietnam, Panama, Reagan’s Washington, and mafia Europe. His texts are peopled with the injustices of the less fortunate of the twentieth century, while he himself was a member of the fortunate (if not happy) elite, as is anyone today who has the luxury of time to read Greene’s works for pleasure. Ethically a member of London and Paris’ colonizers, Greene’s best writing still electrifies, perhaps partly because he was in the same line of fire as the victims he shared bread with. In fact, Greene hoped daily that he would escape from the dreadful conflicts he fictionalized via a body bag or an urn of ashes (see Sherry). In reading an author’s biography we have one window on the ethical dimensions of authority and print. If a print’s aesthetics are sometimes enduring, its ethical relationships are always mutable. Take the stylized logo of a running athlete: four limbs bent in a rotation of action. This dynamic icon has symbolized ‘good health’ in Hindu and Buddhist culture, from Madras to Tokyo, for thousands of years. The cross of bent limbs was borrowed for the militarized health programs of 1930s Germany, and, because of what was only a brief, recent, isolated yet monstrously horrific segment of its history in print, the bent-limbed swastika is now a vilified symbol in the West. The sign remains ‘impressed’ differently on traditional Eastern culture, and without the taint of Nazism. Dramatic prints are emotionally charged because, in depicting Homo sapiens in danger, or passionately in love, they elicit a hormonal reaction from the reader, the viewer, or the audience. The type of emotions triggered by a print vary across the whole gamut of human chemistry. A recent study of three genres of motion picture prints shows a marked differences in the hormonal responses of men compared to women when viewing a romance, an actioner, and a documentary (see Schultheiss, Wirth, and Stanton). Society is biochemically diverse in its engagement with printed culture, which raises questions about equality in the arts. Motion picture prints probably comprise around one third of internet traffic, in the form of stolen digitized movie files pirated across the globe via peer-to-peer file transfer networks (p2p), and burnt as DVD laser prints (BBC). There is also a US 40 billion dollar per annum legitimate commerce in DVD laser pressings (Grassl), which would suggest an US 80 billion per annum world total in legitimate laser disc print culture. The actively screen literate, or the ‘sliterati’ as I prefer to call them, research this world of motion picture prints via their peers, their internet information channels, their television programming, and their web forums. Most of this activity occurs outside the ambit of universities and schools. One large site of sliterate (screen literate) practice outside most schooling and official research is the net of online forums at imdb.com (International Movie Data Base). Imdb.com ‘prints’ about 25,000,000 top pages per month to client browsers. Hundreds of sliterati forums are located at imdb, including a forum for the Australian movie, Muriel’s Wedding (Hogan). Ten years after the release of Muriel’s Wedding, young people who are concerned with victimization and bullying still log on to http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0110598/board/> and put their thoughts into print: I still feel so bad for Muriel in the beginning of the movie, when the girls ‘dump’ her, and how much the poor girl cried and cried! Those girls were such biartches…I love how they got their comeuppance! bunniesormaybemidgets’s comment is typical of the current discussion. Muriel’s Wedding was a very popular film in its first cinema edition in Australia and elsewhere. About 30% of the entire over-14 Australian population went to see this photochemical polyester print in the cinemas on its first release. A decade on, the distributors printed a DVD laser disc edition. The story concerns Muriel (played by Toni Collette), the unemployed daughter of a corrupt, ‘police state’ politician. Muriel is bullied by her peers and she withdraws into a fantasy world, deluding herself that a white wedding will rescue her from the torments of her blighted life. Through theft and deceit (the modus operandi of her father) Muriel escapes to the entertainment industry and finds a ‘wicked’ girlfriend mentor. From a rebellious position of stubborn independence, Muriel plays out her fantasy. She gets her white wedding, before seeing both her father and her new married life as hollow shams which have goaded her abandoned mother to suicide. Redefining her life as a ‘game’ and assuming responsibility for her independence, Muriel turns her back on the mainstream, image-conscious, female gang of her oppressed youth. Muriel leaves the story, having rekindled her friendship with her rebel mentor. My methodological approach to viewing the laser disc print was to first make a more accessible, coded record of the entire movie. I was able to code and record the print in real time, using a new metalanguage (Watson, “Eyes”). The advantage of Coding is that ‘thinks’ the same way as film making, it does not sidetrack the analyst into prose. The Code splits the movie print into Vision Action [vision graphic elements, including text] (sound) The Coding splits the vision track into normal action and graphic elements, such as text, so this Coding is an ideal method for extracting all the text elements of a film in real time. After playing the film once, I had four and a half tightly packed pages of the coded story, including all its text elements in square brackets. Being a unique, indexed hard copy, the Coded copy allowed me immediate access to any point of the Muriel’s Wedding saga without having to search the DVD laser print. How are ‘print’ elements used in Muriel’s Wedding? Firstly, a rose-coloured monoprint of Muriel Heslop’s smiling face stares enigmatically from the plastic surface of the DVD picture disc. The print is a still photo captured from her smile as she walked down the aisle of her white wedding. In this print, Toni Collette is the Mona Lisa of Australian culture, except that fans of Muriel’s Wedding know the meaning of that smile is a magical combination of the actor’s art: the smile is both the flush of dreams come true and the frightening self deception that will kill her mother. Inserting and playing the disc, the text-dominant menu appears, and the film commences with the text-dominant opening titles. Text and titles confer a legitimacy on a work, whether it is a trade mark of the laser print owners, or the household names of stars. Text titles confer status relationships on both the presenters of the cultural artifact and the viewer who has entered into a legal license agreement with the owners of the movie. A title makes us comfortable, because the mind always seeks to name the unfamiliar, and a set of text titles does that job for us so that we can navigate the ‘tracks’ and settle into our engagement with the unfamiliar. The apparent ‘truth’ and ‘stability’ of printed text calms our fears and beguiles our uncertainties. Muriel attends the white wedding of a school bully bride, wearing a leopard print dress she has stolen. Muriel’s spotted wild animal print contrasts with the pure white handmade dress of the bride. In Muriel’s leopard textile print, we have the wild, rebellious, impoverished, inappropriate intrusion into the social ritual and fantasy of her high-status tormentor. An off-duty store detective recognizes the printed dress and calls the police. The police are themselves distinguished by their blue-and-white checked prints and other mechanically reproduced impressions of cultural symbols: in steel, brass, embroidery, leather and plastics. Muriel is driven in the police car past the stenciled town sign (‘Welcome To Porpoise Spit’ heads a paragraph of small print). She is delivered to her father, a politician who presides over the policing of his town. In a state where the judiciary, police and executive are hijacked by the same tyrant, Muriel’s father, Bill, pays off the police constables with a carton of legal drugs (beer) and Muriel must face her father’s wrath, which he proceeds to transfer to his detested wife. Like his daughter, the father also wears a spotted brown print costume, but his is a batik print from neighbouring Indonesia (incidentally, in a nation that takes the political status of its batik prints very seriously). Bill demands that Muriel find the receipt for the leopard print dress she claims she has purchased. The legitimate ownership of the object is enmeshed with a printed receipt, the printed evidence of trade. The law (and the paramilitary power behind the law) are legitimized, or contested, by the presence or absence of printed text. Muriel hides in her bedroom, surround by poster prints of the pop group ABBA. Torn-out prints of other people’s weddings adorn her mirror. Her face is embossed with the clown-like primary colours of the marionette as she lifts a bouquet to her chin and stares into the real time ‘print’ of her mirror image. Bill takes the opportunity of a business meeting with Japanese investors to feed his entire family at ‘Charlie Chan’’s restaurant. Muriel’s middle sister sloppily wears her father’s state election tee shirt, printed with the text: ‘Vote 1, Bill Heslop. You can’t stop progress.’ The text sets up two ironic gags that are paid off on the dialogue track: “He lost,’ we are told. ‘Progress’ turns out to be funding the concreting of a beach. Bill berates his daughter Muriel: she has no chance of becoming a printer’s apprentice and she has failed a typing course. Her dysfunction in printed text has been covered up by Bill: he has bribed the typing teacher to issue a printed diploma to his daughter. In the gambling saloon of the club, under the arrays of mechanically repeated cultural symbols lit above the poker machines (‘A’ for ace, ‘Q’ for queen, etc.), Bill’s secret girlfriend Diedre risks giving Muriel a cosmetics job. Another text icon in lights announces the surf nightclub ‘Breakers’. Tania, the newly married queen bitch who has made Muriel’s teenage years a living hell, breaks up with her husband, deciding to cash in his negotiable text documents – his Bali honeymoon tickets – and go on an island holiday with her girlfriends instead. Text documents are the enduring site of agreements between people and also the site of mutations to those agreements. Tania dumps Muriel, who sobs and sobs. Sobs are a mechanical, percussive reproduction impressed on the sound track. Returning home, we discover that Muriel’s older brother has failed a printed test and been rejected for police recruitment. There is a high incidence of print illiteracy in the Heslop family. Mrs Heslop (Jeannie Drynan), for instance, regularly has trouble at the post office. Muriel sees a chance to escape the oppression of her family by tricking her mother into giving her a blank cheque. Here is the confluence of the legitimacy of a bank’s printed negotiable document with the risk and freedom of a blank space for rebel Muriel’s handwriting. Unable to type, her handwriting has the power to steal every cent of her father’s savings. She leaves home and spends the family’s savings at an island resort. On the island, the text print-challenged Muriel dances to a recording (sound print) of ABBA, her hand gestures emphasizing her bewigged face, which is made up in an impression of her pop idol. Her imitation of her goddesses – the ABBA women, her only hope in a real world of people who hate or avoid her – is accompanied by her goddesses’ voices singing: ‘the mystery book on the shelf is always repeating itself.’ Before jpeg and gif image downloads, we had postcard prints and snail mail. Muriel sends a postcard to her family, lying about her ‘success’ in the cosmetics business. The printed missal is clutched by her father Bill (Bill Hunter), who proclaims about his daughter, ‘you can’t type but you really impress me’. Meanwhile, on Hibiscus Island, Muriel lies under a moonlit palm tree with her newly found mentor, ‘bad girl’ Ronda (Rachel Griffiths). In this critical scene, where foolish Muriel opens her heart’s yearnings to a confidante she can finally trust, the director and DP have chosen to shoot a flat, high contrast blue filtered image. The visual result is very much like the semiabstract Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints by Utamaro. This Japanese printing style informed the rise of European modern painting (Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc., were all important collectors and students of Ukiyo-e prints). The above print and text elements in Muriel’s Wedding take us 27 minutes into her story, as recorded on a single page of real-time handwritten Coding. Although not discussed here, the Coding recorded the complete film – a total of 106 minutes of text elements and main graphic elements – as four pages of Code. Referring to this Coding some weeks after it was made, I looked up the final code on page four: taxi [food of the sea] bq. Translation: a shop sign whizzes past in the film’s background, as Muriel and Ronda leave Porpoise Spit in a taxi. Over their heads the text ‘Food Of The Sea’ flashes. We are reminded that Muriel and Ronda are mermaids, fantastic creatures sprung from the brow of author PJ Hogan, and illuminated even today in the pantheon of women’s coming-of-age art works. That the movie is relevant ten years on is evidenced by the current usage of the Muriel’s Wedding online forum, an intersection of wider discussions by sliterate women on imdb.com who, like Muriel, are observers (and in some cases victims) of horrific pressure from ambitious female gangs and bullies. Text is always a minor element in a motion picture (unless it is a subtitled foreign film) and text usually whizzes by subliminally while viewing a film. By Coding the work for [text], all the text nuances made by the film makers come to light. While I have viewed Muriel’s Wedding on many occasions, it has only been in Coding it specifically for text that I have noticed that Muriel is a representative of that vast class of talented youth who are discriminated against by print (as in text) educators who cannot offer her a life-affirming identity in the English classroom. Severely depressed at school, and failing to type or get a printer’s apprenticeship, Muriel finds paid work (and hence, freedom, life, identity, independence) working in her audio visual printed medium of choice: a video store in a new city. Muriel found a sliterate admirer at the video store but she later dumped him for her fantasy man, before leaving him too. One of the points of conjecture on the imdb Muriel’s Wedding site is, did Muriel (in the unwritten future) get back together with admirer Brice Nobes? That we will never know. While a print forms a track that tells us where culture has been, a print cannot be the future, a print is never animate reality. At the end of any trail of prints, one must lift one’s head from the last impression, and negotiate satisfaction in the happening world. References Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Memo Shows US General Approved Interrogations.” 30 Mar. 2005 http://www.abc.net.au>. 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Muriel’s Wedding. Dir. PJ Hogan. Perf. Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Bill Hunter, and Jeannie Drynan. Village Roadshow, 1994. O’Hagan, Jack. On The Road to Gundagai. 1922. 2 Apr. 2005 http://ingeb.org/songs/roadtogu.html>. Poole, J.H., P.L. Tyack, A.S. Stoeger-Horwath, and S. Watwood. “Animal Behaviour: Elephants Are Capable of Vocal Learning.” Nature 24 Mar. 2005. Sanchez, R. “Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy.” 14 Sept. 2003. 30 Mar. 2005 http://www.abc.net.au>. Schultheiss, O.C., M.M. Wirth, and S.J. Stanton. “Effects of Affiliation and Power Motivation Arousal on Salivary Progesterone and Testosterone.” Hormones and Behavior 46 (2005). Sherry, N. The Life of Graham Greene. 3 vols. London: Jonathan Cape 2004, 1994, 1989. Silk Road. Printing. 2000. 20 Feb. 2005 http://www.silk-road.com/artl/printing.shtml>. Smith, T. “Elpida Licenses ‘DVD on a Chip’ Memory Tech.” The Register 20 Feb. 2005 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02>. —. “Intel Boffins Build First Continuous Beam Silicon Laser.” The Register 20 Feb. 2005 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02>. Watson, R. S. “Eyes And Ears: Dramatic Memory Slicing and Salable Media Content.” Innovation and Speculation, ed. Brad Haseman. Brisbane: QUT. [in press] Watson, R. S. Visions. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation, 1994. 
 
 
 
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