"Release project" is a new model of production and distribution of material goods on the basis of free Creative Commons licenses and relations that user establishes with a local artisan-producer.
The starting point is the reflection on the concept of an overall view on craft, its works, creators and users. It was represented by Peter Szacki, a longtime researcher at the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, exploring the essence of folk crafts and promoting them in the form of authorial exhibitions, texts, films, interviews from field research.
An interdisciplinary project: RELEASE PROJECT consists to develop a modern version of the old, traditional craft works, which are placed in the Basic Economy and Craft Storehouse of the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw.
Selecting objects was made by a competence group, which is the fusion of knowledge and experience of designers, craftsmen, ethnologists and museum professionals.
New objects were created as a result of a close cooperation between craftsman and designer. In a further step the administrative documentation of the resulting products has been posted online, under free Creative Commons license. Interested people can download the documentation from the Internet and make an object single handedly or with the help of a local craftsman, adapting it to his/her own needs.
The features of a new object:
- SHAPE AND MATERIAL - referring to materials used in traditional crafts with technological progress
- PRODUCTION - development of production technology is the result of the close cooperation between designer and craftsman.
- DESIGN SPREAD - full detailed documentation will be available on the Internet for free under Creative Commons licence.
- DISTRIBUTION - everyone will be able to download the administrative documentation from the website and perform an object with a chosen artisan, eg. from the closest area, which will contribute to the strengthening of local bond and implementation an idea of sustainable development in practice.
All stages of the old model of production and distribution of craft works are designed in a form of contemporary equivalents. According to the traditional model:
1) a craftsman created an object by using traditional workshop, 2) designs circled in a region in the form of patterns, 3) works were being purchased directly from artisans.
The contemporary model, developed by us, refers to the traditional model in the following areas:
1)a product will be created as a result of cooperation between designer and craftsman, 2) an administrative documentation will be available on the Internet, 3) a consumer has an opportunity to obtain a documentation of a design from the website and create it with the help of craftsman from the closest area.
What we want to achieve?
- Promote a new model of production, compatible with the idea of a sustainable development as the alternative to mass production.
- Restore "second life" to folk, craft works through the development of contemporary designs of several objects in the collections of the State Ethnographic Museum.
- Strengthen local ties by building relations - interested people will order a product at a craftsman from the neighborhood.
- Involve a direct recipient in a production process – a person who orders an object determines its own color preferences or dimensions.
- Create an interesting situation for designer, craftsman and recipient.
- Promote Peter Szacki's idea and his overall view of craft, taking into account both manufacturer and user.
