Western Lords, Frustrated Artists, and Pigeon-Holed Workers

Several weeks ago I went around some cities to visit arts and design industries, communities, and schools. I thought the visits to the universities would be most interesting, but as it turned out, the visits happened towards the very end of the week so most of the schools were rather quiet and one was in dilapidated condition. Nothing was happening.

The arts and design communities, though, were buzzing with a lot of energy. And at both Common Room and Kedai Kebun, we had lively discussions which accidentally, both ended up with rather heated tones when the topic on the role of academics and universities in developing arts and designs came up.

Most academics and universities, according to these frustrated, albeit otherwise very successful artists and designers in their own rights, were not actively involved in the communities. Many of them even accused academics as being backward thinkers, conformers, and bureaucrats who simply didn’t keep up with the way of the world, and were the very actors who kill creativity in the young. They were the very reason why the artists and designers communities started in the first place.

Meanwhile, visits to arts and design industries from the sweatshops to the internationally known ones owned by Westerners, although were very interesting, were very depressing at the same time.

Most Indonesian workers were very skilled in their crafts. And that’s everything that most of them had in store. They wanted to know more about design. They wanted to know more about what would sell. But all they could do was copying exactly as ordered.

And who gained from all this?

The most successful industries were owned by the Westerners. They were the ones who design. They were the ones who know how to market their products. They were the ones who profit from the skills of Indonesian craftsmen. They owned acres of land. They employed hundreds of people. They were lords in modern and supposedly independent Indonesia.

I’m not blaming the Westerners. It’s Darwin’s survival of the fittest world after all.
I’m just asking myself some questions:

When the worlds of schools, practitioners, and industries are so disjointed, how can we start bridging?
When the gaps between the most successful and the barely surviving people are so wide, how can we catch up?

Where do we start?

ADDED:
For more in-depth analysis of the successes in the industries owned by Westerners vs. those owned by Indonesians, see Designing Ideas.