Week 2

This week in class not only did we receive a lot of information through readings and lecture, but were able to get a hands on experience as well. Tuesday in class we talked about textiles and discussed John Picton's essay concerning "tradition" and textiles.
In class Tuesday we discussed what this idea of traditional was. In Picton's essay he goes on to explain the notion of contrasting the traditional with the contemporary. During the discussion we began to discuss what exactly makes something traditional compared to contemporary. When I think about this notion of traditional first thing that comes to mind is how was it done first and does that make it the only traditional way. Is it possible that as different cultures adapt specific things from other cultures and make it there own does it then become traditional to them or a contemporary form? As we discussed this in class many good points were made about this notion, but to me I'm not sure that I still have a clear idea of what this is.
Thursday in class we explored batiking with Nani Agbeli which was an awesome experience. We began the process with picking out symbols that we wanted to use for our design on our cloths. Most of the symbols that we chose from had a specific meaning behind them that in a way told a story. Just like in one of the reading it talked about textile patterns and colors to portray a meaning. This also came up during Nadi's workshop when he was wearing the different colored fabrics around his waist. Once we found the symbols we wanted stamping on our designs using wax so that when we dyed them the wax would resist the dye showing the patterns. During the time we spent talking with Nadi a question was asked about batiking for tourists versus someone that they knew, and he explained that the outcome would be very different. This brought me back to one of the first weeks of class when I believe we were talking about Dogon and how things change for tourism. I just find that to be a very interesting concept.
One final thing that went on this week was Nadi's workshop which was very insightful to the culture, and I actually got more out of it then I thought. First we got a cultural experience when he performed the dance and also played the drum, but when he began explaining the meanings behind some of the things he was doing it was eye opening. Like the noises he was making while beating the drum was him feeling the power and him reacting to it. One last thing as it relates to what we've been talking about. While at the workshop I heard the word traditional again. He was talking about the dance and costume that he was wearing. He was doing a stage dance rather then a traditional dance. He went on to explain the difference and why they don't do the traditional dance for tourists because of the spiritual energy that is given out and only the performers could handle it.