materiality and ecology of the rubber from the Amazon rainforest
3 Enhancing capabilities through the materiality of the artefacts
3.3 Emerging capabilities through materiality
Sense of community is an important aspect of the sense of individual and collective identity, which is shared through location, culture and productive practices, among others (McMillan, 1996: 315; Blackshaw, 2009; Smith 2001). According to sociologist McMillan, a sense of community is felt as ‘emotional safety’, where one has
‘membership’, a sense of belonging, acceptance, empathy, understanding, trust and caring (McMillan, 1996: 315–316; Putnam 2000: 274 in Smith, 2001).
These concerns relate to the approach of designers to producer communities – in some cases, in contexts where basic needs, such as water and sanitation, compromise wellbeing. Thus it is important to identify where needs exist and to develop projects that promote perspectives towards the evolution of long-‐term outcomes. At the same time, a strong sense of community is often present among locals, and this can be seen as enabling them to unite their efforts to deal with challenges. These ideas will be exemplified throughout this thesis.
3.3 Emerging capabilities through materiality
Chapter 2 introduced the process of social innovation developing in rubber-‐tapping communities in the Amazon rainforest through their learning and adoption of new methods and materials. This process will only evolve when there is proactive
engagement of the producer community, making explicit social innovation through the emergence of new capabilities that can be observed through individual and social transformations.
When local producers began to transform the rubber through creative engagement, this top-‐down initiative, proposed by research institutions in coalition with the public and the private sectors – such as LATEQ/UNB and Poloprobio – became characterized as a mixed bottom-‐up and top-‐down initiative. The participants’ sensory exploration of the materials allied to their new affordances (Note 3.2) enabled some of them to develop a new form of handcraft activity. As consequence a new economic activity began to develop, disseminating from individuals to entire communities, reinforcing a sense of identity and impacting on other aspects of wellbeing. The materiality of the new rubbers – especially the ready-‐to-‐use coloured rubber sheet (FSA) and, more recently, the rubberized textile (TEA) – have brought designers and local artisan producers together to collaborate on the artefacts. This is a key discussion in this thesis.
Note 3.2 Affordance
Gibson defines the ‘affordances’ of surfaces and objects as the actions that they enable (Gibson, 1986: 127). For example, when wet, FSA rubber enables forms and parts to be stuck together, structured and moulded.
3.3.1 Creative integration of the coloured rubber
I include ‘creative integration’ as a component of the reflective methodology developed in Chapter 5; I consider that not just technological but also creative integration are pivotal in order for social innovation to prosper and succeed. While technological integration relates to the integration of new methods in the productive
adapting and transforming a social innovation through the creative transformation of material and methods. This concept can be linked to the idea of creative communities proposed by Vezzoli and Manzini (2008: 34) to define groups of people mobilized to solve a problem or develop new opportunities. I suggest that creative integration occurs when technological innovation is adapted according to local culture and individuals’ views and becomes integrated into people’s routines. Thus creative integration becomes part of the processes of social innovation.
It evolves from the creative exploration of the materials – or methods, services, products – further developing innovation by adapting and transforming it in
unexpected ways. Rather than the mere acceptance of a new technology or technique, creative integration of that new technology is an expression of ownership and the ability to recreate with available resources. It can thus be inferred that creative integration is a type of capability which can be powerful in promoting social change.
Through crafts and design, this creative phenomenon exceeds the generation of economic value, becoming in addition a means for people to realise cultural, aesthetical and symbolic capital.
I have observed that among the rubber tappers, who throughout history have been anonymous labourers in the rainforest, the process of creative integration has, by transforming the rubber, also had a positive impact on the reaffirmation of their local identity, personal satisfaction and personal recognition by counterparts. The
importance of local recognition became very clear to me when I was working with Araújo (Chapter 6), who is fiercely proud of his reputation. In his community there is a
clear sense of admiration and pride regarding his work as it enhances the standing of their community. So, artisans can become recognized in their own communities and then across communities in the rainforest, eventually being able to enter national markets. This recognition is an example of the symbolic capital that can be perceived in the artisan producers of the rainforest.
Craft activities with wild rubber – previously uninspiring due to the limitations of the raw rubber – have already produced examples of how social innovation can flourish.
New methods and materials are innovative not only in terms of their method of
production, but by resulting in a material ready to be used in the manufacture of crafts or design products. Therefore, they promote two more important outcomes:
(i) The creative integration by the rubber-‐tapping communities, who transform them into handcrafts; and
(ii) The direct engagement of communities with designers.
This process can be exemplified by the transformation of FSA into handcrafts by members of the rubber-‐tapping communities. Some of the best new artefacts have been made by the rubber tapper and artisan Araújo, who is the main actor of Case Study 1, Chapter 6; he used FSA to develop rubber shoes, and became a recognized artisan among rubber-‐tapping communities throughout the rainforest. Araújo also became a multiplier (Note 3.3) of this technology and of the handcrafts, teaching others in his own community and others. His work makes evident the role of
handmade artefacts for thriving social innovation, through which he became catalyst of individual and collective changes.
Note 3.3 Multipliers
The idea of multipliers provides an interesting opportunity to those involved in social innovation projects; multipliers can be community members or stakeholders in a project who alone or together can help disseminate new methods of production.
The community of Jamaraquá is another example where men and especially women have produced handcrafts using FSA, and recently TEA, mixing these materials with other local materials such as fibres and seeds. The people have organized themselves into a cooperative through which they organize courses, some with designers, for the development of rubber artefacts, such as jewellery, bags, souvenirs and lamps.
Panel 3.1: Emergent handcrafts with FSA
Figure 3.2: Rubber tapper and artisan Jose de Araújo showing his 100% rubber shoes made in the rainforest, 2011.
Figure 3.3: Handcrafts workshop with artisans in the Jamaraquá community, 2016: Bags combining FSA rubber
and TEA; jewellery combining rubber and seeds (previously produced by the artisans) -‐ the necklaces were used as bags’ handles.
3.3.2 Other kinds of rubber for the development of artefacts
Social innovation initiatives are taking place among local communities with the
objective of promoting social opportunities by enabling the productive conservation of the rainforest.19 Within this context, FSA and TEA are not the only kinds of rubber currently used for the making of rubber artefacts; others include:
Vegetal leather (Figure 3.4), a rubberized textile made by applying layers of liquid rubber latex over cotton.
Figure 3.4: Vegetal leather bag (TreeTap, 2005).20
This process is based on the old method of curing rubber through smoking, which is unhealthy and environmentally unfriendly. Furthermore, Amaral and Samonek (2006:
15) argue that the production of vegetal leather has, with only minor changes,
19 The following 36-‐minute documentary (in Portuguese) gives a good indication of life and productive conservation in the rainforest through different products, including rubber, natural oils, seeds and fruit. It presents social innovation projects in the Reserva Extrativista do Médio Juruá: Coordenação de Educação Ambiental do Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade -‐ ICMBio (2013). Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Wnq-‐NlDYI. Accessed: 29 Feb 2016.
20 Treetap: http://www.treehugger.com/green-‐architecture/treetap.html Acessed: 13 March 2013.
prolonged the bad old labour system, incorporating a middleman who organizes production, supplies the textile and sells the product, while the community loses control and funds. Production of vegetal leather ceased in Acre due to the difficulty of maintaining the quality of the products caused by the irregularity of the smoking process (Amaral and Samonek, 2006: 15). However there are places where vegetal leather has continued to provide an income source, as in communities in the state of Rondônia (SIMPI, 2007) and Amazon (in Boca do Acre). Communities in these areas worked hard to improve the process and have acquired quality certification; as a result, they have sold their vegetal leather to the fashion industry, and they also use it locally to make bags and rucksacks.
The technology of production proposed by the Poloprobio project: Poloprobio (Pólo de Proteção da Biodiversidade e Uso Sustentável dos Recursos Naturais), is a project developed by Brazilian chemists Samonek and Damasceno from the University of Rio Branco, Acre (Poloprobio, 2011). This project developed a method for local
communities to process the raw rubber that dispenses with the smoking process and kiln. Poloprobio developed rubber sheets composed of a mixture of latex with certain chemicals combined with natural fibres and natural pigments found in the region (Amaral and Samonek, 2006: 17). The community of Sena Madureira in Acre became well known for a variety of decorative and utilitarian artefacts made of this material, as can be seen in Figure 3.5.
Figure 3.5: Artefacts made of natural rubber and vegetal fibres by rubber tappers and artisans from Sena
Madureira, Acre, 2011.
The encauchados de vegetais (cauchos) system draws on ancient indigenous techniques by applying thick layers of latex over textiles and allowing them to dry naturally. The process was rediscovered by Poloprobrio, and modified by adding chemical additives and heating. The method eliminates the unhealthy smoking process by pre-‐vulcanizing the latex; the textiles can incorporate coloured motifs, which are preserved by the transparent layer of pre-‐vulcanized latex. The Kaxinawá indigenous group has made use of this technique for handcrafts (Amaral and Samonek, 2006: 21;
31).
Figure 3.6: Bags made of encauchados de vegetais by the indigenous group Kaxinawá (Biodiversidade Natural, 2011)
Poloprobio has been training communities in Acre through funding, partnerships with numerous institutions, NGOs, local government and universities. It has also invested in multipliers, who can teach other communities and spread the technology throughout the rainforest.
Finally, artisan producers, such as Raimundo Nonato (Figure 3.7 below); he developed handcrafts using the old technique of smoked rubber.
Figure 3.7: Rubber tapper and artisan Raimundo Nonato. Figure 3.8: Handcrafted animals inspired by the fauna of the Amazon rainforest. Rio Branco, Acre, 2011.