CRT, September 2007 Though devoid of skyscrapers, Valparaiso is very much a vertical city. Built largely on hills that cascade into the bay, houses cling to the city slopes precariously. Residents take antiquated lifts, or ascenciors, up to various parts of the city. It’s a city of vertiginous vistas intriguing crannies. Though residents hanker for the 'good old days' before tourism, to an outsider it is remarkably innocent of crass commercialisation.

Though still relatively poor, the city has quite a burgeoning design culture. Pitty Pelacious runs a store Design for Valparaiso, which sells the sumptuous garments that she weaves from wool produced in the island of Chiloe. There are specialist studio-shops selling unique crafts dotted throughout the fashionable areas of the city. The University of Valparaiso plays an important role in supporting this development, particularly the program run by lecturer Patricia Gunther. I was fortunate to work with some of her students and saw the results of their recent workshop on display in the Chilean Arts Council offices. The project was to work with a small town called Pedernal, which is located in the remote north and has few resources other than an abundant supply of stones. Some of these stones contain petroglyphs that indicate the presence of an ancient culture completely separate from the current population. The brief was not just to appropriate aspects of Pedernal for a design product, but to actively involve the community. The result needed to be something that the population felt comfortable with and maybe even something they could have a hand in.

Talking with students revealed the complications of this approach. Until recently, the Pedernal had been a relatively timeless location, with residents eking a living very much as they had been for generations. Now the advent of satellite disks has opened a window to a new glittering world, and this aspirationalism had paradoxically been for some a reason for participating in the design exercise. New sources of income promised greater access to modern technologies.
However, the students themselves were most interested in the ways of life that precede this consumerism. A number picked up on the very simple forms of knitting that women used to pass the time in Pedernal. They fashioned very simple hand-held looms that would enable the women to create commodities such as jewellery. Their main ‘design capital’ is thus located in a form of life that they are seeking to leave behind. There's a story about Hollywood producer, Samuel Goldwyn, who when asked about a fashionable restaurant replied, 'It's so crowded these days, nobody goes there anymore.' The paradox of traditional development is that success can destroy the very conditions that make success possible. Development threatens the tradition on which development in remote communities depends. The paradox of traditional development may seem bedevil attempts to engage remote communities with the opportunities of the large cities, but it does not prevent them. Rather it necessitates an open dialogue between residents and designers. Neither can take the other for granted .If residents are going to turn something local into a global commodity, then they need to understand the need to protect their fragile traditions, just as designers need to be mindful of the way the end can sometimes contradict the means.
What might result from pueblos like Pedernal will not be a unique craft that adds to the diversity of techniques alive to humanity. They are not hiighly skilled people. But it has the potential to add a certain sensibility that it at rest in a seemingly barren landscape. What struck me about the students from Valparaiso is that they were not blinded by aspirationalism. They weren't seeking to make more of the same so they could be big in Milan. They seemed genuinely attuned to the issues of the people they were working with. The designers of the future will need to be part anthropologists, developing an informed contract with the subjects in order to translate their lives into forms that appeal to wealthy urbanites. And as more and more of the world gravitate to mega-cities, the understanding of place nurtured by remote communities will be ever more important to retain our connection of the planet on which we live.