Category Archives: video

clips relevant to the subject of design and sustainability

Ibu-ibu Kita Masih Melahirkan Pejuang

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Ungkapan tersebut tentu sudah akrab bagi kita yang pernah membaca atau mendengar mengenai Indonesia Mengajar, termasuk saya sendiri. Telah beberapa kali saya membaca dan mengagumi gerakan ini, dan menganggapnya menjadi sebuah penghiburan yang membesarkan harapan pada Indonesia, “Negri yang pantas dicintai”, kata Kang A’at Soeratin, di tengah-tengah gencarnya berita-berita dari tanah air yang memuakkan. Oleh karena itu, ketika ada kesempatan untuk mendengarkan Pak Anies Baswedan berbicara mengenai pendidikan, saya langsung mendaftar untuk hadir, terutama karena ingin tertular semangat dan optimismenya terhadap kebangkitan bangsa ini.

Acaranya berlangsung di Rumah Belajar Semi Palar, Bandung, 25 Agustus 2011, mulai pukul 3 sore. Ketika saya datang, acara sudah dimulai dengan pengantar dari Kang A’at (bagi yang belum kenal, coba cek situs Garis Depan Nusantara – beliau termasuk salah satu anggota tim ekspedisi GDN). Setelah itu saya mulai mencatat hal-hal yang disampaikan Pak Anies, dalam sketsa dan tulisan berikut ini (mohon maklum kalau tidak runut dan kurang lengkap, karena mengandalkan sketsa dan ingatan)…

sketchnote 1

Kalau kita dengar profesi “guru” di Indonesia ini, konotasinya adalah: kurang memadainya kualitas mereka, rendahnya tingkat kesejahteraan, dan kurang meratanya distribusi tenaga pengajar ke seluruh Nusantara. Ini jelas merupakan masalah, janji negri ini pada bangsanya yang belum terlunasi. Indonesia Mengajar mencoba menjawab masalah ini dengan mengirimkan pengajar-pengajar berkualitas tinggi ke pelosok Nusantara, karena pendidikan merupakan tanggung jawab moral semua orang terdidik.

Mengutip Abah Iwan ketika melepas satu angkatan Pengajar Muda, bahwa “(Menjadi pengajar di pelosok tanpa fasilitas yang memadai) bukanlah pengorbanan, tapi merupakan kehormatan”, memang benar. Sebab para Pengajar Muda ini adalah orang-orang muda terpilih, yang telah mengalami proses seleksi ketat dan pelatihan yang sesungguhnya. Rasio jumlah yang terseleksi dibandingkan jumlah pendaftar jauh mengalahkan rasio perebutan bangku perguruan tinggi favorit di negri ini – bedanya, yang ini nyata dan hasilnya benar-benar diuji langsung di daerah penempatan.

sketchnote 2

Ketika merdeka, penduduk Republik Indonesia sekitar 70 juta jiwa. Jumlah sekolah dasar baru ada 15 ribu, kini ada sekitar 147 ribu, dan mampu menyerap hingga sekitar 94-96% pendaftar. Ketika merdeka, hanya ada segelintir jumlah sekolah menengah dan lanjutan, apalagi perguruan tinggi, sehingga jelas bahwa kualitas SDM kita masih lemah, bahkan sebagian masih buta huruf. Sehingga yang terjadi adalah, ketika membanggakan potensi negri, para pemimpin bangsa ini mengajukan SDA, hasil bumi dan hasil tambang, sebagai yang terunggul. Sekarang seharusnya berbeda: para pemimpin bangsa ini seharusnya kini dapat lebih menghargai SDM kita, dan tidak lagi bergantung pada (eksploitasi) SDA – yang adalah cara berpikir jaman kolonial.

Are we ready to prepare our children to become global citizens? Seharusnya kita sudah menyadari, bahwa letak negara-negara tetangga lebih dekat dan jauh lebih mudah dijangkau ketimbang kota-kota di pulau-pulau lain di Indonesia. Anak-anak di wilayah-wilayah tersebut seharusnya dibekali dengan pengetahuan lebih, terutama keterampilan berbahasanya.

Sebagian besar (20%) dari bangsa Indonesia peraih gelar PhD adalah dalam studi-studi yang berkaitan dengan agama. Setelah itu baru ilmu-ilmu lain: ilmu sosial, ekonomi, sains, engineering, dsb. But we need more than prayers to produce technology.

Berbagai data dan statistik menunjukkan perbandingan jumlah pelajar Indonesia dalam prosentase yang jauh lebih kecil dibandingkan dengan pelajar dari negara-negara lain, yang menempuh pendidikan di negara-negara industri maju. Namun tidak perlu berkecil hati, sebab ternyata sebagian besar dari para pelajar asing ini adalah dalam tingkat vocational, sehingga sekembalinya mereka ke negara masing-masing, mereka akan bekerja di bidang industri manufaktur – yang kurang lebih masih dalam kontrol negara-negara maju tersebut.

Kita seharusnya bisa melakukan loncatan lebih dari mereka, dengan cara mengandalkan, melatih dan menajamkan kreativitas dan daya berpikir kritis.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc1hgMl3uUk]

[Video yang ditayangkan untuk memberikan gambaran mengenai pentingnya mendidik generasi abad ke-21 dengan tepat. Apakah kita siap?]

 

Dari data lain, terlihat bahwa sebagian besar pelajar SD di Indonesia tidak dapat melanjutkan ke jenjang-jenjang yang lebih tinggi. Bila melihat angka jumlah pelajar SMA, para pelajar yang memulai SD pada saat yang bersamaan tidak ‘terangkut’ atau tidak dapat terus ke tahap pendidikan lanjut.

Bila orang-orang seangkatan orang tua kita pada saat seumur kita ditanya, 30 tahun lalu berada di mana, jawabannya sebagian besar adalah di kampung, di daerahnya yang letaknya mungkin sangat jauh dari ibukota. Apa yang membawa mereka berhasil berkehidupan di kota-kota besar, menjadi professional yang sukses di bidangnya, bahkan menduduki berbagai posisi penting? Pendidikan. Apakah pendidikan kini masih dapat mengangkat harkat hidup orang-orang dari pelosok Indonesia seperti masa itu?

Kini, bila kita ditanya, 30 tahun berada di mana, jawabannya hampir dipastikan adalah kota-kota besar di Indonesia, dari kaum menengah ke atas. Bukti bahwa pendidikan belum berhasil menjangkau dan meningkatkan kesejahteraan secara merata.

Perancang sistem pendidikan adalah perancang sistem sosial suatu masyarakat. Manusia terdidik akan mampu meningkatkan tingkat sosial dan ekonominya, dengan pendidikan sebagai ekskalatornya.

sketchnote 3

Para Pengajar Muda adalah warga sipil yang kelak dapat mengatakan, “Aku telah membaktikan diri pada negriku”. Mereka ditempatkan di pelosok-pelosok Nusantara untuk tinggal dan mengajar di sana selama satu tahun. Setelah itu mereka harus pulang untuk menjadi professional di bidangnya masing-masing. Posisi mereka di daerah penempatan digantikan oleh Pengajar Muda angkatan berikutnya, dan terus bergantian, hingga lima tahun.

Dengan cara ini, mereka akan memiliki dua ‘rumah’, yaitu daerah asalnya sendiri, dan daerah di mana mereka ditempatkan, yang akan menciptakan keterikatan batin. Empati kebangsaan dan ke-Bhinneka-an mereka terbentuk selama masa penempatan ini. Sehingga akan terbangun dua hal berikut: di satu sisi para Pengajar Muda mendapatkan pengalaman tak ternilai di daerah penempatan masing-masing, sementara di sisi lain daerah penempatan tersebut pasti akan teringat dan terangkat ketika para Pengajar Muda ini kelak berkarya dalam bidangnya masing-masing. Sistem ini menjadikan para Pengajar Muda tersebut leaders with global qualities, with an understanding of their roots.

Acara berlanjut dengan tanya-jawab hingga waktu berbuka puasa tiba, dilanjutkan dengan acara penutupan. Pak Anies diminta menorehkan dengan spontan kata-kata di kanvas yang di bagian atasnya terdapat bendera merah-putih yang dijahit. Bentangan bendera merah-putih dengan robekan yang terjahit juga hadir sebagai latar acara ini, yang menurut Mas Andy Sutioso dari Rumah Belajar Semi Palar, dipakai di acara tujuh belasan yang lalu. Jahitan tersebut merupakan simbol bahwa kita sedang memperbaiki Indonesia, yang tengah mengalami kerusakan. Pada kanvas itu Pak Anies menuliskan, Ibu kita melahirkan pejuang. Hidupi Republik ini dengan gerak maju lewat pendidikan. Masa depan Republik ini akan cemerlang untuk semua!

Relevant links:

Catatan dari acara yang sama (dengan foto):

http://cinnamome37.blogspot.com/2011/08/catatan-diskusi-bersama-pak-anies-1.html

http://cinnamome37.blogspot.com/2011/08/catatan-diskusi-bersama-pak-anies-2.html

http://cinnamome37.blogspot.com/2011/08/catatan-diskusi-bersama-pak-anies-3.html

Situs Rumah Belajar Semi Palar: http://semipalar.blogspot.com/

Situs Indonesia Mengajar: http://indonesiamengajar.org/

Imagination, Creativity, Innovation

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Sir Ken Robinson takes on Creativity in interdisciplinary settings (Summit on Science, Entertainment and Education, February 2011):

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/22441226]

I’m learning a lot from his talk, also by connecting the following excerpts with my own experiences from working in a so-called ‘creative’ field.

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Most people go through the whole of their education and never discover what they’re good at or what their talents are.

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And I’ve met all kinds of people who only discovered purpose in their lives and who they really are once they’re recovered from their education.

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It’s not true of everybody. Some people do wonderfully well from education. But many don’t. And even the people who you think are being favored by the current education system, I believe, are experiencing a lot of diminishing returns.

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When politicians talk about “reshaping education” these days, they almost always talk about the stem disciplines as if, on their own, science and technology, engineering and math will deliver us safely into the future. And they won’t. To me it’s fundamentally important to recognize. I think this preoccupation isn’t even good for science, honestly.

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We cannot afford to focus on just one group of disciplines in isolation.  I think it fundamentally misrepresents how creativity and innovation work in all disciplines.

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The scientists on the group were absolutely worried that the obsession in most of our education systems, which standardized testing, with the narrowing of the curriculum to a particularly prescriptive set of objectives, which leeching the lifeblood from their own disciplines. And they know, as you know, that creativity is the pulse of science. And if you steal that, then you’ll lose another generation.

If you make science arid, you make another generation lose interest in it.

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Science, engineering and technology are essential. They are necessary, but not sufficient to the kind of culture of education we need to develop in the future in that science will benefit by making common courses and synergies with the humanities and with the arts.

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There was a study done a while ago of cultural differences in visual perception. It was published in Science Magazine. Essentially they took two groups of people: people from South East Asia, and people from Western European countries, including America. Students then sat them down for several hours and showed them hundreds of pictures, for a few second for each slide, asking “What’s that?” And all they had to do was say what’s that. That was it. They noticed a difference as indeed they expected to, because that’s how science is. You start with hypothesis and then you check it out. It’s not you go blindly into the open and hope you discover something. One of the finding was this: that people from Western European countries, when shown an image like that, said that it’s a tiger, as indeed most of you do. People from South East Asian cultures typically didn’t say that. They more often said something like “It’s a tiger in a jungle”, or “It’s a jungle with a tiger”, or sometimes “It’s a jungle” and they didn’t mention the tiger at all.

Now it’s interesting, isn’t it, because we take that for granted that we can see clearly what that is. And yet some other cultures don’t. And the reason is that in the West we are imbued in a culture of individualism and our eyes are naturally drowned toward what we think as a subject of the picture. Some other cultures look at the broader context. Now I’m not saying that they’re right and we’re wrong, and that’s good and this is bad, but it is different, and it’s important to recognize that there is a difference: that even things that seem too obvious to us may not seem obvious to other people at all. And that’s the great quest of science and of discovery in every field. We begin by challenging what we think is obvious and what we take for granted.

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If we lived always with the burden of common sense, we’d still be living in caves, and wouldn’t have progressed. And indeed that’s the case for most of the species.

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In one respect we are very different from other creatures. We have imaginations. And imagination is everything. The power of imagination is what distinguishes us from other forms of life on earth.

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We mediate our expressions to the world through conceptual structures of ourselves.

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Imagination is the phantom head of this process, the ability to bring to mind the things that aren’t present to our senses, to conjure up conceptions of alternative possibilities, to step outside our own frame of seeing and to enter somebody else’s consciousness through empathetic connection, to revisit the past or to anticipate the future.

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Creativity is a step on from that. People could imagine all day long and not do anything. But you’d never call somebody “creative” for not doing anything. To be creative you have to do something. It’s a very material and practical process.

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I define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value.

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These are misconceptions about Creativity:

  1. That only special people are creative. This is not true. If you’re a human being you are born with immense natural creative capacities. The trick is to develop them.
  2. It’s about special things. It is not. People always think it’s about the Art. It’s not. The Art is desperately important, but not because they’re creative, but also because they’re creative. But Science is creative, Physics and Chemistry and Mathematics are extraordinary manifestations of the creative capacities of human mind.
  3. There’s nothing you can do about it. You’re creative enough and that’s the end of it. Actually there’s a huge amount of what you can do to teach people to be more creative.

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Innovation is a step on. I think of that as putting good ideas into practice. To be creative you have to apply yourself to things. There’s a myth that being creative is about freedom. It isn’t. It is much about constraints, it’s about discipline, and application. You cannot be creative as a scientist if you don’t understand the disciplines that you’re working within.

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Creativity is essentially about making new connections. It’s therefore something that really thrives wonderfully well in interdisciplinary settings. And that’s why we need a broad-based education in which science is central, co-equal with the arts, where the creative impulse is cross-fertilizing the disciplines in creating new sense of possibility.

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And I think that’s where the true dynamic of the future lies. And if we can get that right, we can find the best interests, best creative judgments of those who work in entertainment, those who work in the media, those who work as scientists and I hope the arts, too.  I think that’s the creative future we all want to live in.

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Similar post: Passion, Creativity, Element, Energy

The Other Ninety Percent

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This semester I teach an “Eco-Design” class at the Master Program of Industrial Engineering at Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung. Among our main references is Design for Sustainability (D4S) published by UNEP and TU Delft, especially when we were discussing the subject of Design for Sustainability in Developing Countries. I couldn’t help but also included another reference: Design for the Other 90% that was actually an exhibition and is now also a book. What does “The Other Ninety Percent” refer to? According to Dr. Paul Polak from the International Development Enterprises who initiated the exhibition:

“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%”

This statement is similar to the critics of Victor Papanek in his book Design for The Real World (1972), that (industrial/product) designers tend to make products for less than 10% of the world’s population who can afford to buy them, and rarely work for the rest, whose main concerns are the fulfillment of basic human needs: clean water, food, shelter. In this book, he also provided examples of how designed products shouldn’t alienate themselves from people who use them.

An attempt of designers and engineers to make design available for as many people as possible is the site Demotech: Design for Self Reliance where people can freely access information about daily products, tools and machinery: how to build them out of various local resources and materials. Next to those who might need the information, people can also contribute to this site by submitting their designs, suggestions and tips for improvement. The concept of democratic-technology (hence the site name Demotech) indeed aims to reach the majority of people with limited resources, for them to be able to assist themselves.

Having this previous examples in mind, I asked the student of that class to bring an example of a product that is intended for “The Other 90%” and they came up with interesting ones, which I will put in later posts. But, for now, here’s a video about Design for The Other 90% as a prologue:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g37QUl6RPI]

Here’s another link worth checking: a review of the Copper-Hewitt exhibition at Core 77

Passion, Creativity, Element, Energy

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I was instantly amazed by the first ever Sir Ken Robinson’s presentation I watched on the Internet, which was his TED talk about whether school kills creativity. Although the talk was probably happened in 2006, I watch it only recently, in early 2010 or so. Since then, I have been paying attention to links mentioning his talks/books/whatever, since I feel that he says the right things. Oh, and he’s funny, too.

Following is an embedded video of his talk at The School of Life in March 2011, and some excerpts worth pondering about.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/21195297]

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We should know the limit of our knowledge and understand what we don’t know. And be willing to explore what we don’t know without the feeling of embarrassment for not knowing about it.

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“To be born at all is a miracle.” So what are you going to do with your life now that you have it? This is where the idea of Passion came in.

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Very many people spend their lives doing things they don’t really care for. I think of this as The Other Climate Crisis. You’re become used to the idea that there is crisis in the world’s natural resources. There is. Geologists reported about two years ago: “The past two hundred years, geologically, the planet is in a new period called the Anthroposcene. For the first time in history, a geological age which is being caused by activities of human being. You can see that in carbon deposits, the extinction of species, the changing constitution of the oceans and the atmosphere. Human beings have made an indelible geological imprint on the planet.” But I think there is another Climate Crisis, which is a CC connected to Human Resources.

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Most people have no idea of what they’re capable of. No real sense of their tasks or their abilities. Very many people therefore conclude that they don’t have any.

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The most distinctive feature of human life is the power of Imagination. More than the power of Imagination, we also have the power of Creativity.

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Some people find their unique ability and some don’t. Those who don’t often conclude that they don’t have any. There are people who have absolutely found what they think as their natural place, their natural talents, and they love what they do, and their lives flow from it. They are, to use an expression, in their Elements.

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We are being brought up with this idea that life is linear. [As in a] CV: you set up your life in a series of dates and events, in a linear way, as if your whole existence has progressed in an ordered, structured, way to bring you to the current individual at the moment. And it all gives the impression that we’re in control of what we’re doing.

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You take opportunities and you respond to them. But you take them more willingly if they correspond to your own aptitude and your sensibilities.

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When you follow your interest, when you connect with your own true energy, your life takes a different path. New people come into it. New opportunities are created.

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The reason is that we create our own lives for ourselves. It’s the gift of human life that you’re not committed into a single course. You can change course. You can create and recreate your life. And you’re more likely to do that if you tap in the thing that you find motivating and fulfilling than not. Because in the end it’s simply that, it’s about energy.

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That’s why I argue so hard in reforming education. Because:

Our education system is based on a linear mode of production. It’s why so many people end up feeling detached from their own talents, because their being in an education system that prioritizes a certain type of talents and marginalizes the majority of the other ones. And if you’re not good at certain things, like if you’re not good at mathematics, you’re assumed not to be good generally. It’s why we have to argue to have a transformation of education system. And not just that, but also in our work places. But it begins with transformations with ourselves.

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You can’t promote things to which you are insensitive. It’s why so many teachers are having problems promoting creativity because they themselves aren’t in touch with their own creative possibilities.

Diary Litya

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This video is an end-term group assignment & exam of Design & Sustainability class (DP4101, 201o) at the Industrial Design Section of the Faculty of Arts & Design, Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia. Students, in groups, are asked to make a 5min. video with keywords such as sustainability, green lifestyle, eco-product, global warming, etc.

This one is called “Diary Litya”, depicting a daily activity of a student, concerning her consumption of energy, water, etc.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Woh-w9Yug1A&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

7 Prinsip Keberlanjutan untuk Komunitas Interaktif

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Limpahan informasi, terutama tautan ke berbagai situs, salah satunya telah membawa saya ke sebuah tulisan berjudul Designing a Movement: Seven Principles for Sustainable Action (Valerie Casey), di mana Valerie Casey, pendiri Designers Accord, menyimpulkan prinsip-prinsip “keberlanjutan” yang dapat ia tawarkan ke komunitas desainer interaktif – sekelompok orang yang secara mendarah-daging selalu menganggap bahwa keberlanjutan adalah suatu desain sistem. Selengkapnya tentu saja bisa dibaca langsung di situs tersebut; di sini saya hanya merunut ke-tujuh prinsip tindakan berkelanjutan yang disampaikan Valerie.

1. Sebuah sistem bukanlah hanya sebuah gabungan dari bagian-bagian dari sistem tersebut. Satu bagian sistem pasti berpengaruh pada yang lain; tidak ada yang berada di luar sistem.

Tindakan: Memahami konsep sistem. Di sebuah bentangan benang yang ujung-ujungnya telah tertanam pasti/fixed (diagram Bruce Mau), tarikan pada satu bagian pasti akan mengulur bagian-bagian yang lain. Petakanlah proyek, sumber daya dan dampaknya dengan cara ini.

2. Masukan yang tertunda menyebabkan “jebakan desain”. Desainer bisa membuat keputusan buruk bila masukan/tanggapan terlambat datang.

Tindakan: Jangan mendesain untuk gejala tertentu saja. Banyak proyek desain terfokus hanya pada pemecahan masalah yang mudah untuk dicerna, daripada mengatasi sumber permasalahannya. Contohnya, orang lebih dianjurkan untuk mendaur ulang, tapi tidak pernah benar-benar dianjurkan untuk mengurangi belanjaan atau membeli produk-produk lokal.

3. Tidak ada yang namanya efek samping. Kita sering menentukan batasan-batasan artifisial di sekitar proyek kita bukan saja untuk memfokuskan diri pada permasalahan, tapi juga untuk menghindari tanggung-jawab terhadap hal-hal di luar batasan tersebut.

Tindakan: Alamilah produk-sampinganmu sendiri. Cobalah membawa-bawa sampahmu sendiri selama seminggu. Jangan buang benda-benda non-organik yang kamu pakai: botol plastik, kemasan, tisu, peralatan makan, semuanya. Ini akan jadi sebuah pelajaran kilat untuk mengetahui ‘efek samping’ dari semua konsumsi kita.

4. Tetapkan ukuran-ukuran kesuksesan yang tepat. Kurang buruk tidak berarti baik.

Tindakan: Buka sebuah jejaring sosial dengan sebuah tujuan sosial. Kita suka menciptakan jejaring, tapi bagaimana kalau kita menciptakan sebuah alasan untuk berjejaring? Kalkulator jejak karbon jadi kurang laku karena keabstrakan data hasilnya, berbeda dengan situs-situs di mana orang berbagi kasus-kasus nyata, perkembangan-perkembangan dan usaha-usahanya.

5. Pilih tingkatan yang tepat untuk perubahan.

Tindakan: Jadilah seorang mentor. Luangkan enam minggu bekerja dengan seorang siswa tingkat menengah atas, dan pelajari dirimu sendiri sambil membantu orang lain memakai pemikiran desain untuk mengubah lingkungan mereka (misalkan, sebuah sekolah).

Peta perjalanan bahan pembuat sebuah taco, menempuh hingga 64,000 mil (sumber: http://www.fastcompany.com/1567625/the-anatomy-of-a-taco)

6. Kenali hubungan antara struktur dan perilaku. Struktur sebuah kelompok, organisasi, komunitas, industri secara keseluruhan menentukan perilakunya.

Tindakan: Lakukan investigasi terhadap sebuah sistem. Telitilah sistem makanan dalam segala kejayaan politisnya yang korup. Mengertilah bahwa yang kau masukkan ke mulut adalah sebuah aksi politis. Cari berbagai referensi yang membuat kita tahu bagaimana pasar makanan global membuat lapar pihak-pihak yang miskin. Bayangkan dan berbagilah sumber-sumber mengenai hal-hal yang kau sukai, dan tambahkan sedikit data dalam investigasimu, mungkin kau bisa mempertentangkan berbagai asumsi tentang keberlanjutan, dan meluncurkan cara baru dalam berpikir.

7. Perhatian publik seringkali tidak mencerminkan perubahan dalam kondisi sebenarnya. Jangan terbuai oleh efek memabukkan dari isu-isu yang beredar tentang keberlanjutan – kamu juga harus melakukan sesuatu!

Tindakan: Kontribusi, distribusi. Bertindaklah sekarang!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=805-HI8Jx2I]