Blessed with an easy laugh and an earnest approach, Singgih Kartono (the name is pronounced "SING-ee") says his main interest is in sidestepping the crasser manufacturing and construction techniques that frequently accompany new electronics on their way to market.

"I have tried to redefine 'what is design?'" he says.

"I have started by trying to make a product that's good for people. And by that, I've come to know that technologies that are good for people -- such as multi-functional capability -- sometimes means that the materials are not as good."

The speed of modern marketing can be a culprit in this, he says. "Every new technology is also an investment. There's this need for payback. The equipment becomes part of this, and the industry tries to force to the market a new product" quickly, cost-effectively -- and maybe, he's saying, without regard to how that product might have been constructed for a more personal, meaningful and eco-friendly appeal.

"I have tried not to follow this trend," Kartono says, because it is not good for life. "I have tried to ask, 'Well, then, what is good for people?'

"I have tried to make a product that has a good relationship to the people, to the user."

His use of Indonesian ebony wood from his central Javanese region is being enhanced by the tree-planting efforts of a Kandangan school called Mountain Sumbling. Some 1,000 trees have been grown from seed as a nursery has been created around the production of the radio, part of Kartono's goal to employ as many people as possible.

"I want to sensitize us with Nature," he says, "the way it was in the past" but in the modern context of electronics and the consumer economy."

You find a key to the deep connection Kartono feels to his design and its local implementation in his writings about wood on his site.

"Wood is a kind of material that draws its beauty from its history," he tells us. "How it grows is an amazing process. It records its age lines. It records good and bad times. The beautiful texture and grain actually tell a story of its life. Wood is a kind of perfect material, perfect cause of its imperfection. Its characters teach us about life, balance, limits."

With such eloquence underlying his thoughts about his design, Kartono then wants to transfer to his customer for each radio -- there now is a large and smaller personal model -- a kind of mandate to handle and think about what it represents.

"I'm not using any coating on the product," he says. "I want the user to touch the wood. In my concept, the beauty of the product depends not on the product itself but on how the user handles it and protects it.

"I think people find that the longer they have the Magno radio, the more personal it becomes to them. They don't want to lend it to anyone."

That personal connection to something you care for, yourself, and come to know for its wood's special character -- "no radio is like the next, thanks to the wood, which is both soft and hard" -- is what Kartono values, as he works to develop a personal economic support system for his base of operations.

Designed by:
Singgih S. Kartono Indonesia.

Produced by:
Piranti Works.

www.magno-design.com

Written by Porter Anderson  (sumber: http://www.designtoimprovelife.dk)

Tanam pohon

Lalu apa urusan radio kayu dengan filosofi kehidupan berkelanjutan? ”Saya lahir dan dibesarkan di desa. Hutan dan kayu adalah lingkungan saya. Di desa, kayu dipakai untuk bahan bakar, bikin rumah, mainan, dan banyak hal dalam hidup. Setelah lulus kuliah, saya kembali ke desa, menghidupi desa dengan kayu dan menghidupkan kayu dari desa,” ujarnya.Kerajinan kayu memberi nilai tambah signifikan bagi kayu. ”Sebatang kayu sengon sebagai kayu bakar hanya ekuivalen dengan 0,8 dollar AS. Tapi, sebagai produk kerajinan tangan, kayu yang sama bisa menghasilkan 1.000 dollar AS. Kita harus lebih cerdas memanfaatkan kayu,” ujarnya.

Ia mengalokasikan 10 persen dari hasil penjualan produk untuk dikembalikan kepada alam, lewat pembibitan dan penanaman pohon. Itulah mengapa dari 2.200 meter persegi tanah di pabriknya yang justru menghabiskan lahan adalah pembibitan ribuan sengon, mahoni, sonokeling, dan pinus.”Bersama aktivis lingkungan, Mukidi, saya merintis penanaman pohon di kaki Gunung Sumbing yang gundul. Kami menanam 1.500-an pohon. Ada juga bantuan dari Panasonic,” ujarnya.

Ia juga bekerja sama dengan SMP Negeri 3 Bulu, Desa Wonotirto, di kaki Gunung Sumbing, menyebar kesadaran pelestarian alam dengan menanam pohon. ”Kami melibatkan murid menanam pohon di sekitar sekolah, di kaki gunung, di rumah-rumah. Anak-anak sadar akan pentingnya menyelamatkan hutan. Penggundulan hutan menyebabkan kelangkaan sumber air di kawasan ini,” ujar Wiyono, Kepala Sekolah SMP 3 Bulu.

Penggundulan hutan di Gunung Sumbing kian parah karena penanaman tembakau. ”Para petani percaya, tembakau akan berkualitas baik jika mendapat sinar matahari langsung. Jadi, semua pohon di kaki gunung ini ditebangi. Hutan menjadi gundul, rawan longsor, dan banyak mata air mengering.”Warga Desa Wonotirto harus mengambil air bersih dari sumber air yang jaraknya 6 kilometer. Itu sebabnya, kami membuat saluran air dari mata air dan membuat bak penampungan dekat sekolah. Tanpa bak itu, di sekolah ini tak ada setetes pun air bersih,” ujar Singgih.

Kerusakan lingkungan di Temanggung bisa diatasi jika ketergantungan warga pada penghidupan yang mengeksploitasi tanah dikurangi. ”Itu juga alasan saya mengembangkan kerajinan yang tak cuma efisien dalam penggunaan kayu sebagai bahan baku, tapi juga memanfaatkan sebanyak mungkin tenaga kerja,” ujarnya. Dengan konsep itu, setiap orang tanpa keterampilan apa pun bisa ditampung sebagai tenaga kerja. ”Sejak hari pertama masuk kerja, ia harus bisa mengerjakan satu bagian proses produksi. Dalam seminggu ia sudah terampil dan dalam 3-4 bulan ia terampil mengerjakan semua proses produksi. Dalam setahun, kalau mau dan punya modal, ia bisa bikin pabrik sendiri. Kalau bisa mendapat order 2.500 dollar AS sampai 3.000 dollar AS sebulan, ia bisa mempekerjakan 10 tenaga kerja,” katanya.

Singgih dibantu 30 karyawan dengan kapasitas produksi 400-an unit radio per bulan. ”Saya ingin bisa menampung 1.000 warga Kandangan atau 25 persen populasi desa. Dalam 15-20 tahun ke depan, kami punya hutan yang rimbun lagi, sumber air melimpah, dan lingkungan hidup yang baik,” ujarnya optimistis. Singgih mengawali usahanya pada tahun 2003. Ia bekerja di ruang tamu rumahnya dengan peralatan rakitan sendiri. Ia berkeliling pabrik kayu, membeli sisa kayu potongan untuk bahan baku. Dibantu istri dan empat pekerja, ia mulai membuat radio kayu. Kini, ia punya pabrik berukuran 15 meter x 18 meter yang dibangun dengan biaya Rp 100 juta.

Konsep hidup dan kerja inilah yang dijual. Orang tak hanya membeli radio kayu, tetapi mendukung konsep kehidupan berkelanjutan di Temanggung.

Sumber: Kompas, Selasa, 14 Oktober 2008 | 03:00 WIB

NUGROHO F YUDHO

Dengarkan obrolan dengan Singgih Kartono, tamu MANIFESTO yang pertama, perjalanan hidupnya, perjuangannya melatih karyawan dan membesarkan usaha kecilnya, dan prinsip-prinsip di balik kreasinya, seri radio kayu Magno yang kini tengah bertarung di People’s Award dari Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum di New York City.  Sudah banyak yang memberi dukungan bagi Magno berupa vote – sudahkah Anda voting?  Kunjungi www.magno-design.com untuk mengakses voting page People’s Award.

Sumber: http://www.voiceofjakarta.com/tag/singgih-kartono/

With demand for his products growing (creating a current backlog of one month), it is very likely that he will have to expand his production facilities soon, although he does not wish to hurry on that. His neighbours will also enjoy the desentralised distribution of benefits soon. If things go well in the next couple of years, the village vill soon experience a densification process, having new wealth that willl materialise in the “rural” space 

Singgih’s vision of production based on local resources, and a fair distribution of wealth in the locale, revives our imagination of “garden city” and other utopias in the history of urbanism. Resources and production are closely linked with relationships clearly tangible and within sight. It would certainly means very low ecological footprint. Fortunately, his “inputs” of the electrical parts in his radios also come from nearby factories in Semarang, two hours by car from Kandangan, Singgih’s base.

His products are sold so far mostly to consumers abroad. MOMA in New York just started to sell them in their stylish museum shop. Can we assume that the value he added to the woods justifies the emission of CO2 of transporting them?

Need for a plan

In anticipation of the spectre of  “growth” that is lurking from behind both the demand for his products, and the needs of the village, Singgih is already thinking of  creating a “masterplan” to guide the village development into the future. A serious mapping of available assets (natural and man made) is needed. A vision of how a future growth wil also grow and nurture (instead of deplete) the assets will be an intriquing exercise of intellect, creativity and technical skills of many disciplines.

Source: http://rujak.org/tag/spatial-plan/

The Hindu and Buddhist-influenced temples that dot the area are evidence of a rich cultural heritage, which also includes ceramic pieces, bronze and silver art and stone carvings.

But the few craftsmen still engaged in creating works of art with religious themes are diminishing, and the few still holding on to their profession are finding it harder to preserve the ancient art they inherited from their ancestors.

Bejijong, a hamlet in Trowulan subdistrict, is known as a center for bronze and silverware -- but looking for a craftsman's workshop in this sleepy little hamlet is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Arif, a man hard to track down, is the owner of a workshop specializing in bronze, gold and silverware in the hamlet.

"Bronze smithing has become somewhat of a dying art in Bejijong," said Arif, who inherited a workshop from his late father, adding he had struggled to keep the business afloat.

Arif, who is a teacher by training, said he felt obliged to continue on with the craft; a cultural inheritance that originated from way down the family line.

Leading the way to a workshop at the back of his home surrounded by a spacious yard, he explained that before the economic crises of 1998, there were some 10 silversmiths in the area.

But with a decline in the demand for bronze and silver works of art, they had all closed down business: Arif's workshop is the last one standing.

Back in the days when his father was still running the business, the workshop employed some 20 craftsmen. But ongoing economic pressures forced the majority of craftsmen to look for work elsewhere.

For more than 25 years, Arif's workshop has produced Buddha heads, temple bells, miniature temples and figurines of Hindu gods. Art traders sell the handicrafts produced to tourists visiting the temples in Trowulan.

Despite the misfortunes encountered, Arif said he vows to try as hard as he can to keep the business going, as he believes preserving the art will have its rewards.

In order to survive, he accepts orders placed by tourist centers in Bali and Jakarta.

Recent orders are mostly for pieces of art with classical European appeal: A smith at his workshop demonstrates his skill at shaping and welding a model of a Trojan horse.

It is astonishing to watch the smith at work producing an artwork of such refined quality, which originated from a foreign culture. A Trojan horse can fetch some Rp 170,000 (US18) to Rp 200,000 a piece.

Aside from meeting orders from art dealers, Arif's workshop continually produces artwork with tradition appeal. He keeps a collection of various models, like an owl paper-weight, and deer, turtle and beetle figurines.

Current economic pressure, he said, is a major threat to the existence of silver and bronze smithing, which previously offered a decent livelihood to quite a number of craftsmen in Bejijong.

Similar concerns have been expressed by a number of stone carvers in the area, who have complained of excessive levies incurred when sending consignments of statues to Bali.

It is not hard to find the workplace of those engaged in stone carving -- one only needs to follow the tapping of hammer and chisel echoes along the main artery connecting Mojokerto to Jombang.

The rhythmic tapping sound guides the casual visitor to an empty plot of land where a group of craftsmen work under the shade of trees, giving shape to huge boulders using simple tools.

Their works of art, including ghost houses, Hindu and Buddhist statues as well as carvings for home decorations, lay scattered under the trees.

The craftsmen work together and seem to be able to coordinate their activities without too much conversation.

Despite a lack of formal education, the craftsmen's skills are able to meet the demand of orders from several tourist centers.

"Craftsmen in Bali have their hands full with the huge demand from tourists there, so some of the orders are placed with stone carvers in Trowulan," said one carver.

"We are also able to produce artwork with more modern themes, like home decorations with Hellenistic influences, statues for churches or crocodile statues like this one," he said, pointing to a model of a crocodile some 1.5 meters in length.

Most of Trowulan's stone carvings end up in Bali, where they are sold to buyers as far away as Australia, England and European countries.

Each of the eight craftsmen that work in Arif's workshop earn some Rp 500,000 to Rp 800,000 a month.

Though Arif is eager to give the workers a raise, the heavy levies at the harbor in Bali drains the workshop's income.

"It's a pity the government does not appreciate our self-employment efforts," he said. "Especially since economic woes still threaten our existence." Retno K. Djojo