Fieldwork Summary

Part1- Shikahogh

This blog portrays the 6 weeks fieldwork conducted in Armenia, of which 2 weeks were spent in the Shikahogh village and another week was dedicated to study of the stone masonry technique at Khachkar workshop.

Shikahogh village is one of the 5 villages surrounding the Shikahogh Natural preserve, in Syunik province.

Shikahogh village is one of the 5 villages surrounding the Shikahogh Natural preserve, in Syunik province.  I have spent 2 weeks in the village, interviewing the local residents, the governor and the head of the natural preserve.

This was a great opportunity to immerse into e the day to day village life, with its breath taking surroundings, the schedule with which the locals operate and good exercise in tying to understand both the joys and the impediments of farming and agriculture.

In recent year, a number of young representatives were promoted to the governing roles, who are eager to enrich the village life and incentivise the growth of population.

However this is not an easy task to accomplish, since the village is facing a number of deep rooted difficulties, of which the deterioration of population, the lack of job opportunities, the infrastructural and facilitative defects being the most pressing.

Irrigation is a major issue and while in the village I have been contemplating on the use of the appropriate technologies to tackle it with the minimum investment.

 

Historically "A point of collection" used to exist in the village during soviet times,  designed to promote more produce in the villages, these are the points of purchase where the villagers can bring their extra cattle, eggs , milk and other products for trade and exchange, and since the system is made obsolete, the villagers only produce as much as they can reasonably consume.

The house of culture used to be the main attraction during the soviet times, this is where the community would gather for events and celebrations. he building is not being looked after anymore, whereas it could have been used for several workshops: such as

-pottery, there used to be a long established ceramics tradition that is not being practiced anymore.

-Khachkar making, this is of course the oldest and the most traditional crafting technique established in the country thousands of years ago

- carpet making was another popular crafts among women, that is not being practiced anymore

By exploring the themes of the natural preserve, these crafts workshop can strengthen the community spirit and provide jobs for the residents.

A big issue seems to be the access to the natural preserve, which is now being protected by WWF, but this organisation seems to have excluded the human habitats from the eco cycle, by putting in place strict regulations about the trees, which used to be the main fuel source for the residents through the harsh winters. A better system will assume that a certain amount of dry wood and fallen trees/branches are made accessible for the villagers and an annual new tree plating will ensure a maintenance of a sustainable environment.

 

The agricultural tools that are currently being used in the village are from that of the soviet era, and thus they are unsuitable for any productive work. A metal workshop could have solved this problem for Shikahogh and the rest of the neighbourhood villages, if the system was in place ensuring a scrap metal transportation from the nearby metal factory in Kapan.

 

The village road which is around 3-4 Km long is also in need of attention, as well as the exterior of the old stone houses, that have been repaired with all kinds of found materials throughout time.

 

The village is located in the heart of the deep forest, surrounded by mountains and endangered species of tigers and bears, and it is essential to have street light. The village sinks into pitch darkness after 5-6 pm in winter, I was looking into solar powered lamps that have been successfully used in other rural areas.

 

More rural development ideas revolved around the once operated mineral water source re-introduction, a built of a ropeway, that would boost eco tourism, offering the visitors a birds eye view into the heart of the preserve. For the forementioned eco tourism promotion it is essential to establish the Shikahogh wensite with thorough instructions and visitors guide as well as public transport links. Another concept was to perhaps design a sports event or a "Shikahogh green day" celebration to lure more flow into Shikahogh and neighbouring villages.

Initial reflections:

After spending 2 weeks in the village, I prepared a presentation for Luys, to get their feedback and to get a gist of the kind of project that they will be willing to sponsor and get involved in.

 To reiterate Luys Agenda and structure : In the knowledge-based global economy, Armenia must create a stronger presence among the world's leading creative thinkers and innovators to ensure that it thrives and participates equally with the leading nations. Luys Foundation has been tasked with this endeavour. 

After a very successful meeting with Luys executive director and program manager, they admitted that they like all of the ideas and would want to see them all materialised within DAP program, hence I was asked to join a dap project that was taking place in Gyumri.

Incidentally, Gyumri is one of the 2 cities that suffered 1988 earthquake, I looked into this before when studying the Lord Byron school that was built on the place of the destroyed school by British government. I joined a group of young creative people, to understand how a dap is designed and implemented on the example of the Science + Art street art festival.

The essence of this exercise was to observe how the DAP project is implemented: a project leader is put with a dozen mentees to organise the event that was prior submitted and signed off by Luys.

This particular project was to promote the local artist, get the public involved and essentially establish Gyumri as the arts centre of the country.

 This project made me think of the future team of young mentees that I have to put together, thus I visited TUMO. To put it in the words of the founders "Tumo is a new kind of after-school learning environment where thousands of students aged 12-18 are in charge of their own learning. Guided by skilled educators and mentored by media professionals, students navigate through their personal learning plans via the Tumo World, a special learning interface that prepares them for hands-on practice."

Robotics workshop, run by Susan is a space were the initial stages of programming and robot making is introduced to Tumo students. After a productive exchange of ideas, I suggested the collaboration oft he Tumo students in the DAP and the informal agreement was made.

DAP Gyumri was an example of a rather lightweight project, that did not involve any built and construction, more research into their previous activities further confirmed this, hence I started looking into other NGOs that are more involved in building projects.

Children of Armenia Foundation is one of many that is run by diaspora endorsement. Their main focus is the built of schools in the villages.

After a Shikahogh presentation to Mr Khachatryan, the head of the COAF , he expressed a great interest in the project and in future collaboration, and some of the elements of the Shikahogh he thought could have been easily adopted by the other villages that they work in, such as the workshops, the street lamps etc.

Part2- Stone Masonry

The next ingredient of the research was to cover the Armenian stone masonry, the traditional Khachkar making and the origins of the Armenian stone in general.

There is a Khachkar open air workshop right in the hearth of Yerevan , established by the master Varazdat Hambardzumyan. Here in this workshop he oversees that the disciples follow the precise methodology and the art of treating the big blocks of traditional Armenian tuff stone, crafting it into a delicate embroidery work.

I was fortunate to spend days in the workshop with the master and the students, at one point even becoming the directors of the documentary on Jugha Khachkars. The experience was enriching both in the understanding the motifs and the traditional ornaments depicted as well as the use of the variety of tools to cut and draw and shape the stone.

The days spent in the workshop helped me establish close links with the artists and they agreed to assist with any future stone workshops in the villages.

In Yerevan, there is a museum of stone. Here one can find different kinds of stones occupying the space, amongst those the most well known and most abundant of the volcanic origin stones of tuff, basalt and granite.

 Is there a link between the internal structure of these different stones and the ornaments that are carved on them? in search for the answer I have collected and studied many stonework from hundreds of different Khachkars and churches.

Armenia is a land of mountains and stones all formed after the volcanos. The mark of history on the land can be observed in Garni gorge as well as Hrazdan gorge in the capital city.

These are the volcanic basalt columns that have formed naturally as a result of the lava cooling with the intervention of the gravity.

 

I have also paid a visit to Geghard cave, a monumental reminder of the early stone masonry technique employed by Armenian craftsmen in this inside - out carving method. The manmade cave of Geghard is ornate with Khachkars petroglyphs.

Lastly I have become a frequent visitor of the national library, where the "manual google" searching method is still in place reminiscence of the soviet times.

A big variety of books on stone masonry, Armenian architecture and rural development was obtained and bough back with me.

 

 

Part3- Concluding Observations

In retrospect, 4 scenarios have been generated to reflect the data collected and to provide some further direction.

The first is the "no interference" mode, where no project is being implemented and it is assumed that the population continues to shrink.

 

The next concept is the "stone lab", which is a catalytic development, a seed of change. this is the workshop that enables the villagers to study the stone masonry technique and to venture into archaeological journey of the ancient Khachkars in the village of which no information is available. this is an attempt to raise the sense of community and belonging, and to let the locals know that the government really does care about them and they are not left behind as they think. The stone lab will not only provide some work opportunities along the way, but will allow an experimental hybrid model studies of ancient techniques translated and transformed with modern tools.

 

Next is the scenario of the "smart village" that assumes all the above mentioned improvements to be implemented, all the workshops and infrastructure to be materialise and the outcome to be monitored, so that the concept can be transferred and adopted by other rural dwellings.

 

Lastly the "automated village" acknowledges that there must be a reason why the village population decreases and that instead of fighting something that can be an evolutionary modification of the rural habitation as we know it, we embrace and prepare for the change. Automated village assumes no human habitation but simply the continuation of village as a mechanism that provides farming and agricultural produce with a remote control in place. The only major issue that this scenario fails to address (same as the "No Interference" option) is the vital importance of the land in the consciousness and the history of the country.

The "stone lab" was selected to be developed further as the most feasible and viable option that will answer many of the village questions and provide a rich context for this research.

Week 15: Mid term summary

- Digital Applications of ancient Armenian stone carving for rural housing in Shikahogh -

On one hand, we have a long established stone masonry tradition in Armenia, on the other hand we have the Shikahogh village in Syunik province in Armenia that is in need of improvement and the challenge is to utilize the ancient carving techniques on the platform of the modern digital applications whilst addressing the real needs of the villagers.

The initial strategy that I have adopted for reaching this objective looks like this. Here I have identified the three areas – the target which is the rural development, the context, which is the resource for the theoretical framework as well as a data source, and the practice, is where the transition and transfer between the theoretical and the practical implementations occur. Now practice employs two vehicles for its realization, and those are the workshop, where initial prototypes and tests will materialize and the fieldwork which is the link between the concept and the site and it is the experimental ground for sampling and built.

 

On this slide, I have illustrated the potential timeline for the next 3 years, in accordance with the key milestones outlined by DRDP. Here you can see the elements from the project strategy, and additionally I have the on-going writing up component shaping here as well. With the help of this chart, I can keep the whole process under control and do performance valuation by comparing the expected and the actual progress, which I think is very useful.

Armenia is a landlocked country, bordering Turkey to the West, Iran to the South, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to the East and Georgia to the North. This is Syunik province, which is where Shikahogh is located and it has a strategic importance for the country’s economy. Because since 1991 the borders between Turkey and Azerbaijan have been concealed, thus making communication with Iran of vital importance for Armenia, which relies heavily on its imports of energy, in particular natural gas and other commodities. I will come back to this subject in the later slides.

Armenia is a land of predominantly volcanic origin, igneous rocks, and it is also notoriously earthquake prone. There are 7 volcanos on the current territory of Armenia, the youngest of which is Arteni with the latest eruption in 1340.

And this is a beautiful Holocene volcano Aragats, where it is believed one can still find the Gregory illuminators lantern, according to the myth. In fact there are numerous myths surrounding all the mountains of the land and people identify themselves with these mounts. And they do so not only because of the myths, but because Armenians were archaic mountain cave dwellers.

These are the man-made caves around the canyons and valleys of the medieval city Ani, which is where the Armenian masons established the stone masonry techniques by carving into the fabric of the mountains and creating these comfortable apartments with sleeping and storage areas and this is where the tradition was perfected.  (Details)Unfortunately I will not be able to visit this site during my fieldwork because it is on a territory of modern Turkey. Instead I will explore the same masonry technique on the Geghard monastery cave, now this is in Armenia and here the same craftsmanship methods were employed and developed.

The only difference is in the functionality of this cave, which is bearing religious rather than secular residential connotation like the caves in Ani. There are 2 opportunities in Geghard of studying the stone masonry technique and the geometric patterns- one is on the big scale of the cave and second is on a small scale of Khachkar. Khachkar means a stone bearing a cross and throughout history it played a variety of roles of a book, of a temple, it appeared as a symbol for the preservation of the Armenian identity and the tradition of erecting these stones is very much intact in modern day Armenia. The ancestors of the Khachkars are the petroglyphs, these are the first carved stones from around 900 BC, which gave birth to the Armenian hieroglyphs that later become the Armenian written alphabet as we know it today and this is what I mean by the identity embedded in stone and time permitting it will be curious to investigate just how much of the written alphabet is influenced by the texture and the geometry of these stones used to carve on, did the patterns of the stone participate in the formation of the letters.

Thousands of these petroglyphs are found on the landmark of the Karahunj (the whispering stones) which in itself represents perhaps the earliest attempts of the masons to work with the stone. This site consists of 223 standing stones, possibly dating back to around 5000BC and it is assumed by archaeologist to be an observatory, because there are the circular holes on the upper part of the stones that point to various constellations and planets. The “whispering stones” is near our village Shikahogh in Syunik province as well, which is convenient.

Apart from the anthropogenic geometries and patterns, I have initiated some studies into the inherent or natural geometric formations, such as this site called “the symphony of stones” in Garni Gorge. These massive volcanic basalt columns are shaped into the most efficient of the hexagonal forms. The clustering on this particular shape is dependent on the lava cooling process and the collision of the forces of gravity, heat, pressure, density etc. Without going into too much technicalities, it is worth mentioning that on the crystalline level of these rocks we see that these efficient geometries replicate themselves, creating fractal structure. Or perhaps it’s the other way round where the macro scale replicates the micro.

And to briefly mention the digital applications aspect, here we have the 3 scenarios- 1^st of the natural mathematics- the one created by the nature then we have the analogue man made carving (this particular example is from Geghard monastery that I’ve showed you earlier) and lastly the algorithmic 3 axis digital fabrication representations. In the previous slide I have mentioned about the natural conditions of the forces, gravity, heat, density etc. all of which take place during natural formations, and in this sequence as we go from the natural to the machine made, that data, the real time data of natural conditions is lost, in digital world we don’t have applications of gravity and material infrastructure, and hence I will be attempting to script this data into the platform of the digital software that we use.

There are studies of the acoustics and lighting used with some architectural design software packages, which is an example of the natural conditions simulations, and there is no reason why this can’t be taken eve further with integration of something like seismology for example.

And whilst I am not suggesting that we should go back to cave dwelling, but there is an enormous heritage, an expertise of the tactile dialogue between the creator and the object, a more controlled tangible relationship that could be utilized, to prevent the computational design and digital fabrication from drifting into the abstract. On this example we have direct manipulations of the material and then we have the interface between the human and the design, so for example with the mouse we have less control, and with the emergence of new technologies such as the haptic 3d brush, we have more of that sense of craftsmanship, but still on rudimentary technologies.

But going to back to our site and to the more practical issues, currently only 36% of the Armenian population is based in their homeland, which is about 3 million people as a result of two major migration processes first of which took place in 1915 during the Armenian genocide and the 2nd after the USSR collapse in1990. Moreover, of those located in Armenia around 35% reside in the Capital city Yerevan, which constitutes only fractional 0.8% of the territory of Armenia, thus creating an enormously disproportionate population distribution in rural areas. And here we have the plan of the Yerevan city which was first embedded in stone.

 So Shikahogh, as mentioned earlier, and the province in general has a significant strategic meaning for the country, however there is a constant deterioration of numbers observed every year as the villagers abandon their land because of lack of employment opportunities and the low living standards. After the USSR collapse, the centralised system of the economy (housing, agriculture) was made obsolete and the land with the properties was privatized, but like in many other Armenian villages and small town this economy has failed to recover since then.

Currently, there are several projects taking place around Shikahogh, the Shikahogh national preserve and the surrounding villages. Which are seen as controversial as there seems to be a disagreement between the environmentalist, the government and foreign investors. So these ventures are for example an explorative mining project initiated by a German corporation, which started last year, but some environmentalist oppose it arguing that there is a bigger potential for eco-tourism in the area. Also there is the huge railroad project in the pipeline which will be passing through the Shikahogh and linking 3 countries- Georgia, Armenia and Iran, which is interesting because only 3 years ago there was already a highway built connecting Iran with Armenia. But what we are interested here is how the villagers can benefit from any of these activities, to address the irrigation and housing issues for example.

It appears that the villagers don’t get much say in these affairs and they are uncertain about what will these changes mean for their lives, their land and their mountains. And these are the questions I will hopefully address during my fieldwork,which I will be undertaking in collaboration with DAP (Develop Armenia Project) within the bigger governmental undertaking of Luys (Armenian translation “to Illuminate”), the aim of which is to provide young scholars and entrepreneurs with an incentive and a platform to acquire specific education and skills and to later implement the knowledge and expertise in the advancement of the country. So I will be looking for collaborative opportunities with other researchers working in fields of archaeology, architecture, engineering etc. My focus at this stage is perhaps a bit more on the housing at this stage, despite the earlier mentioned tendency of people to abandon their rural dwellings, even in Shikahogh there is a housing shortage, and this is a widespread phenomenon, due to the 1988 earthquake that left half a million about 18% of the population homeless, plus again there was no government initiated housing projects delivered after the USSR collapse, and big portion of those building from soviet times, are not suitable for habitation anymore because of seismic regulations.