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.