Opinion: Preserving Culture In An AI World

Maintaining our connections to culture when most of our world is made by machines.

We live in a world of contradictions. On the one hand, there is pressure to advance technologically — in manufacturing, the continual search for better, cheaper, faster solutions. Yet, we continue to value the rarefied and slow and are even willing to pay more for this exclusive service. The more means we have, the more we seek out the bespoke, the handmade, the one-of-a kind.

Most of our world is now made by machines. AI is now starting to make our culture. Technology has improved our quality of life, yet we can feel lost in this world of machines and lose our connection to each other. Art and hand-made objects transmit emotion. We can see and feel the influence of the maker, their gestures leaving a mark on the piece in front of us, and we somehow share an experience with someone that we may have never met. There is value in a unique piece that was made just for us, customised to our tastes and measurements, expressing our own message through subtle clues.

In preserving artisanal traditions, we preserve our culture and heritage, the foundation of our humanity. There is something beautiful and mysterious in the transmission of expert craft techniques from one generation to the next, skills that are perfected over years, not days, and that take time to realise. The process of apprenticeship teaches not only movements and gestures, but also the values of patience and respect — for one’s history and culture, for the environment that supplies the natural materials, and for each other.

Replacing generations of artisans — who have developed a craft over centuries, evolving as part of the local culture — with faster machines or with less expensive workers in faraway countries not only degrades the quality of the craft; it can degrade the quality of life for an entire region. Preserving artisanal craftsmanship preserves jobs and regional culture, offering an alternative to the exodus from remote regions to our cities. We all appreciate the charm of authentic ancient villages, the sites of many of these craft ateliers, but if the ateliers disappear and there is no opportunity for younger generations to create a life in the village, they will leave — and so the village slowly dies.

In the ateliers of La Manufacture Cogolin, we have been weaving hand-made rugs in a village at the centre of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez for 100 years. Generations of weavers and seamstresses have been trained on site, perfecting a unique quality and style of rugs produced only in our ateliers, woven on 19th-century Jacquard hand looms in narrow panels that are sewn together by hand. You can see and feel the Mediterranean in the textiles that are as equally at home in a New York apartment as in a seaside villa — the gestures of the artisans, the vestiges of Moorish culture, the warm sun, a fresh sea breeze. An understated sophistication resulting from 100 years of collaboration with the most important artists and decorators of the 20th and 21st centuries. This can’t be replaced by a machine, and it’s worth waiting for.

Sarah Henry is managing and creative director of La Manufacture Cogolin

This article originally appeared in Billionaire's Art & Design Issue. To subscribe click here.