Keywords

1 Introduction

At first, it analyzes the important craft in the history of industrial arts, namely lacquer art, and its general development context in the Chinese history, and further elaborates the status of lacquer art discipline in Chinese institutions of higher education. Secondly, teaching thoughts and development suggestions are put forward by aiming at the educational problems of lacquer art in the third chapter, for instance, how could traditional culture and art develop in the current society? How could traditional craft “be modernized”? Besides, suggestions and solution to problems are stated: namely artists and designers should cooperate and exchange with each other based on the understanding and grasp of traditional national culture and traditional crafts, and further implement the innovative design by combining new technologies, new thoughts, social topics, pop culture and new aesthetics. Thirdly, with the teaching of lacquer art studio of Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai as a case, examples are cited to prove the feasibility analysis of the above views, and several design products of the teaching practice program are taken to illustrate the views in teaching, namely devoted to the integration of science, art and design and cross-cultural disciplines, and keep cross practicing to create new-craft products. Meanwhile, to encourage students to look for inspirations and stimulate the innovative ideation through the guidance of methods and behavioral inspiration, to carry out the design thinking and multi-dimension reconstruction in the formal expression of lacquer art creation and lacquer culture, and to form the multi-culture trans-boundary product innovation dominated by lacquer art eventually. At last, views proposed in this paper are summarized, the educational view that science, art, and design should be trans-boundary and associate multi-disciplines in the industrial art course of colleges and universities is correct and feasible.

2 Status of Traditional Industrial Art - Lacquer Art

Lacquer art is a category of art with natural lacquer as the main material. The natural lacquer used in traditional technical lacquer art is mainly from the lacquer tree. Restricted by natural environmental factors, like the geographic position, and whether, natural raw lacquer grows in Southeast Asia. According to historical records, Chinese lacquer was used 7000 years ago. It was recorded in Han Feizi Ten Faults that “Emperor Yu painted sacrificial utensils black outside and red inside” [1], which was the recorded form of lacquer artwork at that period. Lacquerware reached the peak stage in Ming and Qing Dynasty, and sunk down sharply afterwards. Kou Xiulan stated in the article Fading of Traditional Lacquerware and Reconstruction of Modern Lacquer Art that modernism seems to rise again, but actually the struggling modern lacquer art fails to inherit the typicality of the mother language of lacquer ware and abandons the traditional language. Furthermore, the fading of traditional lacquer art and regeneration of modern lacquer art is declared with the modernity symbol of textual deconstruction and cultural criticism, while its parent body is sacrificed with its trans-generational derivatives, and it would be forgotten thoroughly.” [2] Lacquer art once made remarkable achievements, which were mainly reflected by the form of lacquer ware. Nowadays, contemporary lacquer artists introduce the lacquer art to the public again, not by recovering the heavy and ancient brilliant state of lacquer ware, but revealing the contemporary understanding of lacquer art in such forms as the lacquer painting and 3D lacquer sculptures. Besides, these lacquer art works aim to reflect the texture of lacquer material and spiritual significance.

Throughout the history of industrial art, art ware occurred to meet the demands of creators for its practical functions. Lacquer ware is the theme of lacquer art, and lacquer ware emerged initially for its functions of use, but when the industrial art developed to a certain stage, it transformed towards art. With the improvement of living standard, transformation of social consciousness, changes of the ruling class in the aesthetic taste, powerful spiritual force of craftsmen, and improvement of aesthetic characters, the aesthetic value of industrial art has been increasingly enhanced, resulting in the gradual segregation of aesthetic functions and practical functions. Lacquer ware is no exception, and it transforms from the practical art ware to the fine-art lacquer painting and 3D lacquer modeling gradually.

“In today’s information age, it actually fails to break away from the historical fate, and fades away from the dazzling contemporary life. Despite of several appearances, it just adorns people’s memory of history.” [3] According to the present situation, problems discussed by critics in the art world and lacquer art world could be roughly known. With clear views and goals, and associating problems in the teaching of lacquer art in colleges and universities, we adjust the teaching mode and improve the teaching direction, and make certain progress in the expansion of lacquer art. The lacquer art relation is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.
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Lacquer art relation

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Figure 1 shows several works of the lacquer art course of the School of Design and Art, Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai, covering the graduation design project and classroom practice program. By focusing on the lacquer art culture and analyzing the development direction of lacquer art, lacquer art experimental projects of our school mainly include the easel lacquer painting, lacquer ware of utensil shape, spatial lacquer device, cooperative and trans-boundary lacquer art jewelry, scientific and innovative 3D lacquer form.

3 Demonstration of Lacquer Art Education – Modernization Development Direction

In the lacquer art teaching and creation, natural Chinese lacquer would of course be applied. Different materials conform to certain fixed number or fulfill certain form of duties. Chinese lacquer material is applied since it has highly individualized and metaphorical connotation, and great attraction in the art form. On the other hand, the constantly developing lacquer art technology changes the attributes of materials slowly.

Contemporary art emerged in the west at the end of 1960s and beginning of 1970s, and was spread to China at the beginning of the 1990s. “Contemporary art” was basically defined by five countries, including America, England, Germany, France and Italy. Ever since the biennial exhibition in Venice in 1993, the concept of “Chinese contemporary art” has been formed, and it mainly referred to the expression of contents of Chinese themes in the form of western language after the 1970s, or the transformation of traditional Chinese art form with avant-garde western language. After the Cultural Revolution, Chinese contemporary art emerged in the crack of two systems, namely the official art history and western modern art history. With the rise of China, it enters the stage of powerful dominance of nationalism. Currently, Chinese art realized the end of learning from the west, but it is not clear what to do in the future. The proposal of “super-contemporary” is made in such a context. Of course, “super-contemporary” is a starting point of ideology, and more accurately, it should be “mix contemporary” or “pan contemporary” [4]. The cultural orientation should be found in Chinese contemporary research, just like what the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro believed: “Japan should not analyze the west in a superficial level or confirm its cultural position and direction on this basis, and instead, it should regard the west as a medium for seeking its own cultural form” [5].

From the 1980s till now, most exhibitions of lacquer art are dominated by lacquer painting. The critic Peng De once pointed out in 2002 that: “lacquer painting ignores the modernization”, while “the contemporary art circle ignores the lacquer painting”.

The possibility realization of artistic creation exists in the real world, and artists and art designers focus on selecting the perspective and time of expressing the feelings. The development of things keeps changing, so does the spatial environment and people’s mental focus. Besides, artists and designers would create on the basis of the present, by discovering the key points that could be associated with contemporary characteristic elements in the varying real life, thus to design works and products with characteristics of the times and conforming to the humanity, science and technology and the people of the times. The significance of the contemporary age and spirit of the age is of equal importance in works, suggesting that we should focus on the time frame of life and space segment of the environment in the creation and design of works. Just like the view of Yin Jinan: the thought that a man can finally go back to the start point after traveling around the universe is a good theme of science fiction, but it is actually meaningless, since the universe would decrease to zero before a man makes a circle. You must travel faster than the light to go back to the start point before the end of universe, but it is impossible” [6].

The contemporary artistic methods, means and technologies are diversified. With the development of the times and technological progress, media materials expressed by artists and designers are also diversified, and both its themes and contents are directly related to the present.

According to the status and development of lacquer art, critics raise new doubt: “the modern lacquer art for the purpose of contemporary expression fails to step out of the marginalization of art, while new doubts come one after another: where would the lacquer art go? How far can it go? How to construct the art language and style with the characteristics of the times and concepts? Where is the basis of construction? What’s the value of utensils? Would it become the expression form of lacquer art?” [2].

By sorting out the conceptual relation between contemporary problems and “civilization and culture” and “technology and art” and the development process, it can be concluded that traditional art must launch the creation and research by combining the contemporary age. Accordingly, “traditional modernization” is mainly defined as: to grasp the essence of traditional art, carry forward the traditional Tao process, analyze the logic used through the ancient and modern times, and form the comprehension of traditional Tao process and innovative ideas, educational and teaching concepts and methodological frame, on the basis of the ancient natural culture. To dialogue with the civilization actively, and associate with the contemporary value of the carrier.”

4 Trans-Boundary Teaching Mode of Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai – Trans-Boundary Design Representation of New Technologies, Multi-materials and Lacquer Art

4.1 Teaching Reflection of Lacquer Art and Trans-Boundary Innovation

The reflection on and conclusion of the teaching of lacquer art is shown as below, by associating the above illustrations of the lacquer art status and art modernization and combining Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai. The lacquer ware and 3D lacquer has been formed through dry lacquer and bodiless method. There is such a batch of artists in Japan and South Korea, and most of them are young. Yong lacquer art creation group mainly from Tokyo University of the Arts considers themselves as the modernist school of lacquer, and they would support the modeling with mesh metal materials, also lacquer, paste and ash. In more innovative teaching experiments, materials like hemp rope, transparent plastic film, and foam, are also applied.

Due to the inspiration, the School of Arts of Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai communicates with and learns from all majors of the School of Computer and School of Chemical Engineering and Materials to enhance the trans-boundary cooperation and give full play to the creativity of lacquer art design, by combining the “craftsmanship spirit” historical background advocated by the country, as well as the practical conditions of economy and culture in Guangdong. Meanwhile, it summarizes the experience, explores to make innovations and inherits the fine connotation of traditional technology during the teaching process, trying to design with high technology, trans-boundary products (Fig. 2), 3D software modeling design, 3D printing technology, etc. Besides, it attempts to give full play to advantages of design talents in the modeling of 3D lacquer art, and handcraft specialty of industrial art majors in the lacquering technology, carries forward and develops all kinds of lacquer art skills, for instance, pineapple lacquer, light-weight materials, variant coating skills.

Fig. 2.
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Lacquer art jewelries made of trans-boundary materials: Chinese lacquer, copper, mother-of-pearl inlay, eggshell, etc.

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Henri Focillon mentioned in Vie DesFormes that “technology must extract power from materials” [7]. Artists and designers should keep The cultural and spiritual value of lacquer should constantly pay attention to the cultural and spiritual value of lacquer, and know how to transform the natural attributes to works, so as to display the nature of lacquer art work in its inherent modeling and rebirth after the transformation (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3.
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Trans-boundary lacquer art products: 3D printing and lacquer art

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As far as I am concerned, the undergraduate education focusing on the applied talent cultivation model should involve abundant practices and innovation, and be inter-disciplinary, and trans-boundary in teaching. Furthermore, students should be guided to think more, be creative and brave to show in the course setting, so that they could be skillful and flexible. These 3D lacquer shape experiments may not be mature or perfect, but it is reflected that the bold innovative spirit and creative thinking of young people is malleable, and worth encouraging.

4.2 Teaching Project – Case Analysis of “Made in China”

School of Art and Design, Beijing Institute of Technology, case analysis of the lacquer course teaching: Trans-boundary Lacquer Art Design Work of Lacquer Art, Bamboo Art and Functions – “Made in China” (the work was selected in the “Chinese Lacquer World: Time Series – Hubei International Lacquer Art Triennial 2016”):

Relation Between Bicycle and Human.

The first problem to be considered in creativity should be the relation, since when there is relation, there would be vitality, and it would be comprehended by analogy. In this case, the start point of design lies in its attempt of integrating human, bicycle, aesthetics, comprehensive materials and lacquer art. Bicycle is familiar to people, and it is environmentally friendly. Besides, it can help with the fitness, so it is available in major cities across the world. The design of this product aims to associate the lacquer art with the industrial design (Figs. 4 and 5).

Fig. 4.
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Student’s work: created in China

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Fig. 5.
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Created in China: local image

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Relation Between Bamboo, Lacquer Art and Metal Material.

The intersecting design of material aesthetics is a basic creative method of trans-boundary design, and it is worthy of practice and creation to observe the relation among all kinds of materials and all forms of beauty, integrate the optimal combination of materials, and produce new esthetic characteristics. The example of this project is Made in China, and the creative product is a practical, individualized and decorative bicycle, whose body is made of bamboo and Chinese paint, handle, wheel and seat frame is made of metal material, while the cushion is made of leather.

Material Selection and Extraction.

As for the bamboo of this case, Chinese people have always been fond of bamboos, and China is also a country studying, cultivating and making use of bamboos earliest in the world. It has a huge impact on the formation of traditional Chinese culture and spiritual culture. Besides, bamboo has a long-standing relation with the poetries and paintings, and landscape construction in China, and is closely related to the lives of Chinese working people. It is not hard to tell that China is worthy of the reputation, namely the “country of bamboo civilization”. Therefore, bamboo has a direct and far-reaching relation with human beings. It is not merely a material, and more importantly, it stands for a spirit.

On the other hand, Chinese art theories are often particular about the “spirit” or “artistic conception”, and it is a perception of art. Therefore, “for works taking lacquer as materials, the space where they are placed not just presents the substance, and more importantly, it is the collection of intrinsic spirit” [8]. The implication, Buddhist mood and elegance of lacquer materials is identical with the humble and mild spirit of bamboos. Lacquer art is painted on the wood, ceramic, metal and dry lacquer art in the traditional craft. But it is seldom combined with bamboos. According to the practice, it is found out that lacquer shows good adhesion and expression performance on bamboos, and the two can be closely combined, being consistent in the spirit of materials.

Idea Creation.

To look for trans-boundary material, and seek the “hyper text” structure of design. In 1965, Ted Nelson put forward the concept of “hyper text”, which changed the single-vision reading form through non-linear logic, and developed the comprehensive perception of perception, touch, vision, hearing, ontology sense and kinesthesia [9]. It reflects the co-existence of the traditional spirit and contemporary value, and takes the bamboo, a material representing the spirit of Chinese culture. There is no plant which can have a such a far-reaching impact on the Chinese civilization as bamboo, and many scholars would use it as a metaphor, and call the impact of bamboo on the material civilization and spiritual civilization on humankind as the bamboo culture. In the long-standing cultural history, plum, bamboo and pine are known as “three cold-weather friends”, while plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum are known as “four gentlemen”. It is evident that bamboo plays a vital role in the mind of Chinese people. Su Shi once said that “he preferred bamboo to meat” in the poem [10]. The material with both spirit and aesthetics really needs attention and exploration in the teaching process.

Premise of the Renaissance of Traditional Lacquering Technology.

In this case, the traditional lacquer art is associated with the popular mass culture, namely the bicycle. As for the two forms, one is the ancient classic and the other is the industrial trend. The premise for the renaissance of traditional handicraft is that it should attract the attention in the contemporary age. The reason why the lacquer art experiences a free-fall course in the present industrial age is that users pay les attention, and as a result, it is strange to the public. This project attempts to integrate the form of bicycle and industrial beauty, and make the test and promotion of the lacquer art design in the trans-boundary range.

Implementation of Trans-Boundary Technology.

Concerning the intersection of subjects in the teaching, students majoring in the industrial art should make efforts in all kinds of materials and technical skills, since the implementation of trans-boundary technology lies in such accumulation, and grasp of the attributes of all materials, for instance, clipping, adhesion, modeling, polishing, coloring, etc. Furthermore, experiment of the possibility of combining various materials should be conducted frequently in the practice course, and the summary of experience should be carried out in the creative design. Afterwards, materials would be selected for the design according to the textures and technological characteristics of materials, so as to finish the implementation of trans-boundary art ware.

5 Conclusion

In conclusion, the innovative design and implementation of lacquer art products in the multi-discipline and trans-boundary historical background is illustrated, and problems that need attention in the innovative design in the arts of higher education are put forward, for instance, the modernization of traditional art, trans-boundary design of comprehensive material, selection of material, difficulty of trans-boundary technique implementation and solution, spiritual connotation carried by the lacquer material, etc. The triggering of these problems and reflections in the teaching thought, as well as some achievements in the course practice, are analyzed by combining the practical cases. Meanwhile, illustrations are conducted from various aspects, including the start point of creative design, behavioral inspiration, conception process, product implementation, etc. for stating how to resolve the relation among the science and technology, art, design, ecology and vitality of materials, emotional interaction of humanity, and renaissance of traditional technology, etc. Meanwhile, the arguments are combined with the trans-boundary innovative special program of lacquer art products, for guiding the practice.