#wire bending

For a Caribbean person not to see carnival costumes as art, it must boil down to a misinformed definition of art. Carnival costumes are, at their core, artistic representations of a legacy of oppression that people in the Caribbean have passed on from generation to generation.  For my first journal entry, I want to pay particular attention to the art of wire bending. When we look at the role intellectual property plays in the protection of carnival costumes, traditional forms of artistic craftsmanship, such as wire bending, raise a bit of a question in terms of how protection can be afforded, and to what extent. Wire bending itself is a highly skilled and labour-intensive art form that takes years to master and requires technique, creativity and realism. Wire bending has always been something that has intrigued me ever since I was a young girl, as I saw my sister’s hands turn red and double in size, learning the technique. I remember thinking wire bending was going to be the thing that brought down Trinidad and Tobago because it was a dying art form. I didn’t understand the decline, but if filled me with so much anxiety and fear for part of my culture to fizzle out. Today, wire bending has come quite a long way as projects like ‘The Wireman Initiative’ attempt to provide cultural education of carnival by allowing hands-on, transformative ways for people to engage in traditional artistic expression.

Therefore, the art form is being promoted to encourage aspiring artists to make use of the indigenous practice. Despite this, the laws that cover artistic works fail to meet the innovative aspects of wire bending that artists are promoting. In understanding the relationship to intellectual property, it's clear that wire bending possesses the originality aspect, however, there is a grey area when it comes to the requirements under copyright law. When art becomes more abstract its hard for laws to properly govern these concepts. Wire bending does not require artistic expression, only, as there is a practical side of it that requires an understanding of engineering, physics and architecture. Wires for costumes are the skeleton for masqueraders on carnival Monday and Tuesday. Wire benders must make their artwork not just aesthetically beautiful but also movable and stable. The very nature of it in this case excludes wire bending from the closed list approach that Trinidad's legislation provides. The law requires fixation, however, the art of wire bending promotes flexibility with an impeccable foundation to allow the additional materials on the costume to move and flow with the body that parades it. Therefore, the functionality of carnival costumes threatens protection. Furthermore, wire bending is just one aspect of the costume and together with the additional layers of creativity, authorship and ownership, do not become clear rights as multiple people contribute. The costume cannot exist without the wired structure however, the appliques bring the wired creation to life and create movement.

Intellectual property laws need to accommodate practices like wire bending. Not just for its indigenous aspect but also for its practical aspect, as people rely on their artwork for economic stability.  Our laws need to be holistic, recognising collective ownership and acknowledging the abstract principles of artistic work. With each passing year that we try to educate people on wire bending, innovation progresses, and we remain 5 years behind. Like the steel pan, the artistic works that come out of carnival costumes need to be recognised for their unique and artistic construction. In my deliberation of the topic, I don’t think our laws can fulfil that role independently from meeting the societal and cultural norms of artists and innovators.

Watching this lady on YouTube, and she's making sun and moon earrings. The sun one *looks* more complicated, but it's relatively simple.

But the moon...

"Now we're just going to take this up here and-"