The idea of entanglement initially seems fundamental to one’s thinking process, but its importance was made apparent through the reading by Tim Ingold. To him, an organism does not exist in isolation but are affected by all the elements that surround it (the environment). Therefore, any discussion of an object, idea or thing must incorporate its relations, effectively making the environment a “domain of entanglement.”(Ingold, 2011) Personally, I have noticed this happening when it comes to the development segment of any project. Some ideas are inevitably tied to an idea, resulting in further research. the same thing happened with the small project.

To me, I find that umbrellas are strongly tied to superstitions: I began the process by opening up my umbrella indoors and started to take photos and short videos. Doing so immediately caused a friend of mine saying that it is bad luck to open umbrellas inside; a commonly held superstition by many claims that this act provokes the household spirits and leaves you unprotected. Afterwards, I headed outside and noticed that the sun was setting so I took another video of me opening my umbrella under the sun. While doing this, it is obvious that no one else is using the umbrella to block out the sun, people are perhaps unaccustomed to this act. A more popular solution would be to use sunscreen. This difference in culture prompts me to think of other kinds of umbrellas in Asia such as the oil paper umbrella along with the more comedic umbrella hat for children.

After a quick google search of oil paper umbrella, the inquiry quickly leads me to the craftsmanship of these umbrellas. From segments of documentaries, I discovered that there are 92 to 120 different processes required to make a single oil paper umbrella from start to finish.

I would like to explore more of this process of making oil paper umbrellas and the fact that there are less and less people who know how to craft them. The craft is being lost due to less and less young people having in interest in learning the craft being passed down from their parents. This is a common occurrence happening in China, the countryside with many types of cultural properties are in a crisis where there are no more people learning the craft. The younger generation are forced to find education and jobs in the cities. This reflects on the larger societal pressures on the younger generation in China, where in their pursuit of wealth and stability, traditional crafts are forgotten.

Through the narrative exercise I was able to identify another knot of entanglement in the uses of an umbrella. This I explored in the short animation clip I produced which features umbrellas being used at different ages, environments and purposes. I was also planning on including the use of black umbrellas during funerals as a part of the animation but the somber atmosphere was a little too much for this, therefore I decided to not include it.