Authorship in Empirical Creation The Universe of Anonymous Authors

Abstract

This study analyses cultural manifestations based on the empirical knowledge of a community, questioning the hierarchy between authorial and anonymous work, as well as the concepts of high and low culture. It analyses traditional arts and vernacular architecture as practices rooted in collective knowledge, unrelated to individual authorial criteria, questioning the hierarchy of authorship between conception and execution, recognizing the community origin of knowledge and its generational transmission. The current research favours proximity to sources and immersion in the field, focusing on everyday practices and the community's symbiotic relationship with the ecosystem. Design-driven research is used as a tool, using drawn, photographic and multimedia records, the collection of testimonies and on-site experiences to analyse and disseminate knowledge. Previous multidisciplinary experiences converge in the research project Experimental Territory - vernacular architecture as heritage on the Cape Verde islands.

Keywords: vernacular culture, design, authorship