Browsing by Author "Konttinen, Anni"

The objective for my study was to analyse the collaboration between a professional costume designer and a professional cutter. My assumption was that a successful collaboration in a long-term collegial relationships requires both personal and organizational knowhow which is often difficult to articulate, whereas this kind of knowledge is essential for maintaining the skill required in these professions. According to former studies, the technical guidelines in this kind of process are explicable whereas the specific know-how typically remains tacit. In order to articulate and transmit the tacit, organizational knowledge should be processed on different levels and from various points of view. The focus of my study was in the process of designing and making a stage costume, and the viewpoint more specifically in the tacit and explicit knowledge within this process. The questions were about the characteristics and the know-how in the process of designing and executing a stage costume. How do the designer and the cutter as experts in their own field transmit it to each other? How is the development and transmission of sectoral knowledge sustained and cumulated in this process? The data of this case study was collected in Helsinki City Theatre during years 2014–2016. It consisted of three interviews and two observations. My focus group was Sari Salmela, a costume designer and Riikka Canth, a cutter. In this study they were both considered as experts due to their long-term collegial collaboration and personal working experience. For the analysis I categorised the interview and observation data according to themes. The data was mirrored against literacy, theoretical background, and then interpreted basing on the process model of co-designing. Based on the interview data the process first involves – in addition to the focus group – the group of the director, designers, and actors. When the process proceeds from defining the guidelines to executing the costume itself the responsibility is fully passed to the costume department. The visible part of designer's and cutter's know-how appeared as explicit and combined to tacit via intuition. This construction seemed to increase trust which both of them considered crucial. As experts in their own field, they were able to transmit their know-how in both directions in an equal setting. Close-knit collaboration, interaction, and trust between the colleagues plays an important role in transmitting the knowledge. When the outcome, the costume, meets with the guidelines set in the beginning, the knowledge can be considered successfully transmitted.