Just thought I would share with you one of my abstracts that has been accepted for the Crafticulation Conference in Helsinki 24 - 26th September 2008. I am currently preparing the full paper and so any comments will help develop my thinking on this issue.
Abstract:
A NEW WORLDVIEW OF CRAFT EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Based on PhD research this paper will demonstrate how the emphasis in craft education has shifted philosophically with different worldviews. Starting with the sensuous exploration of materials and embodied experience (naturalism) of the medieval guilds to the Romanticism of the Arts & Crafts movement (subjective idealism) and an art school education that was concerned with ‘a movement of the mind’. Romanticism however rejected reason and many have suggested that this was its major failing. One of the challenges for craft education within Universities therefore is an epistemological one - to address the nature of reason.
This paper argues that ‘Reason’ however should not be interpreted in its narrow sense of the power of the mind to think and form judgements using logic but rather in a wider sense as fully actualized human beings combining embodied experience with the unity of thinking and doing. This non-dualistic form of ‘reason’ is guided by the heart and refined through critical reflection.
To date Craft has remained impervious to the importance of the discourse and critical thinking. However, considering craft as a worldview can provide a critical framework that will enable us to articulate our uniqueness. It is interesting to note that this expanded concept of reason is central to other disciplines that advocate a craft approach e.g. the craft of archaeology.
A new worldview for craft education in the 21st century will be articulated through reference to contemporary craft practice and writing and the philosophy of Goethe, Jaspers and Dilthey.
17 April 2008
A New Worldview of Craft Education in the 21st Century
11 April 2008
New Domestic Craft Blog
Ebba Redman an undergraduate jewellery & metalwork student here at Duncan of Jordanstone has started a new blog on Domestic Craft skills. Anyone with an interest in this area should check it out and take part in her poll and make a comment. The crotchet ring left (made by Ebba) was what started her interest in this area.
03 April 2008
Postgraduate student conference
Questions & Hypotheses is a conference for postgraduate students in design to be held this October in Berlin. Organised by the Design Research Network, the event promises to be useful and stimulating for all Masters and PhD students in design - including craft disciplines. More details from here.
11 March 2008
15 December 2007
Craft 2.0
The collision between the seemingly separate worlds of Web 2.0 and craft is described in a recent article in The New York Times Magazine written by Rob Walker.
The article begins by describing the Handmade Consortium an online project that seeks to get consumers to pledge to 'buy handmade'. It's a consortium that interestingly includes key movers in the DIY movement, and the American Crafts Council. It has a page of online resources for the Handmade Movement that includes my own (now largely dormant) Hand Made Theory blog.
Walker explains how the rise of the DIY/Crafter movement has been intimately linked to Web 2.0. For example, the new Craft magazine which addresses the needs of "the new craft movement" was initiated by O'Reilly Media which itself has been behind all the analysis (and indeed the hype) that has led to the idea of Web 2.0.
The article argues that the new handmade movement is an explicitly ideological movement that has profound implications for consumerism, and seeks to develop sustainable economies based on craft production. More than once the piece draws parallels with the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the examples cited demonstrate how a Web 2.0 enabled craft movement enables makers to overcome the Morris Dilemma. No "pandering to the swinish luxury of the rich" here - the hand felted ipod cocoons are very reasonably priced.
Much of Walker's attention is given to Etsy - essentially an online craft fair - - which provides makers with their own branded online stores. Brooklyn-based Etsy indicates something of the size and significance of the new handmade movement. It comprises a community of 70,000 people, with a $4.3 million turnover in November 2007 alone. OK, let's put this into perspective. According to the latest research the entire craft sector in Scotland accounts for an annual turnover of at least 95 million pounds. The probable annual turnover of Etsy is around 25% of this figure, and projections indicate that turnover is on a steep upward trajectory. The new craft movement is thus significant in economic terms alone.
To quote from Walker's article:
"The luck or genius of (Etsy) is that Kalin and the other founders encountered in the D.I.Y./craft scene something that was already social, community-minded, supportive and aggressively using the Web.... Kalin is nothing if not grandiose about what he thinks Etsy can accomplish. For example, he knows that individual crafters face a problem of scale: there is only so much one person can produce. (Hence the Industrial Revolution.) So he mentions creating “co-production” sites across the country, where groups of crafters would band together in a co-op-style model, ideally occupying space in distressed areas and offering training to people who want to learn handcrafting skills. Handmade isn’t a fad, he told me, it’s a resurgence, one that is of a piece with the booming interest in organic food. In 25 years, he said, Etsy would be both worldwide and personal, a global-local marketplace, a Web version of the Athenian agora.... Etsy could “disturb” the way people see the world, rethinking what makes their possessions important or trivial, leading us to re-evaluate the way we consume."
Craft 2.0 is the true inheritor of the Morris legacy. Unlike the professionalised 'art school' educated craft makers it has an ideological position which, while largely ill-defined and diverse, represents a constructive reaction to the inequities and politics of the market economy. It is clearly using the market economy as a means of developing sustainable livelihoods, but is bringing economic and cultural innovation to it. Above all it is dealing with the politics of work and consumption in ways that the professionalised sector cannot.
29 November 2007
Neocraft Conference
This blog has been a little dormant since July when we held our conference in Dundee, so it is time to revive it with a post on the year's second major craft research conference held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Five of us from Dundee attended this excellent and well attended event that brought together an international audience and some fine speakers. The conference was initiated and directed by Sandra Alfoldy of NSCAD (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) who must be congratulated on the energy and vision that brought Neocraft (and its accompanying book, podcasts and associated gallery exhibitions) into being.
Before highlighting some of the themes and issues arising from Neocraft, let me cut to the chase of the key point I wish to make: it is time for a change of gear in the craft research community to ensure its consolidation, and to encourage rigour and scholarship. Major international craft research conferences have been rare - until the last three years. Since 2004 we have had Challenging Craft, Radical Craft, New Craft Future Voices and now Neocraft. So we clearly have a head of steam building in terms of research activity in the field. It is time perhaps to pull these disparate initiatives and networks together around a more clearly defined craft research community. An international research society dedicated to furthering craft research should be our collective project. We have the Design Research Society, the European Academy of Design and others which have all contributed positively to creating a new research culture throughout design. Now it is time for craft. Craft can reach the parts that other design research communities cannot reach - it can connect with feminist discourses, ethnicity, community activism and other areas far more readily than our colleagues in mainstream design research appear able to do. That is a strength that revealed itself most strongly at Neocraft. So, who would like to run with this?
Before you all start drafting your replies which kindly volunteer yourselves to initiate a major international research network, let me set down some of my observations about Neocraft. I'm sure others will have different perspectives which I hope we can share here.
Is modernism relevant any longer?
Paul Greenhalgh kicked the conference off to a challenging start with a paper which had echoes of his contribution to the Dundee conference. In summary: too often we confuse craft with decorative art; the former is a response to modernity, and part of its discourse, while the latter is not. We need to define a new 'politics of making' that concerns itself with new modes of production, the environment, globalisation and ethnicity. Paul, along with the other three speakers in the opening panel, referenced craft in terms of the Arts and Craft movement, the Leach tradition, etc. As an Englishman this gives me a warm glow of pride, but it is short-lived. As the conference developed it was clear that many contributions (including my own) referred to forms of craft that have simply no connection with, or any rational reason to be framed by Morris, Leach and the rest of that well heeled, largely male English set. We have a dominant discourse (modernism) that has arisen from art and design history. But there are now other perspectives and disciplines that have sensible things to say about craft (including management, pedagogy, gender politics) which too often are left on the margins. Two days later, wrapping up the conference, Alan Elder of the Canadian Museum of Civilisation made the point that we need discourses from different perspectives which will help us to "embrace the messiness".
Technology is important - but should not be central
The value, nature and uniqueness of craft knowledge is highlighted particularly when we look at how it can engage with, redefine and discover cultural values in new technologies. Cathy Treadaway, Ulli Oberlack, Valerie Walker and Martin Woolner were among those contributors who provided evidence of this, and there is a potential here to connect craft with innovation theory. This is one of the new frontiers in terms of craft research and redefining the role of the maker in advanced industrial economies. A key contribution to the theme was provided by Grace Cochrane in her inspiring opening night keynote. Craft, she argued, has a shifting relationship with manufacture, and thus design and industry is equally part of the craft world as art is. Her examples showed how craft can not only exploit new opportunities in flexible manufacturing systems and processes, but also offer the potential to create sustainable livelihoods.
But those of us who are buoyed along by the excitement and potential of these technological challenges should balance our enthusiasms with an awareness and sensitivity of craft's other worlds: its centrality to aboriginal cultures, its role in urban political identities, its subversive potential and contribution to sustainability and development (eg: Suzette Wolfe-Wilson's contribution). Craft research is a broad church and we must make sure we keep it that way.
Connections and collaborations
The histories of craft that emphasise the contributions of notable individual makers downplay the importance of collaboration in craft - an unfortunate tendency that infuses too much of our craft education. But so many contributions demonstrated the social dynamics that lay at the heart of craft and which generate much of its knowledge base. In fact, it is difficult to remember a single contribution that didn't refer to collaboration in some way. A few highlights for me... Julliette MacDonald's paper showed how makers can successfully weave together tradition and innovation in collaborative contexts, Ezra Shales' is a gem of a contribution that identified the craft of the factory worker - a hugely under-researched field of inquiry, and Frances Stevenson's paper on sustainable livelihoods in craft. I'm sure there were other highlights - but with four parallel tracks then it was only possible to appreciate a small sample of the contributions. That's where the podcasts will be useful.
What is craft research?
Love Jonsson from Goteborg University was one of the speakers on the closing panel which addressed future directions in craft research. His contribution included a criticism of some UK doctoral practice-based research in craft, which he felt got little further than idle noodling in photoshop which demonstrated only that the makers did not really understand the tools they were using. This appeared to galvanise some spirited support from parts of the audience. I, of course, disagreed with every word he said (until he made some key points on the eclectic nature of research practices and the role of history) but his delivery and passion were just what the conference needed. And why do I disagree? Well, as I sit here surveying the spines of the various practice-based PhD in craft that I have either examined or supervised on my bookshelves I am at a loss to think of a single one that comes anywhere close to idle photoshop noodlings. So, name names Mr Jonsson - or I'll see you in court ;-)
Debate is good, and Love has raised an issue that we should respond to. However, my criticism is that a number of the contributions I heard contained no research whatsoever, and some of the discussions both within the sessions and outside them revealed a scant understanding of the nature of method or rigour. Merely describing practice has its place. But not here.
This brings me back to my opening point. Craft knowledge is a vital and unique resource, sadly undervalued in both academia and the wider world. If we wish to change this, then the bar needs to be set higher in terms of research quality, and sustainable communities of craft research established that provide the support and encouragement to propel more practitioners and researchers over that bar. A new learned society would help to achieve this.
In the meantime, Sandra Alfoldy and her team have provided us with a book and the podcasts of some stimulating presentations that advance craft research far closer towards achieving its potential as a valued area of academic inquiry.
06 July 2007
The conference concludes
This afternoon, the conference came to end. If you attended we would welcome your comments here on your thoughts and reflections on the event, and how we should take it forward.
To summarise the comments I made in the plenary....
Craft research is too often seen as a poor relation of the 'serious' business of research in design, fine art and the humanities. But the quality, the rigour and the focus of the papers presented at New Craft Future Voices suggests that we have made a breakthrough - which we can build on further. There is significant world-class research being undertaken in craft which we need to disseminate more widely. Personal highlights:
- Methodological diversity and rigour that demonstrates how far craft research has developed in a short period of time.
- Discourses around technology that are critically focussed.
- Socially engaged practices.
- The DIY/craftism analysis.
- Ethnographic explorations of craft practices.
- Creative explorations at the margins of craft - interaction design and industrial applications.
On a personal level - I hugely valued seeing old friends and colleagues, and meeting new ones. I hope to see you again soon. I know that a number of people will be attending Sandra Alfoldy's conference NeoCraft in Canada in November, which promises to be excellent.
This evening I learned of another opportunity. Fancy Japan? Cumulus Kyoto is an international conference on design that is inviting submissions on craft.
I trust that everyone who attended the conference had a safe journey home, and I look forward to further productive and stimulating encounters with you all.
Conference Ceilidh
The last night of the conference was celebrated with a Ceilidh, with delegates piped in to the Invercarse Ballroom by a piper, then - after dinner - entertained in the traditional Scottish way. However, the dancing styles of our guests was far from traditional.
