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- Volume 13, Issue 2, 2022
Craft Research - Craft Sciences, Sept 2022
Craft Sciences, Sept 2022
- Editorial
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Craft is ubiquitous
Authors: Camilla Groth, Katherine Townsend, Tina Westerlund and Gunnar AlmevikThis Special Issue presents a selection of contributions that seek to extend the idea of what craft practice and research can be. They stem from the conference presentations in the 1st Biennial International Conference for the Craft Sciences (BICCS), held online during 4–6 May 2021. This conference was initiated by the Craft Laboratory in Mariestad city, which is affiliated with the Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. What counts as craft, and what does not, has been discussed with the general consensus that craft often evades definitions and instead thrives as an adhesive between other domains. In this editorial we claim that craft practice is ubiquitous, since acts of ‘crafting’ are infiltrated in most aspects of society, from the industrial workplace to the home. In addition to being a professional domain, craftmanship is also an attitude and a way of life. Craft making further facilitates shared reflective platforms which can carry and sustain cultural associations, or even social resistance, over time. We hope to invite readers to extend the notions of what crafts can be, by discussing issues related to such various topics as plant propagation, crystal growing, neuroscientific activity tracking, multimodal presentations of craft research and hybrid forms of digital and handmade craft processes. We also present an overview of educational contexts of crafts and discuss the role of the craft practitioner in heritage studies such as traditional boat building or industrial lace making.
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- Articles
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Ways we are connected to the world: Craft and/or science?
More LessCraft research is becoming an established, but sometimes also controversial, part of the international academic community. Consequently, it is a science in the socially accepted sense. However, as the experience from Sweden shows, there are also doubts about whether craft research is yet to be considered as a full-blown science, because it has not yet reached a ‘theoretical level’. In this article, I focus on the notion of science in order to find meeting points between the methodological and the epistemological aspects of the sciences and the crafts, that is the human aspects of the sciences and the crafts. In particular, I want to throw light on the human aspects of theories, with reference to Thomas Kuhn’s ideas of normal science. A main point is that ‘theories’ may be expressed in and by practices, not only by words, but that we should not ask if a theory is expressed in words or practices or in other ways. I argue that the most important entrance to the understanding of the notions of science, craft and theory is through the notion of communities of mutual learning, which cannot grow and develop without both agreements and disagreements, sometimes perhaps unsolvable disagreements. However, ‘unsolvable’ is not a final stop, but rather a point of departure for further, or other, questions.
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Knowledge in our hands: Analytical tools for craft knowledge communication
More LessCraft knowledge is built from examples of experiential knowledge, and when individual or group experiences are gathered and compared, new knowledge is created. This requires socialization between practitioners or a systematic collection of practice descriptions, such as in a manual. However, there is always a risk that knowledge that is difficult to put into words will never be captured or communicated. The aim of this article is to show how theoretical frameworks can be used as analytical tools to help us develop methods that support the communication of craft knowledge. Using a research-through-practice approach in the field of horticulture combined with frameworks based on Bengt Molander’s concept of three knowledge orientations and Nonaka and Takeuchi’s knowledge conversation criteria (SECI-model), I will discuss how it is possible to make practitioners’ subjective knowledge more readily available to others.
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Craft sciences meet neuroscience
Authors: Camilla Groth, Veikko Jousmäki, Veli-Matti Saarinen and Riitta HariCollaboration between disciplines is necessary when research questions cannot be answered within a single discipline. Joining of forces can produce results that neither discipline could provide alone. Here we exemplify collaboration between a ceramic craft researcher and three neuroscientists working in the field of human brain imaging. In our case study of clay throwing, the researcher–practitioner’s eye gaze, muscular activity and hand acceleration were recorded online, synchronized with video and thermal-camera recordings. We describe the experimental setting and discuss, besides the possible future interests in this kind of research, also the different levels of collaborative work between disciplines. We found that the monitoring methods worked well in the naturalistic setting in a ceramic studio, providing some new perspectives into the craft practice. For neuroscientists, clay throwing – involving accurate sensorimotor hand control, haptics and eye–hand coordination – provides an attractive setup to extend previous neuroscientific and behavioural findings in strictly controlled laboratory experiments into naturalistic situations. The applied monitoring devices might allow practitioner–researchers in crafts to become aware of unconscious steps in the making process. The applied methods could also help to accumulate general craft-making knowledge and build related theory.
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Bringing a building into being: A Virtual Reality Application as a non-traditional research output
Authors: Jonathan Westin and Gunnar AlmevikThis article sets out from the digital reconstruction of a historic building and assesses and discusses the use of a Virtual Reality Application as a self-standing research output. Despite the recognized possibilities and the amount of research that goes into the creation of scientific virtual reconstructions, there is still a need for broadly accepted procedures to not only publish them but also incorporate them into the academic systems as research outputs in their own right. The empirical material – a digital reconstruction of a wooden stave church – is here explored as both a hermeneutic device in the research process and a research output. We argue that the use of technology such as virtual reality that can communicate presence is particularly important in research on embodied craft skills and sensory-based judgements to reduce the loss of information in translations between modes, medias and formats. However, to function and have an impact as a research output, new formats have to adapt to fundamental and broadly accepted conventions within academia which have been established by the text-on-paper formats and establish conventions that facilitate access, navigation and referencing.
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Crystal Growing Design method: An investigation into the growing of crystals for jewellery designs
By Sofie BoonsGrown crystals are used for a range of novel innovations supporting a wide array of industries such as technology, medicine and electronics. Within the jewellery industry however, grown crystals are only used in a limited capacity and those of gemstone quality mainly as a surrogate for mined gemstones. They have remained largely underused, despite their potential sustainability credentials and the creative possibilities the incorporation of the process of crystal growth holds for jewellery designers. The bespoke growth of gemstone quality crystals could lead to highly unique jewellery designs which would result in higher consumer attachment. This in addition to the potentially more sustainable production of these stones would lead to overall more sustainable products. To address the barriers that are holding jewellery designers back from exploring the growth of crystals in their practice, and to address the knowledge gap that underpins this barrier, this article presents a practice-based exploration into the method of Crystal Growing Design for jewellery. Alongside reviewing a selection of the limited number of jewellery designers who have explored organic crystal growth, the article discusses the results of the practice-based explorations done. Three hypotheses derived from the characteristics and advantages of Growing Design were tested in three case studies and aimed to explore the design opportunities the method provides designers when (1) growing in situ either in designs or (2) around shapes or (3) when utilizing the grow-ability of the process as a feature. Because the growth of gemstone quality crystals requires more elaborate and high-cost equipment, sugar, alum and salt were experimented with as a prelude to further experimentation with the technique using gemstone grade crystals. Through utilizing an explorative Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach, the author documents and discusses the opportunities and challenges presented by the incorporation of a crystal growth method into the jewellery design practice. The research article will additionally reflect on the DIY growth of these non-gemstone quality crystals as a meaningful learning process for jewellery designers wishing to gain a deeper understanding of crystal growth. The DIY growth of crystals can be considered a valuable tinkering process to investigate design ideas. Which is particularly relevant since the method of growing crystals holds creative potential when designing jewellery in collaboration with crystal growers, or through incorporating gemstone crystal growth processes, which are the topic of the author’s overarching Ph.D. research.
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Emergent behaviour as a forming strategy in craft: The workmanship of risk applied to industrial-loom weaving
More LessDigital tools such as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) have expanded the nature of craft practice, offering new means of design and making. However, in weaving, handmaking continues to be privileged, despite the acceptance of digital design and computer-controlled lifting mechanisms. Through experimental design research methods, self-forming three-dimensional textiles were designed in CAD software and woven on a computer-controlled jacquard power loom (a CAM tool). The textiles’ three dimensionality arises from the combination of materials (contrasting shrinking and stiff yarns), structure and finishing. They are contextualized as craft objects through Pye’s concept of ‘the workmanship of risk’. As outcomes of a craft process, they illustrate the potential of industrial looms as tools for producing complex textile systems and expressions. The results include a method for crafting at the intersection of the workmanship of risk and CAD/CAM, providing a framework for this hybrid practice. The concept of emergent behaviour is discussed as a craft strategy when the workmanship of risk is focused on material forming rather than the tool or technique. This concept is contextualized beyond weaving, suggesting its applicability to other craft fields and practices, whether produced by hand or with the use of digital tools.
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A boatbuilder’s approach to boat documentation
More LessDocumentation of historical objects is already included in established research areas, such as archaeology and conservation. From a craft perspective, studies of objects can contribute to the understanding and revitalization of broken craft traditions. In this article, I present a methodological approach for the documentation of craft objects, including a comparison of traditional analogue methods and modern digital photogrammetry. From a boatbuilder’s perspective, I document traditional boats. In my current Ph.D. project, I investigate how documentation of objects, from a craftsperson’s perspective, can be used to reconstruct craft processes. The case study is on the ‘Öka’ from the Stockholm archipelago, a local variation of the Nordic clinker boat tradition. In this article, I present the basic structure of my boat documentation work and pinpoint some specific examples of the use of digital methods, analogue measuring and documentation led by craft practice. A good practice of documentation needs to consider the advantages and shortcomings of analogue as well as digital methods and also integrate the craftsperson’s perspective. Even if the craftsperson-researcher is skilled, artefacts have limitations as sources of craft knowledge, which must be taken into account in the interpretation process. An awareness of one’s own traditions and prejudices is needed to interpret a boat built in an older tradition. The documentation should be guided by craft practice, deliberately focusing on questions that reconstruction work generates.
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Lace legacies: How partnerships enhance understanding of craft and heritage
Authors: Amanda Briggs-Goode, Tonya Outtram and Deborah DeanNottingham was once the centre of a global lace industry employing tens of thousands of people in its manufacture. Therefore, its slow decline and sudden demise in the early years of the twenty-first century impacted upon both the sense of identity of the citizens who were involved in its success and those who enjoyed its resonance. The cultural venues whose collections celebrated this once powerful industry closed and their collections were rendered invisible. This amplified the sense of being bereft of both individual and regional identity, but also the cohesion it brought to the city. It is within this context that we share a number of collaborations between cultural, educational, community and business partners to begin to address this sense of loss, to improve the visibility and legacy of Nottingham lace and continue to tell its story with renewed vigour and through the voices of those who worked within it. Through two funded projects Lace Unravelled and Textile Tales, we provide testimony from those still involved in lace production, now reduced to less than a 100 people, and from former lace workers. These current and former employees reflect upon the values implicit within lace manufacture, then and now, of skill, craft and a pride in work.
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Craft as resistance: A case study of three Indigenous craft traditions
More LessIn this article, I aim to explore the role that craft has played in terms of social resistance for three native peoples: the Iku and Nasa peoples in Colombia and the Sámi people in Sweden. The methodology is based on ethnography. Interviews were performed with Indigenous makers and experts with the objective to understand Indigenous craft and social processes. Inspirations, techniques and materials involved in the Indigenous craft traditions and their relation to social resistance were studied. Social resistance of a political, ecological and cultural nature manifests itself in craft practices, in terms of materiality and implicit meaning. The article includes a brief of the analysed Indigenous communities and the rationale behind the author’s wish to learn from their craft traditions. A theoretical framework based on the concepts of social resistance and craft is also included. The article finalizes with a reflection on the role of craft in terms of social, cultural, political and ecological resistance.
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Orientations on studying crafts in higher education
By Sirpa KokkoCrafts in higher education (HE) are scattered and typically lack departments of their own, instead being integrated in art, design, technology, education or culture-oriented departments. The purpose of this research is to shed light on the orientations of crafts in HE programmes that have crafts as their foci. Based on document analysis of the curricula of one American and four European (Finland, Sweden, Estonia and United Kingdom) craft study programmes and fieldwork observations, the following five orientations were identified: educational crafts, traditional crafts, critical crafts, cultural heritage of crafts and design-based crafts. Both similarities and differences were found. The targets, prospective career paths and pedagogical methods of these study programmes were adapted to the broader targets of the various departments. Craft teaching followed the basic principles of studio pedagogy. The sought-after skill acquisition level varied from expressive purposes to ability to make quality products. There were also differences in whether a programme focused on a specific craft field or covered a broad spectrum. The requirements of academization were adapted in all study programmes. However, the role of writing differed from free and short reflective writing in the art department to a strict academic writing style in the education department. Professional goals varied from becoming a teacher or an artist to self-employment in a small-scale craft enterprise or achieving commercial success in industrial production. Concerns about losing craft traditions and dedication to maintaining them were shared across programmes. Despite being situated on the outskirts of academia, the status of crafts as an HE discipline adds value and visibility to the crafts and strengthens their identities.
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- The Portrait Section
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- Corrigendum
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