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- Volume 7, Issue 2, 2016
Craft Research - Volume 7, Issue 2, 2016
Volume 7, Issue 2, 2016
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‘You’ve got to keep looking, looking, looking’: Craft thinking and authenticity
More LessAbstractThis article outlines the foundations of an enquiry into the relationship between craft and authenticity. It provides a description of how authenticity is evolving as a philosophical concept, and what this might mean for claiming an authentic contemporary practice. It then illustrates an inconsistency in schematic analyses of craft and design thinking, which may be a barrier to the appraisal of craft as a form of ‘authentic’ cognition. The author’s personal evolution of visual conceptualizations of craft thinking is revealed through an enquiry into a decade of a digital craft practice reflexively differentiated from Human–Computer Interaction, Interaction Design and Product Design. A novel framework is proposed for situating authenticity in craft in line with relational philosophy, comprising individual, social and ecological forms of practice, and the framework is applied to a recent multidisciplinary digital craft project. Further research into craft thinking using schematics is recommended.
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Reconsidering Pye’s theory of making through digital craft practice: A theoretical framework towards continuous designing
Authors: Paul Loh, Jane Burry and Malte WagenfeldAbstractThe term ‘Digital Craft’ is commonly applied in the context of craft as exercised with the aid of digital technology. If the application of digital tools and techniques merits the term digital craft, then where does the craft lie in Computer Numeric Control (CNC) making? This article takes the position that craft practice is rooted in the relationship between materials, tools and techniques as an intricate workflow. We suggest that the workflow can be considered as autopoietic in nature, in that it is both self-referential and self-making, at the same time as continuously designing. Through this, digital fabrication can be seen as a practice that co-evolves technology and material systems. The first author took a step back and reconsidered David Pye’s theory of making in relationship to digital craft practice. This is later cross-examined with a series of semi-structured interviews with contemporary craft practitioners, to devise a systematic approach to the analysis of craft practices. This research stems from the first author’s background in architecture, whose design practice is craft based using digital fabrication technology. Through this research, we examined making as a means of generating design knowledge in the process. The article suggests that the authenticity of craft lies within the deeper structure of the practice: the formation of repertoire where its social and cultural meaning is derived through coupling the practice with other systems.
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Survival and revival: Clay traditions in the Sindh region
By Sadia SalimAbstractTwo distinct clay traditions in Sindh, a province in southern Pakistan, date back to the Indus Valley Civilization and the Muslim period beginning in the eighth century. Field studies undertaken over the last twenty years show continuation of these clay traditions in the province, such that the working methods, materials, decorative designs, tools and equipment have not changed to a great extent. However, a slow decline in the number of practicing artisans from the traditional Kumbhar and Kashigar families and deterioration of the craft was observed. Therefore, it becomes pertinent to understand the impact of recent interventions to revive the craft. This article discusses the survival of the craft of glazed and unglazed terracotta over the centuries. The discussion reveals that kashikari (the craft of glazed decorated terracotta) receives considerable attention of individuals and organizations aiming to work with or aid the artisans whereas the craft of traditional unglazed terracotta remains almost neglected. It was found that some of the interventions initiated by the government that have taken place in the last seven or eight years have not had the desired beneficial effects. The proposition of this article is that serious and informed effort is required to restore craftsmanship and cultivate markets to benefit the artisans.
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Craft of inauthenticity: Notes on originality, media and craft exhibitions
By Alla MyzelevAbstractThis position article argues that authenticity of craft objects hardly matters when we discuss the idea of crafts’ digital representation. Using three recent exhibitions as examples of representation of authenticity and craft in the digital realm the author demonstrates that, while the notions of identity, technique, material and the changes of the objects’ consumption continue to be important in audiences’ and scholars’ understanding of craft culture, the notion of the authentic has become irrelevant. The idea is that authenticity, when related to objects, is always a constructed notion located outside of the craft object. Given that, this article argues that in the era of constant change of the images through digital transformation, the notion of originality and its authenticity is less important while the path of transformation has gained significance.
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Embroidered portraiture and the intentional creation of human visibility and value
By Tanya WhiteAbstractThe aim of my research was to create a portrait following a sequential practice-based process. A mug-shot photograph of a female face was analysed and reinterpreted as an embroidered portrait. Hand-stitched embroidery and embellishment techniques define the facial features and surroundings of the subject matter. The final representation encapsulates my total experience while researching this woman’s image in both a practical and a theoretical way. This encompasses the physical procedures of sketching, painting and embroidering her likeness, with a preoccupation and self-awareness necessary to understand the theories engaged with during these processes. I used an arts-based framework, looking at Michael Podro’s writing ‘Depiction and the concept of subjectification’ in interpreting the portrait subject. In my analysis of the mug shot I drew on Roland Barthes’ theories of ‘essence’ or ‘air’ of a person and his concept of ‘punctum’, the personal and unexplained emotional response caused by a photographic image. Similarly, Gilles Deleuze’s concepts of ‘affection-image’, the ability for a photograph, specifically the extreme close-up of the face or ‘traits of faceiticity’, to move, touch, disturb, disgust... to profoundly affect the viewer with the ‘micro-expressions’ and fine detail magnified in her frozen look. I also referred to Claire Valier’s writings on the ‘punitive power’ of the documentary photograph to punish, shame, shock, elicit guilt or incarcerate as a means of social commentary and an agent of justice (Valier 2004: 254). These philosophies informed the potency and persuasiveness of the photographic content. The picture acts as a visual record of an actual moment that facilitates belief in the accuracy of the event depicted. With this, my female subject represented in the mug shot was a criminal, a prostitute and there was incriminating physical evidence of drug addiction. By transforming the mug shot to a handcrafted embroidered portrait, I intended to remove the stigmatized version of the women. While doing so, I willingly addressed the issues of agency in the subject, viewer and image–maker relationship. These concepts brought forth an intense analysis of my motives and intentions in making the portrait, which eventually lead to an understanding and development of a process that revealed my own translation of my subject’s humanity.
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On the horns of glocalization: A case study in the needlecraft industry – Coats Turkey
Authors: Yasemin Soylu and Özlem ErAbstractThis article summarizes the findings of a long-term marketing research project whose objective was to determine existing consumption patterns in the needlecrafts industry in Turkey. The research was carried out by one of the authors while working at Coats Turkey (CT), the world’s largest manufacturer and supplier of sewing and embroidery threads, as the Crafts Marketing Manager. A mini-case study of the company is therefore also included in the article. The main research questions addressed during the field study were ‘why and how do the thread consumers practice the needlecrafts?’ On the basis of the findings obtained from the long-term analysis of consumer attitudes, a consumer segmentation pattern has been proposed. The pattern has been revealed through interviews and face-to-face surveys, with more than 1000 embroidery teachers working at vocational high schools and public education centres and their students attending classes between 2000 and 2009 in Turkey. The pattern depicts the segmentation of motives for doing needlecrafts and suggests a distribution based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: as the socio-economical level of the consumer increases, the main motivation for doing needlecrafts stems from psychological rather than physical needs. Focusing more on the psychological needs of consumers, the company redesigned some of the experiences it offered to needlecraft consumers. Therefore, this article also elaborates on designing experiences for the needlecrafts industry and suggests that there may be opportunities for other crafts companies to implement such an approach, because as the competition gets intensive, product and service differentiation becomes more challenging and inadequate in terms of maintaining a sustainable business. Addressing psychological needs by means of designing experiences and focusing on experiential marketing seems to be one solution. Further research is needed to explore how other industries may benefit from focusing more on psychological needs by means of creating positive experiences.
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Exhibition Reviews
Authors: Martin Woolley and Annabelle CampbellAbstractGallery Survival in the Age of Austerity, Craft and Design Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2016
Making Movies: The first UK craft film festival
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Publication Reviews
Authors: Martin Woolley and Jo BloodworthAbstractThe Practice of Misuse – Rugged Consumerism in Contemporary American Culture, Raymond Malewitz (2014) California: Stanford University Press, 240 pp., ISBN: 9780804792998, h/bk, $55
The Art of Cutting, Jean-Charles Trebbi (ed.) (2015) Barcelona, Spain: Promopress, 160 pp., ISBN-13: 9788415967156, h/bk, £24.95
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Conference Review
More LessAbstractReview of the Creative Cut 2 – the Second International Conference for Creative Pattern Cutting, University of Huddersfield, UK, 24–25 February 2016
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