tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/craft-11769/articles
Craft – The Conversation
2023-12-21T00:27:53Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219328
2023-12-21T00:27:53Z
2023-12-21T00:27:53Z
A brief look at the long history of First Nations fashion design in Australia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565094/original/file-20231212-17-eznnko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5982%2C3961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aboriginal Display at the Brisbane Exhibition, 1914. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE16333">State Library of Queensland</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, and links to old newspaper stories and research papers using outdated and potentially offensive terminology.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The ABC’s series <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/way-we-wore">The Way We Wore</a> takes a look at stories of Australian fashion design and style. </p>
<p>First Nations people participated in the series and spoke about various periods and tales, looking at forced clothing policies during the Stolen Generation period, the contribution of Flinders Ranges/Adnyamathanha knowledge to the creation of the RM Williams iconic boot, and the emergence of First Nations fashion design from the 1970s and at Parisian fashion shows in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Yet, left out from the show was the rich backstory of our First Nations fashion design industry.</p>
<p>Prior to Parisian fashion shows, First Nations people showcased handmade clothing and accessories at 1800s international and national exhibitions, often as unpaid labour.</p>
<p>Earlier still, the making and crafting of animal and plant cloaks, skirts, belts, shoes and accessories were the original fashion designs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-designers-and-models-of-this-world-attending-the-2023-national-indigenous-fashion-awards-211517">‘The first designers and models of this world’: attending the 2023 National Indigenous Fashion Awards</a>
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<h2>Traditional clothing and adornment</h2>
<p>Climates, materials and stories guided traditional fashion design. </p>
<p>Items were crafted from natural materials that eventually returned to the environment.</p>
<p><a href="https://library.museum.wa.gov.au/fullRecord.jsp?recno=50097">Footwear</a> was made from animal skins, furs, and feathers, human hair and bark.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Group outside a bark shelter with possum skin cloaks in Victoria, photographed between 1860-1909.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/Yj7deGl9/mmlrxexxkGjo">State Library of New South Wales</a></span>
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<p>Cloaks were made from <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-designers-can-learn-from-aboriginal-possum-skin-cloaks-38655">animal skin</a> and <a href="https://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?c=5946&mode=singleImage">plants</a>, often inscribed with designs that reflected a person’s identity. </p>
<p>Intricate jewellery and accessories included <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/184838">head ornaments</a>, <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/collection/highlights/tasmanian-aboriginal-shell-necklaces">necklaces</a>, <a href="https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/death-the-last-taboo/mourning-indigenous-australia/">mourning caps</a>, <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/171926">belts</a> and <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/181154">bags</a>, some made from <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-22/pearls-and-pear-shell-in-indigenous-culture/10772586">highly traded pearl shells</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/more-than-jewellery-ancient-shell-stringing-remains-an-unbroken-tradition/2ccs8598f">rare seashells</a>. </p>
<p>Today, we are seeing a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-29/indigenous-possum-skin-cloak-culture-and-history/101739174">resurgence around the country</a> of these adornments and the role they play in healing, wellbeing and cultural practice.</p>
<h2>Showcasing at trades and exhibitions</h2>
<p>First Nations women and girls who lived on reserves, missions and schools were forced to learn sewing and many produced goods including hats, bags, baskets, jewellery and rugs. </p>
<p>These items were crafted from cultural or Western methods, using both traditional or introduced materials. </p>
<p>From the mid-1800s, their work was often produced for various tourist trades and national and international exhibitions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Aboriginal Court at the Brisbane Exhibition, 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE2813548">State Library of Queensland</a></span>
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<p>One Melbourne CBD shop stocked woven baskets and bags from Victoria’s <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/coranderrk">Coranderrk Reserve</a>. </p>
<p>Sydney’s <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/indigenous-participation-in-australian-economies-conference/transcripts/the-economy-of-shells-a-histo">La Perouse Mission</a> sold shell baskets in the city and later exhibited them at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and in London. </p>
<p>At the 1888 Melbourne Exhibition, the Queensland section presented <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146795056">pearl jewellery</a> from Thursday Island and the Torres Strait.</p>
<p>While some of the women and girls from these institutions received pay for their work, <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UTSLRS/2013/14.pdf">many did not</a>.</p>
<h2>Emergence of fashion within the craft industry</h2>
<p>From the 1930s, non-Indigenous textile artists and fashion designers started producing <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page26384333">First Nations-inspired designs</a> using motifs such as boomerangs, shields and “hunting stick figures”, without the permission or input from First Nations artists.</p>
<p>Partly in response to this popularity, craft centres within the missions and reserves established their own industry and several hired First Nations people to design cultural textiles and fashions. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CtIgKGhBhxb/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Some of this early work in the 1940s included <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230948830">bags with traditional weaving styles</a>, <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page26672951">practical linens with cultural designs</a> and unique <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/116107?mode=simple">Ernabella scarves</a>.</p>
<p>As the newspaper <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230948830">The Sun reported</a> from the Mount Margaret Mission in 1941:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the most interesting exhibits in the exhibition of Aboriginal handicrafts and school children’s work at the Y.W.C.A. to-day is a bag woven from wool in a native stitch. It has been adapted from old aboriginal work which is usually seen only in tribal grass weaving.</p>
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<p>Children’s work from these institutions were often exhibited in Australia and internationally. There was particular overseas interest in turning art from the Carrolup Native settlement onto textiles <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159008807">for fashion garments</a>.</p>
<h2>The business of First Nations textiles and fashion</h2>
<p>Economic and cultural autonomy became more attainable for First Nations people from the 1950s.</p>
<p>Bill Onus produced <a href="https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p170581/pdf/ch0751.pdf">cultural furnishing fabrics</a> with non-Indigenous artist Paula Kerry for his Melbourne Aboriginal Enterprises store.</p>
<p>First Nations women from the Coffs Harbour area started <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files//digitised_collections/dawn_index/v16/s09/3.pdf">mass-producing fashions for the tourist trade</a> using non-Indigenous designs in the mid-1960s.</p>
<p>By the late 1960s, First Nations designed textiles became a fully-fledged fashion industry.</p>
<p>In 1969, Tiwi Island clothing production and textiles had launched through <a href="https://bimawear.com/about-bima-wear/">Bima Wear</a> and <a href="https://tiwidesigns.com/pages/about-us">Tiwi Designs</a>. </p>
<p>A few years later, <a href="http://archive.maas.museum/hsc/paperbark/contemporary.html">other arts centres</a> started crafting textiles for fashion designs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tiwi (Aboriginal) fashion designs, 1979.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=11693062">© Commonwealth of Australia (National Archives of Australia) 2023.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Throughout the 1970s, fashion shows <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page12380699">paraded these textiles</a> and some First Nations people <a href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=11695949">wore the designs</a> at formal events.</p>
<p>Bronwyn Bancroft, the owner of the Sydney store Designer Aboriginals, and Euphemia Bostock and Mini Heath <a href="https://www.bronwynbancroft.com/history?pgid=kddvaeao-d276a7d8-aa23-4ddc-a389-c95ee6525f73">presented their garments</a> at the Parisian Au Printemps Department Store in 1987.</p>
<h2>The 21st Century and beyond</h2>
<p>By the start of the new millennium, Robyn Caughlan, in <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/robyn-has-fashion-game-all-sewn-up-20030426-gdgnsm.html">collaboration with Benjamin Mach</a>, was the <a href="https://www.robyncaughlan.com/fashion-designs">first Indigenous designer</a> to contribute to a fashion collection at Australian Fashion Week. </p>
<p>Two decades later at Australian Fashion Week 2023, Denni Francisco’s brand Ngali was the <a href="https://harpersbazaar.com.au/ngali-murriyang-aafw-2023/">first Indigenous label</a> to present a standalone collection.</p>
<p>Today, many First Nations labels promote their designs internationally in <a href="https://nit.com.au/02-10-2023/7916/indigenous-fashion-label-ticia-designs-makes-international-debut-in-paris">Paris</a>, <a href="https://nit.com.au/14-12-2020/1632/indigenous-couture-to-grace-milan-runway">Milan</a>, <a href="https://www.vogue.com.au/fashion/news/an-historic-showcase-of-australian-first-nations-design-at-london-fashion-week/news-story/df1a1343a0987e81cf2441ee619f98cc">London</a>, and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-09/indigenous-fashion-designers-set-sights-on-overseas-markets/101222846">New York</a>. There are now several First Nations fashion bodies to support them in the industry. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CLQoNhwhlqX","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>These bodies connect with national and international fashion weeks and art fairs, and have insight into cultural appropriation and Intellectual Property Rights.</p>
<p>For First Nations people, fashion and style are significant channels through which culture, identity, healing and social change can be communicated and practised. </p>
<p>Learning about the foundation of First Nations fashion design is vital to understanding Australian history and advocating connection, wellbeing, expression and sustainability.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-expression-through-dress-towards-a-definition-of-first-nations-fashion-201782">‘Cultural expression through dress’: towards a definition of First Nations fashion</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Treena Clark has received funding through the University of Technology Sydney Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellowship scheme.</span></em></p>
First Nations people have been making and crafting clothes and accessories for millennia, and for international exhibitions for hundreds of years.
Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/178448
2022-03-17T14:56:21Z
2022-03-17T14:56:21Z
Chagos Islands: Chagossians in exile are fighting to keep their culture alive
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452755/original/file-20220317-23-1is6m15.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2019, Chagossian sega was listed as world heritage by Unesco.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://chagos.online/files/original/6a0e1054c226709734611ce919d01340.JPG">University of Edinburgh</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Olivier Bancoult, Liseby Elysé, Suzelle Baptiste, Rosemonde Bertin and Marcel Humbert <a href="https://theconversation.com/chagos-islands-mauritiuss-latest-challenge-to-uk-shows-row-over-sovereignty-will-not-go-away-177381">set off</a> on the Bleu de Nîmes for the Chagos archipelago in February 2022, it marked <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/12/exiled-chagos-islanders-return-without-uk-officials-for-first-time">the first time</a> exiled Chagos Islanders had returned without UK officials. On the surface, the expedition was both scientific (to survey Blenheim Reef) and political (the Mauritian flag was symbolically hoisted). </p>
<p>Mauritian officials had carefully orchestrated the trip to highlight three key disputes: the maritime border between Mauritius and Maldives; the UK’s ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/chagos-mauritius-challenges-british-colonialism-in-a-case-with-major-implications-102680">colonial administration</a> of Chagos; and the feasibility of resettlement. For the Chagossians, however, it was an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-60349040">emotional trip home</a>.</p>
<p>News footage showed them <a href="https://youtu.be/L0Swvk6R0gs">kneeling</a> on the sand and coming together in prayer as soon as they disembarked in the Peros Banhos atoll. Later, they <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-60349040">removed coconuts</a> from the floor of the now roofless church and again <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/11/i-will-be-free-excitement-grows-as-cruise-ship-nears-chagos-islands">prayed together</a>. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L0Swvk6R0gs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>They laid flowers on their ancestors’ graves, cleared overgrown vegetation, moved <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/12/exiled-chagos-islanders-return-uk-disputed-archipelago-mauritius">a stone monument</a> commemorating a previous visit and installed a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2022/feb/26/the-chagos-islanders-taking-back-their-birthplace-from-the-british-they-uprooted-us-video?CMP=share_btn_tw">cross</a> to commemorate this visit. They danced on the beach. They sang. And on their return to Mauritius, members of the <a href="https://thechagosrefugeesgroup.com/">Chagos Refugees Group</a> gathered to feast on fish they brought from the islands.</p>
<p>Over two decades, I have conducted research with Chagossian communities in Mauritius and the UK. In the context of forced displacement, protracted dislocation and geographical dispersal, these communities – though chronically marginalised and fractured – continue to pass on vital knowledge of their homeland through music, cuisine and language. </p>
<h2>Forcible disruption</h2>
<p>When the UK government <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-us-and-uk-worked-together-to-recolonise-the-chagos-islands-and-evict-chagossians-177636">depopulated</a> the Chagos archipelago in the late 1960s and early 1970s, thereby creating the British Indian Ocean Territory, about 1,500 people were forcibly displaced to Mauritius or Seychelles. Because they could take only very few belongings with them, the community has lost – or rather, has been denied access to – the kind of objects, monuments, buildings and sites that often connect people to places. </p>
<p>In the absence of such tangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage processes can prove crucial in maintaining that connection. For Chagossians, their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12402">coconut-based cuisine</a>, their <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/saas/18/4/j.1469-8676.2010.00126.x.xml">Kreol language</a> and their <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4623072">sega tambour music</a> are this link. </p>
<p>Today, however, only one third, roughly, of the exiled Islanders, are still alive. Given that they alone retain that cultural knowledge, the wider Chagossian community is rightly concerned that it will be lost as they pass away.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An older man shows a child how to crack a coconut." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452753/original/file-20220317-27-1gv5tre.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452753/original/file-20220317-27-1gv5tre.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452753/original/file-20220317-27-1gv5tre.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452753/original/file-20220317-27-1gv5tre.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452753/original/file-20220317-27-1gv5tre.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452753/original/file-20220317-27-1gv5tre.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452753/original/file-20220317-27-1gv5tre.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chagossian elders are the repositories of traditional knowledge – culinary and cultural – that risks being lost as they pass.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://chagos.online/exhibits/show/coconut-preparation/item/168">University of Edinburgh</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13527258.2018.1555671">My research</a> shows that the loss of Chagossian cultural heritage is the direct result of historical injustices and ongoing marginalisation. The British government’s forcible removal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17411912.2012.641733?needAccess=true">disrupted</a> the processes by which cultures change over time. </p>
<p>Distinctions between Chagossian and other Creole cultures have become central to <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781847797896/">the Chagossian community’s struggle</a> for their right of return. On the one hand, they must emphasise the endurance and distinctiveness of their culture with regards to their Mauritian or Seychellois counterparts. As one Chagossian elder told me, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have our own culture, they took us from our islands, but we have kept our culture. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the other hand, to show that they are victims worthy of recompense, they must emphasise the cultural losses and fragmentation that they have suffered. Another Chagossian elder put it plainly: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our culture that we had on the islands is dying out.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A girl in a purple top watches as a old man with white hair and a blue cap weaves a basket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452759/original/file-20220317-19-1kxodp3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452759/original/file-20220317-19-1kxodp3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452759/original/file-20220317-19-1kxodp3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452759/original/file-20220317-19-1kxodp3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452759/original/file-20220317-19-1kxodp3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452759/original/file-20220317-19-1kxodp3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452759/original/file-20220317-19-1kxodp3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An elder demonstrates traditional basket weaving techniques.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://chagos.online/files/original/c5e65e084609bfea7726f568c3f0f6f1.JPG">University of Edinburgh</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Transmitting knowledge</h2>
<p>Between 2017 and 2018, in collaboration with the Chagos Refugees Group and other partners in Mauritius and the UK, I led a community engagement project aiming to address this injustice. The idea was to support displaced Chagossians to valorise and preserve their intangible cultural heritage. At workshops coordinated by Olivier Bancoult and his team in Mauritius and by Sabrina Jean and her team in the UK, elders shared <a href="https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9655.12402">their knowledge</a> of medicinal plants, coconut preparation, coconut handicrafts, coconut-based cuisine, musical instruments and song and dance with the younger generations.</p>
<p>We showed the photographs, films and artefacts resulting from these workshops in subsequent exhibitions in Mauritius, Réunion and the UK. Photographs, films and recipes are also accessible on our open-access <a href="https://chagos.online/">digital archive</a>.</p>
<p>People told us they took part because they wanted to teach or to learn from others about their culture. Over three-quarters of participants said they had gained new skills, as well as a deeper knowledge of Chagossian history, identity and traditions. Almost all said they wanted to share this knowledge with others.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young girls and older ladies twirl in colourful skirts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452754/original/file-20220317-15-1b0yawt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452754/original/file-20220317-15-1b0yawt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452754/original/file-20220317-15-1b0yawt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452754/original/file-20220317-15-1b0yawt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452754/original/file-20220317-15-1b0yawt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452754/original/file-20220317-15-1b0yawt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452754/original/file-20220317-15-1b0yawt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children take part in a sega dance workshop led by Chagossian elders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://chagos.online/files/original/4db0e828d012da44e11fa4fd5b8df43a.JPG">University of Edinburgh</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chagos-born islanders told us they were pleased to have an opportunity to “learn things that I have lost during my childhood”, to “rediscover my little island”, or to “share our culture, our traditions with others and with our future generations”. </p>
<p>Younger participants reported learning about the Chagossian “way of living”, “way of sharing” and “team spirit”. Several said the project had taught them about the differences between Chagossian and other Indian Ocean cultures.</p>
<p>Participants highlighted learning about Chagossian sega. This syncretic Indian Ocean musical genre emerged on the colonial plantations of the 17th and 18th centuries. It came about through encounters between enslaved labourers with diverse ancestral origins, who played music, danced and sang lamentation and protest songs to resist their everyday hardship and domination. </p>
<p>Our project supported the production of a new album of Chagossian sega tambour music, which was subsequently made available on the <a href="https://www.airmauritius.com/docs/default-source/inflightentertainment-movies/waves-ife-guide_a350-a340-a330-feb20.pdf?sfvrsn=aaf06721_2">Air Mauritius inflight entertainment</a> system. Its associated <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmugNsWL03w">music videos</a> have reached over a cumulative quarter of a million views on YouTube.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Musicians sit on chairs outdoors playing and singing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452757/original/file-20220317-15-15vdjnp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452757/original/file-20220317-15-15vdjnp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452757/original/file-20220317-15-15vdjnp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452757/original/file-20220317-15-15vdjnp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452757/original/file-20220317-15-15vdjnp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452757/original/file-20220317-15-15vdjnp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452757/original/file-20220317-15-15vdjnp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tambour drummers and singers take part in a Chagossian sega performance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://chagos.online/files/original/36fe87745b3a3ebd11e35434e5429454.JPG">University of Edinburgh</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several Indian Ocean island states have successfully nominated sega and cognate musical genres to be officially listed by Unesco as intangible cultural heritage. My research was included in the Mauritian government’s nomination for <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/USL/sega-tambour-chagos-01490">Chagos tambour music</a> to be listed as intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/publications-of-the-lists-00492">safeguarding</a>. The nomination was successful and it resulted in a sega tambour school being opened in Mauritius.</p>
<p>Displaced Chagossians consider <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13527258.2018.1555671">their heritage</a> to be neither static nor homogeneous. Drummers will sometimes use synthetic rather than animal-skin tambour drums. For them, demonstrating authentic drumming techniques and rhythms is more important than using instruments made with traditional materials. They are concerned less about the “authenticity” of cultural objects than about their utility as tools for transmitting valued heritage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Rebecca Rotter was Co-Investigator on the AHRC project CHAGOS: Cultural Heritage Across Generations.</span></em></p>
When the British government expelled Chagos Islanders from their homeland, it put a unique culture at risk of erasure.
Laura Jeffery, Professor of Anthropology of Migration, The University of Edinburgh
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171390
2022-01-04T19:12:29Z
2022-01-04T19:12:29Z
Learn how to make a sonobe unit in origami – and unlock a world of mathematical wonder
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433304/original/file-20211122-13-1uohlvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4031%2C2257&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julia Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/how-to-guides-113946">series</a> explaining how readers can learn the skills to take part in activities that academics love doing as part of their work.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Many of us could happily fold a <a href="https://origami.me/crane/">paper crane</a>, yet few feel confident solving an equation like <em>x</em>³ – 3 <em>x</em>² – <em>x</em> + 3 = 0, to find a value for <em>x</em>.</p>
<p>Both activities, however, share similar skills: precision, the ability to follow an algorithm, an intuition for shape, and a search for pattern and symmetry. </p>
<p>I’m a mathematician whose hobby is origami, and I love introducing people to mathematical ideas through crafts like paper folding. Any piece of origami will contain mathematical ideas and skills, and can take you on a fascinating, creative journey.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bother-calculating-pi-to-62-8-trillion-digits-its-both-useless-and-fascinating-166271">Why bother calculating pi to 62.8 trillion digits? It's both useless and fascinating</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The ‘building blocks’ of origami models</h2>
<p>As a geometer (mathematician who studies geometry), my favourite technique is modular origami. That’s where you use several pieces of folded paper as “building blocks” to create a larger, often symmetrical structure.</p>
<p>The building blocks, called units, are typically straightforward to fold; the mathematical skill comes in assembling the larger structure and discovering the patterns within them. </p>
<p>Many modular origami patterns, although they may use different units, have a similar method of combining units into a bigger creation. </p>
<p>So, for a little effort you are rewarded with a vast number of models to explore.</p>
<p>My website <a href="https://www.mathscraftaus.org/resources">Maths Craft Australia</a> contains a range of modular origami patterns, as well as patterns for other crafts such as crochet, knitting and stitching. </p>
<p>They require no mathematical background but will take you in some fascinating mathematical directions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432338/original/file-20211117-23-ujn9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432338/original/file-20211117-23-ujn9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432338/original/file-20211117-23-ujn9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432338/original/file-20211117-23-ujn9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432338/original/file-20211117-23-ujn9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432338/original/file-20211117-23-ujn9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432338/original/file-20211117-23-ujn9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432338/original/file-20211117-23-ujn9or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This model, folded by the author, uses a design from the book Perfectly Mindful Origami - The Art and Craft of Geometric Origami by Mark Bolitho.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Building 3D shapes from smaller 2D units</h2>
<p>In mathematics, the shapes with the most symmetry are called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid">Platonic solids</a>. They’re named after the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (although they almost certainly predate him and have been discovered in ancient civilisations around the world). </p>
<p>The Platonic solids are 3D shapes made from regular 2D shapes (also known as regular polygons) where every side and angle is identical: equilateral triangles, squares, pentagons.</p>
<p>While there are infinitely many regular polygons, there are, surprisingly, only five Platonic solids: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>the tetrahedron (four triangles)</p></li>
<li><p>the cube (six squares)</p></li>
<li><p>the octahedron (eight triangles)</p></li>
<li><p>the dodecahedron (12 pentagons) and</p></li>
<li><p>the icosahedron (20 triangles). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>To build Platonic solids in origami, the best place to start is to master what’s known as the “<a href="https://momath.org/home/math-monday-introducing-the-sonobe-unit/">sonobe unit</a>”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433363/original/file-20211123-25-1r7jrtk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sonobe units, like these ones piled in a stack, can be put together to create 3D shapes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433363/original/file-20211123-25-1r7jrtk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433363/original/file-20211123-25-1r7jrtk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433363/original/file-20211123-25-1r7jrtk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433363/original/file-20211123-25-1r7jrtk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433363/original/file-20211123-25-1r7jrtk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433363/original/file-20211123-25-1r7jrtk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433363/original/file-20211123-25-1r7jrtk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sonobe units, like these ones piled in a stack, can be put together to create 3D shapes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julia Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Enter the sonobe unit</h2>
<p>A sonobe unit (sometimes called the sonobe module) looks a bit like a parallelogram with two flaps folded behind.</p>
<p>I’ve got instructions for how to make a sonobe unit <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59699ab4b8a79b10f84ba4cd/t/59b92716e5dd5b882846ee5b/1505306394805/Sonobe-unit-instructions.pdf">on my website</a> and there are plenty of videos online, like this one:</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TKGW2W168H0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How to make a sonobe unit.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sonobe units are fast and simple to fold, and can be fitted together to create beautiful, intriguing 3D shapes like these:</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432142/original/file-20211116-13-1vvh9l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432142/original/file-20211116-13-1vvh9l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432142/original/file-20211116-13-1vvh9l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432142/original/file-20211116-13-1vvh9l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432142/original/file-20211116-13-1vvh9l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432142/original/file-20211116-13-1vvh9l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432142/original/file-20211116-13-1vvh9l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three sonobe origami models by Julia Collins.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You will need six sonobe units to make a cube like the yellow-blue-green one pictured above, 12 to make an octahedron (the red-pink-purple one), and 30 to make an icosahedron (the golden one). (Interestingly, it’s not possible to build a tetrahedron and dodecahedron from sonobe units).</p>
<p>I’ve got written instructions for building the cube <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59699ab4b8a79b10f84ba4cd/t/59b9273ab7411cfd32068b83/1505306433027/Sonobe-unit-instructions-cube.pdf">on my website</a>, and some quick searching online will find you instructions for the larger models.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433364/original/file-20211123-13-1g66xxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sonobe units can be put together to build wondrous shapes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433364/original/file-20211123-13-1g66xxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433364/original/file-20211123-13-1g66xxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433364/original/file-20211123-13-1g66xxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433364/original/file-20211123-13-1g66xxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433364/original/file-20211123-13-1g66xxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433364/original/file-20211123-13-1g66xxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433364/original/file-20211123-13-1g66xxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sonobe units can be put together to build wondrous shapes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julia Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Into the mathematical rabbit hole</h2>
<p>Once you’ve mastered the basic structure of each 3D shape, you may find yourself (as <a href="https://www.polypompholyx.com/2017/01/modularorigami/">others have done</a>) pondering deeper mathematical questions.</p>
<p>Can you arrange the sonobe units so two units of the same colour never touch, if you only have three colours? </p>
<p>Are larger symmetric shapes possible? (Answer: yes!) </p>
<p>Are there relationships between the different 3D shapes? (For example, the icosahedron is basically built of triangles, but can you spot the pentagons lurking within? Or the triangles in the dodecahedron?)</p>
<p>One seemingly innocent question can easily lead to a mathematical rabbit hole.</p>
<p>Questions about colouring will lead you to the mathematics of graphs and networks (and big questions that remained <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_color_theorem">unsolved for many centuries</a>). </p>
<p>Questions about larger models will lead you to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedean_solid">Archimedean solids</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_solid">Johnson solids</a>. These 3D shapes have a lot of symmetry, though not as much as the Platonic solids. </p>
<p>Then, for a truly mind-bending journey, you might land on the concept of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regular_polytopes_and_compounds">higher-dimensional symmetric shapes</a>. </p>
<p>Or perhaps your questions will lead you in the opposite direction. </p>
<p>Instead of using origami to explore new ideas in mathematics, some researchers have used mathematical frameworks to explore new ideas in origami.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433365/original/file-20211123-27-1h94v50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Origami can take you into the mathematical rabbit hole." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433365/original/file-20211123-27-1h94v50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433365/original/file-20211123-27-1h94v50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433365/original/file-20211123-27-1h94v50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433365/original/file-20211123-27-1h94v50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433365/original/file-20211123-27-1h94v50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433365/original/file-20211123-27-1h94v50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433365/original/file-20211123-27-1h94v50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Origami can take you into the mathematical rabbit hole.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julia Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Solving old problems in new ways</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most famous mathematical origami artist is the US-based former NASA physicist <a href="https://langorigami.com/">Robert Lang</a>, who designs computer programs that generate crease patterns for fantastically complicated models. </p>
<p>His models include segmented tarantulas and ants, stags with twisted antlers and soaring, feathered birds.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DJ4hDppP_SQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Credit: Great Big Story/YouTube.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Robert Lang and others have also created crease patterns for use in new engineering contexts such as <a href="https://langorigami.com/article/eyeglass-telescope/">folding telescope lenses</a>, <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.160429">air bags</a> and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/news/origami-style-solar-power-20140814">solar panels</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curved-origami-offers-a-creative-route-to-making-robots-and-other-mechanical-devices-150253">Curved origami offers a creative route to making robots and other mechanical devices</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>My final example of the power of origami goes back to the cubic equation I mentioned at the outset:</p>
<p><em>x</em>³ – 3 <em>x</em>² – <em>x</em> + 3 = 0</p>
<p>Cubic equations relate to some “impossible” mathematical problems, such as <a href="https://mathworld.wolfram.com/AngleTrisection.html">trisecting an angle</a> (splitting an arbitrary angle into three equal angles). Or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubling_the_cube">doubling a cube</a> (which is finding a cube with double the volume of a given cube). </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433368/original/file-20211123-17-19aazig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A blue and purple origami shape sits on a grey background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433368/original/file-20211123-17-19aazig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433368/original/file-20211123-17-19aazig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433368/original/file-20211123-17-19aazig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433368/original/file-20211123-17-19aazig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433368/original/file-20211123-17-19aazig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433368/original/file-20211123-17-19aazig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433368/original/file-20211123-17-19aazig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Any piece of origami will contain mathematical ideas and skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julia Collins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Famously, these problems cannot be solved using the classical methods of a straightedge (ruler without the markings) and compass. </p>
<p>In 1980, however, Japanese mathematician Hisashi Abe showed how to <a href="https://plus.maths.org/content/trisecting-angle-origami">solve all these problems using origami</a>.</p>
<p>I am excited to see where mathematics and origami will intersect in future. Grab some paper today, make a few models and start your own journey of mathematical exploration. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in this series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/how-to-guides-113946">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171390/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
I’m a mathematician whose hobby is origami. It has inspired mathematicians to solve problems once thought impossible, and create folding telescope lenses, airbags and solar panels.
Julia Collins, Lecturer of Mathematics, Edith Cowan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167798
2021-09-16T04:36:29Z
2021-09-16T04:36:29Z
Wondering what to do with kids in lockdown school holidays? Ideas from a happiness expert
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421023/original/file-20210914-21-a3hcto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7346%2C4893&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>School holidays are upon us again. In pre-pandemic days, many parents and carers would be busily planning holidays interstate or overseas, booking in play dates, organising day trips or tee-ing up visits to family and friends.</p>
<p>Instead, a significant amount of us are in lockdown (still), living with restrictions and likely working from home. </p>
<p>School holidays may feel like more of the same, and many parents are burned out from trying to work while managing remote learning.</p>
<p>I am an education researcher with a lasting interest in how to blend creativity with educational experiences for children.</p>
<p>If you and the kids are stumped for things to do these holidays, and looking for ways to reconnect after a really trying school term, here are some ideas to try. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-fitness-is-at-risk-while-they-miss-sport-and-hobbies-but-mums-are-getting-more-physical-167433">Kids' fitness is at risk while they miss sport and hobbies — but mums are getting more physical</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Try some conversation starters — you might be surprised what comes out</h2>
<p>Think back to your own <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/hea-hea0000694.pdf">childhood memories</a>. It’s likely your favourite moments are less about big grand gestures and more about moments of connection with a parent or carer.</p>
<p>Finding fresh ways to cultivate this positive relationship in lockdown might be hard, but it’s not impossible. </p>
<p>One idea is to experiment with “conversation starters” — perhaps while you go on your daily walks, as you throw a ball around, or as you go around the dinner table.</p>
<p>Give your children language to talk about their experiences, to help them <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-your-earliest-childhood-memories-say-about-you-101330">develop a sense of self</a>.</p>
<p>You might want to talk about experiences you have had today, recently, since lockdown began or even ever. These sentence starters may help kick things off:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I enjoyed …</p></li>
<li><p>In future, I’d like to try …</p></li>
<li><p>Wouldn’t it be cool if we could …</p></li>
<li><p>I look forward to …</p></li>
<li><p>When such-and-such happened, I felt …</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Give it a try. Perhaps it’ll feel a bit stilted at first. But you might be surprised at what comes up once you and your child start talking.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421027/original/file-20210914-25-13z3dm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421027/original/file-20210914-25-13z3dm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421027/original/file-20210914-25-13z3dm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421027/original/file-20210914-25-13z3dm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421027/original/file-20210914-25-13z3dm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421027/original/file-20210914-25-13z3dm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421027/original/file-20210914-25-13z3dm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421027/original/file-20210914-25-13z3dm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If it’s allowed, go on a picnic to your local park. Take your shoes off and feel the grass in your toes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Find new ways to share positive emotions</h2>
<p>Positive emotions are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2307/3094912?casa_token=mnbXESfq6uIAAAAA:6SL18Aqh_PHD4GOootDdRBXWww3470w4y2f58gA62x-2rgIjk2WB3TVd_gevHL_4kDRsvYZfzm89VA">contagious</a>. Look for new ways to share positivity around by, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>each person saying three things they are grateful for over dinner or while on a family walk</p></li>
<li><p>making a list of small joys (like a recent dish you enjoyed or a local garden you like walking past). Keep the list in a visible place, like on the fridge, and add to it over time</p></li>
<li><p>try a <a href="https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas">random act of kindness</a>. Make a nice card or postcard and deliver it to someone in your neighbourhood. Or write a note of appreciation to a teacher or local business</p></li>
<li><p>celebrate day-to-day achievements. See if you can teach your child a family recipe, form a mini book club by reading the same book together and discussing it, or try to learn something new together. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Remember, though, you don’t have to try to enforce constant positivity. Sadness and stress are normal too, and we must ensure children are given space to share those emotions as well.</p>
<h2>Even in the city, we can connect with nature</h2>
<p>Connecting with nature helps improve mental well-being, even when that contact is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439760.2018.1557242">brief</a>.</p>
<p>A visit to the national park might be out of the question but you can still find nature even in the most urban of settings. You could:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>try mindful walking with your child, where you purposefully notice what is around you (so no earphones or devices)</p></li>
<li><p>borrow <a href="http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/meditation-54321">a trick from meditation practice</a> and name five things you see, four things you hear, three things you feel, two things you smell and one thing you taste. Think of it as a kind of sensory “scavenger hunt” to do while you’re on your walks. You just might notice something new</p></li>
<li><p>if it’s allowed, go on a picnic to your local park. Take your shoes off and feel the grass in your toes</p></li>
<li><p>if you’re subject to a lockdown radius, get out the map and study closely what exactly is in your radius. There may be a park or a street you haven’t visited yet. Finding new streets to walk can be shockingly invigorating</p></li>
<li><p>if you’re lucky enough to have a backyard, make the most of it. Create a sculpture together using found objects, arrange petals in a shape, build a fairy house, fix up a garden bed, cook outside, set up a tent and go camping in the garden</p></li>
<li><p>plant something — herbs, flowers, anything — in balcony pots or a little indoor garden and watch it grow. Take progress photos.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421022/original/file-20210914-25-t4s874.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421022/original/file-20210914-25-t4s874.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421022/original/file-20210914-25-t4s874.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421022/original/file-20210914-25-t4s874.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421022/original/file-20210914-25-t4s874.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421022/original/file-20210914-25-t4s874.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421022/original/file-20210914-25-t4s874.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421022/original/file-20210914-25-t4s874.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plant something, and take progress photos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connect with your child and their interests</h2>
<p>Find <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945">ways to connect</a> with your children — take an interest in what <em>they’re</em> interested in, even if it’s not something you’d typically do with your leisure time. </p>
<p>You could try:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a regular board game or card game night (and let your child pick what to play)</p></li>
<li><p>making a favourite food from scratch (pasta is fun for all ages)</p></li>
<li><p>teach your children <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-home-with-your-dog-3-ways-to-connect-and-lift-your-spirits-166331">new ways to connect with pets</a></p></li>
<li><p>make a time capsule that captures pandemic life</p></li>
<li><p>help your child re-arrange their bedroom</p></li>
<li><p>start a community art installation that brings hope and joy, like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/02/a-form-of-connection-spoonville-craze-revives-community-spirit-in-australia">Spoonville</a> craze or the <a href="https://museumsvictoria.com.au/one-year-on/were-going-on-a-bear-hunt/">bears in windows</a> movement.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Be gentle with yourself</h2>
<p>If reading that list makes you feel exhausted, please be gentle with yourself. You don’t have to do any of those things if you don’t have the time, energy or inclination. Nobody is expecting you to plan every moment of your child’s holidays.</p>
<p>But if a spare pocket of time arises and you’re looking for ways to reinvigorate the same old walks, chores or activities, I hope this list proves useful.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-art-are-you-engaging-with-in-lockdown-australians-are-mostly-watching-tv-but-music-singing-and-dancing-do-more-for-your-mood-166823">What art are you engaging with in lockdown? Australians are mostly watching TV — but music, singing and dancing do more for your mood</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Narelle Lemon consults on wellbeing via Explore and Create Co. She is currently funded with a research team for a two year project, funded by the Building Safe Communities grant from the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, supporting Pasifika secondary students to stay and complete school, where wellbeing is one part of the research focus. She volunteers for Action for Happiness Australia. She sits on the board and currently holds the position of Chair.</span></em></p>
If you and the kids are stumped for things to do these holidays, and looking for ways to reconnect after a really trying school term, here are some ideas to try.
Narelle Lemon, Associate Professor in Education, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146265
2020-09-16T15:07:47Z
2020-09-16T15:07:47Z
The experience economy will not fully recover – consumers will pay to perform in future instead
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358421/original/file-20200916-18-1os1plk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Insta-tastic. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/4LsqHkrI2As">Sharon McCutcheon</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>No list of seminal business books would be complete without <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=edtOyzyKgXUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Experience Economy</a>, the 1999 bestseller by American academics B Joseph Pine II and James H Gilmore. They argued that the selling of experiences was the fourth great stage in our consumer development after commodities, goods and services. </p>
<p>They explained their idea with the following example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a vestige of the agrarian economy, mothers made birthday cakes from scratch, mixing farm commodities (flour, sugar, butter, and eggs) that together cost mere dimes. As the goods-based industrial economy advanced, moms paid a dollar or two to Betty Crocker for pre-mixed ingredients. </p>
<p>Later, when the service economy took hold, busy parents ordered cakes from the bakery or grocery store, which, at US$10 or US$15, cost ten times as much as the packaged ingredients. Now, in the time-starved 1990s, parents neither make the birthday cake nor even throw the party. Instead, they spend US$100 or more to ‘outsource’ the entire event to Chuck E. Cheese’s.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In recent years, everyone from high street shops to tourist trails to luxury spas has sold consumers experiences – stirring our emotions for the highest price possible. But this model has been as badly hit as any sector by the pandemic. Fittingly, the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain is one high-profile casualty, blaming the pandemic for entering <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/25/business/chuck-e-cheese-bankruptcy/index.html">Chapter 11 bankruptcy</a> over the summer. </p>
<p>It would be easy to think that demand for experiences will simply return next year or the year after, but I’m not convinced. Instead, something slightly different may be emerging. </p>
<h2>Are you experienced?</h2>
<p>Prior to 2020, the experience economy appeared to be booming. In the US, sales of spectator events, amusement parks, restaurants and travelling <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/private-equity-and-principal-investors/our-insights/cashing-in-on-the-us-experience-economy">grew much faster</a> during the 2010s than those of goods, while <a href="https://www.home.barclaycard/media-centre/press-releases/Experience-economy-grows-as-consumers-seek-out-memories-in-favour-of-material-possessions.html">the UK</a> was similarly successful in this respect. People spent generously to make memories – witness the recent trend for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/29/experience-economy-peaky-blinders-friends-stranger-things">attending festivals</a> based around favourite TV shows such as Friends.</p>
<p>Millennials seemed to <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/the-experience-economy-is-booming-but-it-must-benefit-everyone/">particularly prioritise</a> memorable experiences <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/13/just-do-it-the-experience-economy-and-how-we-turned-our-backs-on-stuff">over buying things</a>, documenting it all via social media. But then, of course, came COVID-19. A <a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/premium/covid-19/uk-economic-update-covid-19.pdf">July report from PwC</a> found that accommodation and food were the worst hit service sectors in the UK, followed by arts, entertainment and recreation.</p>
<p>Memorable experiences are about triggering sensations. People remember feeling excited by an adrenaline rush, such as riding a rollercoaster. For example, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13683500.2017.1321623?casa_token=K4xbDMT1rycAAAAA%3A8CYU8-CNoXE0fmX7_aOpepc6Fw5Phpvg7gYOZIEQS2nGBjqvZStSi9FkgyKVb4bnTsMzlx7J8nc&">research on theme parks</a> suggests that to be successful, they must heighten the thrill that visitors expect.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358364/original/file-20200916-24-10wkmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Girls screaming on rollercoaster" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358364/original/file-20200916-24-10wkmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358364/original/file-20200916-24-10wkmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358364/original/file-20200916-24-10wkmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358364/original/file-20200916-24-10wkmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358364/original/file-20200916-24-10wkmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358364/original/file-20200916-24-10wkmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358364/original/file-20200916-24-10wkmzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Get the most coast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/shot-young-friends-cheering-riding-roller-557072995">Jacob Lund</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Equally, experiences rely on being shared with others. Sharing an activity intensifies the experience. Those who take part in <a href="https://watermark.silverchair.com/ucw077.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAArcwggKzBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKkMIICoAIBADCCApkGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMGXu6f9Ae8uQC7Q0VAgEQgIICagnLqRW6E-Gxp5XmsWCIdEMvD6DEk_j4ltmOxvrECT1rC25QeDhaz7EqHUkg54PckZLwfP3H1wGwFXIN72bHEa3F6-1bKeYdC6-7Fz6Z63KcDQ1mQ48K8bI82ttAggvOf_AcIM3EymzZamkK7HM9ord7Gv_K6EaIH7yTC0OauTnvxPErJfTRxFlCBZb9TiplEQVtyGkF-7XwPv_Jg4ZOVH93cRwf1-McTMxRcJJ5y-PkHDCBZBaC9HiI5B-owjc8Ozbz9McNRrK-dK_rwIJkTtfA1exHZZcGmhAKgb-i9dg10BKSw_nPBaTSN7qH7qbzJArC74Qt-XrDUCixHbChkv5EYstA6eGWihypw0RCPLMIGGDTjNHtpRhrxRSPlUNWW6tI7TnNnYJH3-m5_wn8v-zIlmv_QFHosh9GZ7IeQzhQ38fg32Muc2RtVQDab8OOC3wJfK_khge4__ujHdEwxqaild7_y2giTixA2utrSgvFpJDdry8SiLVCP9_sMCmX6Fw9APyBDoPa5LB_un7vanw1onS1O6yjOJisznIFrjtDmI5btivLJsD8RyAgfhCTbPdRN4utxY9hd7fQe_qZ7Lu8yxfqKCkGY5CeWhoFDojnn3JNUqnNXABhPM5y8oudYN2L9XptDpYejYiapyrRj0ORUQPCB1stpZW36GLvpiq2FzET9d4H6BBk4hnZacCjryMHsKwQydwazlG2SG0RgmUmC_ThQowXrIQKXPD9Wx3U6R-dIs9VIy2q_Hw8hgLC5nL9Jv-rxg1TE4jWGH4jtFLsOUHoURL5mHJIl_fDrszUiqcJL_064vAgDQ">cosplay, for example,</a>, where participants put on costumes and act out character parts, enhance their hobby by swapping advice and giving mutual support.</p>
<p>Obviously, pursuing and sharing such encounters has been difficult under COVID-19 restrictions. This has hit the likes of tourism, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19368623.2020.1788231">hospitality</a>, <a href="https://www.conference-news.co.uk/coronavirus-updates-business-news/126000-event-jobs-gone-and-ps24m-lost-venue-according-meetings">events</a>, <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14919">higher education</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/17/cultural-catastrophe-uk-theatre-faces-ruin-amid-coronavirus-crisis">theatres</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52573685">concerts</a>.</p>
<p>The restrictions will presumably lift at some point, but a deeper underlying challenge for the experience economy is actually not related to the pandemic – although <a href="https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/coronavirus/does-covid-19-mark-the-end-of-the-experience-economy/">COVID-19 may accelerate</a> the transformation.</p>
<p>To briefly revisit Chuck E. Cheese, its <a href="https://www.pizzamarketplace.com/news/chuck-e-cheese-q1-financials-still-problematic-but-signs-of-recovery/">troubles predate</a> COVID-19. <a href="https://eu.delawareonline.com/story/money/business/2015/10/04/chuck-cheeses-targets-millennial-moms-slump/73208396/">Commentators suggested</a> that whilst the brand appealed to children, it was not exciting enough for parents. Yet the entire fast-dining sector has been <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/ConsumerIndustrialProducts/deloitte-uk-casual-dining-market.pdf">struggling since 2016</a>, when several chains such as the UK’s Ed’s Easy Diner <a href="https://www.egi.co.uk/news/the-full-list-of-eds-easy-diners-due-to-close/">entered administration</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358368/original/file-20200916-22-wrtrqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lots of Chuck E. Cheese mice at a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358368/original/file-20200916-22-wrtrqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358368/original/file-20200916-22-wrtrqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358368/original/file-20200916-22-wrtrqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358368/original/file-20200916-22-wrtrqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358368/original/file-20200916-22-wrtrqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358368/original/file-20200916-22-wrtrqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358368/original/file-20200916-22-wrtrqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hey parents, what’s not to like?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vaughan-ontario-canada-june-4-2018-1128555536">Lester Balajadia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Physical retail has also been in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail_apocalypse">long-term decline</a>. Shopping malls and high streets are spaces for staging experiences. The best ones put on a show, bring people together, excite and entertain. Yet <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/15/malls-see-tsunami-of-store-closures-as-foot-traffic-declines-further.html">people are seemingly</a> less and less interested. Shuttered brands and empty stores are <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/retail-meltdown-of-2017/522384/">becoming commonplace</a>.</p>
<h2>Look at me</h2>
<p>A more fundamental change in the economy may be underway. Instead of experiences, value for today’s consumers increasingly comes from having an audience: they like to attract attention.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738320300426">My research</a> on tourists has found that some people go on holiday to be looked at. They will spend significant amounts on travel that helps them gain attention. Wearing over-the-top outfits, for example, they want local people to notice them. Rather than try to blend in, in search of an authentic experience, I found tourists doing their best to stand out.</p>
<p>It may be time to add a new layer to Pine and Gilmore’s progression of economic development, in which value is added by facilitating performances. People are now willing to pay for goods, services and experiences that support their gaining of attention.</p>
<p>This follows two decades of reality television, social media, data analytics and microcelebrity. Living under <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained">constant observation</a> is the new normal. Becoming an online influencer is the new aspirational. Online likes <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-removing-likes-from-instagram-could-affect-our-mental-health">seem to be</a> addictive and behaviour changing.</p>
<p>It is therefore unsurprising that we will seek out things which support our online performances. Fast-growing sectors provide opportunities for consumers to enhance their appearance, such as <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7909525/Instagram-leading-new-tattoo-boom-artists-70-percent-clients-app.html">tattoo parlours</a> or <a href="https://www.ihrsa.org/improve-your-club/industry-news/2019-fitness-industry-trends-shed-light-on-2020-beyond/">fitness</a>. Meanwhile, the outlet for all of these performances, social media, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-internet-use.html">grows rapidly</a>.</p>
<p>Just as commodities, goods and services were somewhat pushed aside by the rise of experiences, so too experiences are now being displaced by performances. It doesn’t mean the end of the experience economy; more a rebalancing towards supporting the performances that consumers increasingly prioritise.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358369/original/file-20200916-14-5u8emf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Tattooed girl doing a handstand against a wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358369/original/file-20200916-14-5u8emf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358369/original/file-20200916-14-5u8emf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358369/original/file-20200916-14-5u8emf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358369/original/file-20200916-14-5u8emf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358369/original/file-20200916-14-5u8emf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358369/original/file-20200916-14-5u8emf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358369/original/file-20200916-14-5u8emf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘I am nothing without an audience.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/xrNcx1qy7Vw">Mor Shani</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.etsy.com/">Etsy</a> may be an example. This digital marketplace has just <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-index/etsy-gets-into-sp-500-tesla-does-not-idUSKBN25V2XX">made it</a> into the S&P 500 stock index. Etsy offers a place to not just purchase crafts, but also to set up shop oneself. Craft, which demonstrates both <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1469540505049843?casa_token=HSd6QBS-v-QAAAAA%3A4p6xciEP7PmR9eNfd1CTIH9inOuWzoYqmvCevzPuXvo5zW4GAgSh7K6r7200A3JMzJaaLREm1L8&">skill and self-expression</a>, can be a performance. Etsy can help consumers to craft and display who these people are as much as their macramé bracelets.</p>
<p>Pine and Gilmore noted that the transition from selling services to selling experiences would be difficult for established companies to undertake and weather. The transition from selling experiences to supporting performances will be difficult too, particularly thanks to COVID-19. But businesses that find a way to capitalise on this 21st-century shift might emerge more strongly than their rivals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Canavan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Joseph Pine and James Gilmore’s The Experience Economy was one of the most influential books of the modern era. Now it may be time for an update.
Brendan Canavan, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Huddersfield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/136618
2020-05-03T19:50:19Z
2020-05-03T19:50:19Z
Great time to try: knitting your first woolly scarf
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331254/original/file-20200429-110761-6dtpc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C38%2C2584%2C1685&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closeup-hands-knitting-260nw-116071006.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Being in isolation might be a great time to try something new. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/great-time-to-try-84901">this series</a>, we get the basics on hobbies and activities to start while you’re spending more time at home.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>First, a warning: knitting can be highly addictive.</p>
<p>The enduring popularity of knitting lies in its practicality, portability and the proof that it is very good for your <a href="https://theconversation.com/knitting-your-way-to-a-healthier-happier-mind-46389">mental health</a> as means of meditation and relaxation. </p>
<p>Knitting is associated with comfort and the home, sources of stability for many people. People in self-isolation around the world are increasingly turning to knitting (and other crafts) to help them kill time and block out the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/04/crafts-coronavirus-quarantine-stress-relief/609187/?fbclid=IwAR0P-EQgsoEU69WWldzAydpLmf47xrEY6iAwJiYigvghLo_xb_k1JlAxl1Q">COVID-19 crisis news</a> for a while. </p>
<p>Even US sailors and marines deployed in the Persian Gulf have started a knitting club to help them cope with the stresses of being stuck on the <a href="https://www.pilotonline.com/military/vp-nw-bataan-knit-club-20200428-2xs6qdv6i5fpvdfrasuuirlmjy-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3vOodRkkaqemo28IRCKbyy7WF782MDflxRTkzagPVfgWvFLxbCS5gP2gs">US Bataan</a> due to COVID-19.</p>
<h2>The first cast</h2>
<p>The origins of hand knitting are unclear, but surviving examples of its ancestor, a single-needle technique which became known as <a href="https://www.en.neulakintaat.fi/">nålbinding</a> in the 1970s, have been found in Israel dating back more than 8,500 years. </p>
<p>The ancient Egyptians used the single-needle knitting technique to make <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews-history-archaeology/1700-year-old-sock-spins-yarn-about-ancient-egyptian-fashion-180970501/">socks</a> around 600 CE.</p>
<p>Nålbinding spread to Europe and became popular with the <a href="https://www.cs.vassar.edu/%7Ecapriest/nalebind.html">Vikings</a> between 793–1066 CE in Scandinavia and the lands they invaded because it was an easily transportable, effective method to create sturdy, serviceable garments.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331268/original/file-20200429-51466-574n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331268/original/file-20200429-51466-574n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331268/original/file-20200429-51466-574n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331268/original/file-20200429-51466-574n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331268/original/file-20200429-51466-574n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331268/original/file-20200429-51466-574n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331268/original/file-20200429-51466-574n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331268/original/file-20200429-51466-574n5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The knitting Madonna in The Buxtehude Altar, painted by Master Bertram (1345-1415).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KnittingMadonna.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Early knitting needles were made from wood, bone and antler. By 1100 CE knitting had evolved and spread throughout North Africa and Europe to the looping and knotting technique on two needles that we still use today. The term “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=9bTNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT162&lpg=PT162&dq=The+term+%22knitting%22+likely+comes+the+Dutch+word,+%22knutten%22,+which+is+from+the+Old-English+verb,+cnyttan,+both+words+meaning+%22to+knot%22.&source=bl&ots=JjB284o_1I&sig=ACfU3U0w1lnutMAHhnCSnkj31kC2cz_Lyg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9vJys64zpAhXEzzgGHYWICJkQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=The%20term%20%22knitting%22%20likely%20comes%20the%20Dutch%20word%2C%20%22knutten%22%2C%20which%20is%20from%20the%20Old-English%20verb%2C%20cnyttan%2C%20both%20words%20meaning%20%22to%20knot%22.&f=false">knitting</a>"likely comes the Dutch word, "knutten”, which is from the Old-English verb, cnyttan, both words meaning “to knot”.</p>
<p>Many of the knitting techniques that we still use today were well established throughout Europe by the <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-history-of-hand-knitting">1300s</a>. And by the 15th century, the technique of knitting with four and five needles – to create a seamless, tubular-shaped garment – was also widespread. </p>
<p>Any type of yarn can be knitted using the two-stick method and people knitted silk, linen and cotton into luxurious garments, including <a href="https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/326018460506207463/">jackets</a>. </p>
<p>Examples of intricate hand knitting, including socks, vests and caps from the 12th to 17th centuries survive in museum collections, showing not only the craftsmanship involved in their creation, but the evolution of knitting as a highly-skilled, greatly-prized activity. </p>
<p>Commercial hand knitting was an early victim of the industrial revolution, with the invention of the first mechanical knitting machine in 1589. But the skill of hand knitting survived into the 18th century by becoming an acceptable pastime for wealthy women to show their good taste and skill. </p>
<p>Complicated, delicate, hand-knitted garments were still prized in the 19th century because they could not be made on <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-history-of-hand-knitting">machines</a>. </p>
<p>Hand knitting remained popular in the 20th century, in part due to mass efforts to knit garments, including jumpers and socks, for <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-million-pairs-of-socks-knitting-for-victory-in-the-first-world-war-30149">soldiers</a> fighting in both world wars. Just a few months ago, people around the world knitted thousands of pouches for animals injured in Australia’s devastating <a href="https://theconversation.com/crafting-in-times-of-crisis-helps-critters-and-creators-127616">bushfires</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B_jE3-5pWmJ","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Tips for beginners</h2>
<p>Like many ancient skills, knitting is simple to learn. Luckily for everyone in lockdown, there are countless <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=knitting+tutorials&page=&utm_source=opensearch">YouTube tutorials</a> to help you get started. </p>
<p>When you’re new to knitting, working up a pattern with a fine yarn and small needles can be discouraging because it takes longer. It can also be tricky to hold smaller needles and yarn if you’re not used to it. Learning to knit using larger needles and chunky yarn allows you to master the action, and get that satisfying feeling of finishing your project more quickly. </p>
<p>The three basic techniques you need to know are how to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWLtMqP6Uz0">cast on</a>, do <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egp4NRhlMDg">plain stitch</a> (also known as knit stitch), and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSqL9urz_Xc">cast off</a>. When you can do these three easy things, then you’ve got the skills you need to knit a scarf like a boss. </p>
<p>As you become more confident in your knitting, sites like <a href="https://www.dummies.com/crafts/knitting/">Knitting for Dummies</a> can give you the information you need to learn how to read a <a href="https://www.dummies.com/crafts/knitting/designs-patterns/reading-stitch-patterns-for-knitting/">knitting pattern</a>. You can try your hand at a <a href="https://www.dummies.com/crafts/knitting/knitting-projects/how-to-knit-basic-beanies/">basic beanie</a> or even a <a href="https://www.allfreeknitting.com/Knitted-Sweaters/Favorite-Fashion-Sweater-from-Patons-Yarn">basic jumper</a>. </p>
<p>Joining an online knitting community like <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/">Ravelry</a> can put you in touch with like-minded knitters, give you access to beautiful patterns, tips and tricks, and get you thinking about different <a href="https://nundle.com/">yarns</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331252/original/file-20200429-110761-y5hank.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331252/original/file-20200429-110761-y5hank.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331252/original/file-20200429-110761-y5hank.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331252/original/file-20200429-110761-y5hank.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331252/original/file-20200429-110761-y5hank.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331252/original/file-20200429-110761-y5hank.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331252/original/file-20200429-110761-y5hank.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331252/original/file-20200429-110761-y5hank.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chilly days call for cosy knits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/19zo2nQUpRk">Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Starting with a scarf</h2>
<p>This <a href="https://www.favecrafts.com/Knit-Scarf-Patterns/Fun-and-Simple-Chunky-Knit-Scarf">Simple chunky knit scarf</a> pattern is a perfect beginner project and can be made in any colours you like. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331266/original/file-20200429-51461-1vl2o2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331266/original/file-20200429-51461-1vl2o2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331266/original/file-20200429-51461-1vl2o2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331266/original/file-20200429-51461-1vl2o2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331266/original/file-20200429-51461-1vl2o2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331266/original/file-20200429-51461-1vl2o2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331266/original/file-20200429-51461-1vl2o2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331266/original/file-20200429-51461-1vl2o2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The scarf has pointy ends. Bright colours provide extra cheer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/doityourfreakingself/">Chelsea Iacopelli/Instagram</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>You’ll need:</strong> </p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.mybluprint.com/article/the-beginners-guide-to-knitting-needle-sizes">Knitting Needles</a> - 13mm or 9mm</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/yarn-weight-system">Yarn</a> - (6) Super Bulky</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://m.lionbrand.com/page/how-to-knit-making-a-gauge-swatch">Gauge</a> - 9 stitches = 4 inches</p></li>
<li><p>Finished Size - 180cm or as long as you like.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Key:</strong></p>
<p>K = knit</p>
<p>KF&B = <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sX-YkOXBtE">knit front and back to increase</a></p>
<p>K2tog = Knit two stitches together.</p>
<p><strong>Instructions:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><p>Cast on 2 stitches (2)</p></li>
<li><p>Row 1: KF&B 1, K1 (3)</p></li>
<li><p>Row 2: KF&B 2, K2 (4)</p></li>
<li><p>Rows 3-11: Continue to increase 1 at the beginning of each row until you have 12 stitches.</p></li>
<li><p>Continue to work the project in knit stitch until your scarf is the desired length. </p></li>
<li><p>Begin to create the end point …</p></li>
<li><p>K2tog 1, K to end (11)</p></li>
<li><p>K2tog 1, K to end (10)</p></li>
<li><p>Continue until you’ve got 1 stitch left on the needle. Cut the yarn and pull it through to make a knot.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Add some super cute pompoms to put on each end and voila! Cosy times and kudos.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Brayshaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The enduring popularity of knitting lies in its practicality, portability and mental health benefits. As the mercury drops and we head outside for bracing walks, it’s time to knit a woollen scarf.
Emily Brayshaw, Lecturer, Fashion and Design History, Theory, and Thinking, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134409
2020-03-30T04:18:23Z
2020-03-30T04:18:23Z
Do homemade masks work? Sometimes. But leave the design to the experts
<p>Once again, global crafting communities are stepping up to help in a crisis, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/business/coronavirus-masks-sewers.html">sewing face masks</a> desperately needed in American hospitals to help stop the spread of COVID-19.</p>
<p>People are also increasingly sporting homemade masks to try to stay safe. </p>
<p>But while they might look cute, homemade masks are a sign of both positive social changes and serious social failings.</p>
<p>As America’s Center for Disease Control <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/face-masks.html">states</a>: homemade masks are a last resort.</p>
<h2>Medical masks in modern times</h2>
<p>Surgical masks were first used in France <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001209208713590">in 1897</a>, but it wasn’t until the great <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2017.1423072">Manchurian plague epidemic</a> in China in 1910 that medical staff and patients started to wear personal protection equipment (PPE) to try to halt the spread of disease. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323441/original/file-20200326-133001-r7i5wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323441/original/file-20200326-133001-r7i5wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323441/original/file-20200326-133001-r7i5wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323441/original/file-20200326-133001-r7i5wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323441/original/file-20200326-133001-r7i5wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323441/original/file-20200326-133001-r7i5wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323441/original/file-20200326-133001-r7i5wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three women wearing face masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic in Australia, 1919.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library New South Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the 1919 <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-04/spanish-flu-pandemic-provides-insights-into-coronavirus/12020570">Spanish Flu outbreak</a> masks became mandatory for Australian medical professionals. Other workers, including gravediggers, also started wearing masks and soon they became a fashion statement.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-australias-response-to-the-spanish-flu-of-1919-sounds-warnings-on-dealing-with-coronavirus-134017">How Australia's response to the Spanish flu of 1919 sounds warnings on dealing with coronavirus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Deadly virus outbreaks in the last 20 years, including SARS in 2003, <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-what-the-2009-swine-flu-pandemic-can-tell-us-about-the-weeks-to-come-134076">Swine Flu in 2009</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/history/2014-2016-outbreak/index.html">Ebola in 2014</a> have meant images of the general public wearing medical and homemade PPE to combat the spread of deadly viruses are now commonplace. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323183/original/file-20200326-168880-1ih66fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323183/original/file-20200326-168880-1ih66fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323183/original/file-20200326-168880-1ih66fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323183/original/file-20200326-168880-1ih66fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323183/original/file-20200326-168880-1ih66fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323183/original/file-20200326-168880-1ih66fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323183/original/file-20200326-168880-1ih66fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323183/original/file-20200326-168880-1ih66fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coloured fabric masks are now commonplace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1559720304-45e4d9452271?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=633&q=80">Laura Dewilde/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A global PPE shortage</h2>
<p>Medical dramas like Grey’s Anatomy have <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tvs-fictional-hospitals-are-helping-real-hospitals-coronavirus-pandemic-1285581">donated</a> PPE from their costume departments to hospitals. Hollywood’s <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/costume-designers-guild-sewing-masks-health-care-facilities-1285811">Costume Designers Guild</a> and the Bavarian State Opera’s <a href="https://blog.staatsoper.de/post/news/vom-kostuem-zum-mundschutz.html">costumiers</a> are sewing masks. </p>
<p>Prominent US fashion labels owned by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/style/coronavirus-masks-dov-charney-christian-siriano.html">Christian Siriano and Dov Charney</a> are starting to manufacture PPE. French luxury group Kering will provide <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/kering-to-provide-3-million-surgical-masks-to-france-gucci-prepping-to-make-1-1-million-for-italy">3 million</a> surgical masks to France. Gucci will make 1.1 million masks for Italy. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1242528355745923078"}"></div></p>
<p>Sewing masks is an activity that can assist people self-isolating at home feel like they are helping to fight COVID-19. Crafting communities like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/sewthecurveflat/">Sew the Curve Flat</a> have formed to meet the challenge. </p>
<p>Masks must be made to strict standards and patterns. These are widely disseminated, but craft groups are still flooded with suggestions from well-meaning people who want to make perceived “improvements” to designs. </p>
<p>Even small changes to mask design can render it useless.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9tBg0Os5FWQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Do they work?</h2>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927259">conflicting research</a> into the efficacy of homemade masks. Studies into <a href="https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/54/7/789/202744">H1N1 viruses</a> show common fabrics may provide only marginal protection against virus-containing particles in exhaled breath. But the general consensus among medical staff is homemade masks are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18612429">better than nothing</a> when treating patients.</p>
<p>It is imperative crafters <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927259">follow specifications</a>. The best homemade masks are made from fabric with a tight weave, and have a moisture impermeable layer and/or a pocket for a replaceable HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. A bandanna around your face won’t do the job. </p>
<p>Wearing face masks is not recommended for the general public and can be <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927259">dangerous</a> because people overestimate the level of protection offered and neglect social distancing rules and thorough hand washing.</p>
<p>Wearing a mask is generally only useful if you <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/alerts/Pages/coronavirus-faqs.aspx#2-3">are already sick</a> by slowing the spread of germs.</p>
<p>But if you choose to wear a mask, microbiologist Anna Davies from the University of Cambridge says it <a href="https://www.livescience.com/cloth-masks-coronavirus.html">must be</a> well-fitting over your mouth and nose. You can’t touch a mask while you’re wearing it, or pull it under your chin for a break. It must be changed as soon as it’s wet and disposed of or placed in the washing machine carefully. You must wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling it. </p>
<p>If you fail to follow these precautions you could get coronavirus from handling a dirty mask.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>Australia is addressing <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6679660/australian-government-mapping-domestic-supply-chains-for-masks-and-gowns-amid-global-shortage/">PPE shortages</a> and the Australian army is helping to run three shifts <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6684074/the-australian-army-is-being-subbed-in-to-help-make-face-masks/">around the clock</a> to increase production at the Med-Con factory near Shepparton. </p>
<p>Melbourne’s The Social Studio has moved its production away from contemporary fashion to making scrubs <a href="https://twitter.com/thesocialstudio/status/1243771776208793601?s=21">at cost price</a> for Australian health care workers.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1243771776208793601"}"></div></p>
<p>Even so, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/second-developer-flies-82-tonnes-of-medical-supplies-to-china-20200326-p54e8n.html">many hospitals</a> are struggling with limited resources and fear further PPE shortages. </p>
<p>For the general public, the power of wearing homemade masks lies not in their efficacy, but in their signalling of a collective action taken towards safety and protection in in uncertain times. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-how-worried-should-i-be-about-the-shortage-of-face-masks-or-can-i-just-use-a-scarf-130873">Coronavirus: how worried should I be about the shortage of face masks? Or can I just use a scarf?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But seeing desperate hospital staff wearing homemade masks that afford little protection is also a powerful symbol of the need to transform our societies to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-24/medical-masks-auctioned-for-huge-markup-while-hospitals-run-out">become more fair and equitable</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B-L3vLSDhYe","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>As long as hospitals face PPE shortages, the work of crafters will be crucial in combating COVID-19. It is vital that we leave these essential stocks of PPE for medical and auxiliary staff. </p>
<p>For most of us, the best thing to do stop the spread – and protect ourselves – is thorough hand washing and social distancing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134409/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Brayshaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As hospitals face a global shortage of personal protective equipment, crafting communities are once again stepping up to the plate.
Emily Brayshaw, Lecturer, Fashion and Design History, Theory, and Thinking, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126595
2019-12-18T03:38:33Z
2019-12-18T03:38:33Z
Men craft too - but do they need support to raise their artistic profile?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306791/original/file-20191213-85391-1ln2q07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C15%2C1715%2C1139&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist Lucas Grogan's quilts use traditional techniques but express modern sentiments. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: A Boy’s Own Story at the Johnston Collection, East Melbourne</em></p>
<p>Johnston Collection director and curator Louis Le Vaillant was weary of hearing that men could not knit or sew. After all, he can and so could antiques and decorative arts dealer William Johnston, whose estate comprises the East Melbourne house <a href="https://johnstoncollection.org/">museum</a>. </p>
<p>So Le Vaillant planned a summer exhibition to challenge audiences used to seeing the work of skilled craftswomen.</p>
<p>A Boy’s Own Story features the work of 17 male artists, asked by Le Vaillant to respond to items in the collection with new works. When Le Vaillant put the men only idea to the collection trustees they responded positively:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They said, bring it on. They were open to challenging the boundaries of art and craft in an exhibition house. We thought we would see what would happen. I thought, ‘the challenge is out there’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The statistics do suggest an imbalance. Since the collection began its “inspired by” shows in the early 2000s there have been 3754 women participants and three men.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it is questionable whether, in a #metoo climate pushing for women’s voices to be heard, an all-male exhibition is appropriate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306795/original/file-20191213-85381-l7urjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306795/original/file-20191213-85381-l7urjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306795/original/file-20191213-85381-l7urjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306795/original/file-20191213-85381-l7urjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306795/original/file-20191213-85381-l7urjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306795/original/file-20191213-85381-l7urjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306795/original/file-20191213-85381-l7urjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306795/original/file-20191213-85381-l7urjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three generations of the Collyer family contributed to the exhibition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Adam Luttick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Helping men?</h2>
<p>Artist Kate Just, head of graduate coursework at the Victorian College of the Arts, has created art with knitting for almost 20 years. Her new work is a year of knitting <a href="http://www.katejust.com/anonymous-was-a-woman">Anonymous Was a woman</a>. She’d reached 41 panels from 730,825 stitches by early December.</p>
<p>Key to the project is Just’s exploration of reports on the under-representation of women in art. She cites global figures showing there are no women in the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3079017">top 0.03%</a> of the Western art auction market, where <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3079017">41%</a> of the profit is concentrated. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306775/original/file-20191213-85428-1i312lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306775/original/file-20191213-85428-1i312lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306775/original/file-20191213-85428-1i312lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306775/original/file-20191213-85428-1i312lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306775/original/file-20191213-85428-1i312lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306775/original/file-20191213-85428-1i312lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306775/original/file-20191213-85428-1i312lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306775/original/file-20191213-85428-1i312lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anonymous Was a Woman by Kate Just.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Simon Strong</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The income gap between men and women <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gender-pay-gap-is-wider-in-the-arts-than-in-other-industries-87080">is wider</a> in the arts than the average gap across all industries in Australia. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gender-pay-gap-is-wider-in-the-arts-than-in-other-industries-87080">Research</a> shows that artists earn a little more than a third of their income from their creative efforts, with women making an average of $15,400 from their art while men earn $22,100 from theirs. </p>
<p>Australian gender representation in the contemporary arts is monitored by the <a href="https://countess.report/content/2019_countess_report.pdf">Countess Report</a>, which most recently analysed the work of 13,000 exhibiting artists, outcomes of Australia Council grants, and staff and board members of arts organisations. It found signs of a turnaround in 2018 compared with 2016, with women equally represented in art prizes, fairs, commercial galleries (52% up from 30%) and organisations. </p>
<p>However there was still an imbalance in taxpayer-funded state galleries, with the representation of women falling (<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/report-names-laggers-as-women-artists-win-parity-20191029-p534vy.html">37 to 34%</a>) since 2016. </p>
<p>Le Vaillant had prepared himself for criticism and trolling in response to the men-only exhibition, having received outraged emails and social media criticism in the past (that time over yarn bombing and some decorative street art with cake icing). </p>
<p>“It is not happening,” he says. “It is an extraordinary irony of contemporary life that it is not happening. It’s an extremely benign exhibition.”</p>
<p>Is there a gender-based double standard at play? Le Vaillant concedes this: “Maybe it’s because men have done these works in the show.” Are men allowed to push the boundaries, while women are pigeonholed? </p>
<h2>Lace and statements</h2>
<p>Some of the work in the exhibition is traditional – the superb handmade lace and embroideries by three generations of Collyer men, the basic knitting by Tristan Brumby Rendell and Luke Hockley’s handmade shirts. </p>
<p>Other pieces are more pointed in their intent. Audiences are warned of the confronting nature of textile artist Douglas McManus’s sculptural gallows chandelier. </p>
<p>Inspired by a Green Room chandelier in the Johnston house and a portrait of Edward Lord Montagu, a founder of the <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-guy-fawkes">Guy Fawkes</a> night observance, it includes bleeding limbs and a hanging man – a commentary on the damage to men’s souls from society’s expectations.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D5f1SSCzkZQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Lucas Grogan makes quilts that comment on issues that face men.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Young quilter Lucas Grogan also creates work on such themes. A Dawn Quilt, with printed pillowcases reading “FIGHT” and “FLIGHT”, is elaborate and skilled, showcasing quilting, smocking and embroidery skills. </p>
<p>It’s important to note the quality of this and most – but not all – the work, displayed with collection items. The five women in my tour group (visits are by booking) agreed that most works warranted exhibiting but some did not. </p>
<p>Le Vaillant accepts this assessment. “I thought it would be a very simple exhibition to do but … it took a lot of encouragement in terms of some of them putting their work in a public space,” he says.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306794/original/file-20191213-85404-rmn6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306794/original/file-20191213-85404-rmn6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306794/original/file-20191213-85404-rmn6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306794/original/file-20191213-85404-rmn6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306794/original/file-20191213-85404-rmn6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306794/original/file-20191213-85404-rmn6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306794/original/file-20191213-85404-rmn6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306794/original/file-20191213-85404-rmn6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Noel Button’s award-winning entries from the Royal Melbourne Show are included in the exhibition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Adam Luttick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While this appears to contradict his assertion that numerous men undertake these traditionally gendered crafts, it tallies with my own <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-feminine-crafts-like-basket-weaving-disparaged-by-politicians-96780">research</a> in which I found male knitters who would not knit in public because they feared homophobic attacks.</p>
<p>They also experienced “overpraising”, particularly from women knitters, attracting unsought attention. </p>
<p>Artist Jude Skeers told me in an interview for my research that the novelty of being a male knitter helped publicise his art knitting, especially given the devaluing of knitting as women’s work.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The craft that men do is more highly prized than the craft dominated by women – working with glass, ceramics and in particular wood. It’s seen as a higher craft than any textiles. This is not just true of textiles.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A Boy’s Own Story, although challenging and with significant creative merit, feeds into this long-standing gender inequity. In seeking to rebalance the scales it leans too far in the other direction, excluding women completely.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://johnstoncollection.org/A-BOY-S-OWN-STORY-Summer-at-The-Johnston-Collection%7E23600">A Boy’s Own Story</a> is on at The Johnston Collection until 4 February 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126595/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A summer exhibition of man-made craft is a rare thing - but do men really need a leg up when it comes to artistic recognition?
Sue Green, Deputy Co-ordinator, Journalism Program, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/127616
2019-11-27T18:42:29Z
2019-11-27T18:42:29Z
Crafting in times of crisis helps critters and creators
<p>The bushfires burning across Australia are having a devastating impact on our unique native <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vBXGIlb9pw">wildlife</a>. </p>
<p>But while record numbers of injured and orphaned animals are being <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/suffering-queensland-wildlife-treated-in-record-numbers-amid-bushfires-20191121-p53cuv.html">treated</a>, tens of thousands of people across Australia and from as far away as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/littledandelionaustralia/">France</a> and the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JeltjeAt100rozen">Netherlands</a>
are <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/here-s-how-you-can-help-the-koalas-hit-by-the-recent-horror-bushfires">responding</a> to the animals’ <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/heartbreaking-photos-of-animals-bushfire-injuries-and-how-you-can-help-110143002.html">plight</a> by knitting, crocheting and sewing pouches to soothe and keep them warm and quiet when they come into <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-14/small-sewn-items-make-big-difference-to-animals-injured-in-bush/11703996">care</a>.</p>
<p>Their efforts are the latest in a long history of crafting in times of crisis. </p>
<h2>Home comforts</h2>
<p>Craft has long provided comfort to both creators and recipients. It has also shaped the fabric of our society. </p>
<p>More than 115 years ago, the suffragettes <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1757&context=tsaconf">embroidered</a> banners and <a href="https://www.nla.gov.au/support-us/womens-suffrage">cloths</a> to display at their rallies for the right to vote. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303886/original/file-20191127-112531-ozj9ep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303886/original/file-20191127-112531-ozj9ep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303886/original/file-20191127-112531-ozj9ep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303886/original/file-20191127-112531-ozj9ep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303886/original/file-20191127-112531-ozj9ep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303886/original/file-20191127-112531-ozj9ep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303886/original/file-20191127-112531-ozj9ep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303886/original/file-20191127-112531-ozj9ep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Knitting soldier comforts was seen as a way for those at home to do their bit in wartime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Girls%27_Activities_-_Miscellaneous_-_Children%27s_War_Relief_Activities,_Plainfield,_New_Jersey._Knitting_socks_for_soldiers_-_NARA_-_31483164.jpg">Photographer: Mrs. W. Durrant/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During World War I, thousands of Australian women and children knitted more than a million pairs of <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-million-pairs-of-socks-knitting-for-victory-in-the-first-world-war-30149">socks</a> for soldiers serving in the trenches in France. The practice of crafting in a crisis continued into <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-million-pairs-of-socks-knitting-for-victory-in-the-first-world-war-30149">World War II</a> with Australian government departments issuing knitting patterns and guidelines for suitable garments that soldiers could wear to war. </p>
<p>More recently, groups like the <a href="https://knitting-nannas.com/">Knitting Nannas Against Gas</a> have tapped into the history of using knitting as a tool for non-violent political <a href="https://www.phansw.org.au/knitting-as-an-historical-and-activist-source/">activism</a>. </p>
<p>Likewise, in 2017, the <a href="https://www.wel.org.au/">Women’s Electoral Lobby</a> published the <a href="https://www.wel.org.au/pussy_hat_project">pussy hat knitting pattern</a> in solidarity with women’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Women%27s_March">marches</a> around the world.</p>
<p>Australia’s wildlife in need has a strong appeal for crafters. </p>
<p>Philip Island’s <a href="https://penguinfoundation.org.au/what-s-new/knits-for-nature/">Knits for Nature</a> project began after oil spills in the late 1990s and the early 2000s threatened the area’s penguins. Thousands of knitters worldwide rallied to support the cause and continue to donate. </p>
<p>Today, Australia is experiencing an early and extreme bushfire emergency linked to <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/not-normal-climate-change-bushfire-web/">climate change</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/drought-and-climate-change-were-the-kindling-and-now-the-east-coast-is-ablaze-126750">Drought and climate change were the kindling, and now the east coast is ablaze</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Kristie Newton, campaign manager for animal rescue group <a href="https://www.wires.org.au/">WIRES</a>, says that timing of the fires has made things worse for animal rescue groups: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s spring, which is our busiest time of year. We’re getting many hundreds of calls each day about orphaned and injured wildlife because it’s breeding season, but so many of our resources have been taken up by the bushfire emergency. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Community members and organisations are mobilising to <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-marsupial-pouch?fbclid=IwAR0QdSS9ILfKweO3_icoG_3phINWzZlXZkL-Ps4V3nNTcFo_bR8qm3F-ZqU">crochet</a> and knit marsupial pouches, make pouches and linings for <a href="https://www.wires.org.au/Default.aspx?PageID=15928428&A=SearchResult&SearchID=4672112&ObjectID=15928428&ObjectType=1">orphaned joeys</a> or sew <a href="https://www.silketouchquilting.com/wildlife-care-sewing-patterns/">bat wraps</a>. WIRES has received donations from Australia, NZ, UK, USA, Sweden, Norway and Japan and delivered hundreds of pouches to carers. </p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/795/natgeoroo.gif?1574826961" width="100%"></p>
<h2>Many hands</h2>
<p>Sydney-based fibre artist <a href="https://www.littledandelion.com/little-dandelion-bio">Jacqui Fink</a> is one person helping to co-ordinate donations of pouches and linings for wildlife welfare groups. She agrees with Newton that, “The fires are so huge and horrific that people are desperate to help as many animals as possible in any way they can”. </p>
<p>“Lots of school teachers have asked me to send patterns so that the kids can make pouches and linings. Church groups have been amazing, and even a women’s prison in South Australia has been in contact asking for information. I’ve received packages of pouches and linings from all over the Australia,” Fink says.</p>
<p>Newton also says that many schools have been in touch with WIRES for information about how to make pouches and the phone has been ringing off the hook with offers of help.</p>
<p>It is not just the local crafting community rallying around the cause. </p>
<p>“I’ve received more than 10,000 emails from as far away as Estonia, Finland, South Africa, Canada, Germany and New Zealand from people looking for patterns to make pouches to help our wildlife,” Fink notes.</p>
<p>Making pouches and linings is a low-cost, sustainable way for people to help. As long as the pouches are made from pure wool and the linings are cotton or flannelette, they’ll meet the fabric requirements to keep the animals safe and snug. </p>
<p>“We crafters are a practical mob. We love a job and we often have huge stashes of fabric and yarn lying around the house,” Fink says. </p>
<p>Pouches and linings can also be made from woollen blankets and old cotton sheets, saving them from landfill.</p>
<h2>Creating agency</h2>
<p>People are often keen to get involved in crafting during a crisis because it gives them a sense of purpose. </p>
<p>There is evidence that the acts of <a href="http://www.knitforhealthandwellness.com/">knitting</a>,<a href="https://anxietyresourcecenter.org/2017/10/crochet-helps-brain/">crochet</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/stitching-lives-back-together-mens-rehabilitation-embroidery-in-wwi-76326">sewing</a> can all help people to feel less anxious and deal with <a href="https://www.interweave.com/article/crochet/combat-crochet/">traumatic</a> events. </p>
<p>And although the <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/massive-australian-blazes-will-reframe-our-understanding-bushfire">scale</a> of the Australian bushfires is overwhelming, making pouches for animals feels like a practical step. </p>
<p>“It’s a meaningful way to help and people can know that something they’ve made with their hands will keep an animal warm at night. That’s a beautiful gift to give,” Newton says. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-craft-is-good-for-our-health-98755">How craft is good for our health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The pouch and lining patterns are so basic that it’s an opportunity to learn new skills and carry on traditional crafts. Crafting pouches and liners can also allow kids to <a href="https://theconversation.com/bushfires-can-make-kids-scared-and-anxious-here-are-5-steps-to-help-them-cope-126926%20the%20animals">focus on something positive</a>. </p>
<p>Youth health nurse Debbie Downie from Kirwan State High School in Townsville organised for students and teachers to sew koala mittens at lunchtime. Parents and other local community members also got involved by donating fabric or coming in to sew with the children. They’ve now made more than 150 koala mittens for animals affected by the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/abcinbrisbane/posts/10157997709999669">bushfires</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/15LK-Xa2NuU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How to make a pouch for critters in need.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a crisis, small acts of crafting can be among the most powerful. </p>
<p>“All those incredible volunteers on the frontline can feel so alone and frustrated, but rising up and rallying with craft lets them know that out there people care,” Fink says. </p>
<p>Newton agrees. “We’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness of people and it’s helping us keep going, now and into the future.” </p>
<p>In times of crisis, we can echo the wartime slogan: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On">Keep calm</a> and craft on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Brayshaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Thousands of people in Australia and around the world have rallied to knit and crochet comfort items for wildlife. Their efforts are the latest in a long history of crafting for a cause.
Emily Brayshaw, Lecturer, Fashion and Design History, Theory, and Thinking, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123514
2019-09-25T05:13:44Z
2019-09-25T05:13:44Z
Place Makers review: tapestries interweave traditions with a new sense of place
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293943/original/file-20190925-51421-1s6sj2r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C22%2C5004%2C3333&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ema Shin's Soft Alchemy (Fertile Heart) 2019,
cotton, wool, wire.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Oleksandr Pogorilyi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The spare, white-walled <a href="https://www.austapestry.com.au/">Australian Tapestry Workshop</a> gallery is very much of its place, a wall of windows fronting the South Melbourne street. Cars, trams and shoppers are just metres away, the occasional pedestrian observing the observer. It’s a stark space ill-suited to introspection, but perhaps apposite given that the eight artists showing here are examining their own place and the intersection of their heritage with life in present-day Australia.</p>
<p>Five are migrant women drawing on textile traditions in exploration of their identity in a contemporary Australian context, although little information is provided to illuminate those traditions. Two or three paragraphs in the free program’s four pages of notes are devoted to each artist and, for all except two, this information is duplicated on a wall plaque. More about the artists, their works and the techniques used might have enabled a more nuanced appreciation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293912/original/file-20190925-51425-y2v3fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C836%2C1270&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293912/original/file-20190925-51425-y2v3fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C836%2C1270&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293912/original/file-20190925-51425-y2v3fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293912/original/file-20190925-51425-y2v3fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293912/original/file-20190925-51425-y2v3fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293912/original/file-20190925-51425-y2v3fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293912/original/file-20190925-51425-y2v3fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293912/original/file-20190925-51425-y2v3fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paula do Prado, El Grito, 2018, cotton, wool, hemp, linen, raffia, Bobbiny cotton rope, twine, paper covered wire, wire, glass seed beads, wooden beads, açai seed beads. 110 x 60 x 5cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Document Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The woven tapestry style associated with the Australian Tapestry Workshop features in some work. Karen migrant Mu Naw Poe learned weaving from her mother and continued it in a refugee camp for 20 years. Once in Australia she undertook an Australian Tapestry Workshop program. Her Night Sky 2018 and Global Warming 2014 are bold, multicoloured geometrics; Faces 2016 is more abstract. The three woven strips of Here We Are Sisters 2018 by noted textile artist <a href="https://people.unisa.edu.au/Kay.Lawrence">Kay Lawrence</a> record the names of participants in a Women’s Wealth Project in traditional European storytelling style.</p>
<p>For <a href="https://emashin.org/home.html">Ema Shin</a>, of Japanese and Korean descent, such techniques are the starting point for two densely woven, three-dimensional works, Soft Alchemy (My Pelvic Bone) 2018 and Soft Alchemy (Fertile Heart) 2019. Referencing her pregnancy and including tufted Korean floral symbols of fertility, she adds padding and wrapped wire to produce an alarming profusion of veins.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293941/original/file-20190925-51438-cd78zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293941/original/file-20190925-51438-cd78zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293941/original/file-20190925-51438-cd78zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293941/original/file-20190925-51438-cd78zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293941/original/file-20190925-51438-cd78zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293941/original/file-20190925-51438-cd78zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293941/original/file-20190925-51438-cd78zy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ema Shin’s Soft Alchemy (My Pelvic Bone), 2018, cotton, wool, wire woven tapestry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Oleksandr Pogorilyi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbournenow/artists/lisa-waup.html">Lisa Waup</a>’s works also have a 3D quality. A Gunditjmara and Torres Strait woman, her small, woven vessels combine thread, feathers, found objects, even false hair. Her three-part 2019 series It’s in my DNA symbolises passing her DNA to her children, while the other, Past, Present, Future 2019 references living family and ancestors.</p>
<p>Indigenous Australian <a href="https://www.mirrnongminnie.com.au/">Bronwyn Razem</a> (Gunditjmara/Kirrae Whurrong), a Master Weaver, is keeping alive weaving skills used to create a traditional eel trap and the weaving’s cultural importance. Eel Trap 2018, is precisely that – a metre-long raffia trap, as used by her people in Victoria’s Western District. The program notes she has played a vital role in this trap’s revival but this information is tantalisingly brief.</p>
<p>Somali weaver <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/muhubo-and-hawo-expressing-their-hope-with-the-new-year-2019">Muhubo Suleiman</a>’s Raar 2018 hangs in the window with no identifier, the program revealing who made it and her use of traditional Somalian finger weaving, once essential in nomadic communities, now evoking home in her new country.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293949/original/file-20190925-51438-9u0ghr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293949/original/file-20190925-51438-9u0ghr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293949/original/file-20190925-51438-9u0ghr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293949/original/file-20190925-51438-9u0ghr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293949/original/file-20190925-51438-9u0ghr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293949/original/file-20190925-51438-9u0ghr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293949/original/file-20190925-51438-9u0ghr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293949/original/file-20190925-51438-9u0ghr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muhubo Suleiman with Raar (2018)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Marie-Luise Skibbe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three striking beaded works by Uruguayan migrant <a href="https://www.pauladoprado.net/about.html">Paula Do Prado</a>, one of which, El Grito 2018, is on the program cover, are described as using traditional and non-traditional craft techniques and materials. Open shapes are made from beaded wire and blanket-stitched rope. The work is described as “highly personal and autobiographical”, but just how so remains elusive. So, too, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2STUfvAyQy/">Yunuen Perez</a>’s weaving, which draws on Mexican Indigenous stories and traditional textile techniques.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293945/original/file-20190925-51452-1898wq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293945/original/file-20190925-51452-1898wq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293945/original/file-20190925-51452-1898wq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293945/original/file-20190925-51452-1898wq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293945/original/file-20190925-51452-1898wq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293945/original/file-20190925-51452-1898wq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293945/original/file-20190925-51452-1898wq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293945/original/file-20190925-51452-1898wq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artist Yunuen Pérez with Ketzal (2016) and Colibries (Hummingbirds) (2019). Photo: Marie-Luise Skibbe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Marie-Luise Skibbe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is a small but important exhibition, showcasing textile work by women of extraordinary patience, dexterity and expertise. Traditional techniques are given new life, record reflections, keep history alive and salve divided loyalties by weaving links between home and home. Rich histories, personal and cultural, are embedded in these works but the audience is denied access to these histories given the paucity of information available about them.</p>
<p><em>Place Makers can be viewed at the <a href="https://www.austapestry.com.au/">Australian Tapestry Workshop</a> until December 6. A community workshop will be held on Saturday 16 November</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Eight artists use textiles to investigate history, self and place in a new exhibition that draws on rich histories, but could use more contextual information in its presentation.
Sue Green, Deputy Co-ordinator, Journalism Program, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/112897
2019-03-20T13:14:08Z
2019-03-20T13:14:08Z
Small brewers show how craft principles could reshape the economy – but they’re under threat
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264605/original/file-20190319-60995-12b1nsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Our economy currently relies heavily on unsustainable industrial principles of mass scale, never-ending growth and throwaway consumerism. The transition to a sustainable economy, then, requires a shift in how we think about production.</p>
<p>In contrast to industrial production, craft production prioritises local production, human skill and excellence. Although craft principles were cast aside as industries were modernised, a revival is taking place. Examples of craft revival are visible in many sectors, ranging from <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10960.html">butchering</a> to <a href="https://www.patagonia.com/worn-wear-repairs/">textile production</a>, but one of the most illustrative examples comes from the booming craft beer sector. </p>
<p>In the Netherlands, about 1,000 breweries existed at the beginning of the 19th century. Following the industrial revolution, there was a dramatic switch to the mass production of one beer style: pilsner. Only 13 breweries, all now using industrial principles of production, remained <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0001839218817520">by 1980</a> and 90% of the market was controlled by the four largest players. But since then, a revival of craft production has fuelled a dramatic resurgence of the brewery population. Today, there are well <a href="https://www.nederlandsebiercultuur.nl/brouwerijen/grafiek-aantal-brouwerijen">over 300 breweries</a> again.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264842/original/file-20190320-93044-n0zpfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264842/original/file-20190320-93044-n0zpfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264842/original/file-20190320-93044-n0zpfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264842/original/file-20190320-93044-n0zpfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264842/original/file-20190320-93044-n0zpfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264842/original/file-20190320-93044-n0zpfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264842/original/file-20190320-93044-n0zpfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Brewer. Designed and engraved in the 16th century by J Amman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Brewer_designed_and_engraved_in_the_Sixteenth._Century_by_J_Amman.png">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Netherlands is not the only country where craft brewing has been revived. In 11 of the biggest beer producing nations, the number of breweries has <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9783319582344">grown by a factor of five</a> in recent decades. If we exclude Belgium and Germany, where industrialisation <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9783319582344">had less of an effect</a> on the traditional brewing population, the factor is even greater: 23. The US brewing population, for instance, grew from a mere 89 craft breweries in 1978 to well over <a href="https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/number-of-breweries/">6,000 today</a>.</p>
<h2>Challenges</h2>
<p>Part of this dramatic craft renaissance is explained by a change in demand. Fuelled by nostalgia and an anti-mass production sentiment, the market demand for local, authentic products is growing, most notably in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-demand-for-local-food-is-growing-2017-4?international=true&r=US&IR=T">food industry</a>. </p>
<p>Yet demand does not change in isolation. It requires producers that are willing and able to follow alternative production principles and educate consumers. A <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0001839218817520">recent study</a> of the Dutch beer brewing industry found that the increasing success of the craft movement was in large part driven by a growing and eclectic group of beer enthusiasts that devoted themselves to becoming brew masters, regenerated craft brewing techniques and revived a declining industry in the process. The craft beer revival shows that a transition away from unsustainable, industrial production is possible and desirable. </p>
<p>But these crafty change-makers face challenges. The main issue for any incipient craft movement is to shake off the idea that craft is an outdated mode of production, strictly adhering to historic methods and recipes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264372/original/file-20190318-28492-5foya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264372/original/file-20190318-28492-5foya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264372/original/file-20190318-28492-5foya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264372/original/file-20190318-28492-5foya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264372/original/file-20190318-28492-5foya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264372/original/file-20190318-28492-5foya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264372/original/file-20190318-28492-5foya2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Various bottles of craft, microbrews and IPAs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hostonusjun-252016various-bottles-craft-microbrews-ipas-446130109">Trong Nguyen/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The craft beer revolution, for example, was not possible in places such as Germany and Belgium, which have maintained historic beer brewing traditions. There, breweries tend to strictly follow narrow interpretations of what traditional craft production means and have expectations about how and where craft skill should be applied, such as following age-old community specific recipes. This conception of “craft” constrains innovation – and indeed both countries lack the rich innovative craft brewing scene that has developed elsewhere. </p>
<p>Successful craft movements, on the other hand, smartly harness the power of localism, authenticity and nostalgia without getting stuck in the past. This attitude was <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0001839218817520">clearly expressed</a> by one Dutch brewer: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have always been bothered by the false romanticism that beer lovers like to hear and the ordinary reality of beer brewing. Beer brewing is a craft. You write your own recipes. There is no such thing as old recipes. All beers that were brewed 100 years ago are disgusting. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is an extreme opinion: generally traditions are navigated <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030021634">more respectfully</a>. Through craft, brewers stress their traditional, independent background while experimenting and making entirely new beers. It’s important to open up the definition of craft and to find a productive balance between tradition and innovation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264847/original/file-20190320-93051-qkla48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264847/original/file-20190320-93051-qkla48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264847/original/file-20190320-93051-qkla48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264847/original/file-20190320-93051-qkla48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264847/original/file-20190320-93051-qkla48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264847/original/file-20190320-93051-qkla48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264847/original/file-20190320-93051-qkla48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Microbrewery bar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/currumbin-gold-coast-queensland-australia-january-1043495074">Alizada Studios/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Craft-washing</h2>
<p>Another challenge for the modern craft movement is the reality that any organisation can be bought. Although initially craft brewers were able to build a separate market for craft beer and resist the lure of big money, incumbent industrial brewers are now <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/garystoller/2018/03/20/craft-breweries-dominate-the-top-50-but-guess-which-giants-rule-the-beer-market/#7d31b75edcad">taking over successful craft breweries</a> at increasing speed. </p>
<p>In the Netherlands, one of the most successful craft breweries, De Molen in Bodegraven, <a href="https://www.rtlz.nl/business/artikel/4595126/bavaria-neemt-craftbrouwerij-de-molen-helemaal-over">has recently been acquired by Bavaria</a>, one of the four large incumbent brewers. Bavaria also owns the Dutch abbey brewery, De Koningshoeven, known for its authentic Trappist beer, while Heineken acquired the oldest still running brewery, Brand, in the early 2000s. This signals a new era of consolidation and raises questions about the long-term resilience of the craft movement.</p>
<p>There is more to this than simple reconcentration of market power: businesses are showing <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2016.1224234">an interest in heritage</a>. This is because consumers increasingly look for <a href="https://hbr.org/product/authenticity-what-consumers-really-want/2272-HBK-ENG">authenticity</a>. The past delivers an impression of this, shrouded as it is in a mystical aura of nostalgia. Companies therefore use the past as a coat of paint, giving their products an authentic feel. What businesses need, the past provides. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264844/original/file-20190320-93039-12l6jpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264844/original/file-20190320-93039-12l6jpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264844/original/file-20190320-93039-12l6jpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264844/original/file-20190320-93039-12l6jpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264844/original/file-20190320-93039-12l6jpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264844/original/file-20190320-93039-12l6jpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264844/original/file-20190320-93039-12l6jpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An industrial brewery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brewery-interior-equipments-191643209">Momente/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And companies that lack longevity themselves can buy it. New manufacturers regularly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/business/worldbusiness/12auto.html">purchase older businesses</a> to root their products further into the past, branding their newly bought tradition with slogans such as “since 1820”. For the same reason, companies are buying their way into craft. They capitalise on the market’s growing thirst for authenticity by creating the impression of craft production using savvy advertising. Big business appears to engage in craft-washing. They want the craft brand – but whether they want craft values is another question.</p>
<h2>A new economy</h2>
<p>This is key – because the practices and values of craftsmanship correspond well with the requirements for a sustainable economy. If we can redefine craftsmanship in a form that is <a href="https://craftsmanship.net/the-future-is-handmade/">built for the future</a>, instead of being simply a nostalgic eulogy to the past, we can create an economy based on sustainability, durability and excellence.</p>
<p>Craft could provide the means and values for a sustainable society, both socially and environmentally. In the US, the craft beer boom led to a dramatic <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/craft-beer-industry/550850/">increase in employment</a> during a time that beer consumption declined. And producing <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fewer-better-things-9781632869647/">fewer, better, things</a> can have environmental benefits over mass-produced products with inherently short life cycles. Craft skills support important practices of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-typewriter-repairman-20190206-story.html">recycling and repairing</a>. </p>
<p>In short, an updated notion of craftsmanship provides <a href="https://craftsmanship.net">the architecture needed</a> for a sustainable, innovative economy. Entrepreneurs of the future are those that redefine our relationship with materials. They are the craftspeople who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/28/new-beers-made-from-leftover-bread-marks-and-spencer-adnams">make beer out of stale bread</a>, <a href="https://fruitleather.nl/">leather from leftover fruit</a> or who fashion <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/15/oskar-metsavaht-pirarucu-fish-skin-sustainable-fashion/">garments from fish skin</a>.</p>
<p>Whether these craft principles will shape the new economy largely depends on modern corporations truly infusing them into their organisations and going beyond craft-washing. Corporate success is historically based on choices that contradict craft principles, which means that corporations are often at a loss when it comes to meaningfully enacting any of these ideas. </p>
<p>This likely means that a transition has to be sustained from the bottom: in the microbreweries, urban gardens, maker spaces and repair cafes. The people in these spaces are not just making. They are creating the mentality needed for a sustainable economy. We need more makers, not managers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112897/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maikel Kuijpers receives funding from The Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catalin Popa receives funding from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
Catalin Popa is a member of Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25).
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jochem Kroezen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The practices and values of craftsmanship correspond well with the requirements for a sustainable economy. But they’re threatened by industry.
Maikel Kuijpers, Assistant Professor of the Archaeology of Early Europe, Leiden University
Catalin Popa, Postdoctoral Researcher in Archaeology, Leiden University
Jochem Kroezen, Lecturer in International Business, Cambridge Judge Business School
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107332
2019-01-09T12:18:10Z
2019-01-09T12:18:10Z
Circular economy: ancient populations pioneered the idea of recycling waste
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252698/original/file-20190107-32142-zc4l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hand-hold-show-recyclable-plastic-paper-612750737?src=a_f7etguYEOo6NQPtM0Fng-1-3">Rawpixel/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/circular-economy-9017">circular economy</a> is typically seen as the progressive alternative to our wasteful linear economy, where raw materials are used to make the products that feed today’s rampant consumerist hunger, which are then thrown away. The idea of the circular economy only took off in the 1980s, but this doesn’t mean that the practices at the core of a circular economy, such as repairing, recycling, refurbishing, or repurposing, are equally novel. All of these strategies have the aim of keeping materials in use – whether as objects or as their raw components – for as long as possible. And all are hardly revolutionary.</p>
<p>The repurposing of objects and materials may be as old as tool use itself. In Palaeolithic times, smaller flint tools <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.08.033">were made</a> from old hand-axes. People in the Neolithic period had no problem reusing standing stones to construct their tombs, such as seen in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrinis#Reuse_of_stones">Locmariaquer</a> in France. Even ceramics, made from clay and therefore available in abundance, were frequently recycled. Old pottery was often ground down to <a href="https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/grog-2746004">powder</a> and used in the clay for new pots. On Minoan Crete, this ceramic powder, known as grog, was also used to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.06.014">manufacture the mudbricks</a> from which houses were built. </p>
<p>At the Bronze Age site in Hungary where I excavate, spindle whorls made from broken pot fragments turn up regularly. Large stones at this site pose an interpretative dilemma because of their continuous reuse and repurposing, from grindstone to anvil and doorstep to wall support. In fact, up until the 20th century, repair, reuse, and repurposing were common ways of dealing with material culture. The dominance of the wasteful linear economy is a real historical anomaly in terms of resource use.</p>
<p>But we should be careful not to fall into the trap of the “noble savage”. Our ancestors were no ecological saints. They <a href="http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/worlds-very-first-polluted-river-jordan-04427.html">polluted</a> their surroundings through mining, <a href="https://scienceline.org/2018/07/ancient-humans-may-have-shaped-the-planet-with-fire-and-rice/">burned down entire forests</a>, and they too created massive amounts of waste. Just look at Monte Testaccio, a large artificial hill in Rome made up entirely out of broken amphorae. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252696/original/file-20190107-32142-ynfv22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252696/original/file-20190107-32142-ynfv22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252696/original/file-20190107-32142-ynfv22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252696/original/file-20190107-32142-ynfv22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252696/original/file-20190107-32142-ynfv22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252696/original/file-20190107-32142-ynfv22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252696/original/file-20190107-32142-ynfv22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monte Testaccio, Rome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/monte-testaccio-italian-dei-cocci-rome-1216894987?src=v8rE1UORISGyCcspfFsvYw-1-0">Diego Fiore/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When things are in abundance, people easily accept a wasteful and exploitative attitude. But for most of the past, most things were not in abundance, and so a core practice of a circular economy was adopted. This did not happen due to ideological motivation, but out of necessity. </p>
<h2>Prehistoric recycling</h2>
<p>Archaeologists typically don’t use the terminology of the circular economy, and describe the above examples simply, as reuse. This might partly explain why the deep roots of core practices of the circular economy are not discussed more widely. The same is also true of recycling. </p>
<p>When one adopts a very broad definition of recycling (thinking of it, for example, as the use of previously discarded artefacts), the origins of this practice can be traced all the way back to the Palaeolithic period. But let’s focus here on the understanding of recycling as is employed today. This is a practice in which waste (used objects) is completely converted, becoming the raw material of new products.</p>
<p>This practice of complete transformation also entered the repertoire of human behaviour far earlier than you may think. It became the core practice of an economy as long ago as the Bronze Age.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252689/original/file-20190107-32136-1syl463.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252689/original/file-20190107-32136-1syl463.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252689/original/file-20190107-32136-1syl463.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252689/original/file-20190107-32136-1syl463.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252689/original/file-20190107-32136-1syl463.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252689/original/file-20190107-32136-1syl463.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252689/original/file-20190107-32136-1syl463.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Metallurgy was a hot business during the Bronze Age, but most of the metal was recycled.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Maikel Kuijpers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From about 2500BC, prehistoric people started to combine copper and tin on a regular basis, making metal known as bronze. The mass adoption of this artificial material caused significant shifts. Societies reoriented themselves economically because making bronze meant <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440318301237">moving materials</a> over long distances. Connecting sources with end users led to an intensification of trade. For these reasons, the Bronze Age is considered to be a formative epoch in the formation of Europe, in which we witness the emergence of pan-European exchange networks and large-scale trade.</p>
<p>Bronze also made people think in new ways. The process of metalworking differs markedly from other, earlier, crafts. Wood and stone carving involve the removal of material, which is why they are known as reductive technologies. Basketry, weaving, and pottery, meanwhile, are additive technologies. Bronze is different in that it is a transformative technology. The raw material is melted down to a liquid state and poured into a mould. Moulds were the very first blueprints, documenting the design of an object to be produced – and reproduced. This may not sound very exciting to us now but for the prehistoric people involved this must have a been a groundbreaking way of working materials. </p>
<p>Just imagine, if your stone axe broke, you could repurpose the pieces, but you would not be able to remake that axe. In contrast, if your bronze axe broke, you could remelt it and produce the same axe with the same quality, again. Recycling, as a core economic practice, was invented in the Bronze Age. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252810/original/file-20190108-32127-d1bhpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252810/original/file-20190108-32127-d1bhpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252810/original/file-20190108-32127-d1bhpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252810/original/file-20190108-32127-d1bhpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252810/original/file-20190108-32127-d1bhpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252810/original/file-20190108-32127-d1bhpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252810/original/file-20190108-32127-d1bhpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Axes may have been the shape in which metal was traded before being recycled into something else. These ten were found in a spring near Hoogeloon in the Netherlands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Restaura</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Circular economies</h2>
<p>Bronze was not the first metal to be used in such a way; the <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145719">origins of metal</a> use start with pure copper being hammered into shape. But it is only at the beginning of the Bronze Age that recycling starts to take place on a large scale. </p>
<p>From the Middle Bronze Age onwards, all over Europe, bronze was being recycled. We know this because archaeologists have analysed the metal composition of hundreds of objects, showing the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/new-interpretative-approach-to-the-chemistry-of-copperalloy-objects-source-recycling-and-technology/D09067A123F46B8362750BEBB5ABBC9B">depletion of certain elements</a>, as a result of frequent recycling. In addition, “old” metal was traded. A <a href="https://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=00170854001">shipwreck</a> discovered off the coast of Dover carried a large amount of French bronze objects dated to 1100BC, destined to be recycled in the UK. </p>
<p>As a political term, we might want to keep the circular economy in the present, but the practices that are part of it have long been part of human existence. In this respect, the Bronze Age could be seen as the first example of a circular economy in practice. Bronze was a main material of this period, and its economy revolved around recycling. Recognise this, and we start seeing that it is not the circular economy that is novel. Rather, it is the linear, and wasteful economy that is the anomaly.</p>
<p>The beauty of this is that we can put the past to good use. The core values of a circular economy are rooted in our past and in this manner, they can help shape and inspire a modern craftsmanship that fundamentally should revolve around sustainability and durability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maikel Kuijpers receives funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).</span></em></p>
Recycling on a large scale is a Bronze Age invention.
Maikel Kuijpers, Assistant Professor, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/98755
2018-07-26T19:57:28Z
2018-07-26T19:57:28Z
How craft is good for our health
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227536/original/file-20180713-27042-dsolh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Craft can be done solitary or with other people, and its up to you to decide.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/JEVNI0B7Uwg">rawpixel unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At a time when many of us feel overwhelmed by the 24/7 demands of the digital world, craft practices, alongside other activities such as colouring books for grown-ups and the up-surge of interest in cooking from scratch and productive home gardens, are being looked to as something of an antidote to the stresses and pressures of modern living. </p>
<p>Crafts such as knitting, crochet, weaving, ceramics, needlework and woodwork focus on repetitive actions and a skill level that can always be improved upon. According to the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061339202">famous psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi</a> this allows us to enter a “flow” state, a perfect immersive state of balance between skill and challenge. </p>
<p>With what is increasingly referred to today as “mindfulness” being a much-desired quality for many people, it’s not surprising crafts are being sought out for their mental and even physical benefits.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/knitting-your-way-to-a-healthier-happier-mind-46389">Knitting your way to a healthier, happier mind</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Craft as therapy</h2>
<p>For over a century, arts and craft-based activity have been a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28027032">core part of occupational therapy</a> that emerged as a distinct health field around the end of the first world war in response to the needs of returned soldiers. This includes many suffering from what we now refer to as post-traumatic stress disorder, but then referred to as “shell shock”. </p>
<p>Knitting, basket weaving, and other craft activities were commonplace in the repatriation support offered throughout much of the English-speaking world to the returned veterans of the two world wars. This was as both <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28027032">diversional therapy</a> (taking your mind off pain and negative thoughts), as well as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/CRHK56DncSm2qrcxwZNR/full">skills-development</a> geared towards re-entering the civilian workforce.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stitching-lives-back-together-mens-rehabilitation-embroidery-in-wwi-76326">Stitching lives back together: men's rehabilitation embroidery in WWI</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>More recently, research is seeking to better understand just how craft is so beneficial for the body and mind. Interestingly, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175183514x13916051793433">much of the focus</a> has been on the <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0190272514523624?journalCode=spqc">mental health</a> and well-being brought about by <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309167480_Knitting_A_Craft_and_a_Connection">knitting</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227537/original/file-20180713-27015-1jz7ey1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227537/original/file-20180713-27015-1jz7ey1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227537/original/file-20180713-27015-1jz7ey1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227537/original/file-20180713-27015-1jz7ey1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227537/original/file-20180713-27015-1jz7ey1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227537/original/file-20180713-27015-1jz7ey1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227537/original/file-20180713-27015-1jz7ey1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227537/original/file-20180713-27015-1jz7ey1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Knitters report lower stress, a sense of accomplishment and increased happiness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/x3N59fMm0ME">rocknwool unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The benefits of craft according to science</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.4276/030802213X13603244419077">large-scale international online survey of knitters</a> found respondents reported they derived a wide range of perceived psychological benefits from the practice: relaxation; relief from stress; a sense of accomplishment; connection to tradition; increased happiness; reduced anxiety; enhanced confidence, as well as cognitive abilities (improved memory, concentration and ability to think through problems).</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19367130">more clinical contexts</a>, introducing knitting into the lives of hospital patients with anorexia nervosa led to a self-reported reduction in anxious preoccupation with eating disorder thoughts and feelings. </p>
<p>Some 74% of research participants described feeling “distracted” or “distanced” from these negative emotional and cognitive states, as well as more relaxed and comfortable. Over half said they felt less stressed, a feeling of accomplishment, and less likely to act on their “ruminating thoughts”. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26800415">another study</a>, knitting was found to reduce workplace stress and compassion fatigue experienced by oncology nurses.</p>
<p>Quilting has been found to enhance participant’s experiences of well-being as they move into older age. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21646241">Research reports</a> quilters find the work challenging, cognitively demanding, it helps to maintain or generate new skills, and working with colour was found to be uplifting, especially in winter. </p>
<p>In studies of people with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18821193">chronic fatigue syndrome</a> (CFS/ME), <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49400683_Managing_depression_through_needlecraft_creative_activities_A_qualitative_study">depression</a> and <a href="https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/2070">other long-term health problems</a>, textile crafts were found to increase sufferers’ self-esteem, their engagement with the wider world, and increase their personal sense of well-being and their ability to live positively with their condition.</p>
<p>While knitting and other textile-based activities tend to be female-dominated, similar benefits have been found for men in the collective woodworking, repair and other productive tinkering activities of the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ageing-and-society/article/older-men-and-social-activity-a-scoping-review-of-mens-sheds-and-other-gendered-interventions/76C6C5DBD76D55AD2717BC4BB421AA4A">Men’s Sheds movement</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26061865">Participants reported</a> reduced levels of depression.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227539/original/file-20180713-27027-1o3lqst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227539/original/file-20180713-27027-1o3lqst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227539/original/file-20180713-27027-1o3lqst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227539/original/file-20180713-27027-1o3lqst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227539/original/file-20180713-27027-1o3lqst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227539/original/file-20180713-27027-1o3lqst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227539/original/file-20180713-27027-1o3lqst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227539/original/file-20180713-27027-1o3lqst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Quilting with colour has been found to be uplifting, especially in winter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Nmi-xhZ-Jrk">karly santiago unsplash</a></span>
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<h2>Why does craft make us feel good?</h2>
<p>What unites almost all of these studies, is that while the practice of craft, especially those such as knitting, quilting, needlework and woodworking, may at first appear to be relatively private activities, the benefits also substantially arise from the social connections craft enables. </p>
<p>These have even been reported across whole communities impacted by disaster, such as the recovery following the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287359269_Examining_the_Role_of_Craft_in_Post-Earthquake_Recovery_Implications_for_Social_Work_Practice">2011 Christchurch earthquake</a>. </p>
<p>One of the strengths of craft practice, especially as a contributor to well-being, is precisely that it can be both solitary and collective, and it’s up to the individual to decide. </p>
<p>For the shy, the ill, or those suffering from various forms of social anxiety, this control, as well as the capacity to draw away any uncomfortable focus upon themselves and instead channel this into the process of making, is a much valued quality of their craft practice.</p>
<p>The research into the physical and mental health benefits of craft remains largely qualitative and based on self-reporting. And it especially explores its capacity to generate positive health outcomes through positive mental health. While there’s much more work to be done here, it’s clear craft continues to play a key role in enhancing the quality of life of those who participate in its practices.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/craft-in-australia-lets-not-forget-the-real-value-of-the-handmade-42168">Craft in Australia: let's not forget the real value of the handmade</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Luckman receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
Craft allows us to enter an immersive state of balance between skill and challenge.
Susan Luckman, Professor of Cultural Studies, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91054
2018-07-16T20:48:55Z
2018-07-16T20:48:55Z
Art and design schools must cultivate creators, not theorists
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214361/original/file-20180411-570-1dfl96j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Thomas of the Winnipeg Art Gallery (left), Marcel Dionne of Roarockit (centre) and Jaimie Isaac, curator for Indigenous/Contemporary at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (right), are seen building a skateboard using a do-it-yourself kit in this 2017 photo. Art and design schools should reward those who actually build and create more than they do design theorists. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Author provided)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A sadly common refrain about young people today is that they <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2017/05/24/myths-and-truths-about-millennials/lfGryVDq7Vpu1OfFGf77jL/story.html">are coddled, entitled, self-absorbed and tech-addicted</a>.</p>
<p>But as events this year have shown us, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives/index.html">teenagers and young adults are fiercely engaged, strong, resilient and determined to make a mark in the world.</a></p>
<p>This is something I know firsthand as a longtime and retiring professor of furniture design and construction at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and the owner of a <a href="http://www.roarockit.ca/">unique skateboard company</a> that specializes in build-it-yourself kits that have particular appeal to teens and young adults. </p>
<p>Most of my students are fully engaged with the modern world of tech. They have embraced their tech obsession by learning how to use <a href="http://www.engravingsys.com/cnc-engravers-and-routers/cnc-engravers-cnc-routers/">CNC routers</a>, laser cutters and 3D printers when they build furniture.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-3d-printing-and-whats-it-for-9456">Explainer: what is 3D printing and what's it for?</a>
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<p>Unfortunately, their interactions with these tools involve handing a program file to a service desk and returning hours later to pick up the milled, cut or layered object. </p>
<h2>Bucking tech</h2>
<p>I have noticed, however, an increasingly larger group of upper-year students creating objects in wood, metal and plastic shops where they are bucking the hi-tech obsession and using more traditional building methods. </p>
<p>They’re using tools like rulers, saws and chisels rather than the hands-off methods promoted at art institutions to finely craft objects.</p>
<p>Many of them, after having been exposed to the high-tech side of what a well-equipped institution has to offer, change direction to embrace a more hands-on, traditional way of making and ultimately learning. </p>
<p>These students, after graduating, end up being builders of things — and not very interested in creating objects without having some physical input into its creation. </p>
<p>After all the <a href="https://blog.proto.io/10-of-the-best-design-philosophies-of-all-time/">design philosophy</a> and all the classes that teach <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12599-010-0118-4">design theories</a>, this group ends up doing what attracted them in the first place to an art and design university — the making of things. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, too few art and design schools, OCAD University included, celebrate and promote those who build and create using more traditional techniques, even though they use these objects as promotional tools to attract future students — and to justify the institution’s existence. </p>
<p>Art and design schools push students to be concept-driven designers, and do not advocate the craft of making. Recognition goes to the theorists, not those who build and create things with their hands. Students, consequently, feel they have to go that route; to become theorists, not creators. </p>
<p>What’s more, there’s little obvious interest from upper management in the areas where hands-on teaching is done. If there are cutbacks, they are in the areas where hands-on teaching takes place. Technicians and class assistants are often the first to go or fall prey to shortened hours.</p>
<h2>Less expertise</h2>
<p>Tenure-track highly skilled faculty in these areas are being replaced with <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/most-university-undergrads-now-taught-by-poorly-paid-part-timers-1.2756024">contract faculty</a> who have less expertise and little interest in taking extra time to properly give students the valuable lessons needed to be successful creators of objects or works of art.</p>
<p>It’s wonderful when design students find jobs where they can use the concepts taught in a theory-driven institution, but these jobs are few and far between when compared to the masses of students graduating each year. </p>
<p>As a longtime inventor and designer of things, my frustration with the growing trend in design education is what prompted me to create my company, Roarockit. </p>
<p>It’s not about theories and concepts. It’s real-life stuff. </p>
<p>We tell our customers, most of them young and with a passion for creating and designing that cannot be satisfied at today’s art and design schools: “Here are the tools and knowledge to make something. Your job is to design, build and promote it. And if you have a decent product, someone will pay you for it.”</p>
<p>We have taught many classes of at-risk kids how to use our skateboard kits, and seeing the process is a eureka moment for them. They are thrilled by what they can create.</p>
<p>Indeed, Roarockit kits introduce hands-on experience. It causes young people who thought they were useless to say: “I can build this and I am proud of myself. I have made something, I have marketed it, I have sold it and I have made money from it.” </p>
<p>Some of them even donate their profits to charity.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.weforum.org/about/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-by-klaus-schwab">As the Fourth Industrial Revolution approaches</a>, it’s a mistake to assume there will be no need for people who create, who build, who have manual skills. There will always be an appetite for craftsmanship, for art and for the work only human hands can truly bring to life.</p>
<p>Art and design schools would be wise to remember that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Hunter is the founder of Roarockit, which is mentioned in this article. </span></em></p>
Even as our world goes digital, there will always be an appetite for craftsmanship, for art and for the work only human hands can truly bring to life. Art and design schools should celebrate creators.
Ted Hunter, Professor, Furniture Design, OCAD University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96780
2018-05-17T05:06:16Z
2018-05-17T05:06:16Z
Why are ‘feminine’ crafts like basket weaving disparaged by politicians?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219324/original/file-20180517-155616-1sty2ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Basket weaving is an important cultural and economic activity in many parts of the world, including Australia. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/imsbildarkiv/11854892393/in/photolist-j4zqur-7vPiDZ-9qB8rx-bEqzBG-9r1uPX-crMaSY-7vSJGs-8ohFb8-D6fcN-D6eXr-D6get-s1cCzT-6JGM6x-2Ht6YR-CyAqX-hLB1BA-2Ht7vB-fiiSey-bX2Tsr-9Z4tjD-5hev7k-6yD5Yr-bAMcGX-f2rRXo-69r3AA-fLYjLk-aP5gdc-UeFxZf-7BfKqM-6vrSpu-q4b7wa-4aTfkr-j5qkAv-jNrjzi-pYWfxz-8Sbc57-jNrjKD-79HNgS-azxyPR-4HeEEd-7wn55R-5ko9vk-6Tw1Et-aAJNpA-gCNYsY-9dnLFK-dPcEuT-n9ULcR-bq5W4V-3fwEgQ">IM Swedish Development Partner/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Basket weaving. It doesn’t sound much of an insult does it? But Education Minister Simon Birmingham appeared to use the term in this way in an interview following opposition leader Bill Shorten’s budget reply speech. <a href="https://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/doorstop-interview-adelaide-33/">Birmingham reacted disdainfully</a> to Shorten’s commitment to fund fees for TAFE students, sneering at Labor’s “disastrous VET FEE-HELP program that subsidised everything from energy healing to basket weaving.” </p>
<p>Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen described this comment as <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/federal-government-insulting-tafe-labor">an insult to TAFE teachers</a>. Bowen is right, of course. But more than that, this insult derives its power from denigrating and trivialising crafts traditionally practised by women. By extension, it denigrates women themselves.</p>
<p>It calls to mind a similar jibe <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/18/marriage-equality-peter-dutton-singles-out-alan-joyce-in-fresh-attack-on-ceos">delivered by home affairs minister Peter Dutton</a> during the gay marriage debate in March last year, when he told leading Australian company CEOs who urged government action on the issue to “stick to their knitting”. Three days later, Greens senator Janet Rice pulled out her knitting and worked on a rainbow-striped scarf during question time.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/craft-in-australia-lets-not-forget-the-real-value-of-the-handmade-42168">Craft in Australia: let's not forget the real value of the handmade</a>
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<p>Why is it that when dredging for an insult, male politicians turn to traditionally female crafts? It seems their gendered nature, pigeonholed as women’s hobbies - mundane and domestic, unpaid and undervalued - makes them suitable targets for ridicule. We don’t see such sneers at woodwork, metalcrafts or other “manly” pursuits.</p>
<p>Oppressive attitudes towards women have engendered such characterisations of their leisure pursuits. In 1986 feminist theory pioneer <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=27TrCuk4LRgC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=In+virtually+all+cultures,+whatever+is+thought+of+as+manly+is+more+highly+valued+than+what+is+thought+of+as+womanly&source=bl&ots=qDgsyp3HUV&sig=hnNI3zdTysuXyzGNfptI9ZmDFKs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwieuvjjr4vbAhVNO7wKHUVBCa0Q6AEILjAD#v=onepage&q=In%20virtually%20all%20cultures%2C%20whatever%20is%20thought%20of%20as%20manly%20is%20more%20highly%20valued%20than%20what%20is%20thought%20of%20as%20womanly&f=false">Sandra Harding wrote</a>: “In virtually all cultures, whatever is thought of as manly is more highly valued than what is thought of as womanly”. More than 30 years on, the insults from Birmingham and Dutton illustrate that this view is as pertinent today.</p>
<p>Birmingham’s comment also marginalises and undermines the merits of the highly skilled craft of basket weaving, which has a rich history, including in Aboriginal culture. Created with extraordinary dexterity and patience, items that once served utilitarian purposes, such as carrying food or even babies, are today preserved as museum pieces. </p>
<p>Such weaving “expresses cultural identity and traditions that date back tens of thousands of years”, the <a href="http://aiatsis.gov.au/news-and-events/events/weaving-culture-market-day">Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies</a> says. Baskets carried by figures and ancestor spirits have been depicted in Arnhem Land rock art dating back more than 40,000 years. </p>
<p>Home to some of Australia’s finest fibre works, the <a href="https://maningrida.com/artworks/weavings/about-weaving/">Maningrida region’s Arts and Culture website</a> notes: “There are also spiritual dimensions to weaving, which vary according to the materials used and the totemic significance of the object made.”</p>
<p>Curator Dr Kevin Murray, former artistic director of Craft Victoria, now an adjunct professor at RMIT University and editor of online craft publication Garland, reacted angrily to Birmingham’s insult. “Sure, basket weaving can thrive in Australia without TAFE support, but we need to address the way it is often demeaned as an art form by men in suits. What’s more meaningful: adding up figures in a spreadsheet or weaving objects for people to use that reflect a relation to the land and tradition?” he posted on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/craftinaustralia/">Craft in Australia Facebook page</a>. </p>
<p>Two days later on that page, the World Crafts Council – Australia posted a notice of the National Basketry Gathering 2019 in South Australia with the comment, “Basket-makers stand proud!”</p>
<p>The inference attending the Birmingham insult is that basket weaving is a waste of money, while Dutton’s message is essentially that the CEOs should mind their own business and concentrate on what they know. </p>
<p>Many women are very familiar with the message of “don’t bother your pretty little head with that”. Yet crafts are increasingly recognised as appropriate subjects for scholarship. Finnish design <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12130-007-9028-2">scholar Maarit Makela</a> has noted that “the making and the products of making are seen as an essential part of research”. They are “strongly connected with the source of knowledge. In this sense we are facing the idea of knowing through making.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/knit-one-purl-one-the-mysteries-of-yarn-bombing-unravelled-23461">Knit one, purl one: the mysteries of yarn bombing unravelled</a>
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<p>Also worth noting is that a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01612840.2016.1230160?journalCode=imhn20">significant body of research</a> has confirmed what crafters have long known – that their crafts have mental health benefits. Craft has been found to enhance wellbeing – indeed some psychologists prescribe knitting for their patients. </p>
<p>Crafts also promote social connections, a counter to the loneliness and social isolation of contemporary life. Even trauma can be eased by participating in them, researchers have found. “The analysis revealed that feelings of agony or pain could be pushed away and turned into bodily activity or symbolic imagery by hand work,” writes <a href="https://www.nrpa.org/globalassets/journals/jlr/2015/volume-47/jlr-volume-47-number-1-pp-58-78.pdf">Finnish researcher Professor Sinikka Pollanen</a>.</p>
<p>Increasingly, craft practitioners are using their skills for other purposes than the purely decorative or utilitarian. They are actively protesting aspects of society – the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/knag-power-knitting-nanas-on-the-march-against-fracking-polluters-20170831-gy824u.html">Knitting Nannas</a> who oppose coal seam gas exploration or <a href="https://theconversation.com/knit-one-purl-one-the-mysteries-of-yarn-bombing-unravelled-23461">yarn bombers</a> enhancing desolate urban landscapes, for example. While some men are using craft to buck the gender stereotypes, for activist women it’s a means of drawing attention to and rebelling against the restrictions placed on them because of their gender. The message: craft matters; we matter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Green is a member of Victoria’s Handknitters Guild and member of Craft (formerly Craft Victoria).</span></em></p>
Basket weaving and knitting are used pejoratively to make a point but not ‘manly’ pursuits such as metalcrafts or woodwork.
Sue Green, Deputy Director, Journalism Program, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/80482
2017-08-01T17:57:56Z
2017-08-01T17:57:56Z
Namibian crafters: can indigenous knowledge and commerce coexist?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180549/original/file-20170801-31988-16ouzot.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Makalani nut is a Namibian treasure.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From unpublished Master's thesis of Michelle Olga van Wyk</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The name Makalani is a nickname given to a tall species of palm tree – the <a href="http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/plants/arecaceae/hyphaene_petersiana.htm">Hyphaene petersiana</a> – by the local people living in the north-western parts of Namibia. The meaning of the name Makalani is difficult to trace, but has generally been adopted across Namibia. Also known as the vegetable ivory palm, the tree can bear up to 2,000 fruit over four seasons – each fruit housing a nut. Harvesting the hard, ivory-coloured seed doesn’t harm the tree.</p>
<p>The nuts are soft enough to shave away with steel tools yet hard enough to retain delicately carved detail. They can also be polished after being carved without losing the detail. These properties mimic those of ivory or shell which are used to make valued objects like cameos and buttons. </p>
<p>Objects made from the nuts are sold to tourists in Namibia and provide a valuable source of income in a country that struggles with <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/namibia/unemployment-rate">high levels</a> of unemployment.</p>
<p>And, as the example of the similar Tagua nut (the seed of the Phytelephas aequatorialis palm) in Ecuador shows, there is a rising demand for these products. This includes add-ons, like buttons, for the fashion industry. Called vegetable ivory, the Tagua nut can be shaped into buttons for fashion garments. Additional design features could include minor detailing in car interiors. </p>
<p>In my <a href="http://digitalknowledge.cput.ac.za/xmlui/handle/11189/3621">research</a> I found that several other crafting techniques used on the Ecuadorian nut could also be used on the Makalani nuts too.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180544/original/file-20170801-29610-16xm5pq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180544/original/file-20170801-29610-16xm5pq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180544/original/file-20170801-29610-16xm5pq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180544/original/file-20170801-29610-16xm5pq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180544/original/file-20170801-29610-16xm5pq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180544/original/file-20170801-29610-16xm5pq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180544/original/file-20170801-29610-16xm5pq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">As an academic jewellery designer, the author was able to offer different techniques.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michelle van Wyk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I partnered with a master crafter in a local community of Makalani crafters to establish a project to look at ways of developing the artisan craft based on rich indigenous knowledge. As an academic jewellery designer, I was able to offer different jewellery techniques. The master crafter’s indigenous knowledge was used to understand the material and what techniques worked best when carving the nut.</p>
<p>The project raised interesting questions about the use of indigenous knowledge and commercialisation.</p>
<h2>Research through experiments</h2>
<p>We experimented with various classic jewellery design techniques. These included sanding or dyeing of the material with locally accessible dyes. These dyes included vegetable dyes (beetroot) and a bright pink (magenta) dye known as <em>Otjize</em>. Otjize is a natural dye used to dye shells and fabric by the Oshiwambo women. </p>
<p>The Oshiwambo tribe live mainly in the northern part of Namibia. The colour of their traditional dress, known as an Ondelela, creates a distinct aesthetic. This dye is shrouded in mystery as none of the women could (or perhaps wanted to) share what the dye was made from. </p>
<p>The experimental sessions proved a great success. Many of the artisans were excited to learn more about the new techniques. Many had never seen the nuts dyed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180545/original/file-20170801-11176-uqbqtk.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180545/original/file-20170801-11176-uqbqtk.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180545/original/file-20170801-11176-uqbqtk.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180545/original/file-20170801-11176-uqbqtk.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180545/original/file-20170801-11176-uqbqtk.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180545/original/file-20170801-11176-uqbqtk.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180545/original/file-20170801-11176-uqbqtk.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crafters were excited to learn more about the new techniques.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michelle van Wyk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But I was concerned about the project’s inevitable impact on the social fabric of the communities. I questioned whether local crafts would not eventually dissolve when organised like an industry.</p>
<p>The master crafter voiced his concern around the exclusion of the crafters from the commercialisation of their craft. The development of their craft had resulted in marginalisation in the past. </p>
<p>To make such a co-creation project work, it was important that there wasn’t a hierarchy between the local crafters and myself. This helped establish trust and created an environment of learning through experimentation.</p>
<p>Each step was carefully documented. Great attention was paid to details that enabled a better understanding the needs of the craftsmen, and incorporated their suggestions. This helped to avoid the trap of bringing “design solutions” to a “local problem”.</p>
<p>But, for me, questions remained. Would gearing the art towards mass commercialisation threaten the craft practices which form the very essence of the indigenous knowledge embodied in their artefacts?</p>
<p>I was reassured by advice from Thomas Thurner, Research Chair for Innovation in Society at Cape Peninsula University of Technology: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Studies like this one provide valuable insights into how co-creation between indigenous knowledge and academic knowledge could work. Marrying both could yield new ways of making things work both in a sustainable manner and with a high social acceptance.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Is more really better?</h2>
<p>Today the crafted product is being developed in its local setting, which is based on the crafters’ skills. One unresolved question was whether or not to pursue commercialising the crafters’ operations. The possibility of moving to manufacturing products was not something the crafters had entertained. </p>
<p>Rising production numbers would require industrial production methods. But this, in turn, would lead to the unavoidable detachment between the crafter and the final product. The most important question for the crafters was how to retain most of the benefits of sharing their indigenous knowledge, and how to ensure that they remained a crucial (and lucrative) part of the process.</p>
<p>Opening a commercial route would bring about an additional benefit – saving a depleting tree population. The north-central part of Namibia used to be dense with palms but many have been lost because of a rise in palm sap harvesting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle van Wyk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Namibian crafters may be on the verge of commercial success with the carving of the Makalani nut. But they are not sure if they want to commercialise operations.
Michelle van Wyk, Design Lecturer, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77559
2017-05-23T06:33:16Z
2017-05-23T06:33:16Z
The ‘digital handmade’: how 3D printing became a new craft technology
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170243/original/file-20170521-12257-dxltwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">3D printing can be a powerful tool for designers and artists.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/head-3d-printer-action-212295607?src=GPL-Jl_Y8_FM-hXltk4zcw-1-11">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many people, craft is wooden chairs and pottery, all lovingly constructed by hand. A 3D-printed plastic object? Not so much.</p>
<p>The work of Australian designer Berto Pandolfo, shown in a new <a href="http://chippendalecreative.com/exhibitions/berto-pandolfo/">exhibition</a> at Kensington Contemporary in Sydney, upends that rule. His sidetables demonstrate that digital fabrication techniques like 3D printing offer new possibilities for design practitioners with a craft ethos.</p>
<p>By using new technology to enrich rather than substitute traditional techniques, he is part of a movement that the writer Lucy Johnston has termed <a href="http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/digital-handmade-craftsmanship-and-the-new-industrial-revolution-hardcover">“the digital handmade”</a> – designers that use emerging digital techniques to create desirable objects.</p>
<p>Craft is a contested term, especially in an era where machines have taken the place of work previously done by hand. Broadly, it’s an approach guided by tradition, sensitivity to materials and manual techniques. Pandolfo’s show explores the place of 3D printing within such a practice. The result is objects that feel distinctive rather than mass manufactured, despite their online origins.</p>
<p>3D printing, more accurately referred to as <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214860414000104">additive manufacturing</a>, creates objects by depositing material layer-by-layer. For furniture design in particular this is a radical shift away from traditional methods of material subtracting (think of carving) as well as forming and joining. Referred to as the third industrial revolution by technology writers such as <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21552901">Paul Markillie</a>, additive manufacturing was first used as a tool to construct prototypes directly from computer-generated models.</p>
<p>Some 3D printing techniques are favoured by industrial designers on a mass scale. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E5MfBAV_tA&t=5s">Selective laser sintering</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgQvqVq-SQU">direct metal laser sintering</a>, for example, are two relatively expensive processes that have proven <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00170-011-3878-1?LI=true">particularly useful</a> in the biomedical and aerospace industries. </p>
<p>Processes such as <a href="https://medium.com/@enggtechnique/fused-deposition-modeling-fdm-3d-printing-technology-9154f637c269">fused deposition modelling</a>, on the other hand, are more affordable and more accessible to designers working on one-off objects like Pandolfo. Desktop 3D printers such as CraftUnique’s <a href="https://craftunique.com/category/craftbot-plus-3d-printer">CraftBot PLUS</a> cost a little over US$1,000.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BwPgGCAseq8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An animated video of the fused deposition modelling process.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For his exhibition, entitled MND, Pandolfo has produced a series of side tables, using fused deposition modelling to create the legs. Inspired by river stones, the legs contrast with the smooth finish of the body of the table, made by hand from kauri pine. Typically rough textures are associated with wood. In this instance, however, the wood is smooth and uniform, and the plastic is rough and irregular.</p>
<p>The 3D printing process typically produces a rough, lumpy or striped surface finish, which is often sanded down. Pandolfo decided not to, giving the side tables the markings of imperfection often associated with handmade objects. </p>
<p>He also chose the river stone form rather than a side table’s conventional turned wooden legs, in order to exploit the capacity of additive manufacturing for creating forms of <a href="https://www.designsociety.org/publication/39025/from_prototype_to_production_using_plastic_3d_printed_parts_in_furniture">subtle irregularity</a>. Rather than being regarded as incidental or antagonistic to the finished product, the surface imperfections typical of the fused deposition modelling process have been used as an opportunity. </p>
<p>Pandolfo’s work fits within the “digital handmade” movement because he has taken the technological limitations of 3D printing as a creative opportunity.</p>
<p>In fact, the marriage of 3D printing and craft represents a return to a pre-industrial values where creative intelligence and skill in making went together. </p>
<p>As Johnston suggests <a href="http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/digital-handmade-craftsmanship-and-the-new-industrial-revolution-hardcover">in her book</a>, the industrial revolution “resulted in a diminished role for the craftsman”. Skill and imagination were removed from mass manufacture as machines and the factory line dominated the production process. The creativity once associated with handmade objects and craft became more exclusively associated with the fine arts. </p>
<p>Pandolfo’s deliberate exploration of new materials, technology and form demonstrate a blending of these supposedly contrasting virtues. </p>
<p>The broader value of this work is in demonstrating how technological hardware, such as 3D printing, need not be relegated to mass industry. Designers and handcrafters can also claim it, ensuring new meaning can emerge from our machines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Lee is currently working with Berto Pandolfo in a research program at UTS looking at innovative solutions for the design and manufacture of objects in the context of small batch production. </span></em></p>
The work of Australian designer Berto Pandolfo shows how 3D printing can be claimed as a craft technology.
Tom Lee, Lecturer, Faculty of Design and Architecture Building, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/76326
2017-04-24T21:57:00Z
2017-04-24T21:57:00Z
Stitching lives back together: men’s rehabilitation embroidery in WWI
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166243/original/file-20170421-12655-xswy8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Part of a black cotton cushion cover depicting the Australian coat of arms embroidered by Lance Corporal Alfred Briggs (Albert Biggs), 20 Battalion, AIF.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Australian War Memorial</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Albert Biggs, a labourer from Sydney who enlisted in the <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/dawn/empire/aif/">Australian Imperial Force</a> under the name Alfred Briggs, was 23 when he arrived in Gallipoli on 22 August 1915. </p>
<p>Biggs, as part of the second reinforcements for the 20th battalion, fought to defend the Anzac trenches on the ridge known as Russell’s Top, from where the ill-fated 3rd Light Horse Brigade had launched their attack for the Battle of the Nek. His battalion was evacuated to Egypt in December 1915 and sent to the Western Front the following April. </p>
<p>Biggs was awarded the Military Medal for “great initiative and bravery” at Lagnicourt on <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL45131/">15 April 1917</a>, but he was severely wounded at the second battle of Bullecourt on 5 May. Shrapnel flew into his left knee, leaving it permanently fused, and his right humerus was shattered. This damaged the nerves in his arm so badly that he could scarcely use his <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2014/07/30/stitches-time-rehabilitation-embroidery-awm-collection/">right hand</a>. </p>
<p>Biggs spent nearly 12 months in hospital in Rouen, France, before being moved to the Tooting Military Hospital in London, where he was first encouraged to take up embroidery. He returned to Sydney in September 1918 and spent almost two years at the 4th Australian General Hospital at Randwick (where the Prince of Wales Hospital stands today), and convalescent homes. He was discharged from the army in 1920.</p>
<p>Biggs was one of more than <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1/">156,000 Australian men</a> who were wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner during the first world war. Like many of his comrades, however, it is also likely that he suffered from some form of <a href="http://theconversation.com/from-shell-shock-to-ptsd-a-century-of-invisible-war-trauma-74911">shell shock</a>. </p>
<p>Many of the hospitals tending the wounded during and after the War provided bright, clean, quiet environments where the men could perform meditative, transformative work that was essential to their rehabilitation from their physical and mental wounds. </p>
<p>One such activity was embroidery, also known as “fancy work”. Embroidery was <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jdh/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jdh/epw043/2333849/The-work-of-masculine-fingers-the-Disabled?redirectedFrom=fulltext">widely</a> used as a form of therapy for British, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers wounded in the War - challenging the gendered construct of it as “women’s work” that was <a href="http://journalofmoderncraft.com/category/table-of-contents/page/4">ubiquitous</a> throughout the 19th century. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166207/original/file-20170421-21495-jnke30.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166207/original/file-20170421-21495-jnke30.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166207/original/file-20170421-21495-jnke30.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166207/original/file-20170421-21495-jnke30.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166207/original/file-20170421-21495-jnke30.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166207/original/file-20170421-21495-jnke30.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166207/original/file-20170421-21495-jnke30.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166207/original/file-20170421-21495-jnke30.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1183&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Embroidery depicting a French farmhouse, stitched by 2626 Private William George Hilton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Australian War Memorial</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hospitals in England, France, Australia, and New Zealand all offered embroidery therapy and important examples of the soldiers’ work can be found in places such as the <a href="http://allthatremains.net.nz/2014/09/recuperation-new-trades-and-crafts-aid-recovery/">TePapa Museum</a> in Wellington, New Zealand, the Australian War Memorial Museum and St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where the beautiful embroidered <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stpaulslondon/sets/72157645431808070/">Altar Frontal</a> was created by <a href="https://www.stpauls.co.uk/history-collections/history/ww1/the-men-of-the-altar-frontal">wounded</a> soldiers from the UK, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.</p>
<p>Themes of the soldiers’ embroidery ranged from military heraldry to scenes from the French countryside to pieces for their sweethearts.</p>
<p>The 4 AGH in Randwick had vast recreation facilities to help with soldiers’ rehabilitation and occupational therapy. Staff encouraged Biggs to resume embroidery to pass the time and develop the fine motor skills in his left hand.</p>
<p>Individual embroidery was an excellent past-time for the wounded soldiers; it is a small, flat, quiet, intimate activity that can be conducted seated, either in a group or alone. The classes at 4 AGH were taught by volunteers and, as Lieutenant Colonel CLS Mackintosh noted, helped the patients, <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-5244279/view?partId=nla.obj-5249236#page/n49/mode/1up/search/craft">“to forget that they have any great disability.” </a> </p>
<p>The Australian War Memorial holds at least four examples of Biggs’ embroidery. One, which he completed while at the hospital in Randwick, shows a cushion with the 1912 Australian coat of arms sewn in stem, long, and satin stitch onto a black background.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166244/original/file-20170421-12640-vyfpeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166244/original/file-20170421-12640-vyfpeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166244/original/file-20170421-12640-vyfpeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166244/original/file-20170421-12640-vyfpeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166244/original/file-20170421-12640-vyfpeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166244/original/file-20170421-12640-vyfpeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166244/original/file-20170421-12640-vyfpeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166244/original/file-20170421-12640-vyfpeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The full cushion bearing the Australian coat of arms sewn by Albert Biggs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Australian War Memorial</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From what we know about Biggs’ service, we can surmise that this choice of embroidery pattern was bound to a constancy in his identity throughout his army experiences. Once a labourer, the war had made him a soldier, a war hero, and an invalid but he remained, above all, Australian.</p>
<p>Biggs’s niece transformed several pieces of his embroidery into cushion covers. The back of the coat of arms cushion features six colourful, embroidered butterflies. The butterfly is a Christian symbol of hope and of the resurrection, because of its three stages of life. The butterfly is also associated with Psalm 119:50, “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166242/original/file-20170421-12662-1h6q92m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166242/original/file-20170421-12662-1h6q92m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166242/original/file-20170421-12662-1h6q92m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166242/original/file-20170421-12662-1h6q92m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166242/original/file-20170421-12662-1h6q92m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166242/original/file-20170421-12662-1h6q92m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166242/original/file-20170421-12662-1h6q92m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Six multi-coloured butterflies embroidered on the back of the cushion cover decorated with the Australian coat of arms by Lance Corporal Alfred Briggs (Albert Biggs), 20 Battalion, AIF.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Australian War Memorial</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Biggs also created a piece with <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL45129/">six gold daisies and four sprays of red berries</a> and a <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL45132/">piece</a> with a King’s crown with crossed Union flag and Australian ensign, all within a laurel wreath. A scroll bearing the words, “For England home and beauty” sits above the piece; and a scroll reading “Australia will be there” below, but the rest of the pattern is <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL45132/">unfinished</a>.</p>
<p>Creating these delicate works was a great achievement for Biggs as the skill would have taken him years to master; it is not unlike a right-handed person learning to write again neatly with their left hand. </p>
<p>The soldiers’ work also created economic opportunities. Their embroidery and other ornaments were sold at the Red Cross Hospital Handicrafts Shop in Sydney where visitors were <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-38800899/view?partId=nla.obj-38810582#page/n34/mode/1up/search/fancy+work">encouraged to</a> “purchase the work of returned soldiers to help them help themselves”. The Red Cross also supplied printed templates for embroidery, many of which bore patriotic messages, such as the piece that Biggs left uncompleted. </p>
<p>One hundred years later, the story of Biggs’ bravery in Gallipoli and France has been stitched into the broader <a href="http://creativeapproachestoresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/CAR6_2_FULL1.pdf">“mythscape” </a>that surrounds Anzac Day. His embroidery, however, speaks to us of the quiet courage and dignity of Australia’s soldiers as they tried to mend their shattered lives following World War I.</p>
<p>And interestingly, two recent studies have helped articulate the rationale for rehabilatation embroidery. <a href="https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/everyday-creative-activity-as-a-path-to-flourishing">One</a> has demonstrated that undertaking everyday craft activities is associated with emotional flourishing, revealing the importance of handcrafts to their makers. <a href="http://journalofmoderncraft.com/category/table-of-contents/page/4">Another study</a> has shown that embroidery and sewing can allow individuals to work through mental trauma associated with war. </p>
<p>Highlighting the practice of rehabilitation embroidery gives us new ways to remember Biggs and the 416,809 Australian men who served in WWI. The stories they stitched into their embroidery allow us to remember them as we grow old.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Brayshaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Embroidery - often seen as women’s work - was a common form of therapy for troops wounded in the first world war. One soldier, Albert Biggs, learned to sew with his left hand after his right arm was badly injured.
Emily Brayshaw, Lecturer, Fashion and Design History, Theory, and Thinking, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/55892
2016-05-04T13:28:14Z
2016-05-04T13:28:14Z
Rebel youth: how Britain’s woodcraft folk tried to change the world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121180/original/image-20160504-11494-1ggoed5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children with Kibbo Kift leader, John Hargrave, 1928.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Tim Turner</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are the young people you know more likely to identify a Dalek or a magpie? The National Trust <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/documents/read-our-natural-childhood-report.pdf">asserts</a> that Daleks come up trumps, <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/children-and-nature">complaining</a> that “nature is being exterminated from children’s lives”. </p>
<p>Concerns about young people’s increasingly sedentary lifestyles and lack of exposure to nature have led to a number of popular outdoor endeavours including schemes to “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/apr/08/time-to-rewild-your-child-george-monbiot-video">rewild the child</a>”. This may seem to be a particularly 21st-century issue, but the urge to counteract the influence of the city on the lives of young people has a long history.</p>
<p>Precisely 100 years ago, in the midst of World War I, a family of Quakers in Cambridge set up a youth organisation designed to offer outdoor coeducational experiences without the militarism and imperialism that they perceived in the Boy Scouts. They called the group the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry. This marked the start of a larger movement, spread across a range of organisations emerging during and after the war years.</p>
<p>Founded on pacifist ideals and informed by a mystical understanding of the natural world, British youth groups based on what were described as “woodcraft” principles sought radical alternatives to so-called civilisation through camping and ceremony, hiking and handicraft. Together, these woodcraft organisations attracted thousands of adult and child members in Britain in the interwar years and the support of impressive high-profile figures in politics, arts and science, from suffragette <a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=pethem">Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence</a> to novelist HG Wells and biologist Julian Huxley.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121183/original/image-20160504-25000-1dmwgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121183/original/image-20160504-25000-1dmwgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121183/original/image-20160504-25000-1dmwgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121183/original/image-20160504-25000-1dmwgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121183/original/image-20160504-25000-1dmwgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121183/original/image-20160504-25000-1dmwgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121183/original/image-20160504-25000-1dmwgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chieftan’s cloak, Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, International Woodcraft Gathering, Czech Republic, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph by Annebella Pollen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reforming wayward youth</h2>
<p>Woodcraft as a system of youth training was first developed by the British-born American resident <a href="http://etsetoninstitute.org/biography/">Ernest Thompson Seton</a> at the turn of the 20th century. Seton was an enthusiast of all things Native American and believed that the ethos and lifestyle of the “Red Man” offered spiritual models for urban white westerners, who he saw as having lost their way. Seton’s “Indian” was a mythic ideal, more indebted to literary motifs than real people but, despite this, his scheme proved enormously popular. </p>
<p>Seton’s ideas also spread across the Atlantic and were enthusiastically incorporated (without credit) into Baden-Powell’s emerging <a href="http://scouts.org.uk/about-us/history/">Boy Scouts</a>. Scouting was hugely popular from the start and thousands of groups were established by the start of World War I. But with many young scouts and scout leaders signing up to serve, those with pacifist leanings frequently came to reappraise the movement they once held dear. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121187/original/image-20160504-5832-1ce4fdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121187/original/image-20160504-5832-1ce4fdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121187/original/image-20160504-5832-1ce4fdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121187/original/image-20160504-5832-1ce4fdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121187/original/image-20160504-5832-1ce4fdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121187/original/image-20160504-5832-1ce4fdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121187/original/image-20160504-5832-1ce4fdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rainbow woodcraft banner, Woodcraft Folk ‘Back to Beginnings’ camp, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph by Annebella Pollen</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>This was the case with John Hargrave, a young author and commercial artist of Quaker stock. Hargrave was a keen enthusiast of the camping and woodcraft aspect of the organisation, penning bestselling books on tracking, trailing and campfire ceremony as a young scout leader. But his experiences as a stretcher-bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps at the disastrous <a href="http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/a-short-history-of-the-dardanelles-campaign">Dardanelles campaign</a> were to alter his view of the Scouts fundamentally. He returned unable to reconcile what he had seen with an organisation that took military services as its model. </p>
<h2>Crafting a new culture</h2>
<p>He founded another woodcraft group, the curiously named “Kindred of the Kibbo Kift” (adapted from an archaic Cheshire dialect meaning “proof of strength”). Hargrave was a charismatic leader who moved in influential circles of cultural campaigners and experimental educationalists. Kibbo Kift aimed not only to promote healthy outdoor activities of camping and hiking, but also to cultivate “a new human instrument” from its male and female all-ages membership.</p>
<p>Woodcraft was always more than just a means to provide productive leisure activity. In both the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry and Kibbo Kift there were ambitious plans to transform the wider world. Membership of both organisations was composed of radical reformers who believed that all aspects of living needed to be remade after the devastation of war. Kibbo Kift even hiked through the countryside in triangular formation as a visual metaphor for this cultural penetration.</p>
<p>Although woodcraft groups desired a return to nature, their members were also modernists experimenting with new ways of dressing and eating, new spiritual systems and new thinking in psychology. Viewed from a distance, in their colourful robes and sandals, as fruitarians and yoga practitioners composing folk songs and practising handicrafts, woodcraft group members were often dismissed as cranks. From another perspective they could be seen more positively as proto-hippies. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121182/original/image-20160504-17469-2aczcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121182/original/image-20160504-17469-2aczcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121182/original/image-20160504-17469-2aczcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121182/original/image-20160504-17469-2aczcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121182/original/image-20160504-17469-2aczcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121182/original/image-20160504-17469-2aczcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121182/original/image-20160504-17469-2aczcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kibbo Kift modernist tent design, c. 1928.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph by Angus McBean. Courtesy of Tim Turner</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rifts and revivals</h2>
<p>Some aspects of early woodcraft organisations look very appealing in retrospect. For many young, arty and alternative visitors to my <a href="http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/intellectual-barbarians-the-kibbo-kift-kindred/">recent exhibition</a> on Kibbo Kift, for example, the group represented a subculture that they wished to revive. Youths frolicking in the woods in fox masks and bold robotic costumes seemed to predict scenes from present-day pop videos or avant-garde performance art. Tweets from the exhibition revealed a positive envy for the group as an authentic social formation in a world of virtual communities, clicks and upvotes. A <a href="http://flamingogroup.com/flamingo-cultural-intelligence-introducing-through-the-cultural-lens">trend forecasting company</a> even used Kibbo Kift as an example of how youth subcultures were going to enjoy a revival in 2016.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121185/original/image-20160504-6918-ub3eu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121185/original/image-20160504-6918-ub3eu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121185/original/image-20160504-6918-ub3eu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121185/original/image-20160504-6918-ub3eu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121185/original/image-20160504-6918-ub3eu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121185/original/image-20160504-6918-ub3eu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121185/original/image-20160504-6918-ub3eu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121185/original/image-20160504-6918-ub3eu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Hargrave in White Fox mask, 1928.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Tim Turner</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But for others, the hooded cloaks and pagan mysticism of some of these groups offers a whiff of something sinister. Certainly, all was not rosy in this garden of Eden. The 12-year existence of Kibbo Kift as a woodcraft group proved particularly tumultuous. Many members were ejected for disagreeing with the ideas of the founder, and there were frequent rifts. Hargrave believed in a non-democratic form of direct leadership that is uncomfortable to the modern observer – not least when we can see from this end of the telescope how other grand visionary schemes with charismatic leaders have unfolded historically.</p>
<p>Dispute in the Kibbo Kift ranks about Hargrave’s method of organisation led to the formation of a breakaway group, the <a href="https://www.woodcraft.org.uk/">Woodcraft Folk</a>, in 1925. Here a more democratic approach was taken to building a new world order. The cultural revolution was one in which all members could decide the rules and where children were considered as capable of self-government as adults. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Woodcraft Folk’s education for social change is still in the pink of health, with around <a href="http://thirdforcenews.org.uk/tfn-news/woodcraft-folk-celebrate-90-years">15,000</a> adult and child members. The group celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015. Jeremy Corbyn cut the birthday cake – the socialist principles are still strong.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121186/original/image-20160504-27756-s315kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121186/original/image-20160504-27756-s315kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121186/original/image-20160504-27756-s315kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121186/original/image-20160504-27756-s315kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121186/original/image-20160504-27756-s315kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121186/original/image-20160504-27756-s315kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121186/original/image-20160504-27756-s315kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121186/original/image-20160504-27756-s315kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Woodcraft Folk ‘Woody Hoody’, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Woodcraft Folk</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Woodcraft youth groups that continue today have adapted their founding beliefs and practices for the 21st-century world, but in many ways they were ahead of their time. As camping has become fashionable and an ever-growing range of music festivals offer a temporary escape from the urban grind, sleeping close to the land and living simply has become ever more appealing. Youth culture may have become more commercialised and less explicitly revolutionary, but the urge to go off-grid continues, unabated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annebella Pollen is an AHRC funded Research Fellow at the University of Brighton, where she is researching the visual and material culture of the British woodcraft movement (this article does not reflect the views of the research councils). She is also working with the Woodcraft Folk on their Heritage Lottery funded 90th anniversary history project.</span></em></p>
During World War I, a youth organisation called the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry was set up, prompting similar groups attracting thousands of members.
Annebella Pollen, Principal Lecturer in the History of Art and Design, University of Brighton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/52035
2015-12-09T16:00:00Z
2015-12-09T16:00:00Z
Turner Prize win must not restrict Assemble’s work to the zone of ‘art’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105041/original/image-20151209-15564-6t1shv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C653%2C1746%2C1478&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Assemble</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>To help me take stock of Assemble’s Turner Prize win I revisited a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03dsk4d">lecture</a> by 2003 Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry, delivered in Liverpool in 2013. In it, Grayson offers guidance for discerning the boundaries of contemporary art. These include: Is it in a gallery? Is it made by an artist? And the “themepark + suduko” test; does it shock and make us think?</p>
<p>These boundaries have been getting less and less obvious over recent decades, but it will still have surprised many that a group of young architects won the UK’s most prestigious prize in contemporary art – for a project refurbishing houses in Liverpool.</p>
<p>Assemble are a creative collective and the judges saw their work as sitting in a long tradition of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/07/urban-assemble-win-turner-prize-toxteth">collective art practice</a>. I’m not sure Grayson’s markers of contemporary art are satisfied here, but he offers reassurance that art is a “baggy idea”. </p>
<p>In the series of projects in <a href="http://www.granby4streetsclt.co.uk/blog/">Granby</a>, South Liverpool, that attracted the attention of the Turner Prize, Assemble worked with local people to redevelop the area in a way that was meaningful to them, using its existing buildings. Their client is Granby 4 Streets Community Land Trust. </p>
<p>Assemble became a major player in a successful urban regeneration project, in an area that had been left to decay for a generation. Initiatives which might have seen these streets re-invigorated or replaced had been tabled before but none came to fruition. So this is a very significant project worthy of recognition by a major national award, although an art prize may seem surprising. </p>
<h2>Creative communities</h2>
<p>But work in this field definitely can be art. Alongside the success of Granby, Liverpool is significant for having other successful <a href="http://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/what-is-a-clt">Community Land Trusts</a> (CLT). These organisations are run by ordinary people to develop and manage assets important to their community. <a href="http://www.jeanneworks.net/projects/2up2down___homebaked/">2Up2Down</a>, for example, was a project consciously defined as art and part of the Liverpool Biennale. Artist Jeanne van Heeswijk worked with local people in Anfield to re-imagine their area. Over several years this project grew into a thriving co-operative bakery, <a href="http://homebaked.org.uk/">HomeBaked</a> and a CLT which is now developing affordable housing.</p>
<p>At a CLT network event in 2014, people from around the country talked about the importance of community-based work in moving from “protest to action”. In Granby, the <a href="http://www.granby4streetsclt.co.uk/history-of-the-four-streets/">initial “action” by local residents</a> was guerrilla gardening and painting abandoned houses. Later, a market was set up and a CLT was established. Eventually, working with social investor Steinbeck Studio, the CLT commissioned Assemble for their collaborative approach, to develop and communicate a homegrown vision for the area; together. </p>
<p>Now, the first houses are ready to be homes again and Assemble are still working in the area and collaborating with the people there. Whether or not you see it as art, it is refreshing. Participatory design is not always respected within architecture. But the Assemble approach doesn’t neglect architectural quality. The collective prioritises a real sensitivity that enables excellent design and aspiration while remaining open to collaboration with the communities in question. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105088/original/image-20151209-15552-15mc633.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105088/original/image-20151209-15552-15mc633.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105088/original/image-20151209-15552-15mc633.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105088/original/image-20151209-15552-15mc633.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105088/original/image-20151209-15552-15mc633.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105088/original/image-20151209-15552-15mc633.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105088/original/image-20151209-15552-15mc633.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Showroom for Granby Workshop (2015).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Tramway</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In addition to their built work, Assemble have established a social enterprise called <a href="http://www.granbyworkshop.co.uk/">Granby Workshop</a>. The workshop uses demolition material to create hand crafted items and profits support an initiative engaging local young people in creative and practical projects. So, using their skills as designers and makers they address issues not always considered to be in the realm of architecture.</p>
<p>Whilst Assemble initially seemed <a href="http://bcove.me/u3gifjfq">slightly uncomfortable</a> by the Turner nomination, their nature as an art and design collective suggests they were never bothered by the boundaries between art and architecture. They might fit into the breed of new architects that Rory Hyde <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=j4KSFkVG3KQC&redir_esc=y">describes</a> as “operating beyond their ability as design professionals … forging a new era of civic responsibility and ethical entrepreneurialism”. </p>
<p>Such an approach requires architects to be excellent designers of course but also good communicators, and listeners. There has to be a sensitivity to the different needs and aspirations of different places and the creativity and confidence to try new things. This is a very artistic kind of sensibility.</p>
<h2>Collaboration</h2>
<p>Within my third-year undergraduate design studio, we’re exploring collaborative working, and other studios place emphasis on making, using traditional or new technologies. And practising what we preach, Head of Liverpool School of Architecture Andrew Crompton and I contribute to the advisory board relating to Ducie Street, the last remaining row of derelict terraces in Granby. It’s exciting to be involved in a new era, working with Steinbeck Studio and Assemble, on a different approach to development. Liverpool is proving to be a test bed for such projects.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105084/original/image-20151209-15552-11ru7a3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105084/original/image-20151209-15552-11ru7a3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105084/original/image-20151209-15552-11ru7a3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105084/original/image-20151209-15552-11ru7a3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105084/original/image-20151209-15552-11ru7a3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105084/original/image-20151209-15552-11ru7a3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105084/original/image-20151209-15552-11ru7a3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Derelict Ducie Street.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Emma Curtin</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pleased as I am that the spotlight is now on Assemble and their place and people sensitive approach, there is still a niggling concern at the blurring of boundaries. I can’t help thinking that perhaps the “art” label designates Assemble and the Granby project as an outsider, unique, not something that can be replicated.</p>
<p>Grayson recounts how he felt when someone questioned his insistence that his TV programmes were not art but TV: “I wanted to hit her over the head with my BAFTA.” Assemble’s work in Granby may be art practice but it is also a successful approach to the provision of affordable housing and urban regeneration in an area where many projects have failed. So it is not only successful as art but measured on its own terms as architecture and urban regeneration. The Turner Prize must not allow an excuse to ignore this success.</p>
<p>Assemble <a href="http://assemblestudio.co.uk/?page_id=48">describe themselves</a> as “seeking to address the typical disconnection between the public and the process by which places are made”. This is a critical point which strikes at the heart of discontent about our urban environments and it is a goal that must be allowed to have influence beyond the art world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Curtin works for Liverpool University and consults on the Ducie Street Project for Steinbeck Studio.
Emma is chair of Friends of London Road Fire Station and she is affiliated with the Labour Party.
Projects with Friends of London Road Fire Station have received funding from The Community Assets in Difficult Ownership Programme. </span></em></p>
Perhaps the “art” label designates Assemble and the Granby project as outsiders, unique, creating something that can’t be replicated.
Emma Curtin, Architect and University Teacher, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50352
2015-12-09T14:22:54Z
2015-12-09T14:22:54Z
Bake, sew, throw: why crafts make compelling television
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104479/original/image-20151204-29711-d059s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sandra in The Great Pottery Throw Down.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It looks safe to say that the biggest British TV moment of 2015 will have been the final episode of The Great British Bake Off. More than <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/08/the-great-british-bake-off-final-nadiya-jamir-hussain-gbbo">13 million</a> tuned in to watch <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-great-british-bake-off-became-the-great-british-identity-battle-48851">Nadiya Hussain</a>’s tear-jerking victory speech – and she made headlines all over the world. </p>
<p>Twee and kitsch Bake Off may be, filmed as it is from a marquee in the grounds of a posh country house with bunting fluttering around the contestants, but there’s no doubt that its appeal transcends age and gender.</p>
<p>Another such show climaxed at the start of December on BBC Two, with a tad fewer <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/dec/07/great-pottery-throw-down-fuels-new-interest-as-stores-report-increase-in-sales">viewers</a>. Four amateurs vied to be crowned Top Potter in The Great Pottery Throw Down, or at least make judge Keith Brymer Jones cry with joy (as he has managed at least once per episode, to the bewilderment of all). </p>
<p>Eminently watchable, the challenges in this production have included blindfolded potting, crafting spectacular porcelain chandeliers, and the hilariously innuendo-fuelled pulling of cup handles. Matthew Wilcock, a young art teacher from North Yorkshire, walked away the ultimate winner.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105067/original/image-20151209-15580-1gbgfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105067/original/image-20151209-15580-1gbgfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105067/original/image-20151209-15580-1gbgfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105067/original/image-20151209-15580-1gbgfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105067/original/image-20151209-15580-1gbgfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105067/original/image-20151209-15580-1gbgfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105067/original/image-20151209-15580-1gbgfwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Matthew, crowned potter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Love Productions/Mark Bourdillon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Spin-offs continue to multiply with abandon. We’ve already had six series of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-great-british-bake-off-became-the-great-british-identity-battle-48851">Bake Off</a>, three of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03myqj2">The Great British Sewing Bee</a>, and two of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04wlw4w">The Big Allotment Challenge</a>. And next year the format turns professional, with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/02/bbc-bake-off-creme-de-la-creme-pastry-chefs-tom-kerridge">Bake Off: Crème de la Crème</a> seeing teams of professional pastry chefs compete for glory. Go back to previous decades and the annual battle for the most viewers on TV was often between Coronation Street, Eastenders and Only Fools and Horses, not puff pastry and macarons. </p>
<p>We seem to be utterly compelled by shows about extremely mundane, even retro exercises such as baking, sewing and throwing pottery. And as an increasingly dematerialised, even <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7646087/The-Case-for-Working-with-Your-Hands-by-Matthew-Crawford-review.html">deskilled society</a>, this interest hints at a contradictory relationship to skilled practice and the crafts.</p>
<h2>Risking all</h2>
<p>David Pye, a skilled bowl turner and designer of industrial furniture, made a telling distinction <a href="http://labs.blogs.com/its_alive_in_the_lab/2013/01/book-review-the-nature-and-art-of-workmanship-by-david-pye.html">in 1968</a> between the “workmanship of certainty”, and the “workmanship of risk”. </p>
<p>He held the former to be increasingly prevalent in industrial society, characterised by mass production processes which leave little room for in the moment creativity and don’t demand close attention to material idiosyncracies. One iPad, after all, resembles exactly any other iPad. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Pye held the workmanship of risk – craft – to be prominent in the material production of every human society until remarkably recently. Craft involves a perenially precarious balance of judgement, skill, and technique. As Pye put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>An operative, applying the workmanship of certainty, cannot spoil the job. A workman using the workmanship of risk assisted by no matter what machine-tools and jigs, can do so at almost any minute. That is the essential difference. The risk is real.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In contrast to those iPads, two hand-thrown cups, or two hand-stitched garments will never be exactly the same. And, as The Great British … series have shown us, they often fail in heart-breaking, mystifying, and gut-wrenching ways.</p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>Given this, it’s not particularly hard to see why a series such as the Allotment Challenge has struggled for viewers. Critics claimed it was too slow-moving or, as one put it, “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/11394862/Whats-wrong-with-the-Big-Allotment-Challenge.html">as exciting as watching tomatoes dry</a>”. </p>
<p>The title screen of The Great Pottery Throw Down shows the dramatic disintegration of a beautiful clay pot. Where is the scope for such drama and nail-biting tension in the realm of allotment gardening? Gardening is inherently a slower process: much is left to the vagaries of the elements, and months pass between the sowing of seeds, harvesting, and preservation. </p>
<h2>Rotten tomatoes</h2>
<p>On the other hand, anyone who has watched the Throw Down over the last six weeks will be aware just how drastically risky pottery, like baking, can be. When the pots are taken out of the oven, this cruel viewer, at least, is secretly hoping for at least one dramatic breakage. </p>
<p>Make your clay too dry and it’ll leave enormous cracks, too wet and it will collapse. Judge the speed of the potter’s wheel wrong and your clay will cave and crumple. Fail to remove air from the clay, or have too much variation in the thickness of vessel walls, and it will explode or crack when baked in 1200°C heat. Apply the wrong alchemy of powdered minerals for decoration and, after firing, you’ll be left with a dull, colourless dud. </p>
<p>A rotten tomato on the other hand is, well, a rotten tomato.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105068/original/image-20151209-15558-xdxk6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105068/original/image-20151209-15558-xdxk6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105068/original/image-20151209-15558-xdxk6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105068/original/image-20151209-15558-xdxk6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105068/original/image-20151209-15558-xdxk6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105068/original/image-20151209-15558-xdxk6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105068/original/image-20151209-15558-xdxk6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Get ready for The Great British Bake Off Christmas Masterclass.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Love Productions/Andy Devonshire</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So what does our compulsion to watch the “workmanship of risk” in our millions tell us about crafts in contemporary society? One conclusion could be that in the hurried world of modern capitalism, microwaveable <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21443166">ready meals</a>, next-day (or soon <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2015/nov/30/jeremy-clarkson-drone-amazon-ad-top-gear">drone</a>) delivery, IKEA-equipped houses and sweatshop-produced <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22476774">high-street clothing</a>, there is still a deep-grained compulsion to appreciate timeless, artful skills. </p>
<p>But this appreciation is not wrapped up in an easily-derided romanticism, but rather speaks to the immediacy that such crafts demand – the highs, the lows, the uncertainty. If Bake Off had been filmed in the so-called “bakery” of a major supermarket chain, then there would be absolutely nothing compelling left to watch. Strive as we may for lives of convenience, at each step we are met with the irrepressible surfacing of an appreciation for the unique, the skilful, and the exquisite.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Why so many are utterly compelled by shows about extremely mundane, even retro exercises such as baking, sewing and throwing pottery.
Tom Smith, PhD Candidate in Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/46389
2015-09-11T07:24:29Z
2015-09-11T07:24:29Z
Knitting your way to a healthier, happier mind
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94360/original/image-20150910-21233-1y2z0z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Knitting and neuroscience have more in common than you might think.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/dl2_lim.mhtml?src=oNCfIpHiCOxmc381xKu_3g-1-81&clicksrc=download_btn_inline&id=163647491&size=huge_jpg&submit_jpg=">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What do knitting and neuroscience have in common? Most people would say not a lot - one activity involves yarn and knitting needles and the other studying the body’s nervous system. But <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/science/outreach/inspiring/news/health-benefits-of-yarn-craft.shtml">research </a> shows knitting and yarn craft, like other meditative activities, can “activate areas of the brain that are good for generating a sense of calm, (and contribute to) improved emotional processing and better decision making”. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://bjo.sagepub.com/content/76/2/50.abstract">recent study</a> conducted out of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom also found knitting has significant psychological and social benefits. In a survey of 3,545 knitters worldwide, respondents who knitted for relaxation, stress relief and creativity reported higher cognitive functioning, improved social contact and communication with others. </p>
<p>In short, knitting made them happier. And warmer - nothing beats the winter chills as well as a homemade jumper or scarf. </p>
<p>Tapping into these findings is Neural Knitworks, a community engagement project first developed for National Science Week in 2014. So successful has it proven that hundreds of knit-ins have been held across the country - in regional towns, remote Indigenous communities, libraries, galleries, schools, hospitals and at community centres - since. </p>
<p>The pattern for each knit-in is simple: participants learn to knit, crochet or simply wrap woollen neurons while listening to an expert discuss brain and mind health. Topics have included how neurons work, the effect of cannabis on brain function, nurturing adolescent brains, the effect of dementia on neural pathways, neuroplasticity, and healthy brain ageing. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94353/original/image-20150910-4741-17apok3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94353/original/image-20150910-4741-17apok3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94353/original/image-20150910-4741-17apok3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94353/original/image-20150910-4741-17apok3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94353/original/image-20150910-4741-17apok3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94353/original/image-20150910-4741-17apok3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94353/original/image-20150910-4741-17apok3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94353/original/image-20150910-4741-17apok3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Knitting and neuroscience have more in common that you think.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neural Knitworks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Workshops have been held for preschoolers, retirees and sufferers of dementia and depression. Participants have included students, library and mental health service patrons, university staff and scientists, with expert guests ranging from dementia carers and mental health workers to neuroscientists and university researchers. </p>
<p>At a recent knit-in held at Redfern Community Centre, former Sydney Rooster Ian Roberts spoke about a career of sustaining concussions in football, with fans making footy neurons in team colours to raise awareness of brain injury in sport. Other speakers have discussed the effect of mindfulness activities such as yoga, meditation and knitting on brain health. </p>
<p>In a neat quirk, knitting first-timers create woollen neurons in their hands at the same time as they forge new neural pathways in their brains. That’s what acquiring a new skill does; enhancing brain health in the process. </p>
<p>At the end of each knit-in, individual neurons are gathered together and displayed in a network. The first major show held at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery during National Science Week 2014 featured a giant, walk in brain sculpture made from more than 1600 knitted, crocheted and woven brain cells donated from crafters all over Australia. </p>
<h2>How did the project start?</h2>
<p>Neural Knitworks was founded by Pat Pillai and Rita Pearce, who developed the idea into a National Science Week community engagement initiative with the support of Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre and Inspiring Australia. </p>
<p>With the help of neuroscientists <a href="http://yourbrainhealth.com.au/">Sarah McKay</a> and Heather Main, and science communicator Jenny Whiting, the pair developed scientifically informed patterns. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94361/original/image-20150910-21222-q4dvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94361/original/image-20150910-21222-q4dvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94361/original/image-20150910-21222-q4dvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94361/original/image-20150910-21222-q4dvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94361/original/image-20150910-21222-q4dvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94361/original/image-20150910-21222-q4dvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94361/original/image-20150910-21222-q4dvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94361/original/image-20150910-21222-q4dvye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Woven woollen neurons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neural Knitworks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These patterns reflect what a neuron looks like when it’s placed under a microscope - complete with dendrites, a nucleus, axons and synapses. As makers create these wollen objects, they come to understand just how complex the human nervous system is. </p>
<p>The human brain is thought to contain 80 billion neurons, give or take a few billion, so when we talk about mind health, a project like Neural Knitworks shows in simple terms just how large, sophisticated and fragile the nervous system is. It’s learning that starts with the basic building blocks of the mind.</p>
<p>The beauty of Neural Knitworks is how the project extends the reach of scientific knowledge by engaging participants with hands on educational experiences that connect them with experts as they actually improve their own brain and mind health. </p>
<p>Yarn craft, with its mental challenges, social connection and mindfulness, helps keep brains fit by solving creative and mental challenges, developing eye-hand coordination and fine motor dexterity and increasing attention span. </p>
<figure>
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<p>The first Neural Knitworks exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre was seen by thousands of visitors over a three-week period. High profile supporters included brain surgeon Dr Charlie Teo, who held a knit-in at Canberra hospital, and Todd Sampson and Dr Karl, who each tweeted images of themselves holding colourful textile neurons. </p>
<p>Hundreds of neurons recently adorned the library at Queensland University of Technology too, and Neural Knitworks has also been part of National Science Week events in Albury and Sydney. Last month, the National Museum of Australia ran knit-ins to launch Dementia Awareness Month and last week the Caringbah Lions Club Nifty Knitters held a knitted brain challenge.</p>
<p>The range of mind health issues that can be explored at knit-ins is exceptionally broad, from ageing and addiction through to dementia, brain injury, depression and more. Even without an expert on hand, neuron crafters can listen to a mind health podcast as they create, or just enjoy the mindfulness that comes with yarn craft – in particular through expressing creativity and by learning something new while being with others. </p>
<p>Participating in Neural Knitworks is a great way for people of all ages to learn about the billions of neurons in our bodies that save memories, send electrical signals to every muscle and receive signals from every sense. </p>
<p>A free pattern book and installation ideas are available on the <a href="http://www.scienceweek.net.au/neural-knitworks/">National Science Week website</a> </p>
<p>Share your creations by joining us on Facebook at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/648068261927343/">Neural Knitworks </a> or on Twitter via #neuralknitworks</p>
<p><em>The artists acknowledge inspiration derived from Knit a Neuron UK, Sydney Hyperbolic Reef Project, Wrap with Love Inc, Pistil – X Chromosome and the mentorship of Hiromi Tango as part of the 2013 collaborative project Hiromi Hotel: Moon Jellies.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Hickie is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. His work has been funded by a variety of research councils, philanthropic support and investigator-led research studies funded by the pharmaceutical companies. He is Executive Director of the Brain & Mind Research Institute (BMRI), University of Sydney. The BMRI operates two Headspace Centres in Central Sydney and Campbelltown, NSW and is a member of the Young and Well CRC. He is also a Commissioner in the Australian National Mental Health Commission. He is also Patron of Neural Knitworks.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackie Randles is the Manager of Inspiring Australia at University of Sydney, a founding partner of this project. </span></em></p>
Neural Knitworks, an event first staged for National Science Week in 2014, has since grown into an Australia-wide engagement project promoting connections between knitting and brain health.
Ian Hickie, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Sydney
Jackie Randles, Manager, Inspiring Australia, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/42168
2015-06-29T20:07:41Z
2015-06-29T20:07:41Z
Craft in Australia: let’s not forget the real value of the handmade
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85134/original/image-20150616-5838-4libmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/juzmel/16014507110/in/photolist-qp9x2y-qDqdjU-pJWavn-qp8QLw-qphARP-qpg2YP-qFx9YK-qp9HF9-qp8U8S-qp8SbA-qp8ZUb-qFCGUE-qFxhXa-qFGSCT-pJGM7w-qpg1eX-qpfZ9k-qpfY9p-qp8Pm7-qphnGn-qphvRi-qFxaHa-qFx8jn-qFGFKF-pJGUBm-qFGSzX-qpg2Sg-qDqg1A-qFCyQo-qDqiGs-pJGTZQ-qFx7Tn-pJWbqZ-pJW1jX-pJGGHG-pJGJuN-qp9K5b-qFCz13-qp9Ao3-qFGSv8-qpfWLe-qp9GsN-qDqkgQ-qDqoZw-qFCAhS-qDqp3N-qFx8gr-qp8Zy1-pJGK2j-qDqbBW">M Lim/Flickr </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his budget reply speech in May, Bill Shorten <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-14/bill-shorten-proposes-5pc-tax-cut-for-small-business/6471006">claimed</a> that “coding is the literacy of the 21st century.”</p>
<p>With the possibility of technology <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-16/technology-could-make-almost-40pc-of-jobs-redundant-report/6548560">taking over our jobs</a>, now is the perfect time to remind ourselves of the value of Australian craft culture, and the beauty of the handmade. </p>
<p>In September, Melbourne will host the inaugural <a href="http://www.radiantpavilion.com.au/">Radiant Pavilion</a>, an international jewellery festival - along with the state organisation’s <a href="http://www.craft.org.au/see/craft-cubed/">Craft Cubed</a> and national conference, <a href="http://www.nationalcraftinitiative.com.au/news_and_events/news/47/major-international-craft-and-design-event-announced">Parallels: Journeys into Contemporary Making</a> - to be delivered by the <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/">National Gallery of Victoria</a>. </p>
<p>This conference culminates the <a href="http://www.nationalcraftinitiative.com.au/http://www.nationalcraftinitiative.com.au/">National Craft Initiative</a> (NCI), managed by the <a href="https://visualarts.net.au/">National Association of the Visual Arts</a> (NAVA). A 2014 <a href="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/198e0c90d7ed9366663b46f99/files/dc45d865-3d38-4762-8b18-ee254ced679e.pdf">report</a> by the NCI, Mapping the Australian Craft Sector, called for an urgent review of its sustainability. </p>
<h2>Craft appreciation</h2>
<p>In 2009 NAVA Director Tamara Winikoff described craft in the community in the following <a href="https://www.sellingyarns.com/2009/conference/speakers/bio.php?uid=95">terms</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The extent of the Australian community’s engagement with craft and design (over 2 million participants) is a powerful affirmation of the deep seated satisfaction which people gain from the exercise of their imagination and skill. The ambition of the NCI is to stimulate engagement of the Australian craft and design sector with new ideas, ways of doing things, connections and opportunities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>University of South Australia’s <a href="http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/Homepage.asp?Name=susan.luckman">Susan Luckman’s</a> recent <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/craft-and-the-creative-economy-susan-luckman/?isb=9781137399649">book</a>, Craft and the Creative Economy (2015), reflects on the growing interest in the handmade, prompted by increasing awareness of exploitation in global industrial production:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Craft, as both objects and process, appeals in this moment of increasing environmental and labour awareness as an ethical alternative to mass-production; craft also speaks to deep human connections to, and interest in, making and the handmade as offering something seemingly authentic in a seemingly inauthentic world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The internet - bringing with it businesses like etsy.com, which has <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/2893633/startups/traction-watch-etsy-2-billion-marketplace.html">exceeded</a> US$2 billion in transactions - promises to extend the intimacy of the local market to a global audience, offering a sense of connection that is lacking elsewhere.</p>
<p>But how does Australia feature in the global industry of craft? Surprisingly, Australia was once a world leader. </p>
<h2>The birth and death of craft in Australia</h2>
<p>The Crafts Council of Australia emerged in 1964 as a response to an invitation from the <a href="http://wccapr.org/">World Crafts Council</a> (WCC) to attend its inaugural event in New York. In 1973, the Crafts Board was established to represent the arts in the Australia Council alongside visual arts, dance and literature. </p>
<p>Then in 1980, Australian ceramist <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/marea-gazzard-sculptor-produced-works-of-great-power-and-presence-20131129-2ygwv.html">Marea Gazzard</a> was the first elected president of the WCC. Political leaders of the time sought to identify with popular crafts, such as Democrats founder Don Dunstan <a href="http://www.countryarts.org.au/show/designing-craftcrafting-design-40-years-of-jamfactory/">opening</a> the Adelaide’s <a href="http://www.jamfactory.com.au/">JamFactory</a> Craft Centre in 1973 and Rupert Hamer <a href="http://40yearsof.arts.vic.gov.au/pages/seventies/milestone1/">launching</a> Victoria’s Meat Market Crafts Centre in 1977. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85136/original/image-20150616-5812-yknm7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85136/original/image-20150616-5812-yknm7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85136/original/image-20150616-5812-yknm7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85136/original/image-20150616-5812-yknm7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85136/original/image-20150616-5812-yknm7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85136/original/image-20150616-5812-yknm7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85136/original/image-20150616-5812-yknm7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Creating by hand, such as the glass blowing pictured here, is still available at Adelaide JamFactory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nh53/11050616134/in/photolist-rBdWyA-9n2sjh-55Xdra-9mYqXF-55XdMx-9n2uTA-9n2wNG-9n2pSh-9mFGCi-9mFGDD-9n2shq-9mFGHx-9mFGFz-hQuLdT-hQvibo-rwr9DJ-dTjeKH-ruFbxe-rNUR2Z-e7382B-e737qa-e78LHA-e78LWC-e78JU1-e78KmY-rBkpJV-qWMVTQ-e738GF-e78L25-e78Ldo-puJWs4-oHTJ2E-aCwKNg">NH53/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, Australian craft has since virtually disappeared from the national stage. Through the 1980s, the Crafts Board was incorporated into the Visual Arts/Crafts Board, and eventually merged into the <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/artforms/visual-arts/">Visual Arts Board</a> in the 1990s, as it now remains.</p>
<p>Finally, the last national link to craft was lost with the 2011 <a href="http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/library/presidentsreport.php?id=2011-11-08">decision</a> to cut funding for Craft Australia.</p>
<p>Recent political leaders have failed to use Australian crafts to demonstrate their national pride, with the exception of John Madigan and Nick Xenophon’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-10/xenophon-madigan-crockery-parliament/5249598">failed attempt</a> to furnish Parliament House with Australian-made crockery. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85155/original/image-20150616-5812-jgdghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85155/original/image-20150616-5812-jgdghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85155/original/image-20150616-5812-jgdghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85155/original/image-20150616-5812-jgdghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85155/original/image-20150616-5812-jgdghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85155/original/image-20150616-5812-jgdghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85155/original/image-20150616-5812-jgdghx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2014, Senators John Madigan and Nick Xenophon bought a full set of crockery for the Parliament House dining room to replace the set made in the United Arab Emirates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Munoz/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The now corporatised state-based crafts councils such as Craft Victoria and Adelaide’s dynamic JamFactory generate much local activity, but they are not supported by a national platform or funding. </p>
<h2>Australia’s impact on the global handmade footprint</h2>
<p>Though Australian craft is rarely seen on our national stage, we have actually made many unique objects of enduring value. As a material art, craft expresses in a tangible appreciation of the land. Using Japanese techniques, Australian ceramicists give artistic expression to the rich soils, glazed with ash from our native timbers. </p>
<p>As shown in this year’s <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/strategies-and-frameworks/venice-biennale/">Venice Biennale</a>, Aboriginal communities from central Australia use the unique plants of the desert to tell sacred stories in fibre sculptures. Wood craftspersons are learning how to adapt European techniques to the challenges of our indigenous timbers. Jewellers have taken the egalitarian approach to materials and learnt how to make exquisite works out of humble materials. </p>
<p>While other nations have attempted to re-focus on making things, the “lucky country” has come to depend more on what can be extracted from the land than is produced on it. The “clever country” imagined during the Hawke-Keating years made a virtue out of the loss of manufacturing, heralding a knowledge economy that focused on financial and education services. </p>
<h2>The craftiness of the rest of the world</h2>
<p>In the US, President Obama personally hosted the annual <a href="http://makerfaire.com/">Maker Faire</a> last year, reviving some national pride in making things through local production, featuring neighbourhood labs that offer services such as 3D printing. </p>
<p>In the UK, craft <a href="http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/content/files/Measuring_the_craft_economy-v4.pdf">contributes</a> A$6.5 billion to the economy. The <a href="http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/">Crafts Council</a> actively presents craft in the public eye, including a recent <a href="http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/education-manifesto/">manifesto</a> - Our Future is in the Making - launched in the House of Commons to promote craft in education.</p>
<p>Across the sea, the <a href="http://www.dccoi.ie/">Crafts Council of Ireland</a> receives annually A$5.2 million in government <a href="http://issuu.com/craftscouncilofireland/docs/a_______dccoi_report2014_innerwork_">funding</a> to support craft initiatives such as <a href="http://www.futuremakers.ie/">Future Makers </a> to nurture the next generation (a per capita equivalent in Australia would be A$26 million for a national craft organisation). </p>
<p>China, South Korea, Japan and India have also dedicated significant <a href="http://www.austapestry.com.au/news-media/news-item/66/atw-director-antonia-syme-at-the-wcc-golden-jubilee-celebration">funding</a>, <a href="http://craftcouncil.org/post/cheongju-international-craft-biennale-2013">international festivals</a>, infrastructure and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_National_Treasure_(Japan)">craftsman support services</a> to the development and sustainability of locally crafted goods, including Nahendra Modi’s <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-why-indias-handloom-industry-needs-hand-holding-to-get-back-on-its-feet/">personal commitment</a> to support khadi (handloom) cotton production. </p>
<p>But with the end of the mining boom, we are looking at the impact that this loss of productive capacity has on our ability to sustain our future. What exactly will be the legacy of our good fortune apart from large holes in the ground?</p>
<h2>The craft of the future</h2>
<p>This year - will it be a turning point, or could it be more of the same?</p>
<p>For the past two decades, the cult of the new prevented us from building on the unique traditions we have established. Arts talk today is infected with corporate <a href="https://www.creativityatwork.com/design-thinking-strategy-for-innovation/">phrases</a> such as “disruptive technologies”, “breaking down barriers”, and “design thinking”. </p>
<p>The obsession to break with the past weakens the social and community values that underpin meaning. </p>
<p>Understanding where we have come from offers a trajectory that can guide us into the future. According to <a href="http://galleryfunaki.com.au/artists/marian-hosking/">Marian Hosking</a>, President of the newly revived <a href="http://wccaustralia.org.au/">World Crafts Council - Australia</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Today’s craftsperson draws on both traditional craft practice and new technologies, with an understanding of historic and social precedence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The end of the mining boom is a chance to review the implicit direction of Australia as a nation. What will happen as Asian countries inevitably raise their wages, develop first rate universities and create their own designs? </p>
<p>Crafts help us answer that question. Crafts demonstrate that we know our place in the world and are committed to make something from it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42168/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Murray is affiliated with the World Crafts Council.</span></em></p>
Once a world leader in craft, now is a good time to look at Australia’s dedication to the production of the handmade, and it’s importance to a thriving economy.
Kevin Murray, Adjunct Professor, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/29942
2014-07-30T19:35:52Z
2014-07-30T19:35:52Z
Re/valuating craft in Australia and India
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55344/original/yck3rm6g-1406745997.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55344/original/yck3rm6g-1406745997.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55344/original/yck3rm6g-1406745997.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55344/original/yck3rm6g-1406745997.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55344/original/yck3rm6g-1406745997.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55344/original/yck3rm6g-1406745997.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55344/original/yck3rm6g-1406745997.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55344/original/yck3rm6g-1406745997.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Display of natural indigo dye cake and dyed kurtas in Hyderabad, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Having returned recently from a 20 days <a href="http://dori3.typepad.com/living_blue/">study-tour plus indigo workshop</a> in India, I have been pondering the social and economic value societies assign to craft. I ask, how is craft valued in Australia versus in India?</p>
<h2>Defining craft</h2>
<p>The first issue is defining what craft is. One of the principles of design anthropology that I teach is to not make distinctions between art, craft, and design as it imposes a biased hierarchy on creative expression, with “art” at the top, “design” in the middle, and “craft” at the bottom, that is not universal to all cultures. </p>
<p>Laura Morelli provides an exceptional and short overview of the historical break of art away from craft in the Renaissance period and its implications for non-Western art/design/craft. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tVdw60eCnJI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Laura Morelli’s TED Ed video on art versus craft.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, the term craft exists and the hierarchy among the visual arts has significant implications in relationship to patronage, funding, and government policy for craft practices. The <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/craft">Merriam-Webster dictionary</a> provides the most basic definition:</p>
<blockquote>an activity that involves making something in a skillful way by using your hands.</blockquote>
<p>Maybe, this definition can be a starting point for a longer conversation about craft in Australia, but also understanding craft in India.</p>
<h2>Framework for evaluating craft’s value</h2>
<p>In his 2004 <a href="http://www.craftrevival.org/voiceDetails.asp?Code=104">Craft Revival Trust</a> article, Indian designer and consultant Arvind Lodaya outlines three crises of craft in regards to livelihood, viability, and status as cultural assets. I will use livelihood and status as cultural assets to provide a useful comparative framework of the extent to which:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Craft is something by which Australians and Indians can derive a sustainable livelihood</p></li>
<li><p>Recognition by national bodies and the media is consistent.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Australian and Indian craft livelihood</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55346/original/j2ccrnqc-1406747804.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55346/original/j2ccrnqc-1406747804.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55346/original/j2ccrnqc-1406747804.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55346/original/j2ccrnqc-1406747804.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55346/original/j2ccrnqc-1406747804.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55346/original/j2ccrnqc-1406747804.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55346/original/j2ccrnqc-1406747804.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55346/original/j2ccrnqc-1406747804.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Floral-printed and polka-dotted items at the 2010 Finders Keepers craft fair in Melbourne.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuben Bedingfield/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are numerically more people making a livelihood through craft in India compared to Australia. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Work in <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/ABS@.nsf/0/FB71EB73997C889FCA257968000CBF2F?opendocument">Selected Culture and Leisure Activities</a>, 2007 survey, 953,500 Australians were involved in craft (out of <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/CaSHome.nsf/Home/Economy+Datasets#E3">10.5 million</a> in the total labour force in 2007). </p>
<p>That is approximately 11% of the working population. Yet on average, only 14.6% of Australians involved in craft earned any payment for their works at all. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.wageindicator.org/main/Wageindicatorfoundation/publications/2013/estimating-living-wage-globally">Wage Indicator Foundation</a>, the estimated living wage for Australia is A$16.37 an hour. Based on an average of having to work 195 hours per month, an Australian would have to earn A$3192.15 per month to support herself only through craft. </p>
<p>Do the numbers add up? It is difficult to calculate directly, but I offer an anecdotal example. At the last Shirt and Shirt maker fair I attended, I bought a reversible <a href="http://www.soindesign.com.au">SO! Indesign</a> wrap skirt by Melbourne designer Christina Jonsson for A$40. </p>
<p>On the web, the time allocated to sewing an intermediately complex reversible wrap skirt is 4-6 hours. Not including the price of material, if the labour attached to making the skirt was five hours, the price should have been approximately A$81.85. So her craft was undervalued. </p>
<p>What about livelihood in India? Out of a total of 417.2 million people working, <a href="http://www.mse.ac.in/pub/Mono-25%20.pdf">Associate Professor Brinda Viswanathan</a> of the Madras School of Economics has calculated that 16.7 million people work in the Indian craft sector. </p>
<p>This is approximately 4% of the working population. Compared to the Australian crafts person, the Indian crafts person does sell his or her wares. Jaya Jaitly describes in the article, <a href="http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CC8QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.ximb.ac.in%2Fusers%2Ffac%2Fvisiting%2Fvfac.nsf%2F23e5e39594c064ee852564ae004fa010%2F7e07e576262b8e5b6525757400226be2%2F%24FILE%2FCraft%2520as%2520Industry-%2520Jaya%2520Jaitly.doc&ei=hT_ZU9nzKpSJuAS6xYK4DQ&usg=AFQjCNEr9uvbog7J4_PzRp9h8rKe0MTzzA&sig2=gjnnieeXDpqJR2SVH5Xd4w&bvm=bv.72185853,d.c2E&cad=rja">Craft as Industry</a>: </p>
<blockquote>Cultural demands of their communities or of their traditional customers keep them at bare subsistence level. Products thus continue to be made, and wherever they are in great demand artisan communities organise themselves in a variety of informal and semi-formal ways. It is important to remember that nearly all craft in India is community-based, tradition-driven, and purchased for cultural or utilitarian reasons by a largely domestic market.</blockquote>
<p>The mostly domestic market means that the their traditional customers many not earn enough to allow the crafts person to earn a living wage. The <a href="http://www.wageindicator.org/main/Wageindicatorfoundation/publications/2013/estimating-living-wage-globally">Wage Indicator Foundation</a> has calculated this to be 65 rupees (A$1.18) per hour. An Indian craftsperson would have to earn 10,725 rupees (A$230.10) per month through the craft. This is possible for crafts people with access to urban craft markets, like New Delhi’s <a href="http://www.delhitourism.gov.in/delhitourism/tourist_place/dilli_haat.jsp">Dilli Haat</a>, and especially international markets. But the majority do not have access these markets. </p>
<p>Indian designers, NGOs, and even philanthropic organisations describe the kinds of government and private investment needed to make Indian craft viable. <a href="http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/">Craft Australia</a> until recently was the peak advocate for craft in Australia. Yet, to convince people to support craft, it has to be seen as a cultural asset. </p>
<p><strong>Australian and Indian craft as cultural assets</strong> </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55345/original/ch3z74wr-1406747414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55345/original/ch3z74wr-1406747414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55345/original/ch3z74wr-1406747414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55345/original/ch3z74wr-1406747414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55345/original/ch3z74wr-1406747414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55345/original/ch3z74wr-1406747414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55345/original/ch3z74wr-1406747414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55345/original/ch3z74wr-1406747414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traditional Ajrakh block printing motif of Abduljabbar Kathri.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If one looks at Australian government policies, national awards, and media attention, it could be argued that Australia does not value craft as a cultural asset. The Australian Federal Government has not provided a craft policy since the defunding of <a href="http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/">Craft Australia</a> in 2011 and the transfer of the <a href="http://arts.gov.au/visual-arts/vacs">Visual Arts and Craft Strategy</a> to the Australia Council. </p>
<p>While there are many regional craft awards and the Qantas Spirit of Youth awards for <a href="http://www.soya.com.au/competition/craft-object-design-2013/">Craft and Design Object</a>, there has been only one recent attempt to establish a national craft award—the 2013 Australian Craft Awards. </p>
<p>In terms of media attention, a Factiva news engine search of The Age, The Australian, and the Sydney Herald Sun from June 2013 – July 2014 resulted in 930 results, of which 233 were about craft beer. This is compared to 3,317 results for “design” and 4,948 results for “art”. </p>
<p>Maybe because of the dominance of the craft sector, the Indian government has long established policies to support craft. There is an official Government of India <a href="http://handicrafts.nic.in/">Development Commissioner, Handicrafts</a> in the Ministry of Textiles. It has released its 12th 5-year plan schemes. At the beginning of July, it presented its National Award as well as two other awards for craft and weaving. This is in addition to the <a href="http://craftscouncilofindia.org/recognitions/">Craft Council of India</a>’s four craft awards. </p>
<p>Factiva news search of the word “craft” in The Hindu, The Times of India, and India Today resulted in 2,138 results. This is compared to 11,980 results for “design” and 14,832 results for “art”. One would think that craft has less importance than design and art. Yet when you look at the “art” articles, craft is often mentioned in the same breath. For example, when The Times of India recently announced a new art gallery in South Mumbai, it says:</p>
<blockquote>Drawn from the court rooms and out of pure passion, Naziya Merchant a solicitor by training, opened up Caravan Hands, a designer store cum art gallery to promote Indian artists and craftsmen.</blockquote>
<h2>Why the evaluation of craft matters?</h2>
<p>When I completed the indigo dyeing workshop, one of the things that most impressed me was how the process, the motifs, and the culture of India craft were all one. How India chooses to value its craft reflects how it values its cultural diversity. The same can be said for Australia. Whether it is diverse crafts of the Indigenous Australians, the European settlers, or the Asian and African migrants, when Australia loses its tangible connection to craft, it loses that unity that can come between who it is and what it makes. </p>
<p>These losses are not just felt on the individual level, but as a nation. Sometimes the advantage of travel is that is shows you how to better appreciate home. It would be good to see the support for craft in Australia as high as the support in India. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Having returned recently from a 20 days study-tour plus indigo workshop in India, I have been pondering the social and economic value societies assign to craft. I ask, how is craft valued in Australia…
Elizabeth Dori Tunstall, Associate Professor, Design Anthropology, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.