Conferences
Exhibitions
Fiber/Textile
Technology
| Oct. 2, 2009 |
1 Comment
At the end of the American Craft Council's last conference, "Shaping the Future of Craft," in 2006, audience members were allowed to put forward questions they had developed during the three-day event. I had grown twitchy with mine, about the lack of representation there from the DIY craft scene.
Since then, DIY craft has become a major American export. I've given over a dozen lectures on DIY at international venues, and my artwork has been included in major international exhibitions dedicated to DIY, such as "Extreme Crafts" (2007) in Lithuania.
With Maria Thomas and Faythe Levine set to speak at the Council's upcoming conference, I know that DIY craft will have a place there, and for that I'm grateful. However, all but one of the conference speakers are from the U.S., and I think we could benefit from an outsider's perspective. To provide that, I’ve interviewed European artist, activist, designer and curator Otto von Busch, who recently curated "Craftwerk 2.0: New Household Tactics for the Popular Crafts" with Clara Åhlvik.
Their exhibition just opened at the Jönköping lans museum in Sweden and is ongoing until Jan. 16, 2010. According to the press release, the exhibition explores "the new updated textile crafts being developed by a new generation of serious amateurs, innovative craftsmen, engaged entrepreneurs and political practitioners . . . . It is here, among the professional-amateurs, the Pro-Ams, we can see the seeds for new forms of practice and where craftsmanship is developed into innovative and high standards—parallel to the dominant industrial or knowledge economy."
SABRINA: Fourteen out of 20 artists in your exhibition are American. Why does American artwork represent such a high percentage of "Craftwerk 2.0?"
OTTO: The Craftwerk exhibition runs parallel to the 100-year celebration exhibition of the local craft council of Jönköping County, so we chose to give Craftwerk an international perspective. But it has indeed a lot of American artists. As much of the networking and development of the craftivist scene happens through the Internet, the U.S. scene has an advantage in visibility and Internet presence almost by default. But my speculations are that there are a number of overlapping reasons. One could be that consumerism has reached another level in the U.S. compared to Europe and much of the world, while at the same time the U.S. also has another tradition of expressive counterculture movements. There is also a spirit of small agents and independent stores on "street level" in the U.S., which spread methods and crafts differently.
SABRINA: How would you characterize American craft?
OTTO: From my perspective it is tricky to characterize a special American craft, as it seems to be a wide mix of traditions from many cultures. So you have to excuse my ignorance. Contemporary American craft has a healthy mix of tradition, politics, DIY amateurism, irony, innovation and entrepreneurship that differs from the Scandinavian crafts. We still have a very polarized scene between the established conceptual arts and the crafts sanctioned by the traditional crafts associations (which both survive mainly on state funding). The experimental middle ground has not been that fertile until the last years. I see a lot of American craft grow beautiful expressions from this middle ground.
SABRINA: You write about Pro-Ams in your exhibition statement. Are these kinds of makers synonymous with hobbyists, or is there a subtle difference between the two categories?
OTTO: To me professional-amateurs form a special breed of knowledge producers. They are the serious hobbyists, spare time specialists and devoted amateurs who rigorously practice their interests and live for their generative sideline activities. This is craft development at a high level, but still a "hobby.” We see a lot of interesting things happening in new collaborations with partners outside the crafts, for example with programmers and engineers. These are very knowledgeable hobbyists, often experts within their fields but with an interest in crafts outside their "labs," and this creates new grounds for innovation. Just look at Rudiger Schlomer's "Schalalala" fanscarf-remix-program, which samples and remixes the kinds of homemade garments worn at sporting events; the hacked SMS-embrodery machine by Asa Stahl and Kristina Lindstrom; or the Lilypad Arduino by Leah Buechley, which allows crafty types to build their own interactive fashion; and this is just the start within the field of electronics and programming. I think we will see a much wider application of new craft techniques as highly educated hobbyists use crafts as their medium for innovative recreation while still doing household craftwork, whether it is the visualization of mathematic formulas, new knitting or composting techniques. I really think Pro-Am crafts and DIY culture will be the springboard for revolutionary ingenuity that can really change the world as it defies the modern divisions of labor, and it will most probably happen in a home close to you!
August/September 2010
Comments
October 14th, 2009
I am not so convinced that D.I.Y. is a uniquely American phenomenon and hence, something that we can call an “export”. However, I do agree that it is highly relevant to our particular form of democratic capitalism here in the U.S. It is also particularly relevant to this idea that the youth will search for alternative ways to live their lives and express themselves and thus, it is within this context that D.I.Y. craft emerges from a specific range of sociological and historical confluences.
Although, if we were in fact the "first" to demonstrate and articulate the commercial viability of the D.I.Y. craft enterprise then the huge irony is that we did this in spite of our claims that the movement evolved primarily from an anti-capitalistic ethos. In any case, the emergence, relative ease and accessibility of blogging technology here in America is also another likely factor that led to our being the "first" to contextualize the movement. Blogging allowed us to articulate what was happening here but I think, in hindsight, it was also happening in other countries at the same time.
As evidence of this claim, I would point the work of two Germans: Holm Friebe and Thomas Ramge, whose (2008) text titled, "Marke Eigenbau: Der Aufstand der Massen gegen die Massenproduktion" speaks to the revolt of the masses against mass production and the emergence of unique do-it-yourself, customized brands in the crafts, music, fashion, industrial production and other industries, mirroring the similar phenomenon that we have called the D.I.Y. and indie movements here in the U.S.
Further, without going into too much detail, I think that ultimately the D.I.Y. movement can be linked in a much larger sense to the rise of post-industrialism, and particularly this notion of product customization as an evolution away from mass production, which in an economic sense is driven by consumer demand. It also can be linked to ideas articulated within Ronald Inglehart's text, "The Silent Revolution" (1977) which discusses how major inter-generational shifts in the population, within advanced industrial societies, lead to the rise of post-materialist values, namely those values which give priority to satisfying non-material needs, particularly the desire for social, moral, intellectual and aesthetic gratification.
Posted By Dennis Stevens
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