Landscape, Place and Identity in Craft and Design NOW ONLINE

Issue 7 (2015)  Landscape, Place and Identity in Craft and Design edited by Kay Lawerence 


This issue publishes 8 papers by Sue Kneebone, Sera Waters, Tom Lee, Peta Carlin, Rowan Bailey and Claire Barber, Panita Karamanea, Alice Lewis and an open section submission from Simona Segre Reinach.

NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
http://press.anu.edu.au/titles/craftdesign-enquiry/issue-7-2015-landscape-place-and-identity-in-craft-and-design/ 

craft + design enquiry is open access (FREE to view online and FREE to download) or available in print-on-demand hard copy $33 from ANU Press.  

Cover image: Salvaging discarded sleeping-bags from the aftermath of Leeds Music Festival, 2010. Photo: Claire Barber.

craft + design enquiry: change of status

Due to non-receipt of funding from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2015, the craft + design enquiry Editorial Board is seeking more stable support for the ongoing operations of the journal. These investigations will mean a hiatus in craft + design enquiry’s publishing schedule.

The Call for Papers for Issue 8 (2016–17) is on hold until further notice. Future announcements about Calls for Papers will be published on the craft + design enquiry blog. 

The symmetry of khayamiya and quilting: International relations of the Egyptian tentmakers

The symmetry of khayamiya and quilting: International relations of the Egyptian tentmakers
Sam Bowker

 Khayamiya in local context, prior to an event in the City of the Dead, Cairo, 2007

Photo: Jenny Bowker

Abstract The tentmakers of Cairo or khayamin (derived from the Arabic word for tent, khayam), can demonstrate ongoing engagement with changes in the usage, composition and production of their traditional craft: khayamiya (Egyptian tentmaker appliqué). These changes have resulted in new patronage from quilters, moving khayamiya from a locally marginalised folk product to global recognition as a spectacular Egyptian craft. This collaboration highlights the long-term engagement of non-Egyptian audiences by the tentmakers, who have responded to changing local conditions and attitudes by directing their work to the interests of foreign collectors, rather than the local Egyptian market. In turn, this has prompted new evaluations of their largely unexplored history.1

By reviewing these changes, it will be shown that contemporary khayamiya serve longstanding cultural imperatives that are both Egyptian and non-Egyptian. For over a century the tentmakers have engaged with orientalist imaginations without losing their cultural foundations. Their collaboration with quilters presents a logical continuation of their adaptability to exigencies that has enabled them to sustain their distinctive and diverse craft. In turn, this mutual engagement has resulted in the deeper contextualisation and reappraisal of khayamiya as contemporary craft. Read full paper

Abstract from The symmetry of khayamiya and quilting: International relations of the Egyptian tentmakers
Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 6 Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

khayamiya, tourist, tentmakers, Egypt, applique, quilt

The mnemonic qualities of textiles: Sustaining lifelong attachment

The mnemonic qualities of textiles: Sustaining lifelong attachment
Emma Peters

Unknown artist, Patchwork quilt, n.d., cotton fabric, cotton thread, cardboard backing pieces, 1800 x 2100 mm

Photo: Danielle Chau

Abstract This paper uses Jonathon Chapman’s theory of emotionally durable design to explore how memory is invested in and lends value to textile artefacts, thus ensuring their enduring preservation. Through an examination of the works of Elisa Markes-Young, John Parkes, Sara Lindsay and Ilka White, the paper argues that a greater understanding of objects with mnemonic qualities provides new ways of challenging object obsolescence for art and design practice, thus offering a model for sustainable design.


Abstract from The mnemonic qualities of textiles: Sustaining lifelong attachment
Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 6 Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

textiles, memory, sustainability, material culture, biography, design

Experiential collaborations from garment to costume: Play and the thing as design outcome

Experiential collaborations from garment to costume: Play and the thing as design outcome

Martha Glazzard, Sarah Kettley, Tessa Marie Acti and Karen Harrigan

 First encounters between dancers and costumes, 2012, photograph of rehearsals

Photo: Anders Vejen Andersen, courtesy of Anders Vejen Andersen and Ingrid Kristensen

Abstract Nottingham Trent University (NTU) textile, fashion and interaction practitioners were invited to collaborate with a Danish dance group to contribute a collection of costumes for performances concerned with emotion and the senses, with the ultimate aim of understanding the qualities of audience engagement with dance. This paper discusses the designers’ use of play as a methodology, and its relationship to the philosophical notion of the thing, or how artefacts are brought into being. This provides a framework for the deliberate attempt to preserve a level of ambiguity in the outcome of the design process, such that the creative engagement of other stakeholders is explicitly supported. Epistemological and methodological developments have been the result of a number of differences: between the practices and experiences of the design collaborators; between the conceptualisation of costume as static and a need for something new, yet relevant to the themes of emotion; and between the designers’ intentions and expectations of how a garment might be used, and the dancers’ response to the garments. Outcomes are discussed as moments in a complex and ongoing process, when meanings temporarily coalesce, only to be opened up again. Such a conceptualisation of design has major implications for how we think about methodology, evaluation, material and expertise. Read full paper

Abstract from Experiential collaborations from garment to costume: Play and the thing as design outcome

Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 6 Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

experimental design, collaborative design, play, emotional design, material experimentation, thingliness

Reworking the archive: Experimental arts, memory and imagination

Reworking the archive: Experimental arts, memory and imagination.
By Katherine Moline and Jacqueline Clayton
 
 

Onkar Kular, Noam Toran and Keith Jones, Lego farm, 2010

Photo: Diego Trujillo

 

 Abstract Over the past 50 years institutional critique has become a part of the contemporary programming of museum exhibitions produced by practitioners in design, craft and visual art. Challenges and critiques of orthodoxies in museology have developed in response to changing social practices. This paper considers two site-specific installations, I cling to virtue (2010) by Onkar Kular, Noam Toran and Keith R. Jones at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Pleased to meet you: introductions by Gwynn Hanssen Pigott (2012–2013) at the Museum of Anthropology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Both works invited visitors to engage with the artists’ invented arrangements and to attend to subjective responses as authoritative readings of museum display. In other words, they questioned institutionally directed interpretation and brought key aspects of globalisation into view. This paper first describes the installations, then places them within the framework of globalisation and the social imaginary proposed by Arjun Appadurai and Cornelius Castoriades. It discusses concepts of the heterogeneity of globalisation within the framework of the social imaginary evoked in the installations and analyses the works in these terms. The replaying of historical material in these works, we contend, questions the negative implications of globalisation. Further, the definition of interdisciplinarity framed by the social imaginary provides fertile ground for reconceptualising specialisation. When seen within the social imaginary, the experimental approach to curatorial and exhibition norms exemplified by the two installations provides intriguing models for intervening in the archives and histories of design, craft and visual art. Read full paper
 

 

Abstract from Reworking the archive: Experimental arts, memory and imagination.

Full paper published in craft+design enquiry:  Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

experimental design, craft, archive, memory,  museology, globalisation

NAVA Artists' Grants

New South Wales Artists’ Grant

This grant operates in quarterly rounds. Applications for the next round close on midnight Saturday 15 November 2014.      

The NSW Artists’ Grant has been initiated by NAVA to assist professional visual and media arts, craft and design practitioners residing in NSW to produce, present and promote their work throughout NSW, interstate and overseas. Funds for the scheme have been made available by Arts NSW specifically to encourage the undertaking of creative and cost-effective initiatives. These funds are to assist directly with the costs associated with the development and implementation of a project plan, for example: the production of new creative work; presentation in a venue; travel or freight; technical assistance; preparation and distribution of a portfolio; market research; building contacts; creating and maintaining a database; setting up a website, and/or a publicity campaign. Read complete details 

Australian Artists' Grant

This grant operates in quarterly rounds. Applications for the next round close on midnight Saturday 15 November 2014.      

This grant provides assistance towards the costs of public presentation for professional visual and media arts, craft and design practitioners who are Australian citizens or permanent residents. This includes, but is not limited to: advertising; promotional printing; mail outs; media photographs; media releases; equipment rental; framing; freight; installation costs; insurance; opening costs; space rental; technical assistance; travel. Please be aware that this grant does not provide assistance towards the production of artwork (materials, studio rental etc). Read complete details