Ecology and the aesthetics of imperfect balance

Ecology and the aesthetics of imperfect balance

By Roderick Bamford

 Malin Lundmark, Tea-cup-lamp, 2003, porcelain.

Photo: Stephan Lundberg, courtesy of Malin Lundmark.

Roderick Bamford’s practice traverses art, craft and design, with a specialization in ceramics. He works from a studio north of Sydney and lectures at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW.

Abstract: Historically, craft values have provided a pivotal argument in the conflict between industrial and natural worldviews, concerning both the artefacts and social conditions of their creation. Today, the implications of carbon both as a fuel and a toxin demand a better understanding of the ‘sign’ values embedded in such dialogue, and inform responses to the dangers posed by dominant anthropocentric perspectives. Amidst the logic of a number of ‘design for sustainability’ arguments, craft emerges as an antidotal signifier to the combined impacts of hyper efficient production and rampant ‘throw away’ consumerism. Yet, in the carbon context, notions of benign impact and enduring value associated with craft can elicit contradictions. Drawing on literary arguments and examples in practice, this paper surveys relationships between craft and design as instruments of sustainability theory. Whilst recognizing the importance of qualitative factors in this context, and the increasing attention given to them in research, the critique emerges largely from a more established quantitative, or measured perspective. The relevance of this approach is attributed to the primacy of material outputs in both craft and design practice. In this context the writing aims to address a comparative gap in the discussion of practices in craft and design, and to contribute to a deeper understanding of their relationship. In seeking possibilities for craft within a discipline of sustainable culture, it explores a role for aesthetics in the context of what may be considered unnecessary artifacts. Read full paper 

Abstract from: Ecology and the aesthetics of imperfect balance
Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 3 Sustainability in craft and design

Abstracts closing tomorrow

NOW CLOSED
Abstracts for Issue number 7 “Landscape, Place and Identity in Craft and Design” Guest Edited by Kay Lawrence are due 30 April 2014. Please contact Editor Jenny Deves for information on submitting abstracts or visit the blog
jenny.deves@anu.edu.au

Current Call for papers closing soon

Call for Papers issue #7 CLOSING SOON NOW CLOSED
 

Image credit: Sue Kneebone For Better or for Worse, 2010 Giclee print

The Call for Papers for craft + design enquiry issue #7, guest edited by Kay Lawrence, closes soon for both the OPEN SECTION and the THEMED SECTION “Landscape, Place and Identity in Craft and Design”.

Abstracts are due by 30 April 2014, if invited full Papers are due by 30 June 2014.
The full Call for Papers #7 can be found on call for papers page 

craft + design enquiry Publisher Name Change

Recognising the industry-wide shift to digital publishing, ANU E Press has changed its name to ANU Press!

ANU Press will continue to function as an electronic, open access publisher. The change occurs in response to recognition that the publishing industry as a whole has embraced digital publishing, so the ‘E’ has become superfluous and the Press will be more appropriately served by a simpler, more encompassing brand.

 All works published henceforth will be branded as ANU Press works. Volumes previously published under the E Press badge will not be affected.

craft+design enquiry can be found at http://press.anu.edu.au/titles/craftdesign-enquiry/

Reminder: Current call for papers issue #7

  NOW CLOSED

“Landscape, Place and Identity in Craft and Design” Issue 7: 2015,
Guest Edited by Kay Lawrence

Image credit: Sue Kneebone, For better or for worse, 2010, giclee print

Kay Lawrence invites contributors to submit abstracts responding to the theme “Landscape, Place and Identity in Craft and Design” or to submit abstracts for the Open Section exploring subjects on any aspect of craft and design. 

Submit abstracts now until 30 April 2014, if invited, full papers are due 30 June 2014.


About the theme, Kay writes “The words used to describe the physical environment and our relationship to it, are always nuanced. The concept of 'place' refers to a particular portion of space that may or may not be occupied by people, while also encompassing the idea of dwelling, of living in a particular place.....

View full #7 Call for Papers link 

Craft and sustainable development: reflections on Scottish craft and pathways to sustainability

Craft and sustainable development: reflections on Scottish craft and pathways to sustainability

By Emilia Ferraro, Rehema White, Eoin Cox, Jan Bebbington and Sandra Wilson

1. Introduction

This paper discusses the potential contributions of craft to the transition to more sustainable societies. Craft, we argue, offers a number of leverage points where links between its economic and educational models and pathways to sustainability emerge. The paper, thus, contributes both to alternative and more creative definitions of “sustainability”, and to current debates on the “persistence” of craft and its role in “modern” societies (cf. Greenhalgh, 2006). Craft, we believe, can be seen no longer as existing against or in spite of modernity; on the contrary, in the context of sustainable development, it clearly emerges as “a modern way of thinking otherwise” (Adamson, 2009:5).

We begin with an introductory debate on the definitions of craft and the changing meaning of sustainable development over time. Using the data of a scoping study we undertook on the craft sector in Fife, East Scotland, we then discuss the common ground and leverage points between craft and sustainable development and make some concluding comments.

A remark about the authors is in order here. ‘We’ are three scholars in sustainable development, one scholar in art and design and the owner of a craft gallery. ‘We’ are at the same time two professional craft practitioners (one in jewellery and metal design and the other in furniture design), one ‘novice’ and two ‘hobbyists’. All of u share interests in and multiple engagements with sustainable development and craft that range from mainly theoretical to very practical involvement. It is this interdisciplinary background and array of different personal experiences that inform the discussion of both craft and sustainability put forward in this paper. Read complete paper

Introduction from: Craft and sustainable development: reflections on Scottish craft and pathways to sustainability

Full paper published in craft+design enquiry ; Issue 3 Sustainability in craft and design

Image:  Forms of craft enterprise discipline in Scotland

Jewellery, the urban milieu and emergence

Jewellery, the urban milieu and emergence
Jacqui Chan

Host A Brooch, making process, 2011.

Photography: Jacqui Chan craft+design enquiry Issue 5

Abstract: This paper traces a practice-led enquiry into the question of how jewellery — as a practice and an artefact — can engage the city in terms of emergence. While jewellery is often understood to have a decorative, symbolic or communicative function, this research explores jewellery’s immersion in and emergence from the urban context. Coming from a background in architecture, I am interested in approaching the city as an extended site for jewellery: both the lived situation within which jewellery is worn, and a rich material resource for its production; and, where jewellery is sited between mobile bodies and these urban surroundings.

This practice-led research adopts the analogy of the saprophyte — an organism that decomposes organic matter and recirculates nutrients through its ecosystem — as a logic for exploring how making and wearing can feed off and back into the material ecology of the city. This paper shares four projects that respond to specific urban situations — Melbourne, Ramallah (Palestine), Chinatown (Melbourne), and Christchurch — discussing what emerges within each situation, and what these projects offer for thinking about jewellery — as a practice and an artefact — and its relations with the city. Read complete paper

Abstract from, Jewellery, the urban milieu and emergence  
Full paper published in craft+design enquiry ; Issue 5 A World in Making: Craft Design