emiko-o reware

Creating A New Craft Culture SAT 4:30 PM
Conference Conclusion: Craft as Subject, Verb, and Object
Panel discussion: moderator Sonya Clark (chair, Virginia Commonwealth University); panelists (in order of appearance, below): Stephano Catalani (curator, Bellevue Art Museum), Jean McLaughlin (director, Penland School of Crafts), Lacy Jane Roberts (fiber artist {amazing knit pink barbed wire}, writer), Andy Brayman (founder, Matter Factory), Garth Johnson (teacher, blogger, Extreme Craft, artist), Brent Skidmore (director, UNC Asheville Craft Campus Initiative, artist)

Conclusion Panel

This presentation was an unexpected highlight and perfect end to the weekend’s events, surprising in that it turned out to be a panel discussion (instead of just Sonya Clark) on how the conference went overall and people’s wish for the advancement of craft.

Sonya Clark

Earlier in the conference, Sonya handed out green Survey forms to all attendees, a yes/no questionaire of 35 questions aimed at understanding the current Direction and Definition of Craft. She collected the surveys (over half the attendees completed surveys) at the end of Friday’s sessions, tabulated the percentages, and in this panel presented us with the results, finding the questions with nearly tied yes/no answers to be the more telling.

Here are the questions voted Most Important by the attendees:
-Is the interface between craft, design, and art moving in a positive direction? Yes: 89%   No: 11%
-Should craft become the example of critical-making (parallel to critical-thinking) in our culture? Yes: 84%   No: 16%
-Do you value craft that embraces its history and then challenges it?
Yes: 72%  No: 18%
-Does craft need to expand its definition to be more inclusive?
Yes: 58%  No: 42%

Here are the questions where there was “slippage” and would be worth investigating further:
-Is the ubiquity of the craft media in the world a hindrance to its market value? Yes: 41%  No: 59%
-Has the academic craft community abandoned the traditionally educated craft community Yes: 50%  No: 50%
-Do you value the contributions of traditionally or non-academically trained artists in the field? Yes: 50%  No: 50%
-Do you see the  preservation of craft traditions as a forward-looking strategy? Yes: 45%  No: 55%
-Do you describe something as “craft” depending on the narrative of the object? Yes: 52%  No: 48%
-Does craft mean too many things to be useful? Yes: 46%  No: 54%

THE PANEL’S VIEWS
Sonya did well in choosing panel members who represented craft across many realms from museums, academia, writers, DIY and traditional crafters. She asked the panel to answer a couple of questions based on how they felt about craft now at the conference’s conclusion. Here is what they said (panelists’ remarks are labeled by their initials):

What are 2 wishes that each of you have for the Future of Craft?

SC: 1. Have more discussions..without feeling Passive/Aggressive. 2. Be more grounded in the Present, not so focused on the Future.

JM: 1. How do we have debate as a group.
2. …desire for more time for reflection, for making with wonder

LJR: Expand craft into the Humanities in schools…have it inform your making.

AB: 1. To allow & celebrate the Diversity in the field.
2. Pair Sustainability with Material Science.

GJ: 1. More engagement with Design (as seen in Europe currently).
2. Hope that craft doesn’t get defined more strictly.

BS: 1. Never entertaining the thought of craft being dead.
2. An active and engaged ACC.

What question do we need to address for the future?

SC: Keep working on this idea of Community & how it expresses the time in which we are living.

JM: More research & understanding the pulse of the artists, and what’s going to happen to artists’ estates.

LJR: How is what you’re making engaging others and how is it living these multiple lives?

AB: Reflect on how we’re spending our time and what’s really important.

GJ: Inclusivity with DIY

BS: Will future ACC conferences become a group of regional conferences? How do we build a Bridge to the Next Generation?

What an inspirational, revelational way to kick off Maker Faire–this will be my 3rd year as a Maker, but my 1st time attending Maker Day, thanks to the invite from organizers Sherry Huss and Dale. Fellow Maker, Shana Astrachan and I drove down to my ol’ stompin’ grounds of San Mateo for an afternoon of presentations by innovative minds on the Future of Making.

We arrived just in time to catch Garth Johnson’s talk on Extreme Crafts, a curatorial collage of craft artists who are pushing the envelope–topics such as Craft Extending its Middlefinger and ManCraft, to Cozies and OMG WTF? The eternal debate of Craft vs. Art: “Craft is the greatest Trojan horse out there”, says Johnson, “craft masquerading as art”. Why can’t it simply Be Art? That question aside, I could have listened to another hour of Garth, and so you see his blog is in my “craft must see” links.

Next up, the co-editor of Boing Boing and editor of Make Magazine, the mighty David Pescovitz guides us through The Future of Making map, which I’m eager to see in print. Representing the Institute for the Future, IFTF has created a map outlining future drivers and trends in Making. He summed up with these 6 concepts for success: Network your Organization, Reward Solution Seekers, Err on the Side of Openness, Go Transparent, Engage Actively, and Celebrate Hackers.

A few speakers later, String Theory’s Autumn Wiggin showed us a glimpse Cradle to Cradle philosophy and how indie crafting can be a vehicle for change in consumerism. Being conscious of our environmental footprint with the supplies we buy, sourcing our materials in alternative ways to hopefully turn the heads of big corporations our way to what we really want to see as consumers. The concept of Bio Craft–making goods that will decompose and actually enrich the earth, not poison it. You go, girl–enlighten the Midwest for us, please!

Break time! Maker Media had a full on photo set up in the front entrance of Fiesta Hall, to shoot Makers such as ourselves. check out the other photos on flickr.

One of the last speakers (where did the last 4 hours go!?!) was Mister Jalopy, seen here to the right of Dale, who MC’d the afternoon. Man of various talents & businesses, Jalopy’s talk, Authentic Innovation, touched upon many of the day’s recurring themes, the major points being: 1. Design for Life–make original, quality items that will last; 2. Authentic Innovation=Shared Innovation, as he says, “Admit you are not good at everything–collaborate”; 3. Build Honest; 4. Build Open; 5. Circle back the the True Believers. His final words still resonate in my brain, “When you build Open, your success comes from individuals connecting Beyond Consuming”.

There you have it, folks. My 1st blog post ever–it was well worth the wait. Time to put this cold to bed–12 hours from now we’ll have Maker Prep madness in the kitchen!