Short Abstract:

Craft has long been considered a mainly practical philosophy, that cannot be transferred to language. However, craft has been mediated in many forms textually and visually. The panel focus on how to unwrite craft, by taking distance from, or re-articulating, the written and spoken in craft practice.

Long Abstract:

Craft has long been considered a mainly practical philosophy, according to some researchers a phenomenon that cannot be transferred to written or spoken language. A common definition of craft, to transform material to surfaces or forms, using the body and appropriate tools, includes the practice of craft but excludes the communicative aspects of making things. Communication about craft can be outspoken, but also tacit and focusing on structures, discourses and how to learn by doing – how to perform the professional choreography of craft.

Craft is not only about bodies, tools, material, and processes, it is also about relations and engagement between crafters, towards non-crafters, between humans and materials, between convention and creativity.

Craft has been mediated in many forms, materialized in handbooks, learning instructions, inventories, images, films, publication, and collections. In this panel we seek scholars who want to take part in a discussion on how to unwrite craft, by taking distance from, or re-articulating, the written and spoken in craft practice, for example by focusing on:

• The meaning of craft in various context

• Crafting knowledge

• Sensory and bodily aspects of craft

• Intersectionality and craft

• How to learn or teach to craft

• Sustainability and craft

• Craft and power relations

• Craft in archives and collections

This Panel has so far received 6 paper proposal(s).
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