The project described here was, in an adjusted form, suggested for the HERA-call “Uses of the Past” (2015). This page is left here as an archival page to describe my interest in, and approach to, craft.
Past continuous, handmade: Craft as embodied vision of tradition between local identity and global nettings
The suggested project wants to examine craft as an embodied practice and a realm of thought and emotion that links past and present conceived of as a continuum through notions of tradition. While many specific crafts are connoted with local identity and pride, artisans often are simultaneously interlinked on a global level through the comparative techniques they use – sometimes but not always through historical evidence of technological transfer -, trade, and their stance on good craftmanship. Craftsmanship as a concept with historical depth, and as a persisting and ever recurring phenomenon also in the flood of machine-made objects of contemporary throwaway societies can be approached in terms of an autotelic activity which is informed by factors such as somatic experience and dexterity, and intellectual, emotional and ideological attachment to techniques, objects and their quality. Often, the transmission of the craft from master to disciple is understood in terms of a historical ancestral line and notions of ancient secret knowledge account for the ambiguous status artisans sometimes have in society.
Information about the the HERA call 2015 (closed).