Tuesday 12 February 2008

what is craft : modern craft

Since finishing the book Zeros + Ones, I have been reading some papers around the subjects of online communities and craft.

In the Editorial Introduction to the new journal, Modern Craft, I found this about this interesting and pragmatic discussion of 'what is craft?':

'...This is an old problem within the study of craft - is it art, or isn't it?... We intend to treat such categorical dilemmas as historical phenomena in their own right, rather than as conundrums to answer definitively. In some art historical contexts... the relation between craft and art is not problematic but productive. For the artists associated with Die Brücke, materials and process were to be put into the service of avant garde objectives without hesitation. Indeed... the Expressionists owed a great debt to the craft movement of the turn of the century... But many other movements in modern craft stand in vivid contrast to this genealogy; as other articles and several of the reviews in this inaugural issue argue, the rhetorical distinctions between craft and art can make all the difference. Together these articles suggest that the oft-posed question of art and craft is best seen not as a dilemma to resolve, but rather as a malleable historical structure in its own right.'

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