Post-Craft: Towards New Economies of Making

From Turner-prize winning potters to designer makers, art fairs and artisanal sandwiches, craft's currency across art, design and architecture is undeniable. The notion of the handmade has shifted from the margins to take centre stage. Craft’s value is increasingly recognised across creative, economic, social, cultural and political contexts.

Amidst dissolving disciplinary boundaries and the widespread appropriation of craft, its meaning is changing. While its claims to values such as authenticity and anti-consumerism are in question, craft could potentially take on new value in the future of manufacturing. Amidst new economies of making, as craft moves from “modern craft” to “post craft”, we need to examine not only the practice of craft, but its mediation and interpretation.

This half-day symposium organised by Alex Coles, Professor, University of Huddersfield and Catharine Rossi, Senior Lecturer, University of Kingston, brings together a collection of emerging and established voices examining the contemporary currency of craft, including practitioners, curators, critics and historians.

Programme

13.00 - 13.15 Welcome

Alex Coles, Professor of Transdisciplinary Studies, University of Huddersfield and Dr Catharine Rossi, Senior Lecturer in Design History, Kingston University
 
13.15 - 14.00 Keynote

Martina Margetts, Senior Tutor in Critical & Historical Studies, Royal College of Art
 
14.00 - 14.15 Discussion
 
14.15 - 15.15 The Currency of Craft
Chair: Alex Coles
Jana Scholze, V&A Curator of Contemporary Furniture and Co-Curator of What is Luxury?
Sam Jacob, Sam Jacob Studio
Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo, El Ultimo Grito
 
15.15 - 15.45 Break

15.45 - 16.45 Labouring over Craft
Chair: Cat Rossi
Maria Lisogorskaya, Assemble Studio
Dr Stephen Knott, Post Doctoral Teaching Fellow in Design History, Liverpool Hope University
Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen, artists
Clare Twomey, Ceramist, Research Fellow at the University of Westminster