CRAFT IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: THEORIZING CHANGE AND PRACTICE/EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART

摘要

Optimism was top of the agenda at this ambitious three-day conference. Optimism that you had chosen the best papers to attend out of the enormous range on offer - and optimism as expressed in the overall theme of the event. The thrust of Paul Greenhalgh's keynote speech can be gathered from his introductory chapter to the recently published book The Persistence of Craft (A&C Black 32 pound, to be reviewed in a future issue of CR). It is a refreshing and authoritative survey of the last thirty years, gathering together some thirteen areas of significance to craft as well as confronting a few home truths. The 180 delegates had to choose from five major strands: Theorising Craft in a Contemporary Context (chair Paul Greenhalgh); Curating the Craft Object (Martina Margetts); Craft and the Self: Identity, Memory and Meaning (David Crowley); plus Craft an Technology (Katie Bunnell) and Craft and Post-Colonialism (Carol Tulloch). Perhaps as a reaction to this three-day 'word-fest' the personal insight offered in the discussions often gave a useful grounding for the theory.