Ms Shai Akram

Research project: Manufacturing Narratives : A conversation between globalised industry and vernacular craft.

Abstract

In The Nature of Art and Workmanship, (2007) David Pye asserts that the difference between craft and design is that craft seeks to flawlessly repeat whereas design seeks to find unknown possibilities. This research project shares that spirit and aims to challenge globalised material culture, interrogate current models of industrial production and influence perception of cultural craft. 

As production of goods is increasingly being turned over to mass manufacture, many craft techniques and skills are vanishing from our material lexicon. This study seeks to preserve them by examining the material culture that surround these techniques, developing a means to translate them for use within the design process and testing viable routes re-engaging of the role of hand processes in an industrialised context.

The intent is to work towards viable, tangible outcomes, and break new ground for craft techniques to be integrated into the existing industrial processes as a mean to disrupt and diversify from the outset by:

• developing international platform/s for integrating craft processes within industrial production.
• creating a network of makers, materials and manufacturers. (events, archives, libraries, etc)
• documentation and archiving system of possibilities that allows industry to easily engaging with craft.
• contribute to the discourse and knowledge around craft practice in relation to contemporary consumer culture.

The aim of this proposal is to radically rearrange the relationship between globalised industry and vernacular craft towards a hybrid creative economy. I view the relationship as a powerful liberator of material language - placing craft techniques within the industrial model, working together to uncover new market possibilities and disrupt the monotony of global uniformity.