In class writing reflection for 2/28

I see my craft as a form of Craftivism with nostalgic undertones. Since I'v decided to make home made beauty products, I see that as an opposition to large corporate consumerism, especially since it emmanates the ideals of sustainability and resourcefulness. I see my craft as re-romanticizing the good ole days where women's beauty products and remedies originated from nature, the garden, or the kitchen. For example: Bathing in buttermilk was supposed to keep skin fair. I also see this form of craft as idealizing the present day green and eco-friendly movements.

LOLCAT

Greer/Black/Burisch

Greer

Betsy Greer is  fellow crafter and activist. She has a masters in Sociology. Her master's dissertation was on knitting, DIY culture and community development. She writes about craftivism,* craft, creativity, the positive side of activism, the squirmy chaos of identity, the psychological ick of war, among other things. Sometimes, however, she writes about all those things at once.(craftivism.com)

Greer discusses how she wanted to create her own mark in the crafting world, specifically through knitting. Knitting started out as as simple to do project for her but spawned into activism, when she delved into the meditative state of knitting. Specifically during the times after September 11th and the Iraqi/Afghan Wars she and many others found themselves filled with anger and frustration which fueled her need to be more creative. She found the need to protest, but not in the conventional way.  Her goal became to meld craft and activism together, but with positive conotations. During this period Greer creates a term called craftivism, which is a visual form of activism, through the use of a craft, that isn’t sign holding and marching. Greer learns to realize her definition of craftivism once shared with everyone is intangible and varies depending on the user. Overall craftivism is a reminder she can always make a change in the world, even if its small. Some of the assumptions Greer makes about her readers are that they will use the term craftivism incorrectly. I feel she at times undermines her own work “referring to it as a small way” of making change. It is ironic that knitting and activism would cross paths yet the visual and physical impact it has had on the world seems more massive than even what she predicted. 

Black and Burisch 

Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch who are Canadian artists and fellow craftivists. Both are active within the coomunity and put a strong emphasis on crafting and protest with unity. Black however, is more involved with the LGBTQ arts community versus Burisch who is more involved with the cultrual and academic aspects of the crafting community. Overall this essay was a more elaborate explanation of how crafting and culture work within the community, versus the personal experience, Greer gave us. 

The LOLCAT experience with Photoshop. 

Since I’m still playing catch up with all the work, I have yet to make an LoLCat. However I have and did dabble in photoshop on February 28th. Editing and creating through photoshop is a relatively new experience, as is creating my own personal beauty products outside of soap. The motions of the hands brings on a feeling of frustration yet positive production of completeing and working on a new task. I will be producing and lolcat today. 

Cox/Minahan

STELLA MINAHAN 

- a Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University.

Her research focus is organization change and consumer behaviour. 

She is published in Organization, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Culture

and Organization, Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society and co-authored a

research book Why Women Shop.

JULIE WOLFRAM COX 

- holds the Chair in Management at Deakin University.

- Her research interests include critical and aesthetic perspectives on organization

theory and change. 

- is an associate editor for Qualitative Research in Organizations

and Management 

- a member of the editorial boards for Organizational Studies, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Group and Organization Management

and for Tamara.

Overall the Journal for Material Culture looks to explore the link between craft and society, weighing addictional factors such as time and generation comparison, social indenties and influence in correlation to product and culture.

Researchers and this journal would be interested in DIY culture and specifically knititng for many reasons. StichnBitch Groups groups are formed by and for women who get together to knit as a highly social form of creative leisure production. Overall, Knitting iis a handicraft and social sport and is constantly evolving into a bigger movement through the use of technology. It also explores the realms of business and charity, and can further be broken down by cultural relativity.

I would defeinetly syay my approah to my handicraft can be seen as nostalgic with a focus on conservation. My craft, hand maiking soap and beauty products, does bring you back to simpler times when consumerism was less prominent. Before the age of Wal Mart ,Target, and Sephora, many women followed DIY beauty remedies, alot of which have originated from the kitchen and/or natural surroundings. My craft romantisizes this concept, and also plays a role in in opposing over consumption and corporate consumerism.

The Crafters Manifesto is a piece that welcomes everyone to participate. It perpetuates unity through four key ideals.  First being craft is personal. Owning something uniquely handmade is a treasure, not only do you help your neighbor but your buying a piece of art, something special that took time, love and, dedication. Craft is also powerful because your taking home a piece of the authors/artists personality. The craft you purchase invites you to get to know the artist on a physical level, as you will probably be able to interact with the artists during the show/flea market etc. Craft is political because it opposes corporate consumerism, and promotes culture and independent business. Most importantly everyone can parcipate, whether your rich or poor, amateur or professional, working together, or by yourself. Crafting invites everyone to participate in various forms of culture.

Buszek and Stevens

Buszek and Stevens

In the following article Buszek explores the world of handicraft in conjunction with the worlds of contemporary art and technology. Buszek further details how artists who experiement with fiber, glass, and wood, are caught in between the paradox of the traditional handicraft and contemporary art world. Buszek goes off writings by Risatti, stating artists in this dilemma should refer back to the roots that originally seperated the “fine arts” from the “applied arts” yet that artists should not be bound by these differences in producing their art. Buszek continues to detail from era to era how the lines have been blurred for the traditional artist and the crafter. Buszek states that early postmodern artists placed great faith in the value of folk and popular arts that had traditionally been viewed as the realm of women's, queer, and non-Western cultures as a means of communicating beyond an elite community and letting the "real" world back into the art world . For artists working today media, naturally, are generally chosen with regard to “sociohistorical” undertones of a medium, rather than regard for unique material properties.

Buszek elaborates that emerging artists in today's art world enjoy a tremendous amount of freedom in exploring craft media, yet educational institutions and museums fail to recognize these art forms.  Overall, the essays demonstrate that many artists drawing on craft culture do so in ways that defy the boudaries of craft and art but do so in “Ironic and ambivalent ways” different from (or even poking gentle fun at) the romantic or moralizing sensibility with which their predecessors often approached these media. 

Stevens

This essay considers the impact of the Internet on craft practice. In this essay  craft work is defined as requiring tacit knowledge-often called "personal know-how"' an is motivated by an ethic of working with one's hands yet  explains how capitalism contradicts this ideal.  

“The ideology of craft work and capitalism seeks efficiency in all matters, while craft, though it possesses many positive attributes, will always be a highly inefficient way of getting the job done”.

Key Points of the Essay

• societal standards dictate what forms of intelligence that are valued over one another.
• Corporations like Wal-Mart and William Sonoma have made it harder for blue collar and modern crafters compete. When companies like these make cheap imitations it poses an idea on society that kinda downgrades the organic and fruitful concept of what owning a handicraft is.  Objects of traditional craft connect people metaphorically and metaphysically to the tangible. People who produce these crafts offer a “ holistic bonding that occurs organically among groups of people through association, connection, or alliance and is  marked by shared beliefs as well as collective kinship”.
•  valuing craft and choosing to be a maker of craft in contemporary society is a decision  about identity and lifestyle as much as it is about values.
•  Each closely connected, craftbased community of practice has an internal system for indoctrinating and validating its members.
• Community is strengthened through crafting because it requires people to socialize while performing their craft.
• Ecommerce is now being used to strengthen the voice of the handicrafter to the world which results in a new community of bonding amongst crafters.
• Discusses Ideal Types...an ideal type cannot be rightfully formed since art is percieved from generation to generation under different circumstances.
• DIY ethos seeks to confront mass market consumers and the perceived homogenization of culture as a result of the aggressive expansion of multinational corporations.
• DIY craft does not often seek validation within the traditional methodologies of the museum, the media, or the market; it is rather motivated by a desire for creative and economic freedom from the same. (54)
• DIY craft seeks to redefine the antiquated nomenclatures of artist, maker, craftsperson, designer, and small-business owner. Although the DIY movement has a certain reverence for what American craft represented, it is unquestionably an independent and burgeoning cultural and economic force, as evidenced by its own magazines, websites, fairs, books, television programs, and documentary video projects. (55)

Terkel and Jackson Reflections

The writer for the first selection, “Men Who Make,” is a man by the name of Andrew Jackson. In this selection Jackson speaks of another man who enjoys making wooden kayaks as a personal hobbie and craft. He is a Professional Amateur (Pro-Am), according to Jackson, which is word used to describe someone who takes part in a craft of great skill but is not labeled as a professional. Glynn, the kayak maker is a man of great skill, yet his craft cannot pay the bills ; the time/resources it takes to produce his craft does not amount to the money people are willing to pay for a personalized kayak, (even though his kayaks are unique and exquisite). Glynn has to work a professional job in order to make ends meet, yet he does not let his craft take a backseat in his life. Though Jackson seems to be speaking to Men who are Pro-Am’s, the Pro-Am lifestyle is something alot of crafters and skilled people can relate to. It speaks of a genre of people that put a large chunk of their professional income into their “amateur” activities. Most people couldn’t accomplish what Glynn does, but since Glynn is willing to sacrifice leisure time for developing his craft, and he is able to do what satisfies his soul, and still meet the needs of this harsh capitalist world. Jackson states Men and DIY activities of this sort were formed out of the need to fill free time with productive “male” work in the early industrial eras. Jackson also talks about what enhances and disrupts the “flow” of creativity or the feeling of enjoyment one gets from making a craft. Capitalism and profit being the hinderer of the flow of craft.
The second reading is done by Studs Terkel. Personally I found this reading very relateable, especially as a working class American. Initially I was very intrigued by this reading, mainly because this guy seems to think alot like I do. He actually gives you an intriging yet depressing insight into why we say and do some of the things we do in respect to our jobs and our crafts. Terkel is quick to examine and see how the american economy and work ethic, basically withers away at the human soul. As a result Americans are forced to take pride in their work as craft in order to compensate for the loss of leisure and free thinking taken up by their jobs. He further details this point by mentioning how we as americans talk about things, whether in opinion or at the dinenr table, that have a tendency to relate back to our field of work, resulting in ingenuine conversation. Overall, Terkel’s main point is being overworked results in the loss of creativity from the individual becuase profit and living becomes the main goal. If the individual is being overworked he or she does not have time to partake in the creative process, or even in productive human interaction (meaningful conversation). To relate back to Jackson’s readings, the only half way point for professionals who are artists is quasi-professionalism in American society. Under quasi professionalism the artist aspect of the individual is still made to suffer in some way by the over dominance of work and the capitalistic economy.
After reading these articles and many others it is clear that it is not easy to be a productive artist because the American work ethic is so rigorous. Perhaps more troubling is what the American work ethic is based off, greed and profit. Like Morris and the other authors, I believe that the state and quality of art is at risk because capitalism has infested itself in our lives to such a degree that its hard not to think about anything else. I find this feeling continues to intensify as the economy worsens and we’re forced to work harder and harder to make ends meet. 
As a student I have been struggling with this concept for years. Both having to work, go to school, and deal with personal issues has taken away from my soul wanting to do more of the enriching activities I used to do (soap making, writing, joyful reading). Not to say I don’t try but ambition gets warn away when school and working a job become the main priority, this intensifies when there isn’t much financial support to fall back on (parents). 
For example: I asked my friend Joe how he manages his band while going to school, I thought about it and answered the question before he could, he didn’t work. I thought about why my friends jen adn drew stopped doing art, because there main focus became money when they lost their jobs.
Ironically, all this stress about the economy and the American work ethic has made me want to write more, even though I don’t always have the energy to complete the task. It’s a paradox I wish I could solve. 
Overall I have re-thought my degree ten times over on the aspect of happiness versus profit, trying to find a balance between both, in hopes of ultimately avoiding being one of those miserable souls that rides the bus everyday, or being like my mom and dad where work is the topic of every conversation. However, I have faith, luckily my anthropological interests reside in Eastern studies of wisdom and conciousness, which invites me to live/study in different societies and explore different work ethics. Union is a central theme through out the course readings, and coming together and being “one” with each other is a commmon Eastern philosophy. So maybe one day I can bring that philospohy over here again and apply it to my work ethic and help others do the same.
Interesting !

"Slojd" and "The Craft of Experience"

Introductory Remarks “Slojd”

Slojd is a word with no english equivalent, implies skill in work rather than craft as productive activity. Slojd carpentry uses instruments that require skill to produce a work as well as non conventional tools to produce various works. For example in Slojd Carpentary, the Slojder would use a knife rather than a chisel, as a chisel is what is used in conventional carpentary. Also the manual labor of slojd carpentry is far less than that of a real carpenter. Slojd is creativity using primative and unconventional forms of tools and manual labor....it is designed so the “slojder” does not have manual labor out weigh skill and creativity. The Slojd teacher does not “instruct” but guide to ensure that primitive methods are ensured throughout the project, all designed to guarantee the slojder learns more from the skill than the actual craft.

Conclusion: The Philosophical Workshop

Pragmatism: The Craft of Experience

The first part of these readings centers around the history of Pragmatism. Pragmatism can be defined as a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice (Slojd). 

Pragmatism further states that " The human working animal can be enriched by the skills and dignified by the spirtit of craftsmanship. One of the first Pragmatists was John Dewey, a non conventional thinker and educater who believed that many things were interrelated (ie:problem-solving and problem-finding, technique and expression, play and work (287)). Dewey states that economics is the element that divides many things. Work without play is just work, a meaningless activity, however, when you add emotion to the skill of work, then work becomes art. Philosophically, pragmatism implies freedom in order for work of any sort to be done well. Underlying this is Experience, which is divided into two German terms, Erlebnis and Erfahrung. “The first is an event or relationship that makes an emotional inner impress, the second an event, action, or relationship that turns one outward and requires skill rather than sensitivity. Pragmatist thought has insisted that these two meanings should not be divided (288)". Erlebnis is the feeling before your emotion is conveyed in Erfahrung (craftsmanship). 

This reading further continues to imply that this ideology can be applied to human relationships as well. 

The author states, “Material cahllenges like working with resistance or managing ambiguity are instructive in understanding the resistances people harbor to one another or the uncertain boundaries between people "(289). 

Pragmatism encourages self rule, or that citizens work to constructively solve problems together, which can also be applied to how a crafter thinks in order to produce a work.

The earliest forms of pragmatism do not include the influence of mass media, and offer serious distortions to true pragmatism. In other words, blabbing on facebook about your crappy day will not make you a constructive writer. Pride also taints the creative process. The author implies that many people get lost in pride which results in a  lost from the true meaning of their own work in its developmental process(295). A partial to solution to this ethical dilemma is for one to take moments away from their craft/work in order to better connect the true meaning of the work to the final outcome (296).

Cool New Terms

Kalos Kagathos (meaning beautiful in mind and body)

Aischros (meaning ugly and shameful)