The Craft Reader
Published on 1. October 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
656 pages
978-1-350-09264-8 (ISBN)
Description
From the canonical texts of the Arts and Crafts Movement to the radical thinking of today's "DIY" movement, from theoretical writings on the position of craft in distinction to Art and Design to how-to texts from renowned practitioners, from feminist histories of textiles to descriptions of the innovation born of necessity in Soviet factories and African auto-repair shops...The Craft Reader presents the first comprehensive anthology of writings on modern craft.
Covering the period from the Industrial Revolution to today, the Reader draws on craft practice and theory from America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The world of craft is considered in its full breadth -- from pottery and weaving, to couture and chocolate-making, to contemporary art, architecture and curation. The writings are themed into sections and all extracts are individually introduced, placing each in its historical, cultural and artistic context.
Bringing together an astonishing range of both classic and contemporary texts, The Craft Reader will be invaluable to any student or practitioner of Craft and also to readers in Art and Design.
AUTHORS INCLUDE:
Theodor Adorno, Anni Albers, Amadou Hampate Ba, Charles Babbage, Roland Barthes, Andrea Branzi, Alison Britton, Rafael Cardoso, Johanna Drucker, Charles Eames, Salvatore Ferragamo, Kenneth Frampton, Alfred Gell, Walter Gropius, Tanya Harrod, Martin Heidegger, Patrick Heron, Bernard Leach, Esther Leslie, W. R. Lethaby, Lucy Lippard, Adolf Loos, Karl Marx, William Morris, Robert Morris, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Stefan Muthesius, George Nakashima, Octavio Paz, Grayson Perry, M. C. Richards, John Ruskin, Raphael Samuel, Ellen Gates Starr, Debbie Stoller, Alexis de Tocqueville, Lee Ufan, Frank Lloyd Wright
Covering the period from the Industrial Revolution to today, the Reader draws on craft practice and theory from America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The world of craft is considered in its full breadth -- from pottery and weaving, to couture and chocolate-making, to contemporary art, architecture and curation. The writings are themed into sections and all extracts are individually introduced, placing each in its historical, cultural and artistic context.
Bringing together an astonishing range of both classic and contemporary texts, The Craft Reader will be invaluable to any student or practitioner of Craft and also to readers in Art and Design.
AUTHORS INCLUDE:
Theodor Adorno, Anni Albers, Amadou Hampate Ba, Charles Babbage, Roland Barthes, Andrea Branzi, Alison Britton, Rafael Cardoso, Johanna Drucker, Charles Eames, Salvatore Ferragamo, Kenneth Frampton, Alfred Gell, Walter Gropius, Tanya Harrod, Martin Heidegger, Patrick Heron, Bernard Leach, Esther Leslie, W. R. Lethaby, Lucy Lippard, Adolf Loos, Karl Marx, William Morris, Robert Morris, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Stefan Muthesius, George Nakashima, Octavio Paz, Grayson Perry, M. C. Richards, John Ruskin, Raphael Samuel, Ellen Gates Starr, Debbie Stoller, Alexis de Tocqueville, Lee Ufan, Frank Lloyd Wright
Reviews / Votes
The scope of the Craft Reader is breathtaking. Finally, here is a text that successfully contextualizes the diverse range of writings on craft. By gathering these thoughts into a clearly articulated set of arguments Adamson has helped to shape the field of craft discourse. This book will stand as an invaluable tool for craft scholars. * Sandra Alfoldy, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design * A much needed outline history of 19th and 20th century crafts within a wide social and cultural context, as well as an overview of the most important issues in crafts today. * Stefan Muthesius, University of East Anglia * This anthology confirms, in multiple ways across a century and a half of continual practice and debate, that the presence of craftsmanship is virtually inseparable from the design and realization of the material world. * Kenneth Frampton, Columbia University * Glenn Adamson's Craft Reader is the rarest of anthologies: at once an excellent and wide-reaching compilation of craft scholarship, and a provocative challenge to the same. * Maria Elena Buszek, Kansas City Art Institute * The idea of craft has jumped to the forefront of creative work. The many young artisans now engaged in digital fabrication, tangible interfaces, and do-it yourself electronics may enjoy reflecting on the few who kept craft alive through the industrial night, and on those whose theories and practices belong in any technological age. This astute collection gives rich context to all such thought. * Malcolm McCullough, University of Michigan * Thought-provoking, revealing, opinionated, intelligent, accessible and comprehensive ... a huge achievement. * Grant Gibson, Crafts Magazine * This new attention to craft, to work done through some close contact between hand and thing, has been enriched by the publication of The Craft Reader, an imposing compendium edited by Glenn Adamson, an American who is head of graduate studies and deputy head of research at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He has cast his net wide for this anthology, which covers two centuries of thinking by craftsmen, critics, historians, anthropologists and philosophers, including ones you might not have thought would have much to say. Alongside the proper high-class makers like Anni Albers, Bernard Leach and George Nakashima we find Alexis de Tocqueville rubbing shoulders with Karl Marx; Lee Ufan, the Korean-Japanese protagonist of the Mono-ha ("school of things") art movement, with Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics; and Samuel Smiles, the original self-help guru whose very name became a byword for philistine Victorian optimism, with Theodor Adorno, the glowering negative dialectician from Frankfurt. Although the book has been edited with a student readership in mind, its kaleidoscopic mix of materials means it can open fresh perspectives for anyone interested in crafts; and even readers who think they're not interested in craft will be more engaged than they expected, if they give the anthology half a chance. -- Barry Schwabsky, The Nation This thick volume is a compendium of articles on contemporary craft. The subjects examined cover a period of time from the industrial revolution and the canonical texts of the movement "Arts & Crafts" until today. Course covers topics on the new esthetic ceramics or weight of tradition. * [Translation from] Revista de Libros *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
75 b&w illustrations, bibliography, index
Dimensions
Height: 246 mm
Width: 190 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
1264 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-09264-8 (9781350092648)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Glenn Adamson is Deputy Head of Research and Head of Graduate Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is author of Thinking Through Craft and co-editor of the Journal of Modern Craft
Content
Acknowledgements
Note on the Texts
Introduction
SECTION 1: HOW TO
Section Introduction
1. 'Introductory Remarks', from The Teacher's Handbook of Sloejd, Otto Salomon
2. Elements of Handicraft and Design, W. A. S. Benson
3. The Wheelwright's Shop, George Sturt
4. On Weaving, Anni Albers
5. Primitive Pottery, Hal Riegger
SECTION 2: CRAFT AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Section Introduction
6. On the Economy of Machines and Manufactures, Charles Babbage
7. Artisans and Machinery, Peter Gaskell
8. 'How an Aristocracy May Emerge from Industry', from Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
9. Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers, Samuel Smiles
10. Capital, Karl Marx
11. 'The Primary Effects of Scientific Management', from Labor and Monopoly Capitalism, Harry Braverman
12. The Workshop of the World: Steam Power and Hand Technology in Mid-Victorian Britain, Raphael Samuel
13. Technological Innovation and Design Economics in Furniture Manufacture, Michael Ettema
14. Artistic America, Siegfried Bing
15. In the Cause of Architecture: The Architect and the Machine, Frank Lloyd Wright
16. Art and the Machine, Hermann Muthesius
17. Building Materials, Adolf Loos
18. Handwerk/Kunsthandwerk, Stefan Muthesius
SECTION 3: MODERN CRAFT: IDEALISM AND REFORM
Section Introduction
19. 'The Nature of the Gothic', from The Stones of Venice, John Ruskin
20. The Revival of Handicraft, William Morris
21. Art and Labor, Ellen Gates Starr
22. Art and Workmanship, W. R. Lethaby
23. 'Slogans', 'The Work Ahead of Us' and 'The Problem of the Relationship Between Man and Object', Vladimir Tatlin
24. 'The Way of Craftsmanship', from The Unknown Craftsman: A Japenese Insight into Beauty, Soetsu Yanagi
25. A Potter's Book, Bernard Leach
26. Initiation and the Crafts, Rene Guenon
27. Indian Handicrafts, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
28. 'The Relation of the Past to the Demands of the Present', World Crafts Conference proceedings (1964)
29. Centering, M. C. Richards
30. Introduction to Craftsman Lifestyle: The Gentle Revolution, Eudorah Moore
31. The Soul of a Tree, George Nakashima
32. The Long Shadow of William Morris: Paradigmatic Problems of Twentieth-Century American Furniture, Edward S. Cooke, Jr.
SECTION 4: THE PRESENCE OF CRAFT IN THE AGE OF MASS PRODUCTION
Section introduction
33. The Shoemaker of Dreams, Salvatore Ferragamo
34. Crafting Grand Cru Chocolates in Contemporary France, Susan J. Terrio
35. From Peasant to Artisan: Motor Mechanics in a Nigerian Town, Sara Berry
36. Destiny World: Textile Casualties in Southern Nigeria, David T. Doris
37. On a Particular Kind of Love and the Specificity of Soviet Production, Sergei Alasheev
38. Original Copies, Philip Tinari
39. What is Cybernetics?', from The Human Use of Humans, Norbert Wiener
40. Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand, Malcolm McCullough
41. 'Digital Artisans Manifesto', European Digital Artists Network, Richard Barbrook and Pit Schultz
42. Craft Versus Design: Moving Beyond a Tired Dichotomy, Rafael Cardoso
SECTION 5: CRAFT IN THEORY: AESTHETICS, ESSENCE, STATUS
Section Introduction
43. The Nature and Art of Workmanship, David Pye
44. 'The Genesis of the Technical Object: The Process of Concretization', from Du Mode d'Existence des Objets Techniques, Gilbert Simondon
45. 'Forms in the Realms of Matter' from The Life of Forms in Art, Henri Focillon
46. Rhythm, Elsie Fogerty
47. The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power and Art in West Africa, Patrick R. McNaughton
48. African Art: Where the Hand Has Ears, Amadou Hampate Ba
49. Walter Benjamin: Traces of Craft, Esther Leslie
50. Functionalism Today, Theodor Adorno
51. The Thing, Martin Heidegger
52. Rappel a l'Ordre: The Case for the Tectonic, Kenneth Frampton
53. 'Art and Craft', from The Principles of Art, R. G. Collingwood
54. Art and Work, Harold Rosenberg
55. 'Comment' and Responses, John Bentley Mays
56. Curatorial Comment from The Maker's Eye, Alison Britton
57. How Envy Killed the Crafts, Garth Clark
SECTION 6: CRAFT IN ACTION: LIFE, ART, DESIGN
Section introduction
58. The Enchantment of Technology and the Technology of Enchantment, Alfred Gell
59. Making Something from Nothing (Toward a Definition of Women's 'Hobby Art'), Lucy Lippard
60. 'The Creation of Femininity', from The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, Rozsika Parker
61. There's No Place Like Home: Home Dressmaking and Creativity in the Jamaican Community of the 1940s to the 1960s, Carole Tulloch
62. House-Trained Objects: Notes Towards Writing an Alternative History of Modern Art, Tanya Harrod
63. The New Ceramic Presence, Rose Slivka
64. How I Spent My Summer Vacation or, Art and Politics in Nevada, Berkeley, San Francisco and Utah, Philip Leider
65. Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making: The Search for the Motivated, Robert Morris
66. The Art of the Encounter, Lee Ufan
67. Let the Artisans Craft Our Future, Grayson Perry
68. 'Manifesto of the Bauhaus' and 'Education and the Bauhaus', Walter Gropius and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
69. Shaping America's Products, Don Wallance
70. Asilomar Conference Proceedings 1957, Marguerite Wildenhain and Charles Eames
71. 'The New Handicrafts', from Hot House, Andrea Branzi
SECTION 7: CURATORIAL APPROACHES
Section Introduction
72. Affectivity and Entropy: Production Aesthetics in Contemporary Sculpture, Johanna Drucker
73. 'Craftsmen in the Factory of Images', from BoysCraft, Tami Katz-Frieberg
74. And What is Your Title? Zandra Ahl
75. Craft Hard, Die Free: Radical Curatorial Strategies for Craftivism in Unruly Contexts, Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch
76. The Politics of Craft: A Roundtable, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Liz Collins, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Cat Mazza and Allison Smith
Recommended Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index
Note on the Texts
Introduction
SECTION 1: HOW TO
Section Introduction
1. 'Introductory Remarks', from The Teacher's Handbook of Sloejd, Otto Salomon
2. Elements of Handicraft and Design, W. A. S. Benson
3. The Wheelwright's Shop, George Sturt
4. On Weaving, Anni Albers
5. Primitive Pottery, Hal Riegger
SECTION 2: CRAFT AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Section Introduction
6. On the Economy of Machines and Manufactures, Charles Babbage
7. Artisans and Machinery, Peter Gaskell
8. 'How an Aristocracy May Emerge from Industry', from Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
9. Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers, Samuel Smiles
10. Capital, Karl Marx
11. 'The Primary Effects of Scientific Management', from Labor and Monopoly Capitalism, Harry Braverman
12. The Workshop of the World: Steam Power and Hand Technology in Mid-Victorian Britain, Raphael Samuel
13. Technological Innovation and Design Economics in Furniture Manufacture, Michael Ettema
14. Artistic America, Siegfried Bing
15. In the Cause of Architecture: The Architect and the Machine, Frank Lloyd Wright
16. Art and the Machine, Hermann Muthesius
17. Building Materials, Adolf Loos
18. Handwerk/Kunsthandwerk, Stefan Muthesius
SECTION 3: MODERN CRAFT: IDEALISM AND REFORM
Section Introduction
19. 'The Nature of the Gothic', from The Stones of Venice, John Ruskin
20. The Revival of Handicraft, William Morris
21. Art and Labor, Ellen Gates Starr
22. Art and Workmanship, W. R. Lethaby
23. 'Slogans', 'The Work Ahead of Us' and 'The Problem of the Relationship Between Man and Object', Vladimir Tatlin
24. 'The Way of Craftsmanship', from The Unknown Craftsman: A Japenese Insight into Beauty, Soetsu Yanagi
25. A Potter's Book, Bernard Leach
26. Initiation and the Crafts, Rene Guenon
27. Indian Handicrafts, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
28. 'The Relation of the Past to the Demands of the Present', World Crafts Conference proceedings (1964)
29. Centering, M. C. Richards
30. Introduction to Craftsman Lifestyle: The Gentle Revolution, Eudorah Moore
31. The Soul of a Tree, George Nakashima
32. The Long Shadow of William Morris: Paradigmatic Problems of Twentieth-Century American Furniture, Edward S. Cooke, Jr.
SECTION 4: THE PRESENCE OF CRAFT IN THE AGE OF MASS PRODUCTION
Section introduction
33. The Shoemaker of Dreams, Salvatore Ferragamo
34. Crafting Grand Cru Chocolates in Contemporary France, Susan J. Terrio
35. From Peasant to Artisan: Motor Mechanics in a Nigerian Town, Sara Berry
36. Destiny World: Textile Casualties in Southern Nigeria, David T. Doris
37. On a Particular Kind of Love and the Specificity of Soviet Production, Sergei Alasheev
38. Original Copies, Philip Tinari
39. What is Cybernetics?', from The Human Use of Humans, Norbert Wiener
40. Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand, Malcolm McCullough
41. 'Digital Artisans Manifesto', European Digital Artists Network, Richard Barbrook and Pit Schultz
42. Craft Versus Design: Moving Beyond a Tired Dichotomy, Rafael Cardoso
SECTION 5: CRAFT IN THEORY: AESTHETICS, ESSENCE, STATUS
Section Introduction
43. The Nature and Art of Workmanship, David Pye
44. 'The Genesis of the Technical Object: The Process of Concretization', from Du Mode d'Existence des Objets Techniques, Gilbert Simondon
45. 'Forms in the Realms of Matter' from The Life of Forms in Art, Henri Focillon
46. Rhythm, Elsie Fogerty
47. The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power and Art in West Africa, Patrick R. McNaughton
48. African Art: Where the Hand Has Ears, Amadou Hampate Ba
49. Walter Benjamin: Traces of Craft, Esther Leslie
50. Functionalism Today, Theodor Adorno
51. The Thing, Martin Heidegger
52. Rappel a l'Ordre: The Case for the Tectonic, Kenneth Frampton
53. 'Art and Craft', from The Principles of Art, R. G. Collingwood
54. Art and Work, Harold Rosenberg
55. 'Comment' and Responses, John Bentley Mays
56. Curatorial Comment from The Maker's Eye, Alison Britton
57. How Envy Killed the Crafts, Garth Clark
SECTION 6: CRAFT IN ACTION: LIFE, ART, DESIGN
Section introduction
58. The Enchantment of Technology and the Technology of Enchantment, Alfred Gell
59. Making Something from Nothing (Toward a Definition of Women's 'Hobby Art'), Lucy Lippard
60. 'The Creation of Femininity', from The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, Rozsika Parker
61. There's No Place Like Home: Home Dressmaking and Creativity in the Jamaican Community of the 1940s to the 1960s, Carole Tulloch
62. House-Trained Objects: Notes Towards Writing an Alternative History of Modern Art, Tanya Harrod
63. The New Ceramic Presence, Rose Slivka
64. How I Spent My Summer Vacation or, Art and Politics in Nevada, Berkeley, San Francisco and Utah, Philip Leider
65. Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making: The Search for the Motivated, Robert Morris
66. The Art of the Encounter, Lee Ufan
67. Let the Artisans Craft Our Future, Grayson Perry
68. 'Manifesto of the Bauhaus' and 'Education and the Bauhaus', Walter Gropius and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
69. Shaping America's Products, Don Wallance
70. Asilomar Conference Proceedings 1957, Marguerite Wildenhain and Charles Eames
71. 'The New Handicrafts', from Hot House, Andrea Branzi
SECTION 7: CURATORIAL APPROACHES
Section Introduction
72. Affectivity and Entropy: Production Aesthetics in Contemporary Sculpture, Johanna Drucker
73. 'Craftsmen in the Factory of Images', from BoysCraft, Tami Katz-Frieberg
74. And What is Your Title? Zandra Ahl
75. Craft Hard, Die Free: Radical Curatorial Strategies for Craftivism in Unruly Contexts, Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch
76. The Politics of Craft: A Roundtable, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Liz Collins, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Cat Mazza and Allison Smith
Recommended Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index