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- Title of Abstract:
Validity is in the Eye of the Beholder (Ref #197)
- Date:
- 26-10-2006 10:53:21
- Status:
-
Accepted
- Rating:
- 8
-
Details:
- While the term craft is difficult to define, online and public dialogues are revealing that many of the field's 20th century-based assumptions about disciplinary practice are currently being challenged. Gradually, it is becoming apparent that the domain of craft is at a generational crossroads and is presently expanding to embrace aspects of cultural hybridization that have not previously been recognized or articulated within the "craft community."
It appears that the field is simultaneously adhering to the disciplinary boundaries of the twentieth-century while also expanding into areas not previously considered; it has become merely a matter of where one chooses to look and what one considers to be their field of practice, as many communities can aptly coexist simultaneously with the boundaries only occasionally overlapping, if at all.
In many cases, tradition is being acknowledged but the makers are not adhering to conventional expectations. Further, the rise of citizen journalism and what the media has coined as the Netroots movement within politics is impacting the field of craft, as many of the Generation-X and Generation-Y object makers are using the democracy of the Internet and its non-hierarchical and decentralized format, not only to market their work but also express their views as well as debate and exchange ideas.
By building upon this contextual framework, my proposed essay will introduce a number of interdisciplinary, academic concepts and describe how, from my perspective, the field is of craft is currently being transformed by forces that are largely beyond the scope of traditional, academic art practice. Within this cross-cultural push/pull, there is clearly common ground to be explored, however, in a post-post-modern world it is becoming increasing clear that our hyper-pluralistic culture is not only lacking in any singular authority, but also the very nature of "collective truth" and cultural validation are merely a matter of the epistemological perspectives and criteria that the outcomes of human creativity are assessed against. In short, in today's art world, validity is in the eye of the beholder.
Reviewer Comments: