Making Futures: Interfaces between craft knowledge and design: new opportunities for social innovation and sustainability (Sep 2013, Plymouth UK)

Dates: 26-27 September 2013
Location: Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth, UK
Website: http://makingfutures.plymouthart.ac.uk
Deadline for submissions: 10 May 2013

The CALL FOR ABSTRACTS is now open and the closing date for receipt is 10th May 2013. Making Futures invites submissions from artists, craftspeople, designers, curators, historians, theorists, campaigners, activists, and representatives from public and private institutions with an interest in the relationship between contemporary craft practice, sustainability and social issues.

Making Futures aims to investigate contemporary craft as a ’change agent’ within 21st century society – particularly in relation to global environmental and sustainability issues, social equity and social innovation practices. In doing so, it tries to explore whether these imperatives present opportunities for the crafts to redefine and reconstitute themselves as more centrally productive forces in society.

Craft Research Volume 4.2 (Dec 2013)

Deadline for submissions: 3 December 2012
Website: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=172/

After three successful issues, Craft Research is preparing to expand to two issues per year. From 2013 there will be two issues, one in January/February and one in September/October each year.

For guidance notes or further information, or to submit an article or review, please contact the editors or visit the journal’s website for details: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=172/

Editors:
Kristina Niedderer k.niedderer@wlv.ac.uk
Katherine Townsend katherine.townsend@ntu.ac.uk

MERZ MEND*RS: 1st MENDing Research Society symposium (29th June-2nd July, Lake District – UK)

IMPORTANT DATES

• April 27: submissions due
• May 8: participants notified
• May 21: final programme announced
• June 29 – July 2: MEND*RS 1st Mending Research Symposium

MERZ MEND*RS is a Mending Research Symposium at the Merzbarn in the Lake District, the first ever large-scale gathering dedicated to mending in the UK. MERZ MEND*RS is the first in a series of events, publications and activist projects around mending. Its objective is to map the state of the art, devise a critical agenda for mending research and to disseminate and promote mending practices and enterprises on a local, national and ultimately global level.

This informal, hands-on event will bring together mending practitioners, theorists, entrepreneurs and activists in the inspirational and germane setting of Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbarn. MEND*RS is an activist project to promote practices and discourses of mending within and beyond the academic establishment. Its aim is to maximise the social impact of mending research and to reinvigorate mending cultures in everyday life. MEND*RS’ aim is to build a mending network to unite practitioners of a marginal, disparate, often domestic activity with designers, craftspeople, small businesses, social enterprises, environmental and social wellbeing groups, local residents and researchers operating across diverse disciplines.

The Inaugural MEND*RS Workshop will be a combination of discussion and activities.  In order to engage with both scholars and practitioners of mending, we are issuing a call for participation.  We invite applications from anyone keen to participate in discussion, hands-on activities and the promotion of the MEND*RS network.

Submissions may take the form of a traditional academic paper, an interactive presentation, a position paper, a short film, a poster, or other innovative forms of presentation such as art or audio installation. Oral/film presentations will be allotted a maximum of 20 minutes.  Submissions may come from any academic discipline or professional background – our only stipulation is that the content should directly engage with the aims of MEND*RS and the aspirations of the MEND*RS manifesto.  Some suggested topics/themes can be found on the MEND*RS website under ‘Call for Participation’.

More info at http://mendrs.net/

Call for Contributions : Duck Journal for Research in Textiles and Textile Design

First Call for Contributions: Volume 3

Deadline for submissions 30 May 2012

Textiles as agent for wellbeing

The first call of the Journal for Research in Textiles and Textile Design explored what research in this wide field may encompass and began to establish a platform for textile research. (Volume 1) The second call examined an issue in the immediate context, namely the impact of austerity on craft making and fashion design. (Volume 2) This call aims to show how textile research might be a positive factor enabling and facilitating social and personal contexts – an agent for wellbeing. Accepted contributions will be published in Volume 3.

craft+design: A World in Making: cities craft design (June 2012)

Publication date: 2013
Website: http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/cde/index.php/cde/announcement/view/6
Guest Editor: Suzie Attiwill

On 12 March 1913, a naming ceremony took place in an empty paddock on a hill. This rural environment was to become a city, the capital city of Australia, the city of Canberra. The aspirations and the projections of the Griffins’ winning design for Canberra are an example of a world-in-making involving the practices of design and craft. This issue of craft+design enquiry will be published in 2013 – 100 years after this event and when, for the first time in history, more than half the world’s population live in cities. By 2030, this will increase to at least 60% with significant growth happening in cities of developing countries and the emergence of meta-cities with 20 million inhabitants. ‘The twenty-first century will be known as the century of the city’ (Tibaijuka, 2010).

This next issue of craft+design enquiry will focus on and highlight the role, contribution and potential of craft and design practices to the urban environment as well as the transformation of these practices – a world in making.

Craft Research V3 (July 2011)

Craft Research, Volume 3
Craft Research is currently seeking submissions.
Deadline for Volume 3: 10 July 2011.

Volume 1 of Craft Research is available now, and selected articles from the issue can be viewed for free online http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/toc/crre/1/1?cookieSet=1 Volume 2 will be available from June 2011.

Craft Research Vol 3 (Jul 2011)

Craft Research, Volume 3
Craft Research is currently seeking submissions. The deadline for Volume 3 is 10 July 2011.
Volume 1 of Craft Research is available now, and selected articles from the issue can be viewed for free online.

Craft Research aims to actively promote and strengthen this future-oriented role of the crafts. In order to do so, it recognises inter and cross disciplinary practices, and encourages diverse approaches to research arising from practice, theory andphilosophy. It welcomes contributions from new and established researchers,scholars, and professionals around the world who wish to make a contribution to advancing the crafts. Contributions may include research into materials, technology, processes, methods, concepts, aesthetics and philosophy, etc. in any discipline area of the applied arts and crafts, including craft education. Craft Research welcomes a number of different types of contributions as set out below.

Call for Papers: TRIP (Textiles Research in Process) Symposium

TRIP : An international symposium exploring the role and relevance of traditional hand skills in contemporary textiles, and the value and status of craft process.

Date :  16^th November 2011
Organisers :  Val Beattie & Kerry Walton in collaboration with the
Textile Research Group and Duck online journal for research in textiles and textile design www.lboro.ac.uk/duck
Venue :  School of the Arts, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS AND ELECTRONIC POSTERS

New Journal: Craft Research

Craft Research is the first peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the development and advance of contemporary craft practice and theory through research. The aim of Craft Research is to portray and build the crafts as a vital and viable modern discipline that offers a vision for the future and for the sustainable development of human social, economical and ecological issues. This role of craft is rooted in its flexible nature as a conduit from design at one end to art at the other. It gains its strength from its at times experimental, at times developmental nature, which enables craft to explore and challenge technology, to question and develop cultural and social practices, and to interrogate philosophical and human values.  The final date for submissions for the first issue is Friday 15 January 2010.For guidance notes, for submissions, or further information please contact the editors.Please find all details on the website: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=172/