What is post craft? Where are we in time if craft is the past? You know, I have no idea, I really don't. But at last I can share my excitement about finding out. I've been bursting with excitement about this for weeks and now I can blurt it out to the world!
I will be chairing a panel discussion at this year's Future Everything festival eyeing up the future of craft in a DIY-hack-break-down-the-walls-of-the-institution type chat with some fellow craft / future / hack heads.
The conference organiser introduces the topic thus:
"In an increasingly post-digital world, there is a move towards a pre-industrial landscape. Eased by global connectivity, cottage industries are sprouting up everywhere. People are creating their own products, services, and art. They are rediscovering the satisfaction of creating a tangible product, the process of making, the lessons from making by hand."
Now I know much of that is true (though are we in a post-digital world already? heck where does the time go?) and it echoes much of what I discovered in my UK DIY craft research a few years ago. So I'm thrilled to have been asked to be part of the panel. (I suspect I'll come away ever more confused of course, shh don't tell anyone ok?)
*That picture up there, by the way, is from Datadecs, one of the projects of one of the other panel members, interaction designer Andy Huntington. Do have a look at his website, he does some very cool stuff turning data into beautiful and fun things