Humanitarian Handicrafts

Testing the relationship between archival history and hands-on craft making

Authors

  • Rebecca Gill University of Huddersfield
  • Claire Barber University of Huddersfield
  • Bertrand Taithe University of Manchester

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.4181

Keywords:

Interdisciplinary, embodied knowledge, humanitarianism, textiles

Abstract

This paper asks how craft practice can inform historical reconsiderations of handicraft produced within a humanitarian socio-economic framework (to support humanitarian aims or fund-raising initiatives), and in turn explores how historical processes become materialised in contemporary humanitarian craftwork. By considering the possibilities for practice-based methods, this paper proposes the utility of involvement in craft-making processes for historians of humanitarianism. At the same time, this gives rise to a multiplicity of concerns for a contemporary craft practitioner undertaking a form of creative expression identifiable by its humanitarian purpose. It is therefore a helpful corrective to the temptation to think that experiments are innovations. Looking at early attempts in history we see a practice mirrored, not in the results, but in the process of working in a humanitarian mode of craft-based practice.

Author Biographies

Rebecca Gill , University of Huddersfield

PhD

Claire Barber , University of Huddersfield

PhD

Bertrand Taithe , University of Manchester

Professor

References

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Published

2021-05-10

How to Cite

Gill , R. ., Barber , C., & Taithe , B. . . (2021). Humanitarian Handicrafts: Testing the relationship between archival history and hands-on craft making . FormAkademisk, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.4181

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2021): Proceedings of BICCS 2021 - Biennial International Conference for the Craft Sciences. Special Issue

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2021 Rebecca Gill , Claire Barber , Bertrand Taithe

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