ACC conference re-cap | Craft and Livelihood by Elissa Auther
As a first-timer to the ACC conference or any similar kind of event, this lecture was a great introduction to the history and ideology of Craft in the last 100 years or so. Elissa Auther, the lecturer gave a brief but ambitious overview of the Craft movement from the turn of the 20th century up until the present moment. It focused on the different roles of lifestyle and livelihood throughout these movements and the many ways in which discussions of identity, community and authenticity have been framed within the Craft marketplace. Auther makes the distinction between livelihood and lifestyle by defining the former as a means of living and making money while the latter is a source of social identity and consumption.
The first so-called Arts and Crafts Movement came as a response to the Industrial Revolution, a de-humanizing period in Western production when workers were forced into assembly lines and were no longer responsible for the full creation of a product. The practice of arts and crafts was idealized as a restorative lifestyle and was believed to serve as a catalyst for inward development. Craft was meant to give meaning and agency to the people who practiced it as well as re-insert meaning into the objects they produced.
In the 60’s, the craft movement re-emerged as a counter culture against corporate life that had developed from Post-War culture. Groups such as the Belinas Guild aimed at turning craft into a livelihood as well as a lifestyle. This led the way for the counter-culture publishing movement that began in the early 70’s in conjunction with the Punk movement. Projects included the making of zines, handmade books and smaller independent publishers. These artists and craftspeople pursued authentic living through crafting.
This ideology was appropriated and absorbed by the hyper-materialist culture of the 80’s through advertising and the corporate culture that it had once tried to subvert. Now it is commonplace to see companies marketing lifestyle choices rather than just products. You can buy a neat looking table and lamp at your local chain superstore that will complete your personal ideology of peace and harmony rather than crafting the furniture yourself.
However, the message I got from the conference this year was not to get too disheartened because the concept of craft as a critique of capitalism has managed to re-emerge every ten or so years. Again in the 2000’s we see craft as a way for marginalized populations to redefine themselves outside of corporate structures. The early concepts of craft = meaning, wholeness, authenticity and responsible consumption have come full circle and seem to take center stage in the more politically and socially active circles of craft and DIY with groups like the Pottery Liberation Front, Radical Cross Stitch, Gestures of Resistance and those behind the Handmade Pledge.
