Cat Rossi and Alessandro Gerosa on (post)craft

Cat Rossi will push us to question how we understand the turn to making, sewing, and growing in the early 21st century. She will discuss what is meant by the term "post-craft" and how it can be useful to make sense of the popularity of craft today amongst designers, producers, and consumers alike. Rossi’s talk will explore how we can understand craft following its re-entry into the economic, cultural, political and manufacturing mainstreams in the 21st century. The craft revival of the 2000s, which saw craft once again embraced by design, art, architecture and other art forms, is now not just another revival but seemingly the start of a long-term reconfiguration of craft’s place in the world. Her talk will explore some foundational ideas of modern and post craft and explore how a turn to making is remaking design in the 21st century. Front Cover of Post-Craft. Cover design by Experimental Jetset. In his presentation, Alessandro Gerosa will explore the concept of "neo-craft" and contextualize it within the current resurgence of interest in crafts, both in academia and society at large. Leading the popularity of the neo-craft economy are consumer goods like beer, wine, and artisanal food—typically extraneous to the handicrafts recognized and safeguarded by national and international craft councils and organizations. However, what defines neo-craft is not merely the membership in a specific category but rather a complex relationship of discursive materiality, where symbolic and material meanings and rewards intertwine. In order to make sense of it, Gerosa’s talk will argue the necessity of deeply contextualizing the neo-craft economy within the developments of late modern capitalism. Finally, it will debate the implications of the rise of neo-craft vis-à-vis artistic crafts and examine the future of crafts more broadly.