Futuring the C Word

Abstract

In 2009 Craft Scotland launched its campaign, “the C Word.” The allusion to blasphemy and street slang was deliberate, naughty and inspired. The ‘obscene’ phrase raised the ire of some Scottish craft practitioners, but the campaign, intended for television and cinemas throughout the United Kingdom, attracted attention. Not only were Scotland and Britain alerted to the contemporaneity of craft, the world took notice, too, and several international jurisdictions requested permission to adopt the C Word campaign.
In essence, what Craft Scotland did was rescript craft, both literally and figuratively, in order to attract a new audience. Instead of accepting the status quo, which characterizes handcrafted products as traditional, old-fashioned, staid and devoid of design currency, Craft Scotland rewrote this perception for its cinema video and the field itself. It asserted that the goods under its purview are exciting, street-wise and sexy. The organization made no distinction between Scotland’s heritage crafts and those that incorporate new materials, methods and forms. All craft made now is contemporary, current, and clever, and worthy of encapsulation in the risqué designation “C word.”

Craft Scotland’s example shows that while the objects that are created and the makers who function under the rubric of craft have not changed, the language with which it is portrayed can. This revised language—the script—altered perceptions and brought attention to a commodity that had been perceived as fusty and dusty. Craft Scotland’s rescripting or remaking of craft serves as a model for the potentiality of bringing prominence to the handmade. Tony Fry, an Australian design critic and philosopher, explains remaking: “While remaking can mean a literal disassembly and re-creation of some thing, it can equally leave an object-thing totally untouched, but rather transform how it is viewed and used by radically changing its meaning and status” (206).

This paper will address craft’s rescripting beginning with a brief introduction to its theoretical underpinning, Actor Network Theory (ANT), which proposes that objects have agency. Examples of mechanical devices to which ANT has been applied will be provided, followed by ANT’s application to craft. The agency of craft with respect to public perceptions regarding technology, skill and materiality has not been fully exploited and this agency becomes especially relevant in a cultural climate attuned to issues of sustainability. Finally, using studio furniture as a case study for rescripting, the presentation will offer ways in which this craft product can be rescripted to make it an ecologically appropriate and ethical choice compared to mass produced furniture. The author’s aim is to inaugurate discussion of rescripting/remaking within the craft community as an element in re-building a sustainable world.