Through the Eye of the Needle: Why Teach to make by hand in the Digital Age?

Abstract

From the introduction:

There is a remarkable contradiction in the static nature of human activity generated by digital technology and the dynamic nature of human activity motivated, consciously or sub-consciously, by a desire to counter this immobility. One consequence of this is evident on digital media platforms which have birthed a wealth of accounts about the benefits of engaging in craft, written from the perspective of the maker. The craftsman Peter Korn comments, “craft has taken on a new life as a counter-virtual ideology” (Lovelace, 2018). Yet, in stark contrast to this trend, our schools have witnessed a steep decline in the provision of practical craft-type subjects since 2010 and many school workshops have closed altogether.

I began to observe this growing dichotomy whilst teaching in both community and mainstream school workshop settings. On the one hand, I taught practical craft classes for wellbeing, self-improvement or just pure fun, whilst on the other, the secondary school lessons I taught, required students to spend increasing amounts of workshop time writing lengthy descriptions about the process of making. These experiences presented me with a series of eye of the needle moments whereby several competing agendas converged in the narrow time and space of the classes I taught. These manifested as a combination of written documentation, organisational and personal expectations, and student responses.