Crafts and sustainibility

http://makingfutures.plymouthart.ac.uk/index.php?page=Registration&pag_id=9
MAKING FUTURES:the crafts in the context of emerging global sustainability agendas'


I ahve copied and pasted this synopsis of the Conference into my blog. unfortunately I have missed it .

Alias is pleased to collaborate with Plymouth College of Art on this international conference, which aims to advance understanding and debate around the territory where craft practice and aesthetics confront contemporary social and political imperatives. The purpose of ‘Making Futures' is to improve understanding of the ways in which the contemporary crafts are practiced in relation to significant and new emerging agendas relating to global environmental and sustainability issues.
The objectives include trying to understand whether these ‘agendas’ offer opportunities for the crafts to redefine and reconstitute themselves as less marginalised, more centrally productive forces in society, through new formulations and/or re-articulations of practices, identities, positions and markets, in ways that might engage more closely with contemporary social and cultural needs.
‘Making Futures: the crafts in the context of emerging global sustainability agendas’ aims to bring together an international cast of academics, practitioners, curators, campaigners, activists, and representatives from associated organisations and agencies, to develop and explore the conference theme. The conference seeks to incorporate a diverse range of practice-based case studies with approaches rooted in historical and cultural modelling encompassing social, technological, critical-theoretical, and economic and political perspectives.
The keynote speakers will be John Thackara, acclaimed author on issues concerning art and design sustainability issues and founder and director of ‘Doors of Perception’, the internationally respected design futures & sustainability network (http://www.thackara.com/), and Carl Honoré, the author of ‘In Praise of Slow’, the book that helped define the global slow movement (http://www.carlhonore.com/).

It is often claimed that the most valuable discussions at academic conferences take place in the bar, and, with this in mind the Alias led initiative practice and reflection will be running a plenary session in a nearby pub at the end of the conference. The aim is to create the ideal conditions in which an informally structured discussion of the key themes can happen, in a relaxed environment, between peers. This will be an opportunity to capitalize on the energy generated by the conference and to send participants home with a sense of having joined a vital community of interest.