Apologies for cross-posting


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CALL for SPECIAL ISSUE of CRAFT RESEARCH:
Real or unreal? - Crafting authenticity in the digital age

(Issue 7.2 September/October 2016)
 
For this special issue, we invite contributions about the authenticity of craft in the digital age and its meaning in an era of mass customisation. Current developments, including computer aided manufacturing and science-based ways of ‘producing’ craft artefacts, such as growing clothing from micro cultures, raise the need to question established understandings of making and of craft.

Visible traces of the maker’s skills and associated variation between individual pieces through making by hand, even where producing repeat patterns, are traditionally seen as a central characteristic of craft. With the rise of digital and science driven manufacture, the question arises as to where the signature of the maker might reside within mass customisation, now that wide variation and individualisation can be produced at the push of a button or in the ‘petri dish’. This reopens the question as to how the hand signifies making and what its role is in relation to design, referring to the link between creativity, thinking and the hand.

Authenticity is another related issue: How can we authenticate the digital and how might makers address genuineness, the ownership of ideas, designs and claims to uniqueness, in a world of instant copying, sampling and the habitual plagiarism of images? In the light of such developments, one might also question what the meaning of authenticity is, whether it has changed and how, and also how important authenticity is in the digital age in relation to the cult of originality, and the manipulation of existing designs? By extension, will the tradition of the developing body of personal work, which has long functioned as a key indicator of authenticity, continue in the face of rapidly mutating, technological opportunities, and what might replace it? We already speak of 'hybrid craft' but what does it mean, and what does it imply about the future of craft?

This special issue seeks to address these questions and more, to explore the position of craft today and what it might hold in the future. We invite relevant contributions in a number of formats, which are detailed below.

 
Editor / Guest Editor 
Prof Kristina Niedderer, University of Wolverhampton, UK
email: [log in to unmask] 
Prof Martin Woolley
email: [log in to unmask]
 
Submission
The final date for submission of full papers for issue 7.1 is Monday 4 January 2016.
For guidance notes, for further information or to submit a paper, please contact the editors.
Please also find all details on the website: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=172/
  
Aims & Scope 
Craft Research is the first peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the development and advance of contemporary craft practice and theory through research. The aim of Craft Research is to portray and build the crafts as a vital and viable modern discipline that offers a vision for the future and for the sustainable development of human social, economical and ecological issues. This role of craft is rooted in its flexible nature as a conduit from design at one end to art at the other. It gains its strength from its at times experimental, at times developmental nature, which enables craft to explore and challenge technology, to question and develop cultural and social practices, and to interrogate philosophical and human values.
  
Contributions 
Full Research Papers (4000-6000 words)
They will describe completed research projects, including research problem, questions, methods, outcomes, and findings. They should include original work of a research and/or developmental nature and/or propose new methods or ideas that are clearly and thoroughly presented and argued.
 
Position Papers (2000-3000 words)
-                 Short Research Papers may describe smaller research projects or research in progress including research problem, questions, methods, (expected) outcomes and findings. They are an opportunity to new researchers/practitioners to get into publishing. 
-                 Position papers may put forward and debate a position on a particular (current) issue (e.g. new technology, material, theoretical, social or educational issue). Both should include original work of a research or developmental nature and/or propose new methods or ideas that are clearly and thoroughly presented and argued.
Both should include original work of a research and/or developmental nature and/or propose new methods or ideas that are clearly and thoroughly presented and argued. They are an opportunity for new researchers/practitioners to have their research/work published.
 
Craft & Industry Reports (1500-3000 words)
Reports of Investigative Practice from Craft & Industry should present an advance in and for the field, including collaborations and new developments of work, processes, methods, ideas etc. by practitioners and industry in the crafts. 
 
Review Section. We invite reviews of the following:
- The Portrait Section (1000-2000 words)
Will feature the work of an individual (crafts person, artist, designer, maker, researcher) within the field whose creative work stands out for its developmental / research qualities and contribution to the crafts.
- The Exhibition Section (1000-2000 words)
Will feature scholarly reviews of exhibitions that are of particular developmental / research significance for the field for the technical, conceptual, aesthetic, social etc. quality of the work or for the curation.
-   The Publication Review (1000-2000 words)
Will feature reviews of publications in print and new media.
- The Conference Section (1000-2000 words)
Will feature reviews of any relevant conferences/symposia/etc. in the field.
 
Calendar of Exhibitions & Conferences
We invite notifications of important and relevant forthcoming craft exhibitions and craft conferences/research events.
 
Remarkable Image Section 
We invite the submission of images of outstanding quality for their novelty, beauty, complexity, simplicity, challenging nature, humour, humanity, etc. that are representative of contemporary crafts developments and research.
 
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Dr Kristina Niedderer 
Professor of Design and Craft
Faculty of Arts
University of Wolverhampton 
Molineux Street 
Wolverhampton WV1 1SB 

email: [log in to unmask] 
web: http://www.niedderer.org
web: http://www.behaviourchange.eu