Future focus for Craft Festival Scotland
The world’s top innovators will gather at the University of Dundee this week for `Prototype: Craft in the Future Tense’, a two-day symposium co-convened by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and the V&A Museum.
Speakers at the event include conceptual artist Simon Starling, winner of the 2005 Turner Prize; Michael Schrage, an internationally acclaimed innovator and pioneer of rapid prototyping; Constance Adams, a space architect and consultant to NASA; and Norman Klein, a cultural critic, historian and novelist based at the Californian Institute of the Arts.
“All the speakers have been invited because of their progressive thinking - they all push the boundaries,” said Dr Louise Valentine, co-director of Craft Festival Scotland, the parent event of the symposium.
“A diverse range of perspectives concerned with innovation and ingenuity will be presented and we are hoping that this will stimulate unusual conversations and debate. It is aimed at exploring the many and radical ways people from across disciplines are experimenting with and sharing ideas,” she added.
Entrepreneur Chris van der Kuyl will also be speaking at the event, held in the Dalhousie Building at the University from tomorrow (10 and 11 June).
Chicks On Speed, the German group currently staging their first major UK exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts, will also be taking part.
The symposium and Craft Festival Scotland, the nationwide celebration of craft taking place this summer, have both arisen from Past, Present and Future Craft Practice (PPFCP), a major five-year craft research project funded by the Art and Humanities Research Council.
The project has been exploring new directions, practices and perspectives in contemporary craft with an ultimate goal of defining a new relevance for craft in the 21st century.
“The project was the largest investment in craft research in the UK,” said Dr Valentine. “Craft research is a new form of practice and Dundee is recognised as leading the way in this.
“We will now be showcasing the results of our research through Craft Festival Scotland. It is a way of evaluating the project and disseminating the ideas and giving people the opportunity to see what is going on in the sector. The symposium is a major part of the festival. We’re hoping it will highlight and celebrate the diversity of craft in the 21st Century.”
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/prototyping/