Nudging craft heritage : a non-traditional apprenticeship model using performative artistic research methodologies

Abstract

Traditional crafts an essential part of our intangible cultural heritage is an object making process in which decisions regarding form apparatus and material are based on experiential tacit knowledge. We are facing the loss of this generational know-how since certain craft generated objects are no longer as relevant as they used to be. With industrialization and globalization not only the end products of certain crafts but also the skills required to perform these crafts are becoming irrelevant and inapplicable within their rapidly changing contexts. Yet this does not mean that the craft heritage which has been processed and perfected by many generations becomes entirely irrelevant for the current and next generations. Within the many interconnected layers of discovery knowledge practice and development there might lie a well-thought-out solution to a problem we have today or we might have tomorrow. Therefore craft heritage and how we position it within our networks is an urgent locus of research discussion and practice for many different disciplines. As contemporary practitioners can we collaborate and coexist with the carriers of traditional craft knowledge in a way which avoids their culture’s representation and instrumentalization? This study proposes a non-conventional hybrid method in which the components of a traditional apprenticeship are complemented by a variety of transdisciplinary artistic appropriation methodologies. This method does not attempt to safeguard or preserve or to resolve the contrast between the traditional and the contemporary. instead it aims to revitalize and cultivate this contrast as a collaborative and performative platform reactivating the know-how of a craft through nudging the different potentialities within it.