Hands, minds, craft. Hands minds craft.

Welcome to a series of lectures presented by CRAFT! Konstfack.

In this series of lectures, you will meet a variety of speakers from within the international field of craft. Both theoretical as well as makers point of view will be shared.

Hear a writer’s thoughts on how recent lockdowns has affected ways in working both on personal levels as well as for the whole community within the field of craft. Get a glimpse of an artist discovering an obsession, and how to develop a wide range of work within that fixation spanning through different materials and media. Alongside with the craft makers disclose connection with material and how to involve political and community orientation in an artistic practice. As if this wasn’t enough, we have also added a curator who will share experiences on exhibiting craft.

We happily welcome you to follow these lectures online via zoom.

Jessica Hemmings

The essay "Thoughts from a Slow Internet in Spanish Lockdown" by Jessica Hemmings was written during the spring of 2020, during what are now acknowledged to be the most restrictive Covid-19 regulations regarding personal movement in Europe to date. Commissioned by the New Zealand based organisation Objectspace to take the place of what was originally intended as a live lecture.

In the essay Hemming is musing on the unexpected paralysis to her travel schedule and admit to finding a renewed appreciation for the portability of words in the absence of practically all other movement at the time. She borrows from the late American science fiction author Ursula le Guin's sage recognition that words disconnected from the hands that are making craft can lose track of what on earth they are speaking about. And she frets over the disembodied experience of online exhibition viewing and a future of zoom teaching which she did not – even then – realise would mark the remainder of the year.

In this online lecture Jessica Hemmings reflects on the ten months since writing the essay by revisiting a number of personal interests that have gained increasing importance to her own thinking in recent years: academic silence surrounding failure; the value of solitary thinking in the midst of our current collaborative era; and a newfound enthusiasm she has for the importance of small research claims.

Jessica Hemmings, PhD, is a writer within the fields of textile and contemporary craft. Currently Professor of Craft & Vice-Prefekt of Research at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg.