Call for papers: A World in Making: Cities Craft Design

by Carole Epp | Sep 27, 2011 | Uncategorized

craft + design enquiry is pleased to announce a new call for papers for the fifth issue of the journal to be published in 2013.Guest Editor, Suzie Attiwill is calling for papers for this on the theme of A World in Making: Cities Craft Design as outlined below.On 12 March 1913, a naming ceremony took place in an empty paddock on a hill. This rural environment was to become a city, the capital city of Australia, the city of Canberra. The aspirations and the projections of the Griffins’ winning design for Canberra are an example of a world-in-making involving the practices of design and craft. This issue of craft + design enquiry will be published in 2013 – 100 years after this event and when, for the first time in history, more than half the world’s population live in cities. By 2030, this will increase to at least 60% with significant growth happening in cities of developing countries and the emergence of meta-cities with 20 million inhabitants. ‘The twenty-first century will be known as the century of the city’.1 This next issue of craft + design enquiry will focus on and highlight the role, contribution and potential of craft and design practices to the urban environment as well as the transformation of these practices – a world in making. ‘The thing is what we make of the world. … Things are our way of dealing with a world in which we are enmeshed rather than over which we have dominion. … It is our way of dealing with the plethora of sensations, vibrations, movements, and intensities that constitute both our world and ourselves’ … ‘We make objects in order to live in the world’.2 Situated in a journal published by Craft Australia, the nuances of craft – a practice which values making and materiality – will guide the selection of papers for publication. This emphasis on craft does not exclude design so much as bring focus to practices of design which engage ideas of making and materiality, where there is a sense of a hand(s) in making, a valuing of haptic encounters and an attention to the relation between people and surroundings. From small to large scale projects, from individuals to communities, an intimate approach to the question of how people inhabit and transform the urban environment is invoked. What are the potentials in this century of the city for craft and design practices? What is the contribution of craft and design to cities and liveability? What might a craft sensibility bring to urban inhabitation? What of an expanded idea of craft practice as a way of working and thinking which addresses spatial and temporal urban conditions? What of the emergence of new forms of practices to engage in the condition of the urban environment and the social, political and cultural forces of the twenty-first century?
Academics, practitioners, research students and others are invited to submit research papers and critical project works. A definition of research as ‘the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies and understandings’ 3 is reiterated here to highlight the criticality of ‘new and creative’ in relation to research and to encourage the submission of research through craft and design practice, as well as about craft and design practices situated in a world in making – ‘the century of the city’. Authors are also encouraged to consider the inclusion of visual material as research. This issue of craft + design enquiry will be published in mid-2013. The CDE#5 Call for Papers closes on 30 June 2012.To submit a paper please register online by the closing date of 30 June 2012. Refer to author guidelines for further information.For inquiries relating to this issue or submission of papers, please contact the Guest Editor, Suzie Attiwill Administrative enquiries, please contact Jenny DevesVisit the website here.