Early in May (2-4/5) I had the opportunity to attend an innovative itinerant symposium called “The Economy and Organisation of Craft” run by an ERC Horizon project HEPHÆSTUS, directed by Marta Gasparin and the Swedish team is led by Elena Raviola.The event included 70 crafts people and researchers with many doing both. It ambitiously spanned 3 days in multiple locations around Sweden – Design Museum in Gothenburg, Open Wood in Dals Långed, Not Quite in Fengersfors – and featured a range of events from public talks, exhibitions, workshops, a performance, tours of cultural craft centres and a symposium.
I gave a talk called “Crafting Knowledges: sewing as research, data and act of resistance”. It included a demo of Edith Foltz’s 1937 convertible flying suit (we’ll be adding this to our Speculative Sewing Inventory soon). Lots of great contacts were made and ideas generated and it greatly inspires us in our prep for POPFest later this year
