Material Imperfection
Craftanoon’s non-hierarchical, anti-perfectionist, playful methodology is enabled by the medium the space is constructed from. Garbage is fundamentally non-judgmental. Disregarded, stigmatized, alienated, and abandoned by polite society, inviting it into our space makes that space classless and free. Furthermore, the lack of purchase of both material and entry into the space allows for freedom from failure. There is no loss by doing something ‘incorrectly’, or not achieving the intended goal. There is no wastage in the space because the space is waste. Everything people do not want to take home with them is free to be de and re constructed, flowing, and evolving from event to event.
Craft as a term is vital for this practice, as unlike ‘art’, ‘fashion’, ‘sewing’, ‘artisanship’ or even ‘craftsmanship’ is does not imply constraints of rules. In comparison to art, craft has been stigmatised as a lesser practice, fundamentally feminine, childish, immature. Here in its stigmatization, lies its massive power. The power to exist outside of judgement, categorisation, objectification, and hierarchy.
In resisting the urge to categorise, objectify, perfect, and gamify, as well as to align with meditation of material stories, Craftanoon encourages cyborg ethos of continual reinvention, restitching, reconstructing (Haraway, 1991). The practice, not the ‘product’, is that point engaging with the material. There is no goal to dominate or control it, but to experience with it, learn from it, and play in mutual relationships.