Part One...
This is probably a bit back to front being nearly five years into the UK DIY project, and a year into the blog, but it seemed long overdue to share the start of the UK DIY research. The real start was way back here, but the research report starts like this...
DEFINING DIY
What is DIY Crafts? There is no straight answer, just as there is no clear definition of what craft in general is – or art or design, and where the boundaries of each blur. However it is possible to build up a picture of what DIY crafts looks like through characteristics present across the depth and breadth of the movement and through statements around DIY craft and its ethics.
• ...this is craft or crafting, just not craft as we know it. It is slightly reminiscent of the 1970s craft movement, but this is a remix; it is witty and it is often nostalgically ironic and it offers biting sarcasm with regard to the presumed role of domestic creativity… (1)
• DIY is a mash-up of the post-industrial enterprise economy and good old unreconstructed communism (2)
• The DIY ethic is based on the power of creative re-use and re-appropriation (3)
• Using ‘DIY Culture’ would lead me into street-cool avant-garde punk territory(4)
• “accomplishment without professional help… people providing for themselves services which they could otherwise be expected to pay a professional to do”(5)
• DIY culture refers to a wide range of grassroots political activism…demonstrating the desire for an economy of mutual aid and co-operation, the commitment to the non-commodification of art, the appropriation of digital and communication technologies for free community purposes, and the commitment to alternative technologies…these subcultures blur the lines between creator and consumer by constructing a social network that ties users and makers close together(6).
• These new crafters are mostly young women, in their 20’s and 30’s, who delight in combining retro images with traditional craft techniques to produce practical items with an off-kilter, humorous streak. There is no right or wrong. If anything, the movement is defined by its eclecticism(7).
• Refers to a form of domestic creativity that emerges from a DIY ethos that seeks to confront mass market consumerism and the homogenisation of culture as a result if the aggressive expansion of big box retailers. This creative handiwork is often nostalgically ironic, concerned with style, irony and occasionally kitsch; often contains wit and humour; it is about choice. It does not seek validation within traditional art methodology rather it is motivated by a desire for creative and economic freedom(8).
DEFINING DIY
What is DIY Crafts? There is no straight answer, just as there is no clear definition of what craft in general is – or art or design, and where the boundaries of each blur. However it is possible to build up a picture of what DIY crafts looks like through characteristics present across the depth and breadth of the movement and through statements around DIY craft and its ethics.
• ...this is craft or crafting, just not craft as we know it. It is slightly reminiscent of the 1970s craft movement, but this is a remix; it is witty and it is often nostalgically ironic and it offers biting sarcasm with regard to the presumed role of domestic creativity… (1)
• DIY is a mash-up of the post-industrial enterprise economy and good old unreconstructed communism (2)
• The DIY ethic is based on the power of creative re-use and re-appropriation (3)
• Using ‘DIY Culture’ would lead me into street-cool avant-garde punk territory(4)
• “accomplishment without professional help… people providing for themselves services which they could otherwise be expected to pay a professional to do”(5)
• DIY culture refers to a wide range of grassroots political activism…demonstrating the desire for an economy of mutual aid and co-operation, the commitment to the non-commodification of art, the appropriation of digital and communication technologies for free community purposes, and the commitment to alternative technologies…these subcultures blur the lines between creator and consumer by constructing a social network that ties users and makers close together(6).
• These new crafters are mostly young women, in their 20’s and 30’s, who delight in combining retro images with traditional craft techniques to produce practical items with an off-kilter, humorous streak. There is no right or wrong. If anything, the movement is defined by its eclecticism(7).
• Refers to a form of domestic creativity that emerges from a DIY ethos that seeks to confront mass market consumerism and the homogenisation of culture as a result if the aggressive expansion of big box retailers. This creative handiwork is often nostalgically ironic, concerned with style, irony and occasionally kitsch; often contains wit and humour; it is about choice. It does not seek validation within traditional art methodology rather it is motivated by a desire for creative and economic freedom(8).
1 Press, M DIY Craft on www.craftresearch.blogpsot.com 28 April 2006
2 Press, M Crafters of the World Unite on www.craftresearch.blogpsot.com 9 May 2006
3 Press, M quoting Galloway, A in Crafters of the World Unite on www.craftresearch.blogpsot.com 9 May 2006
4 Burgess, J Defining Vernacular Creativity on www.creativitymachine.net 10 May 2006
5 Shove, E & Watson, M 2005 pp2-3
6 Wikipedia
7 http://leedscraftmafia.co.uk/2007/03/15/craft-congress-pittsburgh-310307-010107/ 15.03.07
8 Stevens, DIY Craft in Redefining Craft for the 21st Century CODA Keynote 2006












