Craft, Relational Aesthetics and Ethics of Care

Abstract

A conceptual framework for looking and listening operates within aesthetic and affective moments when crafting objects. Assembling and modifying Sea Balls into arranged composition is my craft process that I use to access a state of mind play. Each found and modified object represents a key theoretical framework that I connect and re-organize in relation to each other to produce new ways of perceiving. Considerations of Massumi, Fish and Jameson’s (2002) notion of perception and how I experience affect through embodiment in the moment of re-crafting and re-assembling items is central to the practice. Emergent ideas occur through re-crafting found objects in conjunction with broader considerations of relational aesthetics.

Lifting Stress from the Day: A Women's Well‐Being Online Community Art Project

“…I can honestly say that those 1‐hour online slots on a Wednesday lunchtime in the early summer of 2020 were uplifting and extraordinary for myself as the workshop organiser – simple but real well‐being moments, somatically engaged encounters that were individually and collectively rich and healing (Coholic et al . 2020; MacGill 2019). Jagodzinski refers to a ‘cosmological sensibility’ (Jagodzinski 2021: 25) where our interactions and understandings in art are part of our internal and external exchange.…”

“…These corporeally engaged narratives in motion offered a moment in time to explore our own physical beings (Birdy 2020–2021). An embodied sense of worth started to emerge from these moments – the physical engagement with our faces, our hands and our feet was deeply subjective and personal (MacGill 2019; Matthews 2019) but simultaneously objective in that we were all sharing the moment. Garrett & MacGill refer to such practice as ‘creative and body‐based learning’ (Garrett & MacGill 2021: 1222) and emphasise the importance of physicality as a vehicle for human understanding.…”

“…Garrett & MacGill refer to such practice as ‘creative and body‐based learning’ (Garrett & MacGill 2021: 1222) and emphasise the importance of physicality as a vehicle for human understanding. We followed lines that our fingers found in the contours and lines of our faces and drew what we felt physically and emotionally (Nguyen & Larson 2015), gifting back to ourselves a haptic sense of care, respect and well‐being (MacGill 2019). Kumar refers to these tactile, present moments as ‘potent’ and magnified encounters where we respond with an ‘open heart and an open mind’ (Kumar 2019: 54).…”

The Cultural Landscape of Komi Art and Design Before and After the Relate North 2019 Symposium and Exhibition

“…If the maker is alert, handcrafting can stir versatile perceptions through all the senses that guide the making, and the making is realized by the movements of the maker's body (Kojonkoski-Rännäli, 2014). Craft does not, however, reside in the body but moves between the maker and the object being made (MacGill, 2019). Similarly, this principle applies to artmaking.…”

Decolonising Art and Design Education through Standpoint Theory, Embodied Learning and Deep Listening

“…However, there is continued debate regarding what constitutes decolonisation and how to embed it within an increasingly neoliberal university curriculum. This paper explores the importance of a culturally responsive pedagogical framework informed by an ethics of care (MacGill 2019). Creative body‐based learning (CBL) is used as an example of how arts educators can work with students to build pluralist worldviews (Dawson & Kiger Lee 2018) informed by a decolonial approach to learning design (MacGill & Unsworth 2023).…”