The Power of Quiet: Re-makingAffective Amateur and Professional Textiles Agencies

Abstract

This article advocates an enlarged understanding of the benefits of manual creativity for critical thinking and affective making, which blurs the boundaries, or at least works in the spaces between or beyond amateur and professional craft practices and identities. It presents findings from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project: Co-Producing CARE: Community Asset-based Research & Enterprise (https://cocreatingcare.wordpress.com). CARE worked with community groups (composed of amateur and professional textile makers) in a variety of amateur contexts: the kitchen table, the community cafe, the library, for instance, to explore how critical creative making might serve as a means to co-produce community agency, assets and abilities. The research proposes that through 'acts of small citizenship' creative making can be powerfully, if quietly, activist (Orton Johnson 2014; Hackney 2013a). Unlike more familiar crafts activism, such 'acts' are not limited to overtly political and public manifestations of social action, but rather concern the micro-politics of the individual, the grass roots community and the social everyday. The culturally marginal, yet accessible nature of amateur crafts becomes a source of strength and potential as we explore its active, dissenting and paradoxically discontented aspects alongside more frequently articulated dimensions of acceptance, consensus and satisfaction. Informed by Richard Sennett's (2012) work on cooperation, Matt Ratto and Megan Bolar (2014) on DIY citizenship and critical making, Ranciere's (2004) theory of the 'distribution of the sensible', and theories of embodied and enacted knowledge, the authors interpret findings from selected CARE-related case studies to explicate various ways in which 'making' can make a difference by: providing a safe space for disagreement, reflection, resolution, collaboration, active listening, questioning and critical thinking, for instance, and offer quiet, tenacious and life-enhancing forms of resistance and revision to hegemonic versions of culture and subjectivity.

Studying Diversity, Migration and Urban Multiculture

“…As these quotations suggest, participation in the creative project could be seen as an achievement of convivial encounter where shared making together was experienced positively as sociable and supportive. Unlike some other projects (Hackney et al 2016), differences of skill or age were not barriers to shared interaction. This is not to say that differences of opinion were not articulated, but the overwhelming ethos of the group ensured that such expressions were muted and that common ground was quickly established.…”

“…Our own project was founded on this prioritising of 'doing' -with the artist, researchers and participants coming together to create a collective textile arts piece. While the centrality of making to our project connects to the wider literature on participatory research (Kindon et al 2007) and co-production (Hackney et al 2016), its intellectual impetus came from Tim Ingold's (2013, 21) seminal book Making, in which he prioritises 'learning by doing' and emphasises making as a creative 'process of growth' within which the maker 'is amongst a world of active materials'. Drawing on Ingold's insights into the practices of making led to a creative exploration of the physical repeated processes of sewing and embodied motions of prayer.…”

Stitch after Stitch. Inspiring Arpilleras, Amateur Freedom, Intimate Activism and Letting Go

“…It is important to note that not everyone finds craft activities comforting (Hackney, Maughan and Desmarais, 2016;Shercliff and Twigger Holroyd, 2020). In my case, after the workshop was finished, I reflected on the differences between the process of making my 'textile testimony' and my professional work, that is the embroideries I make as an academic researcher.…”

“…Additionally, I push myself to the limit of my abilities and seek to perform in full domination of my practice (bead-embroidery). In contrast, the textile testimony was a much freer instance, as it was an opportunity to explore and experiment with new topics and techniques without any professional constraints (Hackney, Maughan and Desmarais, 2016). Additionally, all the workshop participants were amateurs, and working together with a collaborative aim had the advantage of receiving support from everyone in the group, which was greatly encouraging, as well as calming and relaxing.…”

The Organization of Craft Work

“…Operating on smaller, more individual scales, these groups and individuals are freer to experiment and explore alternative modes of production. At a time when the structures of capitalism are under severe strain and alternative, countercultural values and ways of living move into the mainstream, a new breed of amateur makers unburdened by professional demarcations, but connected through social media, resourced and informed, might be in a position to challenge, reassess and re-imagine cultural work, how it operates, and its meanings or rewards (Hackney 2013a : 171-6;Hackney et al 2016b ). Such thinking shifts the focus away from considerations of how governments and other Invite: fi nd, locate and connect with communities Groups meet face-to-face to gauge interests and expectations, and ensure project will be of benefi t. Identify key contacts who already coordinate community initiatives, invite them to taster sessions to spark their imagination and catalyse involvement.…”