Documents on Contemporary Crafts
is a book series published by Norwegian Crafts in collaboration with Arnoldsche Art Publishers. The series provides a critical reflection of contemporary crafts in a wider context and in doing so asks questions about the ties between contemporary craft, fine art and design, thus helping to redefine the concept of crafts as such. The five volumes discuss such topics as skills, materiality, curating, collecting, perception and New Materialism. The more than thirty contributors range from leading craft theorists, such as Jorunn Veiteberg, Glenn Adamson and Liesbeth den Besten, via academics outside the craft tradition, such as Roger L. Kneebone, professor of surgical education, Trevor Marchand, professor of social anthropology, and Margaret Wasz, consultant psychological therapist, to emerging voices like Sarah R. Gilbert, Marianne Zamecznik and Stephen Knott.
No. 1: Museum for Skills. Skills are essential to the crafts discourse. Yet in an art world that for the last 50 years has become increasingly focused on conceptual strategies, we have seen the tendencies of deskilling and outsourcing. In Museum for Skills, the contributors analyze the current situation for skills by drawing on experience from the fields of brain research, surgery and anthropology.
No. 2: Materiality Matters. If materiality is a quality-related concept in both contemporary crafts and contemporary art, are we talking about the same notion? Or is there a fundamental difference between, on one hand, a maker’s confidence in his or her materials, and on the other, a contemporary artist’s use and adaption of a given material?
No. 3: Crafting Exhibitions. Curatorial discourse has been an increasingly important aspect of contemporary art. The curator took on a new role as the ‘author’ of the exhibition. Crafting Exhibitions introduces some of the processes that go into making an exhibition, from developing concepts to the physical realization. The contributors offer different approaches to exhibitions.
No. 4: On Collecting. Collections make up an important part of the contemporary arts and crafts infrastructure. Collectors and museums help improve the financial situation of artists. Additionally, to be included in the ‘right’ collection or museum can give an artist a high level of recognition and preserves the art works for the future. On Collecting offers insights into collecting from different perspectives and sheds light on some of the structures that determine the ‘collectability’ of works of art.
No. 5: Material Perceptions. Contemporary craft objects can be perceived for instance, as works of art in ceramics, glass, textile, metal and wood, or as functional, handmade and everyday objects. Material Perceptions investigates contemporary crafts as representations of reality that do not rely on the concept of autonomy, unravelling the dualism between aesthetic objects and everyday things.
Norwegian Crafts is a non-profit organisation founded by the Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts in 2012. Norwegian Crafts initiates and produces exhibitions in collaboration with Norwegian and international institutions, curators and artists. The aim is to strengthen the position of contemporary craft from Norway internationally, contribute to the development of the artists’ careers and stimulate further exchange across national borders in the field of crafts.
ACC Art Books is one of the world’s leading publishers and distributors of books on the arts and visual culture. We sell and market beautiful books to retailers and wholesalers worldwide, making sure that they are available to the widest possible audiences.
Our own publications represent more than 50 years of innovation, including collaborations with some of the world’s foremost artists, fashion designers, architects and photographers. We began in 1966 by developing essential reference works on the decorative arts, many of which remain in print as the standard texts in their field. That included the first price guides to antique silver and furniture, along with definitive volumes on jewellery, British art and British architecture. Today we continue those traditions by working with many leaders in the fields of culture and bespoke luxury. Click here to see the latest catalogue of ACC publications.
Just as importantly, we represent nearly 100 fine publishers from the UK, Europe, USA, China, India, and Thailand. Our range includes important monographs and exhibition catalogues from galleries and museums such as the Royal Academy, Ashmolean, and National Galleries of Scotland; beautiful art, design, gift and lifestyle books from 5 Continents, Abbeville Press, Arnoldsche, Beta Plus, E/P/A, Gallimard, Glitterati, Hoxton Mini Press, Images, Lannoo, Pointed Leaf Press, Scala and Scheidegger & Spiess; and superb guides to world travel from Emons and Luster.
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Melle Smets and Joost van Onna took only twelve weeks to assemble Turtle 1, a car built entirely from recycled parts. Made in Africa, Turtle 1 is entirely suited to the local context, sufficiently sturdy to resist the climate and the road conditions, and easy to operate.This book is part of an extensive documentation of the project; this documentation spans several years and has used exhibitions, films and apps to tell the story of this great idea. The automobile industry is monopolised by multinational companies who care only for profit, and constantly seek to outbid each other by developing ever more sophisticated technology. The majority of people outside of the Western world have little access to this market. However, Turtle 1: Building a Car in Africa proves how people’s ingenuity can tackle any challenge. Dutch artist Melle Smets and sociologist Joost van Onna went to Suame Magazine in Ghana, one of the largest industrial areas in sub-Saharan Africa where some 200,000 people dismantle and repair cars and sell used spare parts. Their aim was not only to develop a totally new type of car but, more importantly, to boost autonomy and self-reliance in an attempt to be free from global economic interests. Within two years, the vehicle attracted much attention from the public and the media both in Africa and the Netherlands, prompting Smets and van Onna to create the conditions for producing the car on a small, local scale. The production, however, never took off as their Ghanaian partners had other intentions in spite of all success. While Smets and van Onna promoted their recycling model, the Africans had tragically begun to work on a luxury version of the car. A homage to a project that was never fully realised, this book is a succinct demonstration of humanity’s ability to overcome odds. Exhibition runs until 28 August 2016, Project Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Bio-inspired design is both simple and complex.
Simple because it provides an easy reference to discuss ideas through a means we all can relate to and become inspired by – the natural world. The topic engages a spectrum of professionals, from environmental enthusiasts to design professionals and scientists.
The complexity arises when we need to understand beyond what we see and understand how nature works. At many levels, we are still exploring how systems are inter-related and to decipher these relationships we have to look beyond the idealized inspiration.
Throughout the world, research and development that focuses on bio-inspiration has been steadily increasing and is expected to continue to do so for the next two decades. Currently, China is one of the leaders in scholarly articles focusing on bio-inspiration.
Although this topic is developing at an impressive rate, much of the public awareness of bio-inspiration and similar areas of research such as biomimetics and biomimicry is relatively unknown. Therefore, to provide insight into this process, this collection of work shines light on the methods currently being explored in China’s top institutions.
In 2009, the College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University was established. The transition from a former Art and Design Department – steeped in the Bauhaus tradition – to an independent school named ‘Design and Innovation’ attests to the university’s vision to move design education and research beyond an artefact-centred crafts tradition and toward a design discipline that drives innovation at the intersection of business, technology, and the humanities.
Every autumn since 2012, the Tongji Unversity College of Design and Innovation has organized a small design research and education conference titled ‘Emerging Practices’. The Emerging Practices Conference (EPC) witnesses the developing trajectory of design as a discipline in a Chinese design school that is grounded in thinking and practice addressing local issues and is in the meanwhile actively connected globally.
A small group of design scholars and educators, who gathered at the EPC in 2014, announced their intention to explore how design can address the complex issues the world faces today. They called their agenda ‘DesignX’ using ‘X’ to refer to the turbulent, unknown future of design. The initial DesignX Manifesto has triggered a deeper interest in asking how designers could play a role in designing for complex sociotechnical systems. This anthology selected viewpoint essays and cases, presented at the EPC 2016, as a preliminary endeavour to understand the challenges and opportunities of designing in such complex systems as healthcare, education, public sector innovation, food and culture, and so on.
It is inspiring to see that our drive to reform design education and research – and situate design within a shifting social, economic, and technological context – has attracted the attention and participation of a wider community. Our common challenges arise out of a need to reform design education, bridge design research and practice, design for social well-being, and target sustainability on a planet with limited resources.
Contents: Introduction; Viewpoints; Globalization, and the Effective Supply of Design Education; Design and the Economy of Choice; The Expanding Scope and Paradigm Shift of Design; Making Things Happen; The Ethics of Ignoring Rashomon; Chicken Run; Information Visualization; Design, Work, and Intelligence Cases; Embedding Designers in Government Innovation Teams; Policy Design to Improve the Delivery of Old Age Security in Canada for Vulnerable Seniors; Design Research and Practice for the Public Good; Movable Feasts; Design for Human-Robot Acceptability; DREAM Complexity.
To understand the development of private gardens, one must accept that there is no classroom that can explain how approaching such a project is accomplished. It is a long journey that is ignited in those who begin to pursue a passion for garden design. Beginning with, first, the study of plants and the wonder of all their characteristics, this knowledge then needs to be combined with a solid understanding of the mathematics of geometry and the use of scale and the relationship of proportions. Landscape designers must progress on to developing a style that fits a designer’s personality while, at the same time, expanding the vision for each landscape. Garden design seems simple, but actually it is very complicated work.
This book covers nearly 40 beautiful private gardens from all over the world, including traditional European gardens, American gardens, Japanese gardens and a number of gardens from Southeast Asia, with a wealth of high-res photos, floor plans, sketches and plant details to show the beautiful view of gardens. This will undoubtedly provide design tips for designers who want to stand out in the field of private garden design.
Documentary photographer William E. Crawford spent three decades documenting Vietnam, and in particular Hanoi, its people and the surrounding countryside. As one of the very first Western photographers to work in post-war North Vietnam, Crawford was drawn back to the country numerous times at regular intervals between 1985 and 2015 to record this fascinating country’s culture, people, and society with beautiful, compelling and intimate photographs, concentrating on colonial and indigenous architecture, urban details, portraits, and landscapes. In 1986, the Vietnam’s Communist leadership began to shift from a Soviet-style central planning model toward free-market economic reforms. As a result, Hanoi has been transformed over the last three decades, becoming an example of how traditional Asian and developing cities have often been torn down or allowed to crumble – only to re-emerge in a ‘modernized’ form. Unlike photo-journalism, which is interested in the theatre of the moment, Crawford’s evocative and powerful photography chronicles life throughout Hanoi and its surroundings over the course of the last three decades. Filled with full-color photographs and informative essays on his experiences and the people he encountered, Crawford’s work – showcased in this beautifully presented volume – provides a unique visual catalogue of the evolution of a city and its inhabitants, and particularly the complex historical area known as The 36 Streets.
This highly anticipated monograph focuses on the architectural output of Enrique Browne, a talented and prolific Chilean architect and co-founder of Browne & Swett Arquitectos, based in Santiago. Over the last 40 years, this South American architect has been trying to reconcile natural and artificial worlds through architecture. They are one indissoluble unity. This book showcases in rich photographic detail how his innovative projects incorporate multiple environmental aspects that result in a complex, layered response to the challenges of place, form and identity in Chile.
Browne’s practice has developed architectural designs in a diverse range of scales, with emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency. This volume delves into Browne’s processes, such as developing variations of the “grapevinestructure typology” to create a “double green skin” as a green wall (or roof), to protect dwellings from the region’s strong westerly sun; or combining vegetation and its oxygenation benefits with building to counter pollution; or using both artificial and natural light as a material for illuminating spaces or volume. This book also includes commentary on the new zeitgeist surrounding modernity and the impacts of the digital and globalized world on architecture today. Highly regarded, and a prolific writer and designer, Enrique Browne has a unique way of looking at the world. Showcasing the wide range of his design, this title is sure to impress.
The baking industry has seen a developing momentum in recent years. The competition is stiff; it’s not just the quality of the food that attracts customers, so it’s often necessary to ensure the design of the bakery itself is both creative and eye catching, while still being functional. A well-designed store can not only increase sales, but also help develop a brand identity. This book includes fifty bakery designs from all over the world, including Spain, Greece, Canada, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Israel, the USA, Germany, Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, China, Japan, Brazil, Romania, Thailand, Austria, Lebanon, and France. The designers responsible exhaustively examine their projects in order to illustrate the design process.
To feature house designs through the decades, The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945 includes 75 houses by over 50 architects. The projects are divided into 13 themes such as Earthy Concrete, Play, and Unmarketable and presented using models, drawings, and photographs. The Japanese have experienced drastic social and environmental changes related to the WW II recovery period leading to rapid economic growth, pollution, the bubble economy and collapse, and natural disasters. Commissioned by individual homeowners, Japanese architects have responded to these changes by developing ideas for new ways of living, expressed through the architecture of the house. A distinguishing feature of Japan is the large proportion of young people owning land and engaging architects. These clients have generally studied residential designs closely before approaching the architect, therefore the resulting new homes tend to be on the experimental side. Text in English and Japanese.
Modern architecture in China has until recently been dominated by Western influences. This is backed up by many major projects being awarded to international architects and that most Chinese practitioners have studied or worked abroad. Architects in China, a+u 16:03 depicts a new era where personal experiences and local context are incorporated into recent works. Private architectural practice is still a relatively new concept in China. Architects are still in the process of developing a design language that responds to the speed and size of the country’s growth while respecting the local site. This issue features 20 projects that combine global and local into a new design form particular to China. Text in English and Japanese.
• Features 20 projects that combine global and local into a new design form unique to China
Modern architecture in China has until recently been dominated by Western influences. This is backed up by many major projects being awarded to international architects and that most Chinese practitioners have studied or worked abroad. Architects in China, a+u 16:03 depicts a new era where personal experiences and local context are incorporated into recent works.
Private architectural practice is still a relatively new concept in China. Architects are still in the process of developing a design language that responds to the speed and size of the country’s growth while respecting the local site. This issue features 20 projects that combine global and local into a new design form particular to China.
Text in English and Japanese.
Peggy Liechti, Andreas Graf and Lukas Zumsteg have been working in Brugg since 1992, developing an architectural oeuvre with individual buildings that have been conceived with great care and precision. They are all atmospheric buildings that have a great coherence with their surroundings, despite their highly contrasting building programmes.
Text in English and German.
Welcome to the vibrant world of Maria Gabriela Brito, the New York-based interior designer, tastemaker, and authority on mixing contemporary art with home decoration. Venezuelan-born and Harvard-educated, Brito has demystified the art of art collecting, with the objective of creating stunning, unique, and personal spaces, through her company Lifestyling® by Maria Gabriela Brito. A fascinating look into Brito’s personal experiences, and an insider’s guide to designing interiors and developing an art collection, Out There: Design, Art, Travel, Shopping presents with insight, humor, and flair the inspirations behind Brito’s work and interests. Featuring highlights of her favorite contemporary artists, photographs of eight New York City apartments that she designed, and an extensive Address Book of Brito’s favorite galleries, shops, and hotels worldwide, Out There is a fresh and exclusive look behind the scenes of a passionate and exciting new design authority. Contents: Discovering Design, Art, and Other Passions; Collecting Contemporary Art and the Extraordinary World of Artists; My Designs and the Art of Living; Wanderings Near and Far; Address Book.
A fascinating look into Brito’s personal experiences, and an insider’s guide to designing interiors and developing an art collection, Out There: Design, Art, Travel, Shopping presents with insight, humor, and flair the inspirations behind Brito’s work and interests. Featuring highlights of her favorite contemporary artists, photographs of eight New York City apartments that she designed, and an extensive Address Book of Brito’s favorite galleries, shops, and hotels worldwide, Out There is a fresh and exclusive look behind the scenes of a passionate and exciting new design authority
“I can never say I was born to dance,” she says with a subtle hint of pride. Yet for this very reason, Kumudini Lakhia went on to become one of the great modern innovators of North Indian classical dance. Such paradoxes compose the fabric of Kumudini’s life and personality-an upbringing in the waning days of the Raj characterized by a love for Indian art as well as British sensibilities, a temperament both warm and austere, and an ambitious energy as overwhelming as it is focused. Like her life, her art itself came to embody an element of paradox-contemporary choreography within one of the most ancient dance forms in the world. Her work, criticized thirty years ago as sacrilege, is now considered classic, and continues to inspire novel approaches to the dance form. Unlike many Kathak exponents in the 1940s and 50s, Kumudini did not inherit the narrowly focused life of a traditional dancer. Instead, she was exposed to the modern world-attending an elite boarding school, developing curiosities ranging from agriculture to architecture, and touring Europe by the age of 18. Though she studied Kathak throughout her life, her path to professional dance was shaped more by circumstance than tradition. Told through the refracted lens of writer and dance student, Movement in Stills offers a unique blend of biography and personal impression to depict the life and dance of one of India’s great performing artists.
A lot of people sleep on mattresses that are of poor quality. A good night’s rest and a correct sleeping posture can however prevent the onset of a number of common back problems. Roughly 8 out of 10 people suffer from severe back pain at some point during their lives. Of those, almost 10% go on to develop chronic back problems. Sleep Wihout Back Pain helps you to minimise the risk of developing back pain. What should you look for when buying a mattress? Should you be thinking in terms of sleeping on an orthopaedic or memory foam mattress? And which is the best position for sleeping? After reading this book you will be as informed as your physiotherapist or general practitioner (or even more so) about the benefits of a healthy spine.
More and more children are overweight. What they are eating is very important for them, as well as for children of normal weight. Surgeon, weight loss specialist and amateur chef Kristel De Vogelaere sees heavy children combating this chronic disease on a daily basis in her consultations.
Obesity is absolutely not risk free! Overweight children have a higher chance of developing health problems, and therefore it is more than necessary that obese children are offered help and that attention is paid to prevention. In this second book, Prof. De Vogelaere would like to offer insight to you, the parents, about the causes and consequences of obesity so that you can help your children counter it from a young age. This book will help you along by offering recipes and practical tips for learning healthy food habits and a healthy lifestyle together with your children. Going down this road together lightens the load and leads to a healthier family as a whole.
A lot of people sleep on mattresses that are of poor quality. A good night’s rest and a correct sleeping posture can however prevent the onset of a number of common back problems. Roughly 8 out of 10 people suffer from severe back pain at some point during their lives. Of those, almost 10% go on to develop chronic back problems. Give Your Back a Break helps you to minimise the risk of developing back pain. What should you look for when buying a mattress? Should you be thinking in terms of sleeping on an orthopaedic or memory foam mattress? And which is the best position for sleeping? After reading this book you will be as informed as your physiotherapist or general practitioner (or even more so) about the benefits of a healthy spine. Text in German.
“One of the world’s most complete, resonant art mediums (which) submits to spectacular skill and structural concepts” – Roberta Smith, New York Times
These are exciting times for Japanese bamboo art. May 2017 saw the opening of Japan House São Paulo, whose inaugural exhibition ‘Bamboo: The Material That Built Japan’ drew over 300,000 visitors. From June 2017 to February 2018 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York mounted another bamboo show that was seen by about 400,000. From 27 November, the Musée du quai Branly in Paris will present the largest-ever exhibition on the subject. This authoritative catalog of 323 works from the Naej Collection thus appears at a moment when a new global audience has emerged. The Naej Collection is especially strong in works by leading artists from 1850 to 1950, when great craft dynasties were established and first Osaka and then Tokyo emerged as major centers of artistic basketry. The catalog breaks new ground by combining dramatic photography with precious documentary information drawn from signatures and inscriptions, making it not merely the visual record of a great collection but the essential reference work for a developing field of connoisseurship. Text in English, Japanese and simplified Chinese.
Following on from the success of An Opinionated Guide to East London, Hoxton Mini Press are developing a series of ‘opinionated guides’ to aspects of London, each offering concise, highly-curated, insider selections alongside stunning, original photography. Two expert writers, Sujata Burman and Rosa Bertoli of Wallpaper Magazine, have joined forces with architectural photographer Taran Wilkhu to create an unashamedly confident guide to the must-see buildings in London, spanning all the architectural styles: from Art Deco to postmodern, brutalist to futuristic. Over 50 buildings are included alongside four maps with guided city walks. Why buy a guidebook when all information is online? Because people want opinion to cut through the clutter. Contents: Foreword; Introduction; Maps / Walks; Features.
• The very best buildings to visit in London – according to those in the know
• Includes four maps and guided city walks
Following on from the success of An Opinionated Guide to East London, Hoxton Mini Press are developing a series of ‘opinionated guides’ to aspects of London, each offering concise, highly-curated, insider selections alongside stunning, original photography. Two expert writers, Sujata Burman and Rosa Bertoli of Wallpaper Magazine, have joined forces with architectural photographer Taran Wilkhu to create an unashamedly confident guide to the must-see buildings in London, spanning all the architectural styles: from Art Deco to postmodern, brutalist to futuristic. Over 50 buildings are included alongside four maps with guided city walks. Why buy a guidebook when all information is online? Because people want opinion to cut through the clutter.
Although China is the colossus of our times economically, its equally prodigious output of contemporary poetry is relatively unknown. In this anthology, work of the so-called Fourth Generation of poets is selected and introduced by a scholar and former dissident, and translated by a distinguished international team of poets and writers. It offers for the first time in bilingual format the outstanding poetry emerging from a vibrant and rapidly developing cultural scene, and also introduces some of China’s hottest visual artists and their work. An introduction provides an historical and critical framework, while textual commentary and notes, biographical sketches, bibliography, and notes make this a necessary addition to any library of Chinese literature.
This original and innovative book makes clear that more attention needs to be paid – at all levels of the educational system – to developing the imagination of our young people. Intercultural exchange – particularly with Islam – will not succeed unless the importance of the imaginative element is fully appreciated. This book addresses itself to all educators and challenges them not to lose sight of the myth and the muse in their daily teaching practice. Our rapidly evolving society can only benefit by allowing greater room for intuition and inventiveness in the dialogue between different ethnic groups.
Religion has always been a fundamental force for constructing identity, from antiquity to the contemporary world. The transformation of ancient cults into faith systems, which we recognize now as major world religions, took place in the first millennium AD, in the period we call ‘Late Antiquity’. Our argument is that the creative impetus for both the emergence, and much of the visual distinctiveness of the world religions came in contexts of cultural encounter. Bridging the traditional divide between classical, Asian, Islamic and Western history, this exhibition and its accompanying catalog highlights religious and artistic creativity at points of contact and cultural borders between late antique civilizations.
This catalog features the creation of specific visual languages that belong to five major world religions: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. The imagery still used by these belief systems today is evidence for the development of distinct religious identities in Late Antiquity. Emblematic visual forms like the figure of Buddha and Christ, or Islamic aniconism, only evolved in dialogue with a variety of coexisting visualizations of the sacred. As late antique believers appropriated some competing models and rejected others, they created compelling and long-lived representations of faith, but also revealed their indebtedness to a multitude of contemporaneous religious ideas and images.