From the closing decades of the twentieth century, the philosophy of Walter Benjamin has been readily employed by academics seeking to legitimate lens-based art as critical practice and challenge the ideals of high modernism. Yet this situation has engendered a compulsion to read Benjamin as a harbinger of post-modernism, a tendency responsible for severe miss-interpretations of his work. This is most evident in accounts of arguably his most famous thesis: the philosophy of the aura. For scholars aiming to renounce autonomy, originality and genius in artistic labour, Benjamin’s reading of the aura’s decline has become a weapon of choice. However, although the auratic holds immediate significance for creative practice, what is often overlooked by invocations of Benjamin’s study is the fact that the aura does not describe a material or phenomenal quality that objects may or may not possess. On the contrary, the aura is a form of perceptual experience, a sensation analogous to reverie or contemplation. It is in response to claims that Benjamin’s thesis has been misconstrued that Aura, Craft and Labour is conceived. My dissertation sets out to re-stage the critical study of the auratic and thus revivify the philosophical, political and psychological motifs at play in Benjamin’s work. But to achieve this I do not intend to bypass subjects of artistic production and aesthetics. Rather, I aim to explore the sensory and experiential matrix of the auratic against the context of a critical dialogue between photography and painting, thereby identifying how an assessment of the breaks and ruptures that mark revolutions in creative practice can illuminate our insight into the aura debate.

This research project offers new knowledge in the field of artificial patination and extends the application of colour to metals that have previously not been exploited for their colouring properties, specifically pewter and its main constituent, tin. The investigation defines, refines and applies new and evolved processes and techniques that provide novel opportunities for both craft and industry through the development of new products, particularly jewellery and tableware items. The thesis details the actions taken to substantiate the hypothesis that pewter and tin may be coloured by chemical means. This includes the interpretation, exploitation and creative application of developed processes to the design and production of new works. It also discusses the research method applied and the rationales that have informed decision making. The research project is reviewed in separate chapters discussing each phase of the investigation. These phases are:  The selection, testing and analysis of chemical colouring processes within the workshop and laboratory.  Investigation into working properties of the coloured material and surface pattern development.  The creative application of outcomes from the above two phases to new works.  Evaluation of the research outcomes in relation to creative practice and their potential for wider commercial application The chemical exploration and design development phases of the research have been conducted in association with the International Tin Research Institute (ITRI Ltd) and the manufacturing industry, which has confirmed the validity of results. The model of collaboration adopted and associated outcomes are also discussed. Finally, the thesis considers the impact of the research outcomes on the material, creative practice and implications for further investigation including the potential for wider commercial application of the patination procedures developed.

The Renaissance festival is an interactive venue which utilizes popular and fantastic views of history to encourage audience members to participate in the performance. While these festivals share much in common with living history presentations, the open use of myth and romanticized history at the Renaissance festival, while sometimes criticized, allows the festivals to incorporate people in the performance in ways that other venues cannot. Living histories, usually heritage sites, seek to confirm and validate identity or membership within a specific community. Their methods of presentation leave little room for playing with or questioning these historically predetermined roles. The Renaissance festival, based as it is in a much earlier history and a romanticized one at that, creates more flexible group and individual identification. Because the Renaissance festival encourages the exploration of identity and community beyond those determined by the history of the historical performance, it carries the potential to change the ways in which individuals view themselves, performance, history, and community. It does so through encouraging new constructions of identity for the individual as well as new group affiliations based on interpersonal interactions, commerce, and myth. These will be viewed through the use of three case studies of the Scarborough Faire, Texas Renaissance Festival, and Michigan Renaissance Festival. Participation in these performances can encourage a questioning of how community and identity can be built and what they mean. / text

In moments when the artisanship tradition seems to disappear because of industrial production, we analyze cases where digital fabrication and visual programming were used in Latin American craft, encouraged by architects with skills in digital tools. The situations confront artisans with access to digital platforms and internet, use of learned skills, and the need to modify the technological level in their products and processes. Regional initiatives, which could change contemporary design history in the region with the establishing of a trans-disciplinary systematized synergy, show that traditional materials are used and unique components maintain their originality, from a region that attempts to enter into new global markets.

The work of this MA thesis develops a new approach to hand weaving in which the design process is led by the technique of resistant dyeing. The process is inspired by the visual properties of traditional ikats. It follows the technical ikat procedure of primary resistant dyeing and subsequently weaving. Whithin the research a new way of weaving is explored in which the dyed thread dictates the weaving process and therefore influences the weaving motif. In addition different design variables such as material, binding pattern and finishing are used to push forward the developed concept. The aim of this work is to explore new aesthetic expressions between regular and irregular motifs through the application of design thinking. The result presents an innovative approach in the ikat technique in order to create random distributed patterns and how they can be already influenced in the stage of yarn preparation.

Latin America has experienced scripting and digital fabrication, and the alliance between designers and artisans. Taking into account that the revival of crafts has proved very promising in Latin America (Borges, 2015), the objective of this research is to analyse the diversity of cases and select those where designers took an interest for strengthening the artisans’ jobs in the field of pottery and textiles. We found that both revitalised the identity and cultural tradition in their own countries, in a moment when craft seemed to drop in front of industrial production. By preserving traditional materials, pieces continue to be unique and customizable, transcending thus their local origin towards new global markets.

This writing is an experiment in combining the two most important frameworks through which I understand the world, the storytelling traditions of my people, the Mvskoke(Creek), and the rational tradition that began with European Enlightenment era thinking. By weaving allegorical narrative (much of it personal) into theoretical speculation, I draw connections between recollection, truth, and the act of making. This examination of the gaps and connections between seemingly disparate worldviews, runs in parallel to the purpose of my work, wherein I construct fictive symbiotic and parasitic relationships between jewelry and wearer. This work takes advantage of the wearer as environment, resource, and propagator. By abstracting from real-world biological structures, this work conflates genetic and memetic dissemination. I am creating systems and models of systems using individual jewelry pieces for specific wearers that reflect the structure of arrangements that are repeated throughout nature. Ultimately I am raising questions about the hard lines that we draw between things in nature—including ourselves—and our place in biological, cultural, and personal systems.

I have been investigating the way in which my mind has altered my memories, especially from childhood. The more a moment is recalled, the less precise it becomes. The most inaccurate memories from childhood are the ones I have fixated on. Bedrooms are spaces where dreaming, sleeping and reverie take place leading to even more fragmenting. The intimate space of a bedroom allows me to represent the personal distorted recollections. The bedroom furniture is missing parts, shifted in height and placement or combined together. By making doubles of furniture, a direct comparison can be made from the real piece to the made imagined work. A counterpart can be a defense against loss, by having multiples of the same. Through dwelling on the past I have lost most of the original content and am left with disintegrating parts.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

I am learning through these lessons. The following document includes my convoluted musings about my work, making process, and body leading up to my thesis exhibition, Avoidance Kitchen. My struggle with my reflected image comes from my struggle with my self-perceived physical image. What does it mean for a piece to disappear, only to find the reflection of someone else's work or body in its place? Is my craft rendered obsolete if all you want to do is take a funny selfie? Is my work unacknowledged if all you see is the sculpture across the room, in reverse? What happens when an object or installation is elevated and ignored within the same space?