Entangling with Materials: Crafting as a Way of Repairing Our Relationship with the Environment

Bilge Aktas

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Crafting facilitates direct contact between humans, materials, and the material’s environment. Embracing crafting with materials as a method can develop caring relationships with materials and can procure a sense of responsibility towards the environment. In this chapter, I discuss how crafting with materials can become a way to cultivate a personal relationship with the world and the environment, and how it can possibly generate behavioural change. This discussion is carried out by studying interactions with wool in the context of felting. By discussing the properties of raw wool and experiences with processed wool, I suggest seeing the human–world relationship as a dialogue that takes place through engaging with materials and the environment that the material comes from. The human–material relationship that emerges from crafting processes shows that everything is in continuous movement, and we need to find harmony among these changes to participate in the world in non-exploitative ways. By undertaking human–material coupling via crafting, humans can conjoin the ecology of making with the ecology of materials to repair their relationship with the world.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationExpanding Environmental Awareness in Education Through the Arts
Subtitle of host publicationCrafting-with the Environment
EditorsFredriksen Biljana, Groth Camilla
Place of PublicationSingapore
PublisherSpringer
Pages93-108
Number of pages16
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)978-981-19-4855-8
ISBN (Print)978-981-19-4854-1, 978-981-19-4857-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
MoE publication typeA3 Book section, Chapters in research books

Publication series

NameLandscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education
PublisherSpringer
Volume33
ISSN (Print)1573-4528
ISSN (Electronic)2214-0069

Keywords

  • Craft
  • Exhibition
  • Soil
  • Ceramics
  • Environment
  • Design education

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