Craftivism
Encyclopedia
Craftivism is a form of activism
, typically incorporating elements of anti-capitalism
, environmentalism
or third-wave feminism
, that is centered around practices of craft
- most notably knitting
. Practitioners are known as craftivists.
Although the term craftivism is a recent addition to crafting lexicon, the use of craft as subversive can be found throughout history. First, the word craft is often associated with trickery. To call someone crafty is to identify them as clever and cunning In Greek, one would say to “spin” a plot. Similarly, the French word for trick is tricoter, which means to tie or knot together . In the novel A Tale of Two Cities
, the character Madame Defarge
, a worker for the French Revolution
, secretly encodes the names of those soon to be executed in her knitting.
movement. They use the language of choice, and the freedom to pursue whatever life interest they desire. Unlike their mothers’ generation of Second-Wave feminism
, who rejected all things associated with the home, Third-Wave feminists are reclaiming knitting, sewing, and other crafting activities traditionally feminized and associated with the private sphere. Through this reclamation, contemporary women want to reconnect with the female-dominated art, to legitimatize the importance of undervalued craft, and to show that 21st century women have the privilege to express themselves through craft, thanks to the hard work of the Second-Wave feminists.
Traditionally associated with idle work and unproductive female activity in the home, craft was never integrated into profit-making systems. Rather, it was marginalized and undervalued . As a result, women’s significant and creative work in the private sphere—clothing the family, knitting blankets, weaving the loom—did not receive the same respect as male-dominated activity in the public realm. Furthermore, the patriarchy has been successful in claiming these domestic values for women and using it as a way to keep women in subservient roles . Third Wave feminist crafters are attempting to subvert this association by embracing domestic arts while identifying as feminists who are making the choice to embrace domesticity. This act of resistance and shattering of the public/private binary is expressed physically through public knitting and craft circles who take a private-sphere activity and insert themselves in the male-dominated spaces of the city One example would be the Anarchist Knitting Mob who held a "Massive Knit" event in Washington Square Park to honor the death of activist and urbanist Jane Jacobs
. Knitters decorated the trees, benches, and light posts with colorful yarn and unique patterns.
A popular way to resist the commoditization of craft is through the Do-It-Yourself or DIY movement. Popularized through "zines" of the 1990’s, DIY inspires people to be self-sufficient and to rely less on the market for basic necessities that can easily be created on one’s own. DIY is a resistance to the both the capitalist nature of the fashion industry and pressures to conform and buy a style . An example of this is the Counterfeit Crochet Project, which seeks to "debase and defile designer items one step at a time" Counterfeit Crochet Project by Stephanie Syjuco http://www.counterfeitcrochet.org/. Crafters have also subverted the market through the use of open source patterns and information sharing on the internet. Sites like Burdastyle allow crafters to upload and download sewing projects at no charge. Similarly, Cat Mazza's online software KnitPro allows users to download images into detailed knitting patterns at no charge.
through the creation of a giant blanket depicting Nike's trademark swoosh. From 2003-2008, international crafters were asked to mail in 4x4 inch stitched squares to border the blanket and to sign a petition against Nike. Mazza also created a second web-based software called Knitoscope that transforms video into animated knitted stitches. Each video has a corresponding testimony featuring various professionals who work against sweatshop labor.
Artist and Activist Kirsty Robertson feels that the subversive efforts of craftivists against capitalism are limited by their dependency on the internet and new communication. She points out that for this reason, global justice knitters are not completely removed from the economy themselves
Similar to her campaign against Nike, Cat Mazza started an anti-war effort entitled "Stitch for Senate" on the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War. She enlisted two people from each state to knit a soldier's helmet liner which would be sent on to every senator. Unlike the apolitical Operation Home Front efforts that knitted gear for soldiers, Mazza wanted "to start a dialogue about the war and to get politicians to keep the promises they made during the midterm elections" .
The Viral Knitting Project is an anti-war effort that translates the 0/1 binary code of the dangerous Code Red computer virus into a knitting pattern of knit/purl. The color and code relate to the anti-terrorism alerts of post 9/11 United States. The project is attempting to "draw together links between technology, culture, capitalism and war" .
A popular form of protest is the "knit-in," where knitters infiltrate a public space and knit. They might ride a subway, occupy a civic building, or sit in a park. They use the knit-in to draw attention to their issue of concern. The Revolutionary Knitting Circle
of Calgary, Canada stage a knit-in in front of Calgary's financial office buildings during the summit of the G-8 nations in 2002 . The Knit-in not only provides an opportunity to protest against injustice, but also allows for a running discussion about social issues between the stationary knitters. Dr. Jack Bratich of Rutgers University argues that, "Knitting in public also creates a gendered question of space. It rips open the enclosure of the domestic space to public consumption, exposing productive work that has contributed to women’s invisible and unpaid labor". Women are, thereby, able to gain power from an activity that previously symbolized their repression.
Another form of craft-themed activism is guerilla art. The Texas-based group Knitta
places street art such as street pole cozies and antenna warmers in cities throughout the country. Similarly, a blogger in England named "The Lonely Craftivist"creates textile art with political messages in public spaces.
had an inner-group argument about the political affiliation of its members, causing some members to leave the group.
The original description of the group states, "The Etsy Craftivism Team is a team of progressive Etsyans who believe that craft and art can change the world. Some of us use our work to carry messages of protest and political activism. Others believe that the act of making craft can be an act of resistance. Still others see that by buying and selling directly from the maker we are challenging the all pervasive corporate culture that promotes profit over people.".
Conservative members accused the group of assuming a liberal agenda, and argued that politics should not be involved. Some members of the group felt that the mere act of crafting itself was political, while others felt that the act must also be attached to a political message. Rayna Fahey from Radical Cross Stitch replied to a thread stating “Personally if a John McCain supporter joined this group and told me that my latest piece in support of indigenous sovereignty was a well-made piece that serves the purpose for which it was designed well, I’d think that was awesome and I’d have hope for the future of this world.” . In contrast, craftivist Betsy Greer believes that "the personal is political," and that you cannot separate the two .
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
, typically incorporating elements of anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system....
, environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
or third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but often marked as beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present...
, that is centered around practices of craft
Craft
A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...
- most notably knitting
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
. Practitioners are known as craftivists.
Background
The term craftivism was coined in 2003 by writer Betsy Greer in order to join the separate spheres of craft and activism . Her favorite self-created definition of the term states, “craftivism is a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper & your quest for justice more infinite”Although the term craftivism is a recent addition to crafting lexicon, the use of craft as subversive can be found throughout history. First, the word craft is often associated with trickery. To call someone crafty is to identify them as clever and cunning In Greek, one would say to “spin” a plot. Similarly, the French word for trick is tricoter, which means to tie or knot together . In the novel A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
, the character Madame Defarge
Madame Defarge
Madame Thérèse Defarge is a fictional character in the book A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She is a tricoteuse, a tireless worker for the French Revolution and the wife of Ernest Defarge....
, a worker for the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, secretly encodes the names of those soon to be executed in her knitting.
Third-wave feminism
Most forms of craftivism identify strongly with the Third-Wave FeminismThird-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but often marked as beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present...
movement. They use the language of choice, and the freedom to pursue whatever life interest they desire. Unlike their mothers’ generation of Second-Wave feminism
Second-wave feminism
The Feminist Movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the early 1960s and lasted through the early 1990s....
, who rejected all things associated with the home, Third-Wave feminists are reclaiming knitting, sewing, and other crafting activities traditionally feminized and associated with the private sphere. Through this reclamation, contemporary women want to reconnect with the female-dominated art, to legitimatize the importance of undervalued craft, and to show that 21st century women have the privilege to express themselves through craft, thanks to the hard work of the Second-Wave feminists.
Traditionally associated with idle work and unproductive female activity in the home, craft was never integrated into profit-making systems. Rather, it was marginalized and undervalued . As a result, women’s significant and creative work in the private sphere—clothing the family, knitting blankets, weaving the loom—did not receive the same respect as male-dominated activity in the public realm. Furthermore, the patriarchy has been successful in claiming these domestic values for women and using it as a way to keep women in subservient roles . Third Wave feminist crafters are attempting to subvert this association by embracing domestic arts while identifying as feminists who are making the choice to embrace domesticity. This act of resistance and shattering of the public/private binary is expressed physically through public knitting and craft circles who take a private-sphere activity and insert themselves in the male-dominated spaces of the city One example would be the Anarchist Knitting Mob who held a "Massive Knit" event in Washington Square Park to honor the death of activist and urbanist Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
. Knitters decorated the trees, benches, and light posts with colorful yarn and unique patterns.
Environmentalism
Craftivism is also centered around ideas of environmentalism and sustainability. When buying new materials, many craftivists choose organic fabrics and fairly traded products such as home-spun yarns. Yet, even more popular within the movement is the utilization of vintage, thrifted and repurposed goods in order to minimize waste and promote reuse. This display of resourcefulness acknowledges the finite resources on Earth, and the valorization of quality over quantity. Craftivist, Betsy Greer, is quoted saying, “While I think that crafting has become something fairly elite and cliquish in some areas, at its heart, it is very much made for individuals who value both their time and their money” .Anti-capitalism
Historically, craft was the pre-capitalist form of production, where each created item possessed a “use-value,” a term comparing the usefulness of an item to the exchange equivalent. Now within a capitalist system of mass production, craft has become a commodity to be bought and sold for money, where it is now referred to as having an “exchange-value” . Due to this movement from use-value to exchange-value, there is less emphasis on the time and skill expended to create an object, and more importance on making it available to the masses as inexpensively as possible. Traditionally associated with a strong community so vital to the creation and distribution of craft, crafting has since lost its use-value and has been “captured by capital” .A popular way to resist the commoditization of craft is through the Do-It-Yourself or DIY movement. Popularized through "zines" of the 1990’s, DIY inspires people to be self-sufficient and to rely less on the market for basic necessities that can easily be created on one’s own. DIY is a resistance to the both the capitalist nature of the fashion industry and pressures to conform and buy a style . An example of this is the Counterfeit Crochet Project, which seeks to "debase and defile designer items one step at a time" Counterfeit Crochet Project by Stephanie Syjuco http://www.counterfeitcrochet.org/. Crafters have also subverted the market through the use of open source patterns and information sharing on the internet. Sites like Burdastyle allow crafters to upload and download sewing projects at no charge. Similarly, Cat Mazza's online software KnitPro allows users to download images into detailed knitting patterns at no charge.
Anti-sweatshop
Efforts within the craftivist movement against capitalism focus primarily on the international issue of sweatshops. Some craftivists believe that either sewing one's own clothing or buying only hand-made is the best way to protest unfair labor practices around the globe. Other craftivists take the issue even further, using the act of crafting as a protest against sweatshops. Artist and activist Cat Mazza created a campaign against the inhumane labor practices of NikeNike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
through the creation of a giant blanket depicting Nike's trademark swoosh. From 2003-2008, international crafters were asked to mail in 4x4 inch stitched squares to border the blanket and to sign a petition against Nike. Mazza also created a second web-based software called Knitoscope that transforms video into animated knitted stitches. Each video has a corresponding testimony featuring various professionals who work against sweatshop labor.
Artist and Activist Kirsty Robertson feels that the subversive efforts of craftivists against capitalism are limited by their dependency on the internet and new communication. She points out that for this reason, global justice knitters are not completely removed from the economy themselves
Anti-war
Some craftivists see their art form as a protest against war and violence. By juxtaposing a colorful, soft, and fuzzy yarn with cold and dangerous weapons, anti-war craftivists choose to make their statement. In 2006, Danish artist Marianne Jorgensen stitched a giant pink “tank blanket” and placed it over a M24 Chafee combat tank to protest the Iraq war.. She has been making these blankets since Denmark entered the Iraq War, and doesn't plant to stop until it is over. She writes on her website that, "Unsimilar to a war, knitting signals home, care, closeness and time for reflection...When [the tank] is covered in pink, it becomes completely unarmed and it loses its authority" . Much like Jorgensen, Canadian artist Barb Hunt works to tackle the acceptance of military logic into society by creating knitting land mines and bombs out of wool .Similar to her campaign against Nike, Cat Mazza started an anti-war effort entitled "Stitch for Senate" on the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War. She enlisted two people from each state to knit a soldier's helmet liner which would be sent on to every senator. Unlike the apolitical Operation Home Front efforts that knitted gear for soldiers, Mazza wanted "to start a dialogue about the war and to get politicians to keep the promises they made during the midterm elections" .
The Viral Knitting Project is an anti-war effort that translates the 0/1 binary code of the dangerous Code Red computer virus into a knitting pattern of knit/purl. The color and code relate to the anti-terrorism alerts of post 9/11 United States. The project is attempting to "draw together links between technology, culture, capitalism and war" .
Protest models
When craftivists take to the street, they utilize various protest models.A popular form of protest is the "knit-in," where knitters infiltrate a public space and knit. They might ride a subway, occupy a civic building, or sit in a park. They use the knit-in to draw attention to their issue of concern. The Revolutionary Knitting Circle
Revolutionary Knitting Circle
A Revolutionary Knitting Circle is an activist group which uses craftivism in their efforts to bring about social change....
of Calgary, Canada stage a knit-in in front of Calgary's financial office buildings during the summit of the G-8 nations in 2002 . The Knit-in not only provides an opportunity to protest against injustice, but also allows for a running discussion about social issues between the stationary knitters. Dr. Jack Bratich of Rutgers University argues that, "Knitting in public also creates a gendered question of space. It rips open the enclosure of the domestic space to public consumption, exposing productive work that has contributed to women’s invisible and unpaid labor". Women are, thereby, able to gain power from an activity that previously symbolized their repression.
Another form of craft-themed activism is guerilla art. The Texas-based group Knitta
Knitta
Knitta Please, also known as simply Knitta, is the group of artists who began the "knit graffiti" movement in Houston, Texas in 2005. They are known for wrapping public architecture—e.g. lampposts, parking meters, telephone poles, and signage—with knitted or crocheted material...
places street art such as street pole cozies and antenna warmers in cities throughout the country. Similarly, a blogger in England named "The Lonely Craftivist"creates textile art with political messages in public spaces.
In transition
In the spring of 2009, an online debate began over the definition of craftivism. The debate spread after the self-titled Craftivism team on EtsyEtsy
Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items as well as art and craft supplies. These items cover a wide range including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, bath & beauty products, quilts, knick-knacks and toys. Many individuals also sell craft supplies like beads,...
had an inner-group argument about the political affiliation of its members, causing some members to leave the group.
The original description of the group states, "The Etsy Craftivism Team is a team of progressive Etsyans who believe that craft and art can change the world. Some of us use our work to carry messages of protest and political activism. Others believe that the act of making craft can be an act of resistance. Still others see that by buying and selling directly from the maker we are challenging the all pervasive corporate culture that promotes profit over people.".
Conservative members accused the group of assuming a liberal agenda, and argued that politics should not be involved. Some members of the group felt that the mere act of crafting itself was political, while others felt that the act must also be attached to a political message. Rayna Fahey from Radical Cross Stitch replied to a thread stating “Personally if a John McCain supporter joined this group and told me that my latest piece in support of indigenous sovereignty was a well-made piece that serves the purpose for which it was designed well, I’d think that was awesome and I’d have hope for the future of this world.” . In contrast, craftivist Betsy Greer believes that "the personal is political," and that you cannot separate the two .