The importance of analogue skills in a digital future

Released during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Care Collective’s ‘The Care Manifesto’ argued that communal structures of care are central to our communities and polities. Echoing other critiques of contemporary neoliberal capitalism, the manifesto contributed to wider debates which challenge the growth narratives driving not only our economic but also socio-political lives.

This presentation foregrounds craft skills as enablers of care, given the central role they play as the key point of contact, and impact, between humans and the environment. The importance of craft skills in facilitating more ethical ways of engaging with our everyday material worlds is highlighted. It argues that the loss of craft skills is an increasing problem across the English-speaking countries of the Global North, poorly equipping these communities to enact necessary changes towards the more sustainable and caring futures demanded by the climate crisis.

A networking reception with refreshments will follow the keynote presentation.

Speaker

Professor Susan Luckman

Susan is a Professor of Culture and Creative Industries and Director of the Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3) at the University of South Australia. She is the Chief Investigator on ARC Discovery projects 'The Value of Craft Skills to the Future of Making in Australia' and 'Artisanal Making and the Future of Small-Scale Local Production'. Among other books, chapters and journal articles, Susan is the author of Craftspeople and Designer Makers in the Contemporary Creative Economy, Craft and the Creative Economy and Locating Cultural Work.