ENTWINEMENTS

From the Rosen Group, in NICHE Magazine, for craft retailers, I found this article, "The Times They are a Changin" , by Lynda McDaniel. The site is a little confused, but worth persevering. The emphasis here seems to be on affordable, even if objects must be must be made industrially, oh yes, and free enterainment too please. I've seen this trend too; people's time is so scarce that they want to do more than one thing with a trip/their time.

Dennis Stevens, who has a blog, "redefining craft", gave a talk at CODA in 2006 that you can hear too.

I did learn that high price alone is a turn-off to Gen-Xers because this cyncial group thinks that the prices are a scheme of big, corrupt corporations to separate them from their dollars. I have seen their aversion to high priced/refined objects and not being of this generation I don't understand all the facets of this aversion. Another facet, I believe, is the care such objects take.

Stevens has interesting insights into the generations take on crafts but his condemnation of the marketplace, the most democratic of all the 3M's is suprising or illplaced. The market is changing fast but the museums and media continue is their same old ruts. He is right in that there is a luddite componet in the crafts community but I find it more in retailers than in the makers. The museums and magazines show no signs that they know a Web 2.0 exists.

He also points out the energy and innovation that is in the DIY community.

Terms/concepts that I have discovered from Stevens are:
distributed learning community
community of practice.

We are both, aren't we?