INDIAN OCEAN TRIENNIAL AUSTRALIA 2021: Futuring Craft (Sep 2021, Perth, Western Australia)

Dates: 16-18 September 2021
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Website: IOTA21
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 1 March 2021

As human beings, we rely on non-human things; the objects that are central to the sustenance of our physical and mental life. Consequently, and significantly, crafts and craft-making are value-driven within the existing economic paradigm, applied across the region, reflecting communities’ transformation towards modernity, sustainable development, and beyond.

Craft can be acknowledged as an object of empowerment: not only through a monetary lens but as an artefact that interacts physically, mentally and metaphysically through the qualities inherent in its design and making, and through sensory influences of experience, emotion, and aesthetic pleasure.

Across five overlapping key themes or topics, the conference will map contemporary crafts and define the scope of craft making in the Indian Ocean region. The dynamic exchange of knowledge and ideas will critically analyse and challenge notions that crafts are embedded in the past and address the concept of, ‘Craft … as elemental to a future economy and culture.’ (Fry, 2011, p.139)

The discussions emanating from the IOTA21 ‘Futuring Craft’ conference and exhibitions that explore ‘Curiosity and Rituals of the Everyday’ aim to inspire people to create a relevant, viable and better future through creative craft.

Further details concerning the conference scope and its research topics, as well as the submission formats, please visit the website.