RosettaStone: CRAFT A primary, secondary, and annotated source reader for functional craft. By: Randi O'Brien

This is an annotated evaluation of the following:
The Fate of Craft. by Larry Shiner
Larry Shiner, “The Fate of Craft” in Neo Craft: Modernity and the Crafts, ed. Sandra Alfoldy, 33-46 (Nova Scotia: The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 2007)

Reviewed by Randi O’Brien

An inquisitive article on contemporary issues of the word craft and the anxiety and associations that follows craft classification, The Fate of Craft written by author, and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, History, and Visual Arts at the University of Illinois Springfield, Larry Shiner, considers descriptions and associations of the word craft as well as examines “crafts position between design and art”. The author presents a line of reasoning for craftsmen, designers, and artist to observe the overlap and barrowing of elements (hand, material, mastery, and use) between design, art, and craft that does not necessarily make three distinct areas of practices, which the author believes is necessary to fully understand that the term “craft” has a flexibility and strength in its ambiguity. Shiner regularly proposes philosophical and critical questioning of the term craft that elicits multiple perspectives and rationales. My overall impression is that the author has expanded the discussion of craft labeling anxiety in a voice and line of inquisition that develops strength for the term craft in a non-binding and masterful way.

In this article, the author has relied on past theoretical debates in the crafting field, some of which include Peter Dormer in the Culture of Craft, Paula Owen in Objects and Meaning, David Pye in the Nature and Art of Workmanship. Makers and thinkers of all practices would find this article useful for an understanding on how each field or practice barrows fundamental elements from one another, as would craftsmen looking to develop an argument for the nature in which craft museums, craft magazines, and other craft organizations are dropping the term craft from their titles to adopt other labels.