Vol. 12 No. 2
Fall / Winter 2017
What are we making? That is a question we are always asking ourselves here at Studio. Making a magazine is an unfolding process and each issue invites us to pose the question and respond to the ideas that result.
First, we recently decided that we needed to make some changes. The Slice section had run its course. The internet is the place for topical news and announcements. When there is something to celebrate or announce, we should be doing it immediately not gathering it 6 months ahead of press-time to let it get stale in paper pages. So you will see all of what would have been Slice on Studiomagazine.ca from now on.
We will not make stale pages, we decided. Our questions are now and in the making. So we’ve brought in some outside voices in a new section called Atelier – voices from history, from literature and from thinkers related and not related to craft and design. We’ve also decided to give a few pages in each issue to craft and design work being made around the world because Canada thrives when taken in the context of our whole, boundary-less world. This issue sees America and Britain featured – that’s because our ties with the American Craft Council and the Crafts Council (UK) are our closest international cousins. In future issues we’ll be presenting as broad coverage as possible – Canadian making deserves to be seen in the whole picture. Suggestions are very welcome.
So what are you making? And for that matter, what does making mean to you? Or to turn that question around slightly: what are we trying to make making mean?
As we starting thinking about this issue, we realized that we’re all using this word ‘make’ as if it’s already part of ‘craft’ or ‘design’ or ‘art materialization’. Why ‘making’? Is the ‘maker’ movement democratic and open, or is it strategic marketing? What does “I am a maker” mean? Making is something that human beings have done since our earliest beginnings – imbuing material (matter) with something more, transforming material from one configuration into another, into a thing. Things: useful, pleasant, necessary, fanciful. In its beauty and utility, making can be something to aspire to, something to think about, something to embody some other idea, or something to pay the rent. Craft and design is many things – it is making something. What are we making? And why?
Leopold Kowolik and Gord Thompson
REGULARS:
Editors’ Note
Atelier
Under the Radar
Introducing Lydia Buxton
Portfolio
Six makers discuss making – what does the word mean anyway?
Did you Know?
Michael Prokopow considers cultural appropriation
Review: Sarah Hall
Peter O’Brien reviews a new installation at Greenwood College School
Review: SakKijajuk
Ray Cronin reviews an exhibition in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia
Review: Now I Sit me Down
Peter Fleming reviews the latest Witold Rybczynski book
inStudio
We play the game with Kami Goetz
FRESH:
The Meeting of Matter and Meaning
Materials can have conceptual value that is absolutely physical. Mireille Peron explains.
The Whole Story
Koen Vanderstukken’s new book might be the last word on glass history. Kathy Kranias discusses Glass: Virtual, Real with him.
Digital Citizens Change Making
Erin Klassen responds to one of our Did You Know? articles.
The Marvellous Glassmaking Life of Elmer John Hookway
Heather Read takes us from the circus to insulin through a remarkable piece of Canadian history.
Hope and Survival
The December 1917 Halifax explosion is being commemorated. Grace Butland introduces the quilt project.
Making Reality
A small Toronto start-up is taking part in shaping the virtual world. We met up with Quantum Capture and had a chat.
