Knit a River

Knit a River, Photo Courtesy of iknitlondon

Knit a River is a project that perfectly embodies the Craftivist collision with Network Cultures. It was organized by the London group I Knit in conjunction with WaterAid, a charity organization that aims to provide access to safe water all over the globe, as a protest to raise awareness for this inequality. In June of 2006, I Knit invited the global knitting population to contribute to the project by sending six inch blue squares. The squares would then be sewn together to make a patchwork blanket of squares from all over the world. 

I Knit received 100,000 blue squares and the blanket traveled to venues around Europe in parades or draped across surfaces to invite people to hang out in the "river." In May 2007, over 200 knitters and WaterAid volunteers joined to carry part of the river down the Albert Embankment to give to the Prime Minister in order to put the issue in the spotlight right before the G8 Summit.

Knit a River, Photo Courtesy of iknitlondon

Knit a River embodies the type of peaceful protest that can occur when likeminded individuals come together to promote change. Through the use of a global network, I Knit was able to exponentially increase their workforce, just the type of activities which occur when social networks and services crowd source their online communities.

The Giant Knitting Nancy

At the London Festival of Architecture this Summer, a giant knitting installation was assembled as an interactive seating component. The Giant Knitting Nancy was designed by London design collaborative Superblue. The theme of the LFA was "The Welcoming City" and the Giant Knitting Nancy invited passerbys into the installation area to help knit the piece, or to just hang out and sit on the balls that are covered with knitting! The knitted piece also represented network cultures woven together through the festival.
Pictures courtesy of Superblue

The Counterfeit Crochet Project

The Counterfeit Crochet Project (Critique of a Political Economy) was started in 2006 by Stephanie Syjuco, an artist from San Francisco, who has always had an interest in "piracy and bootlegging as they apply to today's globalized economy." Syjuco started a website, inviting fellow crocheters to join her in counterfeiting high-end, luxury designer handbags. Each contributor chooses their handbag of choice and replicates it in their own unique manner, using the basic design and logo, but adding flair when necessary. For Syjuco, the resulting "mistranslation is quite beautiful." She provides some patterns for knockoff logos, such as Chanel, Fendi, and Gucci, but also loves seeing what other pattern makers come up with. The Counterfeit Crochet Project has been featured in exhibitions all over the world, from China to the Philippines to Turkey, and Syjuco has given workshops on counterfeiting in conjunction with these exhibitions, while also teaching crochet in the gallery spaces. Taking over a gallery space with tables, cheap yarn, and crocheting lessons is a secondary juxtaposition of our typical gallery environment of "high art" with an interactive playground-like atmosphere.

From The Counterfeit Crochet Project's website:

It seems to me that ingenuity and inventiveness lays at the heart of those who decide to make things for themselves. Crafting is overlooked, even denigrated as a viable 'vernacular' form of expression. I view the impetus to handmake something in an era of mass production a personal and perhaps even political act, a way to give yourself agency to create and produce in an age of standardization and retail.

Syjuco says you can look at the project as outsourcing of labor, gathering crocheters to execute these handbags, but she prefers to look at it as a collaboration between likeminded individuals. Either way, they are simultaneously undermining and promoting these luxury goods... some people would look at the bags and think they must really love the designer, or that the bag could possibly be an authentic new design from the fashion houses. But mostly they are taking using handcraft to mock highly crafted design. Of course, some of the bags are made in China, but some of the bags/items are couture - completely made by hand. Isn't it ironic?

Nevertheless, Syjuco is gathering the masses through network society to campaign against issues of consumerism, materialism, industrialization, and all other issues inherent in capitalism. And through the exhibition of these materials, she is allowing the makers to contribute to the vision, while still maintaining ownership of their fabrication, thus the subject as owner/maker is clearly defined. Value, on the other hand, is somewhat fuzzy because it straddles the line between Value as artpiece or movement and Value as was first assigned through the creation of the authentic luxury good. See a video on the project for more explanation and imagery of the exhibitions and submissions.

Craftivist Collective

Sarah Corbett was blogging as A Lonely Craftivist when fellow knitters started asking her about a potential collaboration. She then started the Craftivist Collective to join knittivists to create projects "to expose the scandal of global poverty, and human rights injustices though the power of craft and public art. This will be done through provocative, non-violent creative actions." There are two groups who meet in England, but they present their work and have collaborators all over the world. You can also get kits from them to perform the same type of work, no matter your location. They use the global network that the internet provides to expand their physical network and they invite any level of crafters to join their efforts. And when they meet, they sometimes get guest artists to come and present their works.

To the left is a collage of the Craftivist Collective's latest project (courtesy of their website), which was a Bed-In in conjunction with John Lennon's 70th birthday in October. The Bed-In was a peaceful protest to promote awareness of issues local and global with a Beatles perspective (ie All you Need is Love), by "sewing and stitching their way to peace... to show how inequality in all forms causes conflict." Below is the progress on the quilt, from craftivists all over the world portraying their peace patches.