In Search of a Unified Theory of Craft: The Reconciliation of Difference

Humanity distinguishes itself from other life forms in its ability to think. Thinking is the fundamental activity of humankind. Thinking also implies consciousness, which implies love, which implies hate. Sequences lead to polarities and between polarities lies chaos. The process of thinking creates languages, objects and images. Each of these come in many forms and are related in a way that is, at best, ever more confusing and complex. Hierarchies (basically a form of language) tend to make things orderly and simple and are irrelevant (except in their political implication, unfortunately). Love is the most powerful force in the universe. If we follow the laws of entropy, then the human brain is the most complex phenomenon in the universe. Crafts, as a product of the human brain, show the same complexity in their quest to conceptualize the world as a phenomenon. By being closest to the body and all senses, they are more closely related to the erotic than the aesthetic; closer to poetry than discourse; closer to the oral tradition than the written one. They have more to do with practice than theory. And, like love, they are a fundamental activity of mankind.