Someone on the WhipUp forums touched on a topic that’s been dear to my heart as of late.
She wrote:
“There is a definite revival of DIY in our culture. It’s interesting a question as to how this all started. My belief is that it parallels the last revivial of DIY spirit in the 1970s.
At that time as well as today people felt disconnected, isolated, and desperate. People struggle to be heard especially in relationship to war and a repressive government. Art making of any kind is therapuetic and it restores our sense of empowerment. The DIY movement has been sparked by several different, maybe complimentary reasons:
the need for individuals to have an outlet.
the need to form community.
the need to access ones independence as a reflection of the ill equipped nature of the state.
the need to invest in the self.
the need for revolution.
the need for economic independence.
The nature of the DIY movement is thus to satisfy the retaliatory nature that arises when one feels repressed, isolated, and lacking the independence that every individual has a right to.”
………………
Recently I was interviewed for a potential article about the resurgence of crafting, and while I know there are as many factors as there are crafters, some common themes just keep coming up. One of the biggies is the concept of craftivism, or the role of craft in changing the world we live in. In addition to what the above author has written about the empowering nature of craft, I think it’s also about wanting to know the real cost of an item- not just the cash you plunk down, but the political, human and environmental costs that are so often hidden when you buy from the shelves of a chain store. I think more and more people want to look a real person in the eye and have that connection, that realness of knowing who made the item they are about to buy. NoImpact Man calls it transparency, the author of the above quote calls it independence or rebellion, but whatever you call it, the fact that people are looking for it fills me with hope and happiness.
