Bioregional bodies : place-based making and experimental design practices in contemporary jewellery

This research investigates place-based making and experimental design practices in the field of contemporary jewellery as methods for embodying sensory connections to the land. Motivated by the proliferation of globalised materials, such as concrete and petrochemical plastics, that contribute to a sense of placelessness, this project is focussed on enhancing perceptions and knowledge of local materials foraged from the landscape. Constructing jewellery with materials local to Sydney, such as sandstone, coal and oyster shells, attends to social, cultural and temporal issues in terms of both historical and contemporary applications of materials when making jewellery. Drawing on the work of critical place-based designers and contemporary jewellers from Australia, New Zealand and Europe, I situate my practice in the field of experimental sustainable design. Informed by Shinto design traditions that honour materials within my Japanese heritage, I explore ideas for ecologically engaged critical making. The theoretical concepts of correspondence and textility presented by Tim Ingold then frame the creation of objects that explore the relationship between the maker, the material world and the sensory experience of wearing jewellery on the body. Sarah Pink’s methodology of sensory ethnography is used to examine aesthetic connections to local environments that emerge through the place-based method of bioregional foraging. The sensorial qualities of the jewellery series developed for this Master of Fine Arts practice-based research were critically considered to instrumentalise the naturally porous and activated surfaces of raw and unfinished materials. The works seek to enhance human connection to such materials and create embodied understandings of their local ecologies

Reviving boro: The transcultural reconstruction of Japanese patchwork

This thesis investigates boro as a revived cultural phenomenon, one that physically originated in Japan but that has been conceptually defined by other cultures. It excavates the layers of value and meaning embedded in boro as a result of making, collecting, exhibiting and design activities in order to reveal how and why people have begun to appreciate boro within a range of different cultural, spatial and social contexts. In doing so, this research challenges the existing literature documenting boro’s origins and authenticity and reveals the forces at play behind the transformation of boro from folk craft to the practice of contemporary art, design and fashion. Born out of necessity, boro combines materials, techniques and aesthetics that are rooted in Japanese mending culture and textile traditions. Drawing on Michael Thompson’s Rubbish Theory, the research demonstrates how, as boro’s functional value has decreased in the contemporary context, new values have been re-ascribed to it through its continued transcultural production in diverse contexts, in which boro has adopted a range of different roles from antique object and example of textile practice to vintage fashion style, a concept promoting sustainability, inspiration for creative practice and cultural symbol. This research critically evaluates these dimensions of the process of value creation through studies of personal and museum boro collections, new boro fashion design and recent boro practices of independent crafters. The return of boro in the global art and design landscape raises questions about how a revived phenomenon is translated in today’s diverse contexts and makes a special claim for boro’s original culture, how it communicates in other cultural spaces and how these are understood and reproduced in new possibilities. This thesis positions boro within a global context, demonstrating how the co-creation of meanings and values has developed through cultural connections and subsequent interpretations

Confucianisms for a Changing World Cultural Order

In a single generation, the rise of Asia has precipitated a dramatic sea change in the world’s economic and political orders. This reconfiguration is taking place amidst a host of deepening global predicaments, including climate change, migration, increasing inequalities of wealth and opportunity, that cannot be resolved by purely technical means or by seeking recourse in a liberalism that has of late proven to be less than effective. The present work critically explores how the pan-Asian phenomenon of Confucianism offers alternative values and depths of ethical commitment that cross national and cultural boundaries to provide a new response to these challenges. When searching for resources to respond to the world’s problems, we tend to look to those that are most familiar: Single actors pursuing their own self-interests in competition or collaboration with other players. As is now widely appreciated, Confucian culture celebrates the relational values of deference and interdependence—that is, relationally constituted persons are understood as embedded in and nurtured by unique, transactional patterns of relations. This is a concept of person that contrasts starkly with the discrete, self-determining individual, an artifact of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western European approaches to modernization that has become closely associated with liberal democracy. Examining the meaning and value of Confucianism in the twenty-first century, the contributors—leading scholars from universities around the world—wrestle with several key questions: What are Confucian values within the context of the disparate cultures of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam? What is their current significance? What are the limits and historical failings of Confucianism and how are these to be critically addressed? How must Confucian culture be reformed if it is to become relevant as an international resource for positive change? Their answers vary, but all agree that only a vital and critical Confucianism will have relevance for an emerging world cultural order. An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched, a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher.Knowledge Unlatche

Confucianisms for a Changing World Cultural Order

The rise of Asia has precipitated a dramatic sea change in the world’s economic and political orders, and deepening global predicaments, including climate change, migration, and increasing inequalities of wealth and opportunity, pose new challenges. This book critically explores how the pan-Asian phenomenon of Confucianism offers alternative values and depths of ethical commitment that cross national and cultural boundaries to provide a new response to these challenges. Examining the meaning and value of Confucianism in the twenty-first century, the contributors—leading scholars from universities around the world—wrestle with several key questions: What are Confucian values within the context of the disparate cultures of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam? What are the limits and historical failings of Confucianism and how are these to be critically addressed? How must Confucian culture be reformed if it is to become relevant as an international resource for positive change