Between May 20 and June 4, HDK-Valand is curating a new exhibition in Röhsska’s Super Ö space, which explores craft within two research projects: the Horizon Europe project Hephaestus and Lek i Staden. Can craft offer alternative ways to organize labor and production? Can it create new forms of participation in public space? What happens when craft meets data and digital processes? These are some of the questions explored through the exhibition.
The space is framed by the speculative investigation Brave New World, where the Italian artist duo D20 has used generative AI to imagine an alternative timeline in which industrialization never displaced traditional craft. By engaging fourteen different craft artists from Dals Långed in Sweden, Bornholm in Denmark, and Bassano del Grappa and Venice in Italy, new craft-based narratives are constructedstories about alternative ways of living and designing society, opening up space for other possible futures.
– Brave New World is an exploration where we’ve developed relationships with craft practitioners across different parts of Europe and created a shared space for speculation. Our artistic inquiry spans both analog and digital technologies and looks toward both the past and the future, says Elena Raviola from HDK-Valand, who is curating the space.
Encounters between craft and computers
The exhibition also features four experimental encounters between craft and computers. Three of these are part of a residency program where craft artists Lukas Arons, Rob Curran, and Linnea Dalstrand visited FabLab Venice to push the boundaries of their practices using 3D scanning, 3D printing, and laser cutting.
The fourth experiment connects clay, motion sensors, artificial intelligence, and 3D printing. Here, craft artist and HDK-Valand lecturer Theodor Harper-Davis is working between his studio in the UK and Studio Alight in Gothenburg to explore how hours of craftwork can be transformed into data, 3D-printed, and turned back into physical objects—across geographical borders.
– The four experiments offer a starting point to reflect on the futures of craft and what it means to datafy craft – and to craft with data. How are craft practitioners engaging with new technologies? What happens when the material processes of craft meet data and data-driven labor? The results will be discussed during a panel talk and gathering on June 4, says Elena Raviola.
