World of No Craft

World of No Craft was a year long Artistic Development project for Konstfack - University College of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm. Part of the project involved an installation at the Glass Factory - a new museum built on the site of a downsized glassworks.

The town of Boda in Southern Sweden was once a community centred around a busy glass factory. With outsourcing of production by Orrefors KostaBoda AB, the Boda glass works closed down, forcing the community to seek a new form of development. In 2010 Emmaboda Kommun bought the archive of glass pieces from Orrefors Kosta Boda AB. The collection includes over 20,000 pieces of Swedish factory glass which date from the 19th century to the present and included designs produced in the factories of Boda, Kosta and Åfors by Erik Högland, Signe Persson-Melin and Elis Berg.
World Of No Craft involved making a selection from the archive of around a hundred pieces. Digital models and animations were created showing the objects morphing from one shape to another. The real objects were then displayed in a purpose built cabinet and the digital animations projected on an adjacent wall. Visitors were invited to control the animations and ‘re-form’ the objects by moving their hands in empty space.

Charlie Stern