ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the tensions between craft and academic work. It exposes the tensions and contradictory dynamics of academic publishing that may promote innovative methodological and writing practices but under the weight of standardisation and competition are still unable to adequately accommodate craft-based methodologies. The chapter explores the number of personal themes that engage different modes of craft-based resistance, namely: the relationships between the intellectual and the haptic; the sensory basis for textile work; resistance and utopian notions of craft. It also explores generosity and scarcity in producing craft objects such as the abundance of materials for use in textiles workshops; and the influence of De Certeau and Benjamin in the conceptual thinking behind some of the projects and pieces Ann has produced. Rejecting women's traditional crafts became a moment of feminist resistance that led to an ambivalence of embroidery as a source of creative satisfaction but also an emblem or instrument for oppression.