This paper explores aspects of methodology, materiality and meaning in hybrid craft practices that synthesise conventionally unrelated disciplines, some with historical authority as hand craft, and others without. In doing so it frames a potential alternative to a dialectic of objects positioned as either analogue craft:past or techno fab:future.
It commences by outlining a case study undertaken in Bandung and the Garud-Tasikmalaya region of West Java, Indonesia from 2013-2015; the Digital Bamboo Studio. This collaborative, practice-led research project engaged Indonesian bamboo artisans, Indonesian and Australian researchers, designers and design students to ideate and craft novel interactive objects using traditional bamboo techniques, digital fabrication processes and interaction electronics. The project’s premise arose from a provocation - what might occur if the Indonesian practice of disrupting existing social media technologies and repurposing them for their own community needs, such as ‘twitter trading’, were applied to craft practice or production? Could the “internet of things” include craft objects?