Through this presentation, Ananas Anam shows their commitment to promote a more sustainable lifestyle, improve the usage of nature-based resources and create positive impact to communities through Piñatex®. Piñatex® is a patented, natural and innovative plant-based material made from pineapple leaf fibres, a by-product of the pineapple agriculture. It has low water use, and contains no harmful chemicals or animals’ products. It can be used as an alternative to leather and synthetic materials in the fashion, accessories, interiors and car industry.

How to achieve sustainability for the craft sector in a scenario of climate change and market expansion? This presentation shows the way to achieve such sustainability whilst contributing to the discussion about the life-cycles of material resources. Junco is a vegetable-fiber that grows in the Peruvian wetlands. For the last 5000 years this material has been used by basketry artisans from Huara, a province next to Caral. The artisans perceive that the availability of junco has diminished due to environmental and economic factors. The increased demand for junco is affecting the wetland’s ecosystem. Woven baskets made from vegetable fiber are in high-demand due a plastic ban that resulted from strengthened environmental policies in Peru.

This presentation discusses the CordiTex, a product of modern technology, which uses the digital loom in reconstructing and transferring the data to written form that young weavers can re-weave in their traditional looms. It now presents a new narrative to empower local weavers, engender ethnic identity, and sustain Cordillera weaving.

This presentation discusses the problems, challenges, and strategies of developing craft in Indonesia. Unlike in the West, craft activities in Indonesia are usually done by craft community, which has its own problems and advantages. To scale up their economic value, craft productions are often set up as industrial way that for some extent may cause environmental and social impacts. For that reason, this discussion will focus on how craft can benefit from, or collaborate with industry, without losing its nature and role as continuing cultures and societies. Thus, in what way craft production can gain the same position as industry? And finally, what is the role of designer in this situation?

What happens when art moves away from self-contained objects and towards interaction? How can craft address fundamental social issues like Alzheimer’s or special needs? This presentation focused on 'The Dispensary', a mobile ‘cabinet of curiosities’ that inhabited the dementia wards of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and is now resident in a specialist dementia care home in London. Incorporating visual, tactile and sonic objects designed to stimulate curiosity, trigger memories, and ultimately enhance linguistic function, 'The Dispensary' unsettles traditional relationships between artist, observer, and object, exploring the interplay between well-making, place-making, craft, memory and personal agency.