How To: Use Craft as an Everyday Intervention of Joy

Sammanfattning: This paper questioned how we could utilise feelings of joy, specifically those within a craft context, as a tool of intervention in everyday life. I explored using craft, both in its making and experiencing, as a means for carrying joy into the daily life of the public, thereby increasing well-being and potentially acting as a catalyst for change. I argued the importance of joy in our lives, as well as the need for public accessibility to art and craft. I wanted to use this paper to draw focus on the value I place upon somatic engagement of the body, specifically when we engage with craft, art and our everyday lives. I believe that by centring the experience of the body and educating about the importance of somatics, we can explore a different methodology for engaging with our everyday environments. I argued somatic understanding is critical, as it allows us to move from a purely cognitive understanding to one that is experiential, thereby creating a more accessible and inclusive framework for creating and understanding art and craft.