>[!INFO] >This is one of the [[Symbolic values]] of craft. >Editor: [[Juliette MacDonald]] Creativity combines exploration and experimentation, risk-taking, playfulness, and expression of emotion and imagination. Creative makers synthesise their skill and experience to produce new ideas, connections and objects.   ### Key Claims %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: start ```dataview list summary from #claim AND [[Creative value of craft]] ``` %% - [[Weft/Claims/Claim - Craft skills can strengthen creativity in STEM.md|Claim - Craft skills can strengthen creativity in STEM]]: Craft has a valuable role in strengthening creative thinking across disciplines across the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) - [[Weft/Claims/Claim - Makers are creative.md|Claim - Makers are creative]]: Through their practical knowledge of materials, makers can unlock new creative possibilities. The bench provides a space for creativity, such as applying a traditional technique to new materials. %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: end %% ### Case study –  Crochet Coral Reef Christine Wertheim & Margaret Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring have created  crochet coral reefs as: a response to climate change; an acknowledgement of human labour, particularly of women whose crochet work is often unacknowledged; and a message of hope that is to be found by valuing the hand-made. [Crochet Coral Reef](https://crochetcoralreef.org/artscience/climatechange/) is constructed by communities of volunteers, thousands of people each contributing to a larger structure, mimicking the way living reefs grow due to colonies of coral polyps developing the structure of the reef. Playful creativity is encouraged: “Every crafter who contributes to the project is free to create new species of crochet reef organisms by changing the pattern of stitches or working with novel materials. Over time, a [Darwinian](https://crochetcoralreef.org/artscience/darwinianevolution/) landscape of woolly possibility has been brought into being. What started from simple seeds is now an ever-evolving, artefactual, hand-made ‘tree of life.’” ![[Attachments/96a981efda205fb25012b6744512757f_MD5.jpg]] Christine Wertheim & Margaret Wertheim Bleached Reef, at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Photo © Institute For Figuring. # References Dance, A.  (2021, February 11). ‘Art Graft: putting an ‘A’ into ‘STEMM’, Nature, Vol 590, p353 Bennett, J.  (2018) ‘Innovation through Craft – from policy to research to impact’ *Making Futures*, Vol 5, ISSN 2042-1664  Lambert, K. (2008). Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist’s Hands on Approach to Activating your Brain’s healing power, Basic Books, New York, USA Watson, J. D., and Crick, F. H. C.  (1953, April 25). ‘A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid’ Nature Vol 3, pp737-738 ### Related claims [[Claim - The physical manipulation of materials can help solve an abstract problem]] [[Claim - Working with your hands stimulates mental development]] ### [[Sustainable Development Goals]] ![[E-WEB-Goal-04.png|150]]