Lucy Johnston’s book Digital Handmade: Craftsmanship in the New Industrial Revolution eloquently discusses the diminished role of the individual craftsperson in the face of technology-driven mass production during the first Industrial Revolution and contrasts that with the trend driven by more recent developments: where once the human was marginalised, now the availability of digital technologies and tools has created new ways of working that privilege the role of the creative in the process, particularly those who combine the benefits of digitally aided manufacturing with those of master artisans. This collision of the traditional and the technological forms the heart of EMERGE 2023.

The countries in Southeast Asia have long and proud craft traditions, driven by local materials, lifestyle needs and unique cultures. But these craft traditions have been under threat from new modes of production, globalisation, and changing consumption and lifestyle patterns. Indeed, craftspeople have argued that industrialisation threatens to wipe out human knowledge and often emphasise that there are non-economic values in handicrafts, particularly lifestyle and the quality of life.

These trends have played out at a broad scale. The 1970s saw an increased interest in craft, coinciding with the decade’s ‘green wave’ during which many people left cities to live closer to nature. Traditional crafts that may have withered as their skill base eroded due to the secular social-political-economic factors above began to be rescued, revived and, we might say, reinvigorated by new generations. More recently, concepts such as locally produced and small-scale are seen as intrinsically valuable as well as being linked to ideals of more sustainable economies and ecologies.

Thus, the trajectories of these crafts have been irrevocably altered — they have been not only reproduced, but reconsidered, recontextualised and revalued.

This is what we present in the 2023 edition of EMERGE: a collection of Southeast Asian designers and artists whose work is shaped by a variety of approaches — from a rootedness in ancient craft, to interpretations of the traditional through new materials and techniques, to methods of working that are entirely reliant on contemporary technological innovation.

From fully developed to experimental, each piece is deeply considered, shining a light on the cross-currents between traditional crafts, new technologies, emerging materials, visionary ideas and interdisciplinary methods, as well as the social, cultural and economic value of craft and how it continues to contribute to storytelling and identity; there is a clear spirit of origin, but it comes hand in hand with a universal relevance.