HALL OF NETS
(Please use desktop or tablet view for artist credit overlay for each Net Work)
NET WORKS
Learn to Craft Handmade nets for empty hoops in your Neighborhood
Net Works was the founding project of New Craft Artists in Action in Boston in 2010. It’s a non-commercial, open sourced initiative by which vibrant hand-made basketball nets are crafted, usually via knit, crochet and macrame (knotted rope), for empty hoops in neighborhoods across the globe.
Basketball has slowly evolved since 1891, when James Naismith posed a recycled peach basket as the first hoop for his students in Springfield, Massachusetts. Woven nets emerged several years later, introducing a new dimension for movement and audio-kinetic satisfaction. Inspired by the many ways nets benefit the game, NCAA Net Works proceeds by a mapping process and a form of DIY slow production. This communal creative process aligns with themes craftivist & feminist knitted graffiti movements (sometimes called “yarn bombing”), while honoring utility in the history of craft. It also connects to the roots of basketball on many levels that you can read about in the NCAA MXNIFESTO.
Net Works leverages resourceful, creative problem solving to call attention to neglected public spaces and plug into a natural cycle of useable public fiber sculpture. It draws attention to the expressive potential of these spaces while challenging commercially driven professional athletic institutions. Inviting polarized communities to cross limiting boundaries, this process encourages positive relationships between athletes, artists and neighbors. Brought to participants via traveling workshops, pick up games and internet cataloguing, Net Works addresses public space, queerness, collaboration, feminism, and interdisciplinary learning. Here the form and function of the “street” and the “domestic” collide in hand-made tactical aesthetics that express dissidence and generate new approaches to public space.
To learn more about making your own nets check out our 2014 self-published workbook- Net Works: Learn to Craft Handmade Nets for Empty Hoops in Your Neighborhood. We encourage you to initiate Net Works in your city and share what you’ve made so we can post it to our Hall of Nets!