excerpt: I want to talk to you today about reality. If you’re like me, you’re tired of hearing that we as a society have a newfound appreciation for it — that we’re taking breaks from digital technology and falling back in love with craft because we miss genuine sensory experience. I realize there is much evidence to support this belief. Even my own magazine has furnished it. For instance, I.D. recently published a collection of quilts sewn from vintage silk ties by Cranbook’s former faculty member Katherine McCoy. As many of you know, Kathy was trained as an industrial designer, had an enormous influence here in the 2D department, and went on to become a theorist of digital worlds. “Working with sensual fabric was a great complement to all those dematerialized, out-of-body, cerebral projects,” she told us.
It’s all very well for Kathy, or for the CAD-wielding architects and mouse-pushing designers among you (I feel safe in excluding the ceramics and metalwork people). But if you believe the hype, we’ve ALL become tactility junkies, desperate to run our fingers over paper products such as newsprint. We’ve forgotten how few years have passed since The New York Times distributed white gloves to subway commuters so they could avoid smearing ink on their noses. And anyway, when exactly were we a nation of pot-throwers? We’re couch potatoes, remember? We’ve been staring at television screens with our mouths open at least since the 1950s, and before that we were stupefied by movies and radio.
According to popular wisdom, we miss not only sensory experience but authenticity too. We’re spending a lot of time in quasi-real, digitally engineered worlds and we’re spending a lot of money on factory-made objects. We apparently like one-offs or limited editions with imperfect forms and surfaces because they bear narratives of their facture that seem more enticing than the story of clones brought into existence on an assembly line. Yet when have we not taken every opportunity to customize and thereby humanize mass-produced goods, whether by adding decals to our bicycles or ripping our T-shirts?
The cure is a hobby -- start colect vintage Opera glasses, - you be surprised when you buy your first rare pieces ,facinated about the detail and quality, -- begin find rare clotches there are so many niches ,just think about what an investment this will be in a few years , when it become fasion in cina, to collect 17' century furniture, when there be a ten fold marked for arts and crafts the real stuff --- put that in perspective with how you would emagine things unfold in just ten years when people hunger for attachment and curious items from a world so much smaller back then, I guess there Will be a periode of Renecaince, but don't forget that most of it is just nostalgia esp. now, in fact we do that much better today , than back then --- and why shuldn't we find a real paragime shift ,the real change from analog to digital, that will bring wonders just so great even greater and further wonderfull creativity now just with the digital magic-stick, things havn't changed that much yet, but they will.
whether relevant or not, those passages made me think of east germany circa 1989 when the little east german-made car, the trabant, was sometimes the only kind of car you'd see on any given road. the magic of trabants to me was that people had identical cars (well, a few different colors were available) but decorated or otherwise modified them to make them their own. it was a beautiful and brilliant example of the desire for human expression.
I think its more craft vs. the tenents of modernism than it is craft vs. digitization. Digitization will only enhance craft and technology are inseperable - modernism and socialist values well thats another story -
So you see, I’m not disputing or opposing the reawakening of a hunger for craft — and certainly not picking that fight on this campus. I am disputing and opposing the easy polarities that pit craft against technology, materials against ideas, and the hand against the mind.
I was very surprised about opera glasses was used -- I didn't know this.
--- There are Opera glasses that maginfy 3 or 3,5 times , and realy that is plenty to see what happen at the stage.
Then what about Opera glasses that magnify 8 or 10 times , all you see are the nose of the primadonna, and Yes I wondered about that for a long long time.
---- But there are two uses for Opera glasses. One is to atch the stage , the other is , puh to se who is with whom ,and all in public , huh ...
Esp the bottom one is for spying on who is with who's , 7:25 hardly just Opera glasses.
But that don't mean anything is wrong with strong Opera glasses, first of all they are allowed -- not like your phone ,even that has a camera, then a set of real Opera Glasses is something uite different.
And what is wrong checking who is with who's ,they are also great watching Murals;
in defence of craft
Julie Lasky's Commencement address at Canbrook...
excerpt:
I want to talk to you today about reality. If you’re like me, you’re tired of hearing that we as a society have a newfound appreciation for it — that we’re taking breaks from digital technology and falling back in love with craft because we miss genuine sensory experience. I realize there is much evidence to support this belief. Even my own magazine has furnished it. For instance, I.D. recently published a collection of quilts sewn from vintage silk ties by Cranbook’s former faculty member Katherine McCoy. As many of you know, Kathy was trained as an industrial designer, had an enormous influence here in the 2D department, and went on to become a theorist of digital worlds. “Working with sensual fabric was a great complement to all those dematerialized, out-of-body, cerebral projects,” she told us.
It’s all very well for Kathy, or for the CAD-wielding architects and mouse-pushing designers among you (I feel safe in excluding the ceramics and metalwork people). But if you believe the hype, we’ve ALL become tactility junkies, desperate to run our fingers over paper products such as newsprint. We’ve forgotten how few years have passed since The New York Times distributed white gloves to subway commuters so they could avoid smearing ink on their noses. And anyway, when exactly were we a nation of pot-throwers? We’re couch potatoes, remember? We’ve been staring at television screens with our mouths open at least since the 1950s, and before that we were stupefied by movies and radio.
According to popular wisdom, we miss not only sensory experience but authenticity too. We’re spending a lot of time in quasi-real, digitally engineered worlds and we’re spending a lot of money on factory-made objects. We apparently like one-offs or limited editions with imperfect forms and surfaces because they bear narratives of their facture that seem more enticing than the story of clones brought into existence on an assembly line. Yet when have we not taken every opportunity to customize and thereby humanize mass-produced goods, whether by adding decals to our bicycles or ripping our T-shirts?
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/038334.html
thoughts?
Didn't we go through this movement in England, in the 1800s or so? Isn't this what Morris was talking about?
she doesn't seem to be defending craft, but instead, saying that craft and technology should not be pitted against each other in a dialectic.
i like her distinction between "just do it" and "make it work." "make it work" does seem far more contemporary...
even if you have to fake it?
The cure is a hobby -- start colect vintage Opera glasses, - you be surprised when you buy your first rare pieces ,facinated about the detail and quality, -- begin find rare clotches there are so many niches ,just think about what an investment this will be in a few years , when it become fasion in cina, to collect 17' century furniture, when there be a ten fold marked for arts and crafts the real stuff --- put that in perspective with how you would emagine things unfold in just ten years when people hunger for attachment and curious items from a world so much smaller back then, I guess there Will be a periode of Renecaince, but don't forget that most of it is just nostalgia esp. now, in fact we do that much better today , than back then --- and why shuldn't we find a real paragime shift ,the real change from analog to digital, that will bring wonders just so great even greater and further wonderfull creativity now just with the digital magic-stick, things havn't changed that much yet, but they will.
i don't have room for 17' furniture
"that will bring wonders just so great even greater and further wonderfull creativity now just with the digital magic-stick"
Per u Rock
whether relevant or not, those passages made me think of east germany circa 1989 when the little east german-made car, the trabant, was sometimes the only kind of car you'd see on any given road. the magic of trabants to me was that people had identical cars (well, a few different colors were available) but decorated or otherwise modified them to make them their own. it was a beautiful and brilliant example of the desire for human expression.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=trabant&w=all
I think its more craft vs. the tenents of modernism than it is craft vs. digitization. Digitization will only enhance craft and technology are inseperable - modernism and socialist values well thats another story -
tenet n. a principle, doctrine or opinion maintained, as by an organization or school of thought
oops - I spelled "defense"wrong. I wish I could edit the title...
steven - I've never heard of that car - great stuff
the link seems to have changed:
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=38334
So you see, I’m not disputing or opposing the reawakening of a hunger for craft — and certainly not picking that fight on this campus. I am disputing and opposing the easy polarities that pit craft against technology, materials against ideas, and the hand against the mind.
I never have to fake it.
per....who you checking out with your opera glasses....??? naughty naughty!
I was very surprised about opera glasses was used -- I didn't know this.
--- There are Opera glasses that maginfy 3 or 3,5 times , and realy that is plenty to see what happen at the stage.
Then what about Opera glasses that magnify 8 or 10 times , all you see are the nose of the primadonna, and Yes I wondered about that for a long long time.
---- But there are two uses for Opera glasses. One is to atch the stage , the other is , puh to se who is with whom ,and all in public , huh ...
Esp the bottom one is for spying on who is with who's , 7:25 hardly just Opera glasses.
But that don't mean anything is wrong with strong Opera glasses, first of all they are allowed -- not like your phone ,even that has a camera, then a set of real Opera Glasses is something uite different.
And what is wrong checking who is with who's ,they are also great watching Murals;
And what's wrong having the right binoculars to see the primadonna's nose ;
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