Hi everyone, if your still there...wow its been forever. I want to post a paper I wrote this semester here. I enjoyed writing it and really thinking about the the topic. Its a bit long so fair warning.
Finding CAD's place in the studio - a look at CAD/CD/RP use in Craft practices.
Digital processes are expanding the limits of craft practice. As a jeweler, I enjoy incorporating computer-aided design (CAD) and rapid prototyping (RP) into my studio practice. It allows me to do the precise technical aspects of my work without distracting me from the ideas and aesthetics underlying the piece. By harnessing the computer’s capabilities in complex geometry, I feel I am able to make a better quality piece of jewelry. Despite how adaptive and useful CAD/RP can be, it has been relatively slow to spread to the craft community. By understanding why this is, we can start to move forward into incorporating it better into the studio. If the Craft community continues to be hesitant to accept CAD/RP technology into their practice, the craft community will struggle to grow and possibly be phased out by industrial design.
Societies and organizations that fail to adapt perish. This is true on a large or small scale. We see this all the time with companies - one fails to adapt to the changing market or consumer base, loses business, and fails, to be replaced by one that does. CAD/RP technologies had been around since the 1950's and 1960's, when their uses became apparent for the design community, who were quick to start adopting and using the new technology. It was harder to grasp the value that this technology could bring to craft. It was not until around the 2000's that digital fabrication began to be talked about in the Arts and Craft communities. As the software became a bit more user-friendly, some of the patent fell into the public domain, and the price point of entry lowered. As it to begin to be adopted by more people, it started to cause a bit of discord in the Arts and Crafts world. [1]
There is a danger that by ignoring or not fully accepting this new technology, craft will be eclipsed by Industrial design in the consumer's mind - causing craft to fade away slowly. If craft fails to meet the new challenges that technology brings, it will become outdated and arcane. Craft’s main purpose and goal is to be able to create something custom, durable and unique. It takes something practical and useful and elevates it. In Hal Foster's book "Design and Crime" [2] he uses the term " Flexible Specialization" . Idea is that design and large scale production is now able to produce things that are less general and more targeted to an individual's needs and wants. This is true more now than ever. In some regards Craft has always been “Flexible Specialization” on a small, even personal scale, however, industry is now able to adapt to the consumer's wants and needs very quickly and accurately. If Craft is going to be able to survive, it must continue to grow. By expanding how we think about new technologies, the craft community will be able to grow and be more relevant in the modern world. In fact, Craft is in a great position to take advantage of these new technologies if we could get over some of the challenges that new technologies bring. In an article for American Craft, written by Julie K. Hanus called "Brave New World", she quotes Anna Walker, a Wingate curatorial fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in saying "Craft has historically been about customizations, and because of that, craft artists are poised to harness these digital technologies and their maker culture as a friend of the field Craft is in a fantastic place to use these new technologies, because of what Craft has historically focused on doing. The knowledge and skill that the community can bring will enhance CAD/RP.
The idea that digital fabrication should be viewed as a craft is beginning to build as well.
In the same article under a section called Myths and Surprises, Anna Walker talks about the view that using this technology is easy and simple, something craftspeople who are using the technology point out is false. becoming competent in digital fabrication takes just as much if not more time than some traditional craft mediums as the field is constantly being changed and expanded. "So the blacksmith that has spent years honing their craft is somehow better than someone who has spent years learning code, learning CAD, building their own 3D printer or CNC, and making work? This technology requires the same, if not more, investment of time to learn and explore." [4]
For me, I do not think that the idea that CAD/RP is easy is what is keeping it from entering fully into craft, the problem is how the process of learning goes. Most crafts need to be taught person to person, certainly not all do, and some are more group or individual based, but digital fabrication really goes against this by often being learned and taught outside of a traditional person to person craft education. Learning Rhino - a popular CAD software may be made easier to learn in the classroom, but it is also possible and practical to learn by online tutorials, something that is difficult or impossible when talking about some other craft disciplines. Without leaving your house, you can start to produce work without ever talking or learning directly from another person. In a society where the teacher-student relationships goes the way back to master and apprentice, this can be very challenging thing to accept and view as equally .
This is also part of its appeal. To begin in CAD/RP all you need is a computer and connection to the . There is little to no formal bar to entry. You do not need a studio; you do not need a teacher. In this way, it is perhaps the most available medium to people, and it is changing the way art is made. In the article "Brave New World" under the section "New Virtual Reality" Anna Walker, says "Digital technologies open up a whole new way of collaborating across vast geographies, designing something in a virtual world and the ability to send, share, and manipulate with many different artists offer exciting possibilities for the field"[5] and this can sometimes come a bit too close for comfort to the DIY movement. The difference between a craftsperson’s use of the CAD-CAM/RP as a material and that of someone who is more of a hobbyist is how they approach and understand . Craftsman tends to be in the habit of thinking about materials and taking into account how they grow, shrink, expand or shift as they are working. By utilizing the traditional method of craft - by knowing and respecting one's materials, then bringing in technology with this mindset, craft will be able to expand out of what it has traditionally been able to do. "Digital Fabrication technology does not threaten craft - it enriches it, and craft, in turn, can improve the digital" [6] says Julie Homes in the American craft article "Brave new world." By testing what craft can gain from Digital Fabrication both sides will improve and advance both fields to their mutual benefit.
One of the main problems with bringing CAD/RP into the craft world is where it should be placed in the crafting system. It is hard to fully accept something that is viewed as separate. When trying to find a place for CAD/RP one of the main problems is that it can be applied across disciplines and material lines. It does not need to stay with one discipline; it can be applied to many materials and in a multitude of different ways. In this way, it disrupts the basic guild system that the craft world has been based on since the 1400's. The guild system in Europe was divided mainly by material and end product; the woodworkers, the blacksmiths, the metal workers, and so on.
[7]Starting as an apprentice you would train under a master and then move through the ranks - being part of a guild at different times in history meant different things, but normally Guilds assured quality and price across their field. For the customer this meant they knew what they were getting and had an idea about who to complain to if they did not. On the craftsman’s end, they were given training, a way to earn a living and when they were advanced enough, help in the form of apprentices to do more basic or menial work. As the guild system changed and shifted over the years. Becoming more specific, and more like trade unions, they kept their same dividing lines, something that even though guilds have gone long ago, and the craft community has changed, we have largely . For evidence look at the way Art schools segment there teaching, there is the Arts/Craft departments that then split into smaller groups such as ceramic, painting and drawing, Jewelry/metal and textiles. A large part of this is practical, it is easier to teach a specific subject then a broad one.
I would also argue that although the Craft community sees itself as one when dealing with the larger arts community, inside we remain faithful to the old guild system.
Some have tried to place this technology into the realm of a tool. This makes sense, as it is often just a part of the process of a final object, and can be used as a tool. It also does not disrupt the old systems, many tools cross material lines. However, this does not allow the technology to be viewed to its full potential. Stanley Lechtzin, a professor at Tyler School of Art who introduced computers to the Jewelry and metal studio there in the 1980's, argues that it is not a tool, it is a new medium. In an article for American Craft called "Expanding the toolbox" written by Jo Lauria he says "CAD-CAM/RP are not just tools; they are more than tools. They comprise a medium, because the computer and the 3-D printer provide the materials and the tools to manipulate materials."[8] If we accept it as a new medium then, we have to start thinking about the craft discipline differently, and where the new medium fits. We need to either accept the technology as something of a new discipline entirely devoid from the other craft categories, or start to change the thinking on what makes the underlying basis of the craft categories, apart from materials.
This may be easier for some disciplines than others, for instance in sculpture, were materials have always been a bit fluid, they may advance quicker in adopting the use of this new . In some ways they already have. A good example of this is the 2012 La Voûte de LeFevre plywood Installation. The sculpture talks about the idea of thin structures in contrast to the strength of the object by using Digital fabrication and hand techniques. It is an interesting example because although it is a sculpture and appears to have been built as one, it is often viewed in a design light – particularly an architectural one.
The traditions and hand skills involved in craft will never go away. There is a basic human response to making things with your hands; that will always remain. However, by not accepting that digital fabrication is craft, the craft community will be doing themselves a disservice. By continuing to challenge what we see as Craft Practices we are expanding and pushing forward the craft discipline. It is the love of Craft and the process of making that makes me excited to be part of the craft community and traditions. I love working with metal, and I love ending up with an amazing object. If learning and taking advantage of CAD/RP allows me to do that better then I will gladly embrace this new medium and be happy to help see just how far it can be taken.
[1] Hanus, Julie K. 2014. "Brave New World. (cover story)." American Craft 74, no. 5: 74-83.
[2] Forster, Hal. Design and Crime (And Other Diatribes). 2ed ed. London: Verso, 2002.
<1> "Ctrl P." The Center for Craft Creativity and Design. May 15, 2014. Accessed November 8, 2014. http://www.craftcreativitydesign.org/ctrlp-exhibition/.
[3]Hanus, Julie K. 2014. "Brave New World. (cover story)." American Craft 74, no. 5: 74-83.
[4] Hanus, Julie K. 2014. "Brave New World. (cover story)." American Craft 74, no. 5: 74-83.
[5] Hanus, Julie K. 2014. "Brave New World. (cover story)." American Craft 74, no. 5: 74-83.
[6]Hanus, Julie K. 2014. "Brave New World. (cover story)." American Craft 74, no. 5: 74-83.
<2> Creator : Puschner, Johann Georg, fl. 1705-1750.
Title : Abbildung dess Schönen Umzugs der Löblichen Brüderschafft dess Tuchmacher Handwercks zu Ihren gewöhnliche[n] Neu-Jahrs Tantz nach Wort ... [procession of Clothmakers' Guild; musicians, children, and men carrying symbols of their trade in winding procession before large building; "Nurnberg bey I.G. Puschner Kupfferstecher in d. Ludergass"].
Date : 1722
Repository : Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin
ARTstor : ARANSOMIG_10312563133
URL : http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8CJTeyg6KDA9NEA7eD95Q3osXXsr
[8] Lauria, Jo. 2010. "Expanding the Toolbox." American Craft 70, no. 2: 50-57.
<3> Boyd, Jonathan. "Gallery 2 - 2012." Jonathan Mathew Boyd. January 1, 2012. Accessed November 8, 2014. http://www.jonathanmathewboyd.com/gallery-2/.
<4> Design, Matter. "LA VOÛTE DE LEFEVRE - A Prototype for Volumetric Architecture." Archello. January 1, 2012. Accessed December 2, 2014. http://www.archello.com/en/project/la-voûte-de-lefevre#.