Jeremy Myerson - 'Tornadoes, T-squares and Technology: Can Computing be a Craft?'
'[Guy Dyas] insists that using a computer is not a craft in itself, it is a utilisation of a tool, no matter how creative the outcome; the real skill in utilising that tool is derived from traditional design knowledge.' p177
'...you know precisely how metal bends when you've actually bent it yourself' p178
'the computer always responds, offers opinions and alternatives, and it stops you thinking things through.' Prof. Gillian Crampton Smith p. 179
'Students had been deflected from thinking about the design problem fully by the finished veneer of the solutions that they had produced on screen.'
'Those not working on the computer experienced more of a struggle but felt more pleased with the results later.' Alison Black p.179/180
'It is difficult to catch ideas on computer the way you sketch notes to yourself - a pencil in the hand is like an extension of the brain.' p180
'If 'craft' means the practical application of a skill... then computing is a contemporary craft.' Me Company p182 http://mecompany.com/about/
'and yet there is a creative dimension to realising an idea that cannot be realised using any other means...' p185
'Until the computer becomes less of a machine and more of a biological extension of its user, then ascribing craftlike qualities to its process will be like looking into the proverbial eye of the hurricane.' p185
Peter Dormer - 'Craft and the Turing Test for Practical Thinking.'
'...the importance of hands-on making is not thereby removed by computer technology's ability to 'make' everything.' p137
'Most things that are made by craft workers require tools, and some of those tools are elaborate, time saving machines.' p138
On David Pye
'The workmanship of certainty refers to mass or serial production...it is the product of testing and planning a design... As far as production is concerned, it is a system, not an individual, who produces.'
'In the workmanship of risk, we are in the realm where individuals, rather than a process fo manufacture, hold the key to success.'
'The crafted product may or may not be the product of a single person; it may be the product of several skilled persons, but each of them at any moment could ruin the product with a mistake.' p138 ^
'...craftspeople can be defined generally as people engaged in a practical activity where they are seen to be in control of their work'. p140
'One of the features of late twentieth century technology... is the refinement of the concept of a system in which all risks, especially those produced by human error, are removed'. p141
'The commonest feature about technology ... is that everything begins to look the same... Consistency and predictability of outcome are almost guaranteed, but the price is uniformity.' p142
Mimicking Machines
'the familiar argument in favour of supporting craft is its potential to provide variety and an unexpected diversity of form and texture.' p142
'the model of perfection that technology delivers is not set by machines but by humans.' p143
'There is a tendency... to see regularity, neatness and 'perfection' as cold, and irregularity as 'warm'. But regularity is as much a human desire as irregularity and some people feel warmly emotional towards the precision of a motor vehicle... as others do towards carved stone or textured pots.' p143
'We set up machine technology to achieve more efficiently that which we can nevertheless and with great effort achieve without machine technology'. p143
'From the contemporary studio craftsperson's point of view, the most destabilizing effect of technology is how effectively technology can mimic craft in its randomness, accidental quirks and less than perfect condition.' p144
'The harnessing of technology to machine tools and the use of technology that includes 'fuzzy logic' makes it possible to loosen up perfection and give an appearance of the differentiation of patten and surface that we have hitherto associated with crafted work.' p144
'Suppose one adapted the Turing test to cover practical thinking. Suppose one cannot tell among a group of similar objects which one is the product of personal know-how and handcraft and which one was produced by machine : then one of the foundations of the status of craft - that it produces things that machines cannot imitate - becomes wobbly.' p144
'such developments do bring into contention many of the accepted beliefs that make up the ideology of studio craft: that the hand of the maker is necessarily special, that craft objects are poetic objects, that craft objects reveal aspects of the personality (some say the 'soul') of the maker.' p145
'If you cannot tell if a piece of machined textile is hand-done or machined, then either the much vaunted poetry of the handcraft aesthetic is a myth, or the same poetic aesthetic claimed for handcraft is also achievable through technology, and consequently what technology distributes is not only knowledge but 'poetry'.' p145
'you get the best out of the computer if you are able to drive the tool rather than be driven by it.' p146
'those who use CADCAM as a modelling tool will be better able to exploit its potential and the potential of clay as a material if they have the tacit knowledge of modelling by hand and by eye.' on Neal French p146
'...young designers... are under no compulsion to be able to draw or paint, let alone do calligraphy or cut letters in stone or wood... Their favourite resource is the scanner, which enables them to take any existing image they want, load it into the computer and then 'play' with it.' p146
'the big difference between craft and CADCAM is that in craft the relationship is between a person, a tool, and real material. In CADCAM the relationship is only between the person and the tool.' on Neal French p146
'There is more to this issue of the idealism of virtual making than may at first meet the eye. In real making with real materials, one comes up against gravity and physics... Materials have flaws, and in real life these flaws have to be worked on or worked around but on computer the material remains imaginary and flawless.' p147
'This may however, leave a niche for the craftsperson or designer who is able to design for and work with flawed materials, including the natural ones of wood and stone. In a world of easily achieved perfection flaws may become rather special.' p147
What is the Nature of Craft?
'Craft relies on Tacit Knowledge. Tacit Knowledge is acquired through experience and it is the knowledge that enables you to do things as distinct from talking or writing about them'. p147
'there is a desire to gain understanding through making.' p152
'objects communicate to some people as powerfully as written texts or musical scores or mathematical equations do for others.' p152
'...craft making will continue even when the Turing Test for practical thinking has been satisfied in every conceivable craft discipline.' p157
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