Dr. Sennett opened the American Craft Council’s Conference, Creating a New Craft Culture today with a lecture based on his seminal work, The Craftsman.
Dr. Sennett spoke of “Craft in Code”, meaning computer code. He says that Linux is craft. Monopolies buy up smaller competitors that squeeze out competitors. Cathedral (overlord) vs. market place/bazaar (individual owners/craftsmen). A bazaar is like a community of craftsman. Wikipedia is a bazaar’s example of using open source to build on the Linux open code that crowd sourced the world’s largest free resource for information.
“The programming community is working on reconciling quality and democracy. Open source programming, like Linux, struggles with quality. Problem solving leads to problem finding.”
Is a craftsman focused on technique? Is that a defining impulse? Craftsmanship is poorly understood when it is only attached to skill.
The head and hand are inextricably linked. Mental capacity is increased through daily practice of a specific task, i.e. painting, drawing, pottery, weaving, basket making, practicing the violin or writing computer code. Manual activities of this sort are highly intelligent. The increase in skill can also lead to an increase in intelligence. *However, a conundrum exists. As the skilled practitioner seeks ever-higher standards of excellence in their craft, perfectionism kills the creative impulse. The killing of creativity that results from an over developed dependence on perfected technique is the demise of a robust interest in “High Craft”. Fetishism arises and the craft community becomes a Cathedral instead of a Bazaar. * (My addition)
Closed knowledge systems have short life spans. Systems where problems are addressed and solved completely before releasing into the wild are like bureaucracies. The desire for “solution” is antithetical to craft, which is process oriented.
He mentions C. Wright Mills that I leave here as a link, although he did not elaborate his thoughts about this germinal thinker’s work.
The following are notes from his talk. Beware; fragmented sentences and thoughts ahead!:
“Work is connected to life. Why does mediocrity dominate over quality? Have standards in society fallen? Social forces are pushing craftsmanship aside. How does capitalism push craftsmanship aside? “The corrosion of character” Why is quality not preferred in the modern world? Nokia and Motorola are craft based enterprises. Modern business world is jealous, competitive owner based. New economy mid-level workers $$ has stagnated and top tier workers $$ has exploded. Rewards for quality in work is diminishing. Delivering quality is less important than delivering results. Culture of business. Related in education to standardized testing. Craft like vs. product?? We don’t reward craftsmanship because we don’t reward quality?? Craftsmanship and the dialectic of the machine. Machine eliminates subjective relationship of user?? NO!! ” (mine)
Machinery removes responsibility of user. We need to develop a new relationship with machines. The use of CAD software in architecture creates a disconnect between making and designing. We use technology to remove ourselves from the process of making. The promise of craftsmanship is political. SLOW DOWN. Product only with out an eye to quality is a capitalist activity.”
Dr. Sennett rambled on a bit although his overarching thesis of craft as a humanizing and important activity is an important idea in our current world. Please add your thoughts in the comments.
I have known about Ferrin Gallery for years. Ferrin Gallery is esteemed; I am honored to be showing there. Working with galleries in today’s art climate is tricky business. Finding a good partner in this regard can make room for an artist to focus more fully on the work and take a rest from so much day to day business development. Thank you Leslie and Donald for giving me a shot!
The Feast Conference was held at the Times Center in NYC on Thursday, Oct. 1st. from 9AM until 5PM. It was like a mini “TED” conference with 12 speakers each speaking for @20 minutes and some short films in between. We were served a lovely lunch and had breaks for networking.
Of all the amazing projects and people who spoke, a few in particular sparked my fancy.
Uffe Elbaek is the founder and now special advisor to Kaospilots, an International School of New Business Design & Social Innovation. He told a story about organizing a rock concert in October of 1989 in Copenhagen and Moscow. With only one year to organize, his team was able to overcome all of the obstacles presented by the Soviet Union. Early in Oct 1989 after the concert’s success, a news camera asked him how long he thought it would take to create change in the USSR. His response at the time was “15-20 years”. 3 weeks later, the Berlin Wall came down. I wanted to shout out hooray!! An amazing time. He helped me see that seismic change can happen more quickly than we expect.
Another particularly interesting speaker was Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA. He said Slow Food is rolling out more increased awareness and advocacy of local and sustainable food practices, in particular, food programs in schools. He pointed to the fact that a lot of our health care issues are nutrition related; diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses connected to diets high in processed and industrially produced food.
William Drenttel spoke about design as an essential component in creating a sustainable world. He is currently teaching at the Yale School of Management and heads the Winterhouse Institute. He mentions a quote by Allan Chochinov from his manifesto on sustainable design, “We (designers) think that we’re in the artifact business, but we’re not; we’re in the consequence business.”
Drenttel stresses the need for designers to understand and design systems, a position my teacher Michael Singer ingrained in me 25 years ago in graduate school. ART school, BTW.
Brian Bordainick in some ways had the most inspiring story of the day. The producers saved him for last and I know why. He went to New Orleans when he was 23 years old to help after hurricane Katrina. No idea what to do, but just wanting to be part of the solution. He ended up the head of the athletic program at Carver High School in the 9th ward and catalyzed a $1,000,000. and counting capitol campaign to build a new athletic facility in this most hard hit area of post-hurricane Katrina. Brian’s energy and ability to see this project through is infectious!
All of the speakers at Feast are working on amazing projects. I was delighted to be able to participate with special thanks to my sponsor, Andrea Bakacs.
I signed up today for next year. Will you join me? Feast2010
This past weekend I set up my shop at Spruce Ridge Farm where National Alpaca Farm Day was celebrated in full form. Steve McCarthy and Jeff Lick are the generous purveyors of this amazing place.
davistudio fine porcelain at Spruce Ridge Alpaca farm
I set up on Saturday morning and was greeted by many guests. In between talking to people about fine porcelain I wandered among the alpacas and learned more than expected about this wonderful animal.
Shy but curious the alpaca is a south American animal from the Camelid family, related to camels and lamas. Alpacas are raised for their fiber/fleece, which is 3 times warmer than sheeps’ wool and 7 times stronger. They are smaller than lamas, which are raised as pack animals.
Spruce Ridge Farm is a wonderful example of a rural farm developing an alternative source of income and resource (wool/fiber) which in turn leads to renewable and sustainable economic streams that greatly enhance the possibility of peaceful and environmentally appropriate development.
Adrienne Rogers and alpaca throws
Adrienne Rogers was there with her fabulous hand knit throws. Hard to describe, she calmly knits these wonderful works of functional art. She will be at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show November 11-15.
Rural communities like ours in Columbia County can contribute to the well being of nearby (within @200 miles) urban areas. We are near New York City and Boston. Our diverse farms and artistry enhance the capacity to more fully develop our region and other rural regions surrounding these large cities. Import replacement is an important aspect of economic development for the evolution of populated areas.
