Discover Top Posts Tagged with #bhthinks

The Use of the Made

A question which popped up when reading yesterday: Is it (witnessing) the use of the made that validates the maker? (and the made?) (and even the making?) I don't think it is, I am not sure that making needs validation, a reason. I believe that the pure action of making (whatever the discipline and intended result) is enough in itself to create meaning for the maker. However, does making become more valid if there is a purpose for the made object outside of the makers hands? Does making become more important if it offers social value (a blanket knitted for a charity for example)? (The book & page etc that inspired the question: Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft, p187ish)

#maker theory/making theory #bhthinks #making #social design/making

Clockless Experiment

I am about to embark on an experiment on how time affects me and my making, and it's influence on my self and my body. I often feel that the time-keeps which surround me have a stronger hold on me than I would like. I always set an alarm although I wake before it most days, I rush and worry about what time it is, am aware of the clock even when I cannot see one. I want to see what my life would be like if I stripped conscious time from it. I intend to spend one week (Monday to Friday) with time keeping implements and one week (monday to Friday) without. I will record my feelings and experiences in a journal fashion daily, and also against a series of more tangible criteria such as work achieved etc. During the with-time week I will keep a note of when I check the clock, the actions I use clocks for (catching trains etc, alarms), how I use it in regard to my making and my general living. During the time-less week I will remove as far as possible any connection with time keeping devices (clocks, watches etc) and turn of the clock functions on my phone and computer etc. I will not be using an alarm clock or anything similar. I will rise when I wake, eat when hungry, work as feels natural etc. I will be tweeting about my experiences, using the hashtag #clockless and blogging about my experiences here, tagged clockless. I will measure somewhat tangible things like work done, emotions etc to try to see what difference the week I spend without time has to a normal week. I will also try to discover as much as possible about other peoples time experiences and experiments, so if you know of anything please let me know. Caveats: I am doing this Monday to Friday as I often have markets stalls at the weekends and must be there at certain times (a useful side of clocks?) My partner will have to set his alarm to make sure he gets up for work. However I usually wake before him (and his alarm) so I am not concerned about this disturbing things.

With-time week: 6th-10th June

Clockless week: 13th-17th June

#bhthinks #time #experiential learning #clockless

Affective Craft

A while ago I wrote about a talk I had heard by Glen Adamson (see here for the original post) and his thoughts on the word affect and on affective craft. Then yesterday I came across this article by Scott Geiger via twitter which had the following definition in it:

Affect

Sensory performance ascribed to a building or space. Some contemporary architecture appeals to the senses through pattern, materiality, light—what times past would have called “ornament” before it was starved from architecture by modernism. Affect resists interpretation. It bears no message. Instead, affect conveys a resonance between space and program, building and site, surface and sunlight. The screen facade of the New Museum in New York City, for example, affects mutability: the building looks either rugged or diaphanous depending on the time of day, quality of light, and your perspective from the street.

Read on: The Function of Ornament by Farshid Moussavi; “Ornament and Crime” by Adolf Loos.

The qualities described above apply just as aptly as in Adamson's explanation and they both refer to Adolf Loos.

'Sensory performance ascribed to a building or space' is an intriguing way of thinking about the affect of ones work - if you were to translate that to your own pieces (in my case jewellery) what sensory effect would it give?

#affect #thinking outloud #bhthinks #Scott Geiger

A bit of thinking

One arrangement of the thoughts I was having after re-reading parts of Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft (otherwise known as The Case for Working with your Hands), a bit more David Pye and listening to Richard Sennett and David Gauntlett on the radio yesterday. I have arranged this in a variety of ways - flickr link to come - and this is by no means the end of my post-it notes and ideas on the subject, but for me at the moment the main questions are as follows: Are modern methods of sharing (you tube tutorials etc) any less valid than traditional master/apprenticeship tutorials? Is physical making more valid than out souring ones making, and just having the idea or concept yourself? By valid I mean does it hold less value (emotional, financial, experiential)? There are obviously things that one cannot get from videos or online picture tutorials, similarly to learning from a book, that you do get with a master teacher, learning directly from an expert, but is that due to the lack of skill with which we use the resources (could we make our video tutorials more detailed for example) (idea discussed by Richard Sennett on R4 show, Thinking Allowed) Is an idea or concept any less of a made thing than a physical object? Does the skill of the outsourced maker lie in not adding their own personality to the object they have been asked to make? Many many questions sparked off by these heard conversations and read ideas. More to follow on this.

#David Gauntlett #Richard Sennett #Thinking #bhthinks #Matthew Crawford #making

Creative (and decorative) Mending

Picture owned by Karen Barbe

This is a nice post about mending on Karen Barbe's blog As someone who has done a lot of mending I really felt inspired by this post about mending, along with its instructions. Mending, renewing and embellishing (particularly to upcycle) is something that I talk about a lot, and think about more. I find myself having a mending binge every few months, sewing on buttons and patches, the very occasional bit of darning, and mending rips etc. I like the look of something that has been mended. In a way I feel it highlights the life that piece of clothing has had; every piece of furniture should tell a story as the saying goes! I have bought clothing and cloth from charity shops before that has clearly been mended and recently I have started printing on these darns etc to highlight the mend further. I like the work of artist Susan Collis whose work such as Better Days uses the idea of a mark on cloth as a starting point for something beautiful and unusual.

#bhthinks #zero waste #mending #sustainability

Notebook Pages, thoughts on the run

Another page of thoughts from my sketchbook/notebook. Thinking on the run about possible loosely designed experiences to provoke thinking and discourse - free/rough workmanship of the participant leading to physical outcome of experience.

#thinking outloud #bhthinks

Embellishing possibilities, is it co-design?

A question: If you add something , embellish or mend a garment that already exists are you collaborating with the maker? is it collaboration or is it one step removed?

#Thinking #bhthinks #design #co-design

Mike Press

Mike Press is speaking at Chelsea today, 2pm in the Lecture theatre at John Islip Street. He is talking on Hand-made Knowledge, its open entry and free...come along!!

http://mikepress.wordpress.com/

check him out!

#Mike Press #Thinking #bhthinks #Craft