For anybody who cares about the creation of a distinct theory about the crafts, this book is required reading. Just reserve some room for criticality of your own.
via CraftGadfly.
ssallzip
thinks the skeleton in the cupboard
Bruce Matcalf’s review on the Glenn Adamson’s “Thinking Through Craft”
The Revival of Handicraft
Artisanal handicrafts of Provence * Source: Flickr public domain
For some time past there has been a good deal of interest shown in what is called in our modern slang Art Workmanship, and quite recently there has been a growing feeling that this art workmanship to be of any value must have some of the workman’s individuality imparted to it beside whatever of art it may have got from the design of the artist who has planned, but not created the work. This feeling has gone so far that there is growing up fashion for demanding handmade goods even when they are not ornamented in any way, as, for instance, woollen and linen cloth spun by hand and woven without power, hand-knitted hosiery, and the like. Nay, it is not uncommon to hear regrets for the hand-labour in the fields, now fist disappearing from even backward districts of civilized countries. The scythe, the sickle, and even the flail are lamented over, and many are looking forward with drooping spirits to the time when the hand-plough will be as completely extinct as the quern, and the rattle of the steam-engine will take the place of the whistle of the curly-headed ploughboy through all the length and breadth of the land. People interested, or who suppose that they are interested, in the details of the arts of life feel a desire to revert to methods of handicraft for production in general; and it may therefore be worth considering how far this is a mere reactionary sentiment incapable of realization, and how far it may foreshadow a real coming change in our habits of life as irresistible as the former change which has produced the system of machine production, the system againstwhich revolt is now attempted. Details »
! + impromptu: Sangyong Choi’s metalwork exhibition
Sangyong Choi
! + impromptu
by Sangyong Choi
The term ‘impromptu’ is a form of classical music that consists of sudden musical inspiration of its composer. It is also known as a sort of ‘character piece’ which means ‘improvised performing’; however, the ‘impromptu’ does not always follow its ‘impromptu’ic form as performed based on a fixed score, rather than that ‘everything is sudden.’
Schubert’s <op.90,42> and Chopin’s <op.26,36,51,66> are typical.
(*translation: Yoonho Choi)
This ‘Metalman(as called by himself)’s solo show will take placed on 16 July till 29 in 2008, at the Topo House 2’s ground floor gallery in Insa-dong, Seoul. Its opening reception will be held at 6pm on the first day.
Iwangjik Crafts Workshop
Iwangjik Crafts Workshop * Source: National Hangaram Design Museum, Seoul
A little translated excerpt from <Iwangjik Crafts Workshop and Contemporary Crafts in South Korea>, written by Gongho Choi
The development of modern crafts has not been investigated due to the lack of historical records and researches. It is a lucky that I’ve got recently found design sketches and photographs of Iwangjik’s products, so that now it has become possible to see the production process of Iwangjik though limited.
The workshop, titled as Hansung(the name of capital since the beginning of Chosun dynasty) Crafts Workshop, founded in 1908, had ran its business for 30 years till the era of Japanese occupation in Korean peninsular faced its end, in other words the end of WW2. It was a facility producing crafts and played a crucial roll in developing modern Korean crafts.
It was when various traditional, cultural values were to be destructed that the workshop was established, and the modernization in Korean peninsular was initially began in this era by external influence. the workshop’s official aim was “to encourage the nation’s craft tradition” while this institution actually restored some bits of traditional craft skills as fine as the product quality of Kyoung-gong-jang(light factory)s, which had produced for long times various office and domestic goods only for governmental bodies. Also, it was a crucial moment in the modern history of Korean crafts that the workshop, as a semi-institutional body, trained a number of craftspeople who was to make the nation’s crafts tradition survived and who later became profound influences on the restoration of previously-demolished craft traditions.
In addition, this organization claimed that “the designs planned here should be made on possible traditional ways though production processes had to be modernized” as opposed to the dominated mood of modernization or Japan-ization in Korea. This was apparently a bold, important approach to restore and cherish tradition and was when nationalistic intelligentsias were influenced by Dong-Do-Seo-Gi(Eastern world take morality or inherited identity while Western world has science or technology), which was a widespread idea for the restoration of national sovereignty at the time.
How Aggressive?
This is a good example of advertisement, but doesn’t mean a good communication. This funny idea won a gold prize at the Cannes International Ad. Award recently. However, It shows us how an advertisement is attacking one’s front door.
by saatchi & saatchi, Peru
Henry Cole, 1808-1882
Nationality: English
Date of Birth: 1808
Place of Birth: Bath
Date of Death: 18 April 1882
Place of Death: London
Identity:
Sir Henry (‘King’) Cole was a civil servant, industrial designer and museum director. He was the son of Captain Henry Robert Cole (1780-1863) and Lætitia Dormer(1792-1867 or 1868). His third brother Charles was a schoolmate of Francis Seymour Haden, who became the Cole family doctor. On 28 December 1833 he married Marian Fairman, third daughter of William Andrew Bond of Ashford, Kent. Details »
