Notes from FabLab

Notes from FabLab To Read Next:      FabLab Charter      Lifelong Kindergarten Mission Statement      Resnick 2005, notes on designing construction kits for kids

Turing: interest in intersection of idea and materiality

These essays have often returned to the idea of materiality, the potential to resolve subject-object dualism by blurring the line between actors and objects, ideas and things, medium and technology. 

But another kind of materiality seems to be missing here—many authors blithely assert that digital crafting is strictly superior to manual craft; they say manual craft is a one-off, slow, non-iterative, obsolete. However, many of the objects I love most are artifacts of a human interaction with materiality; they show how the blade interacted with the grain of the wood; how the sculptor’s fingers slipped in the clay. Most of the objects created with 3D printers and laser cutters are unlovely novelties. They are the product of a uniform substrate; monotonous precision, and an imagination driven by mathematical ambition, not conscious regard or engagement. They have a pallid aura.

Then there is empowerment through interaction with the limits of materiality, particularly in engineering. Also lost in digitalization. Perhaps I should take sculpture classes.