Anticipating Change, Round Two

The general feedback from the informal presentations was to...make sure that we were thinking critically about our subject, using the presentation to lead to a concluding statement or question; making sure there is a level of coherency within the presentation, to get through all the relevant research in such a short space time and finally, to be careful of use of terminology and avoid sweeping statements. Because the feedback was general to all of the groups, it was quite difficult to be sure which points were directed at us, so we just decided to take all the comments on board to help us progress our project.

After a meeting with the full group of deciding how we are going to tackle our final presentation, we found ourselves having to make some compromises due to time constraints. It seemed foolish to abandon our Prezi after spending such a long time putting it together and after seeing how easy it had made our delivery. We decided that to make our research more critical, reflecting our groups individual thoughts and beliefs, we would round our presentation off with a debate...the human vs. the robot. To make it more personal, the illustrators in the group created visual interpretations of both sides of the argument, humanising and personalising the computerised Prezi.

Coming home to this months issue of Crafts magazine was a happy coincidence...it's focus was on the future of design and makers at the forefront of future thinking - shame it didn't arrive 3 weeks ago! When reading the articles inside, I felt I was reading with different eyes. This project and MA have already had an impact on my thoughts and opinions...I would usually have skipped the pages revolving around the digital and advances in the 'computer world', however now I am really interested in the designers themselves, and the reason why they use digital technology in their work. One of the designers in the review on Make:Shift, was Gregory Epps creator of RoboFold, he embraces both hand made and new age techniques in his metal sculptures, 'his tools range from biros and craft knives to industrial robots and a lot of rather complex computer software'. He believes that "objects are more successful when they begin in the real world"...finding out designers who use the digital technologies in their work who have similar beliefs to Gregory Epps brings me a sense of comfort. How could a designer go straight from an idea to creating it on a computer screen to production without the middle testing/sampling/trial and error stage? For me, missing out that middle phase would be like ripping the creative and fun part out of designing...

"Will making things by hand be using a mouse on a computer?"

This was said by someone from one of the other presentations, and it really encouraged me to wonder whether digital technologies are going to take over the future of design...I don't think so, new and innovative technologies like RoboFold allow makers to create work that may not have been possible without machines, however I don't think there will ever be a time when the handmade will become redundant...

It had started to become clear to me that the future of design is being able to find a comfortable, appropriate convergence of traditional and technology? Craft can utilise any tool, hand or machine. The machine has always been perceived as replacing the hand of the maker (since industrial revolution), but craft has not disappeared. New tools or old tools, it’s the thinking of the person behind the tool that counts...David Hockney said when questioned about his use of iPad technology for painting “Well, a paint brush is also technology you know!" 

Again, we had a bit of a struggle with balancing the wants and needs of the part timers, with the practicality of the full timers putting together a coherent presentation. We (the full timers) sat down and collated our research into 'sides', we had such a lot of research it took quite some time to sieve out the most significant parts...we divided the next stage of the project between the group, Christine and I were working on the arguments we wanted to make, Jo and Allen were busy making sketches for the Prezi and James the 'Prezi king' had the job of putting all the text and images together for the presentation.

POST PRESENTATION...

The presentation itself went really well and again the preparation of the Prezi made the delivery clear and concise, allowing us to add a bit of character and humour to the argument. The reaction from the audience was great and they laughed at all the right bits! 
We kept our title as 'Computers as the Creator?' and made valuable arguments for both sides, but it was clear by the end of the process that it wasn't possible for computers to be independently creative, however digital technologies and traditional craft were no longer two separate things, the future of design was the two working together. No matter what the future may hold, it seems to me that one rule won’t change: a good craftsperson should use whatever tool is best for the job.