first of all i received a happy letter that may influence my plans for the summer… andy and i were selected/commissioned to design and build a bench for the detroit metro YMCA… after receiving our portfolio back a couple days ago with no letter indicating one way or the other we just assumed we had not been selected. but, as you can read below, that is not the case…
second, i saw a beautiful project by two of my fellow students that attempts to give a last breath to a structure slated for demolition… there are still some decisions to be made about how the project will be treated in the coming days/weeks, but there was a real poetic beauty to the work that was inspiring and enlightening [refreshingly] about the people who had worked through the project… you can see a couple of images here
the third inspiration [and yes, i was also inspired the other day by someone who posted a list of happy occurences for the day] was that i got to see/hear a lecture by malcolm mccullough today and sit out in the sun for an extended Q&A… he’s a professor at the university of michigan and a bona fide geek and a very smart and engaging one at that [i do mean this in an endearing way, but i’m sure if you read this blog regularly or know me you will already know the special place i hold in my heart for geekdom] anyways, he spoke about digital craft and design in a way that felt very close to many of the things i have been thinking about and trying to articulate recently… it also helped that his first slide [er, powerpoint image (just as an aside, his comment about powerpoint was that it has done about as much for public speaking as the microwave did for cuisine)] anyways, his first image was a quote, or paraphrase of a quote, that has come to mean more to me by association than by actual content — “an active taking a line for a walk” — it brought an immediate smile to my face…
he said and showed a couple other things that prompted thought and gave me some encouragment in the validity of my work… he said that the question of the hand-made is always used to devalue work in the digital realm, but that this question is curious because “does a glass blower ever actually lay his hands on molten glass? i think not.” now i’m sure this will raise immediate flags, but he went on to discuss the need and relevance of haptic engagements with the work and continued with this quote [it may be his, but if not i don’t know who said it] “it is the degree of participation, and not necessarily of manual control, that most determines the perception of craft in postindustrial work.” anyways, i could ramble about this for some time, but i think i need some more time to digest… and it is friday night…
malcolm also gave me some people to research a little more [hiroshi ishii, michael rodamer, william mitchell, brenda laurel] and one more little quote to dwell on… “the shift between usefulness and beauty equals pleasure”
on that not i should get going… more thoughts later.