P218

Fantastic Forgeries

Assignment

Fantastic Forgeries is the first practice-based project of the specialisation in Digital Craft. Fantastic Forgeries presents alternate histories of material culture through the research and evaluation of existing artefacts – and their appropriation, transformation and remaking. Fantastic Forgeries uses historical crafted objects as a departure point to reflect on the status and practice of craft in our contemporary society. The objects will be used as tools to examine traditional ways of making as well as a formal, tactile, and decorative inspiration to compare when stretching the boundaries of digital fabrication.

Over the next three weeks you will explore into the rich past of Dutch material culture though the Applied Arts and Design collection of the museum Boijmans van Beuningen. You will choose an artefact that speaks to you through its form, function, and its surrounding folklore. You will experiment with various scanning, modelling and production technologies in order to support the crafting of your own detailed copy of your chosen piece. The idea is to make your replica or 'fake' as convincing as possible by reproducing key detail or ideas behind the work, before breaking it open into a series of iterations that alter the form and content of the artefact. Can new rituals come about by removing the form out of its original context? Can more critical, relevant, or flamboyant objects arise by imagining and inventing new contexts and new users? At the end of the practice project, the resulting class collection will be turned into a Museum of Fantastical Forgeries.

Deliverables

The deliverables for this practice-based project are as follows:

Research Deliverables

1. A designed method to 'steal' and 'copy' from the museum (Week 1);
2. A visualisation of your research process though mapping, iteration, and storytelling (Week 2).
3. A 500 word statement defining your position of what where your specific 'craft' lies in relation newer technologies (Week 2);

Practice Deliverables

1. # A reproduction of (the texture, form, idea or process) your chosen artefact from the Boijmans collection using digital fabrication technologies (Week 3);
2. A well-fabricated contemporary transformation of your chosen object of the Boijmans collection, positioned in a new context (Week 3);

Evaluation

The Museum of Fantastic Forgeries presentation will be presented as an exhibition, where you will have 5 min to present your work to the class. In your presentation you are required to:

1. Critically reflect on your process, pointing to the knowledge and skills learned;
2. Connect your projects to practices of both craft and technology;
3. Frame your research and practice based results within the context of the assignment;
4. Defend the relevance and potential of your research and practice based results.