PracticalTheExpandedToolbox
Contents
The Expanded Toolbox
Introduction
The Expanded Toolbox deals with the application of technology in a thoughtful and skillful manner. We will see technology, no matter how little its net contribution to the work, as a real and essential part of the work that needs thought and insight in order to be applied.
We can distinct three ways in which technology is applied in an artistic practice:
- purely functional
- purely aesthetically
- functional and aesthetically
purely functional
Content Summery and Methods
Making is Connecting is comprised of two main components: Research and Studio Practice. Each component provides a different entry to the understanding and potential of craft practises in times of electronic, digital and networked media. Each week you are required to read, reflect, make and discuss (each week a theoretical text is assigned and discussed, and each week you are expected to experiment in the workshop!). Aside from in-class hours, you are also required to plan and carry though your own independent study by sourcing your own relevant reading material, further your making skills connect to communities, workshops, exhibitions or excursions.
The following is a summery of each component of the course:
Research
In Making is Connecting Research you will focus on making connections between historical and contemporary discourses and your own position towards craft. You will look back to the medieval craft guilds and the call of their revival through the writings of John Ruskin and William Morris, as well as explore contemporary and cross-cultural manifestations and debates within craft. You will examine the explicit, nuanced, and sometimes contradicting stances on technology and machine production throughout from Arts and Crafts to the Bauhaus movements. You look at the more recent democratisation of knowledge and tools through online and offline communities – such as FabLabs and Makerspaces. You will explore and position contemporary concepts craft in DIY, hacking, and haute couture. The first four weeks you will explore and discuss these various perspectives through key texts. In the last four weeks you will reflect upon your own motives for making in the in the final assignment "Why I Make" through a written reflection, statement, or manifesto that is also richly embedded in a personal crafted artefact.
The goal of the research component of digital craft is to ground your production as part of a wider debate, to support your formation of sound concepts, and to facilitate the translation of your concepts as tools to apply back into practice.
Studio Practice
In Making is Connecting Studio Practice you will explore existing craft practices while applying new techniques, experimental approaches, and pushing the limits of your tools and media. You will be given carving, printing and drawing, fusing and bonding, or stitching as a technique and departure point.
In carving, you will make woodcuts, engravings, sculptures and moulds by exploring subtractive fabrication technologies and mastering the CNC milling machine. In printing and drawing you will survey traditional printing methods, invent your own printing and drawing tools, explore with reactive media (conductive/sensitive inks) and animation techniques. In bonding you will deepen your knowledge different additive fabrication and 3d printing technologies, their different materials and bonding processes, and search for the craft in an industry that markets itself as fast and cheap. In stitching you will produce samples of machine embroidery and knitting, research small-scale textile production and tinker with electronic textile techniques. Your first five weeks will comprise of deepening your knowledge and exploring possibilities within your given craft practise and producing a total of 5 samples to be published on the wiki and presented as part of your assessment. The five examples must connect with the following list. 1-4 will be carried out independently, while number 5 (shared example) will be carries out as a group facilitated by a workshop mentor.
Deliverables
Learning goals
Assessment criteria
Daily Planning
TUESDAY
- Lecture / Workshop
Interaction Station - 10:00 - 13:00
Schedule
| Date | Location | Content |
|---|---|---|
| April 26 | Interaction Station | Kick Off |
| May 3 | () | Holiday |
| May 10 | Interaction Station | Presentation Ivan Henriques on science, technology and artistic practice |
| May 17 | Interaction Station | Intro into electronics |
| May 24 | Interaction Station | Making a circuit etching / soldering |
| May 31 | Interaction Station | Sensors and actuators |
| June 7 | Interaction Station | ? |
| June 14 | Interaction Station | ? |
| June 21 | Interaction Station | Assignment Due |
Presentations / Workshops / Visits
Ivan Henriques on science, technology and artistic practice http://www.ivanhenriques.com
Yaprak Sayar (To be confirmed) Graduate Art/Science KABK https://vimeo.com/147938963
Rene Wassenburg (To be confirmed) Visit the EMM++ Tesla Coil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB4HwN1TtU4
Reading Material
*What is the function of your wiki?
The wiki is an ongoing document, throughout the whole Quarter, that will be presented and/or discussed at different stages of the process. It will be the result of research, concept development, tests, experimentation, workshops...
The content should be visual (collected images, mapping ideas etc, animations, interactive experiments, your own sketches), textual (collecting articles, quotes, creating keywords, adding links and references) and material (documentation of the tests and experiments from your own project, your first models, prototypes etc.).
In all cases, make sure you add your own descriptions and explanations, giving insight into your thoughts regarding both ideas, knowledge, skills and execution.
The goal of the wiki is manifold:
- a place to keep track of your process
- to offer a thinking framework within which to develop your projects both individually and collectively
- to be a resource that aids you in your concept development, design, planning and realization.
- to offer a context that enables you to collect and organize the research and design process both individually and collectively.
- it's a tool that helps to communicate about your project to others, at different moments throughout the process, about concept; decisions; planning (plan van aanpak) and final outcome.
- to be a source of your own material and content from which you can select and and which you can reorganize for specific presentations.
