An Exploration on the Preservation of Craft
Senior Thesis Project, 2022
Industrial Design
With the development and innovations in tools and manufacturing, more and more traditional processes are being phased out. Decades of knowledge and mastery continue to lose their relevance in the light of alternative methods.
While these new methods open the door to further creative freedom and possibility for designers, there’s no denying there is something lost when we no longer have a hand in the craft.
The original contexts of these crafts may be outdated or inapplicable to contemporary life, but a new context could have the potential to prolong the life of not only the craft, but also the skills of the artisans who master them.
Considering this phenomena and the gravitation of users towards artisan and handmade goods, a human touch, this project attempts to explore the ways in which we might preserve one of these ancient techniques through recontextualization.
While these new methods open the door to further creative freedom and possibility for designers, there’s no denying there is something lost when we no longer have a hand in the craft.
The original contexts of these crafts may be outdated or inapplicable to contemporary life, but a new context could have the potential to prolong the life of not only the craft, but also the skills of the artisans who master them.
Considering this phenomena and the gravitation of users towards artisan and handmade goods, a human touch, this project attempts to explore the ways in which we might preserve one of these ancient techniques through recontextualization.
