The return of 'making'

Summer holiday reading included a couple of books on the return of ‘making’. Firstly, a book published in the UK by the Crafts Council, edited by D. Charny (2011) called ‘power of making: the importance of beingskilled’ and a book by C. Anderson (editor for Wired Magazine) called ‘Makers: Thenew industrial revolution (kindle version 2012).

Both extol the return to making. Humans evolved as makers of things. The industrial revolution shifted manufacturing into mass production, removing many artisanal , small /family owned businesses. Specialised craft skills and craftsmanship approaches have been lost as a result of the ‘material’ society whereby all products are ‘mass-produced’ / manufactured and purchased from retailers. A similar theme explored in other books, including Sennett’s ‘the craftsman’ and Crawford’s ‘shop class as soul craft’.

Now, it is possible for designers to manufacture their own product through using open source / crowd sourced software / hardware, ability to tap in to specialised manufacturers for components / parts and access to the ‘long tail’ of the market demand curve.  Specialists products / bespoke / individualised items now attainable. Rapid prototying using 3D printers and crowdsourcing lowers time for product development. Availability / democratising of hardware also assist the process. In the Makers book, Anderson compares the example of his grandfather, who invented a system to set up automatic / timed lawn watering. Anderson’s grandfather had great difficulty finding a manufacturer and then keeping control of the quality of the product. In contrast, Anderson himself set up a business that designed, assembled and sold radio-controlled  or robot helicopters. The process evolved quickly, with design and software development in US of A, parts sourced via internet, website took care of sales, just-in time manufacture in Mexico and delivery via the extensive courier / mail delivery system we now all take for granted. Development of hardware and software was completed with a mixture of open-source, crowd-source and mashing, leveraging on global intellectual minds of enthusiasts and specialists. 

Therefore, there is now greater need for skill sets that include conceptualisation of the ‘entire’ making from notion, to design process, to testing and production. The focus of the ‘crafts person’ has also shifted - a book reviewer who is also a cabinet maker details how his business now works. Customised kitchen cabinets etc. are ordered from specialist manufacturers who put together these components using CNC machines. Delivery time 24 hours. Then a need for craftsmanship skills (Pye’s - craftsmanship of risk) to fit the cabinets into kitchens where walls, floors and ceilings are not always guaranteed to be square. So focus has changed from skill sets required to manufacture to problem solving required to work through real-world challenges. Another example of how not all types of work can be ‘outsourced’.  Production of cabinet components may be mass produced but installation still needs to occur in-situ. Therefore, training of young trades people need to account for work skills now required plus include generic skills to learn new technology / new skill sets as the market evolves. 

Postman, Sennett and Jenkins on technology – cautions and recommendations

Some toing and froing via email at the Centre of Educational Development through my sharing of an article by Neil Postman has led to a discussion on how technology may be used to support teaching and learning.


I read Postman’s 1995 article – ‘Five things we need to know about technological change’ - as a caution – to remember that the media may also become the message. However, even if there will be pros and cons and winners and losers (Postman’s 1 & 2 cautions) and a risk that technology becomes the focus (cautions 3 & 5), technology is also ecological (caution 4) and WE as the makers and users of technology, need to understand the pros/cons and use technology ‘wisely’.

As per previous blog, Sennett’s book (the craftsman) also cautions on a reliance on technology. His example is the use of computer aided design (CAD) in architecture and how designs can become the be all and end all, mesmerising the architect with 3D rendered views of his/her creation and missing the important factor that buildings have to be designed to be lived in, be sympathetic to the environment (physical and social) they cover and comfortable and useful to occupiers/inhabitants.

The 2006 Jenkin’s et al. article – ‘Confronting the challenges of a participatory culture:Media education for the 21st century’ - explores the challenges posed by digital technology to education - with a slant towards formal school education. The examples provided through the article, inform us that it is possible to use technology to help student come to grips with learning for a future world that will rely on digital technology (and perhaps has already?).

So if we are preparing our students to become plumbers, do we also still need to help them become critical learners and users in a world rapidly becoming technology reliant? Who decides?? What will be the most appropriate vernacular/form of communication required by students learning to become plumbers/chefs/nurses etc.? What ‘communication’/media literacy skills are required? – Jenkin’s article includes Play, Performance, Simulation, Appropriation, Multitasking, Distributed Cognition, Collective Intelligence, Transmedia Navigation, Networking and Negotiation (see page 4 for details of each).

Therefore, will a reliance on text based communication be sufficient for future occupational practice? For instance, will trades people use YouTube to advertise their services on TradeMe? If YES, should we be therefore helping students learn to present on visual media instead of writing reports?? Both text and visual presentations require student to represent and organise their thinking – which form of expression will now be more authentic? What appropriate ‘thinking and recording tools’ should be introduced to students to help them make sense of, collate and represent their thoughts and learning?

The Craftsman by Richard Sennett

At home this afternoon due to the first snow of this winter closing CPIT. Got to work just after eight through heavy snow on my side of town. Mostly wet in town but then the snow started to really thicken and settle. CPIT closed just after 9.30am so made our way very slowy home. Still snowing this afternoon and about 10 cm in the garden. Therefore, a good opportunity to do my weekly blog.

Over the long weekend, (Queen's birthday with Monday as a public holiday) and re-read Richard Sennett's book The Craftsman. I have dipped in and out of the book several times and used relevant portions in my dissertation, in particular definitions of craftsmanship and the premise that all of us are craftsman, both in our personal (as parents, homecooks, gardeners) and work (not only trade based but professions and examples in the book with computer programmers) lives.

The kindle version of the book on my ipad is now well bookmarked and had copious notes of parts that are pertinent to several projects I am currently working on. I have also highlighted about a dozen other readings/books to follow up, so the weekend reading has been fruitful.

The book moves through 3 sections, craftsmen, craft and craftmanship. In the craftsmen section, four chapters cover the historical conceptions of craftsmanship and provides examples of ancient (weaving) and modern (linux programming) of the existence of craftsmanship. The decline of respect for trades craftsmanship through the industrial revolution is also traced. In this section, the main line of argument is that we should still maintain our sense of craftmanship. Losing aspects of craftsmanship like continual working towards quality whether a plumber or a surgeon, means we lose some of our humanity. Of importance is the need to retain the craftsmanship mindset, so that we are conscious of the impact of technology,tools and machines on the way we do and conceptualise. The example provided is the advent of computer aided design (CAD) in architecture whereby architects become enamoured by the call of design but forget that their creations have to fit into a certain geographical context with weather/climate that impact on the eventual human interaction with the buildings.

The second section concentrates of the importance of the hand in how humans relate to their world. The chapter 'the hand' summarises psychological, ethnographical and sociological approaches to understanding how the had works and the hands contribution to 5 dimensions of human endeavour. 4 are identified by Raymond Tallis, as anticipation, contact, language cognition and reflection and a fifth being values developed by highly skilled hands. Learning music is used as the example in how the hand contributes to how we understand ourselves, communicate with others and form and then explain our conceptualisations. In chapter 6, 'expressive instructions', 3 versions of written recipes are used to explain how trying to explain how to debone a chicken, is about having to unpack how we use our hands. It would have been good to have these recipes in the appendices. However, the example used is apt.

The last section concludes as a call for the need to respect quality-driven work. Human drive for continual improvement needs to be nurtured through the education system. Current work organisation practice makes it difficult for craftmanship to be practiced. The book is a call for better suuport of an innate human desire. If carefully sponsored, might be a way for humankind to better meet the big challenges, many of them environmental issues that will affect all of us one way or other in the near future.