Electronic Craft

Dateline: 03/09/98

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.
--George Bernard Shaw

hat is craft? Can craft interface with computer technology? Reflecting on the crafts we usually think of ceramics, glass, textiles, woodwork, etc., certainly not of 'new technologies'. But every now and then we experience a 'paradigm shift'. The rise of studio craft in the 2nd half of the 20th C was such a one. Now at the close of the century we are facing the advent of a new breed of craft - virtual craft.

Craftspeople are emerging from their potters wheels, looms, lathes and workbenches and playfully engaging with that new, (for some of us) mysterious tool - the computer. The result is a hybrid art form with elements from both worlds: laser cut glass objects; World Wide Web woven textiles; ceramic 3D rendering; vessels in stereo lithography and rapid prototyping; mathematically mediated woodwork, etc.

This new hybrid form of virtual craft will be rejected, scorned and ridiculed by many. Some of you who are reading this now are probably already shaking your heads in disbelief. Virtual craft has already been labeled as a 'computer geek thing'' and 'ridiculous'. But people can be wrong. Very wrong. Consider a statement by Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895: "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. " This was just 12 years before the first flight by Wilbur Orville and Oliver Wright. Several years ago I met a potter, who lived and worked in the country. He, in all seriousness suggested that ceramic artists should burn their books, dig up their own clay and formulate their own glazes. Of course the implied lifestyle has a certain romantic appeal, but not to all of us...

In November 1997, the International Society of Electronic Craft manifestation ('Intersect') was created as a forum for peopole interested in virtual ceramics and virtual craft to get together and discuss issues revolving around this new hybrid craft form. Following is Intersect's manifesto:

Over the past two thousand years the fundamentals of craft have not changed. We basically form craft objects and craft products with our hands. This century has seen the rise of electricity aid us in the making of craft, but still its broader practice has changed little. Now at the close of the 2nd millennium craft is being revolutionised by bytes and bits - the art of computing. From the first self-conscious steps with Photoshop to the higher sophistication of 3D imaging, VRML, animation and multi-media, craft is breaking its age-old shackles of materiality and entering a new dimension - the dimension of virtual craft. Craft is beginning to inhabit information space. It is merging with computer technologies to create a new hybrid art or craft form, informed by equal parts of the old and the new.

This transformation of craft will be unexpected and rejected and attacked by many. The proclamation of a new computer craft will be seen as a sacrilege by many. But we are not inventing something that does not already exist, but acknowledging tendencies already well under way, giving them a name, making them easier to recognise - Nomen est Omen. Those who are attentive to, and do not close their eyes to the 'new technologies' will see its influences already manifesting in craft: laser cutting techniques, stereo lithography, mathematically influenced CAD, 3D rendering, VRML craft worlds et cetera.

The philosophy behind these explorations is not mere CAD/CAM, not the use of the computer as another design or production aid, but rather the use of the technology to broaden the horizon of traditional crafts practice, to create new unforseen methods and new unforseen real and virtual craft objects. The intent of these explorations is not to jettison traditional crafts practises and replace them with industrial techniques, after all, this is a phase we already went through in the 19th C, but it is the intent of these explorations to add new elements, techniques and results to what we already know and have.

No, craft will not die. As long as we have material and aesthetic needs, craft will fulfil many of them. But as our intellects evolve, so too will our needs concerning craft - and crafts practice will evolve or perhaps revolutionise itself. To stop now and say "you can't drink from a virtual cup" would be reactionary. Virtual cups were never made to drink from in the first place. Rather, armed with a new set of tools, we will create virtual objects for virtual purposes, with the very real possibility of artful and craftful manifestations.

Today the craftsperson can become a programmer, and the programmer can become a craftsperson; what is of interest, and what will reinvigorate the crafts in the 3rd millennium, is where the two areas intersect. No, craft is not dead, but it will never be the same again.