Reflections on The Craftsman pt.1

For one my Understanding Media Studies course we are reading Richard Sennet's book The Craftsman.

Really enjoying it, an easy but very thoughtful read. About halfway through the book and a wanted to jot down a few things that struck me.

Idea of Craft as Skill + Community

I found it very relevant to this discussion that Sennet calls out the emergence of a more secular workshop coinciding with growth of cities (p.56). This leads right into to the concept of the city itself as a workshop for creativity and research. Something we were asked to reflect upon as we begin graduate studies in NYC.

The urban environment inspires much of my own practice.  My working process was build from my undergraduate studies in photography where I became accustomed to using cameras to document not so much for end product but primarily as a note taking. I have come to rely on a creative process that depends on the accumulation of these notes. I have learned to trust that over time they will result in some greater work of art/ knowledge.

The act of making something as form of thinking.
For some reason there are many cues in culture which deem hand labor and thinking to be mutually exclusive. Why does this persist when anyone who has ever made anything would argue it?

He also talks about the line between craft and art - a blurry one wherever you draw it. What is the value of separating craft from art?

The transition from Apprentice to Journeyman described as a move from gaining imitative skills to understanding the overall structures for leadership. Easily applicable to contemporary work and business management.

Great quote about $ and art:

IT'S MINE! 

-Philip II to Cellini regarding Cellini's protesting the addition of a fig leaf to a commissioned statue of Jesus.

Here is a photo of my tap shoes, they are made out of some other ladies old golf shoes. They have great mojo and they really help me think.

Comments

[mim]

Art and craft and separation there of, ah! We've talked about this a great deal. Fine arts v crafts and craft as a part of fine art making. Let's talk.