NEW CRAFTS Talks

Is it relevant to have knowledge of traditional techniques and sustainable materials in the digital design and production process? Anita Michaluszko (hand-weaver and textile designer) and Flavia Bon (designer) investigate how they can contribute to the new design of analog and digital techniques. By combining the different physical, digital and virtual ways of working into one unified and limitless process, textile objects initially produced in a digital world evolve to manifest themselves in physical space and vice versa.

The Fabricant, specialized in making digital fashion, is working on the ‘wardrobe of the metaverse’. Part is co-creation and the NFT platform ‘The Fabricant Studio.’ This digital studio empowers people to create, trade, and wear digital-only fashion NFTs. Anita and Flavia were part of The Fabricant Studio Season 02 in collaboration with World of Women. Senior designer of The Fabricant Naama Turner takes us into this unique digital world.

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What does digital integration mean for the craft professional practices? What knowledge should the current (digital) maker possess? Getting to grips with software takes a lot of time, just like mastering a traditional craft. Are computers and robots just another tool or are they replacing manual work now that robots are becoming more and more sensitive and intelligent? Should we update the concept of crafts and craftsman or should we see craftsmanship as something that is always evolving and that should be central to society with the help of high-tech tools? Kristina Andersen, Assistant professor at TU/Eindhoven and author of ‘Digital Crafts-Machine-Ship: creative collaborations with machines’ talks us through these questions.

Creative coder Daniël Maarleveld and embroidery designer Martine van ‘t Hul are jointly developing new digital expressions on the embroidery machine as part of the iAtelier program. As a duo, they work on crossovers between two domains. By connecting the domain of the craft maker with the digital maker, they try to research the impossibilities of the embroidery machine and the software. Daniël Maarleveld will talk about the successful and less successful experiments.

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Crafts are not just techniques and skills. Objects have a whole history in them, developed over centuries by communities. What stories do digital crafts create for the future?

Designer Marijke Bruggink concluded that the clog no longer evolves. The shape and the material are both fixed. What would be the possibilities of a digital clog? Dutch Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage took the initiative for AmbachtenLab Klompen maken (Clog Making Craft Lab). The idea behind this lab is to pass on this knowledge of the techniques and skills that the craftsmen have to the next generation with the ambition that they can use the sustainable and innovative properties of the crafts for future developments.

Product designer Paul Hulsenbosch is also experimenting with making digital products and adds a sustainable aspect. In the ‘real’ world, a tree has to grow before you turn the wood into a clog. In the digital world, you can manipulate nature and grow a tree in the shape of a clog. The location, the Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem, played a significant role in this thinking process. The clogs from the museum’s collection are preserved but may eventually perish. In the digital world the clogs will remain forever.

Watch the recording here!