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- Title of Abstract:
Making and Faking: Industrial Distillation of the Crafted Mark (Ref #174)
- Date:
- 13-10-2006 04:30:15
- Status:
-
Accepted with revisions
- Rating:
- 7
-
Details:
- Every craftsperson has seen it: the mark of their craft (planish marks, carved gouges, hammer blows on ?forged? cabinet hardware) on mass-produced industrial products, and we have (historically) seen it since the industrial revolution. As skilled makers, however, we quickly see through the ruse?these marks have been fabricated or applied superficially and they certainly didn?t drive the form. While this may initially suggest that many consumers are happily fooled because they are not able to recognize craft virtuosity as readily as the craftspeople can, it is more likely that the marks of craft processes comprise a set of appreciable visual codes that are read both on conscious and sub-conscious levels, and perhaps without craft reference at all. This paper first identifies and investigates these codes (distilled craft marks) in selected contemporary industrial products and, second, highlights some of the attractive attributes that lead to an increased consumption and therefore become ?addable? values in the industrial sector. Finally, I propose ways in which this information can be useful outside of simply an academic purview, to provide a broader appreciation of the work we create for the consuming public where it is most needed.
The distilled marks are identified in two types of objects. The first ones are made from materials that are distinct from what is normally associated with such objects (such as injection molded plastic-ware in the Paul Revere school of Federal style silversmithing and cast styrene ?adzed? treenware bowls and dough troughs). The second category includes objects manufactured from their traditional materials but through a non-traditional industrial method (such as die pressed copper bowls with the marks of raising and planishing as part of the mold and MDF panels cast with carving gouges).
The read of these attributes drives consumption of both craft and manufactured commodity. The consumers? decoding of the marks is investigated both on the conscious level (in which the marks are understood and become reference to process) and on the sub-conscious level (in which the marks become signs that are decoded without distinct allusion). For the latter, there is consideration that this lack of tangible reference creates simulacra, or perhaps establishes a definitive (synthetic) style in which the making-based reference becomes primarily decorative. I also explore the reasons why craft marks are so attractive and the possibility of what has been called sympathetic virtuosity or vicarious craft.
This paper also spotlights efforts to make these codes palpable for consumers, users, and collectors. These come from craftspeople, including Myra-Mimlitsch Gray and Gord Peteran, designers, such as Smoove, as well as scholars such as Clive Dilnot and Bruce Metcalf.
Reviewer Comments: