Reviving Craft in a Context of Design: Physical Practice in a Digital Culture

Abstract

In the pursuit of speed and efficiency, contemporary visual communication eradicates the essence of the individual in favour of certainty. Mass production and the rational thought processes that steer Western Culture have caused much of the human relationship with the physical world to deteriorate. This graphic design research employs craft processes and theories of the discipline to explore the irregularities engendered by the human hand. It does so by merging production methods involving both analogue and digital operations. The unique vagaries of handcraft inform aesthetic experience by enriching communication culture with the haptic qualities of the individual. By combining strategies of risk and certainty, handcraft procedures complement the work of mechanical production and serves as a potential cultural instrument. Together these production methods culminate in a richer means of communication that reveals an ontological relationship between form and representation, one which affirms and counters the alienation of a modern world.