Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Workshop Slides: Stumbled upon Flickr set of photos for some workshops: Sandy Kinzie's slab built teaport workshop, using some Yixing techniques, and some more familiar western techniques. Pictures domonstrating teapot spout making with the yixing spout tool. Thanks, Quinn Norton. Another way to share/archive info about pots! 6:57:19 AM

Craft: As in Arts and Crafts. Wikipedia is another example of people defining things.  Instead of a taxonomy by tagging, the wikipedia is uses a formal, encyclopedia, format. Looking up "craft" brings you to an article entitled "Arts and crafts."  Here's the first paragraph: Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's own hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" (doing things the old way) and the rest. Some crafts have been practised for centuries, while others are modern inventions, or popularisations of crafts which were originally practiced in a very small geographic area. Looking up "art" bring you to an article entitled "Art."  Here's the first paragraph: Although today the word art usually refers to the visual arts, the concept of what art is has continuously changed over centuries. Perhaps the most concise definition is its broadest[~]art refers to all creative human endeavors, excluding actions directly related to survival and reproduction. From a wide perspective, art is simply a generic term for any product of the creative impulse, out of which sprang all other human pursuits [~] such as science via alchemy, and religion via shamanism. The term art offers no true definition besides those based within the cultural, historical and geographical context in which it is applied. Despite adding "art" to the definition of "craft", the first paragraph immediately states the importance of handwork and the individual's skill.  This differentiates it from "art" which does not mention handwork and skill, although it would include that, but instead idetnifies 'art' closely with creative endevors. I think this hits the nail on the head, so to speak.  It also seems that the wikipedia would be a good place to look for other aspects of art/craft to help us come up with a standard critique of craft. (Along with redefiningcraft.com) 6:50:03 AM