RSA runs some interesting lectures which are podcast from their site. The Craftsman, with Professor Richard Sennett is particularly interesting
The lecture series are listed here. Scroll down to the lecture downloads and select The Craftsman, with Professor Richard Sennett
It is described as “Richard Sennett will discuss the idea that there is a craftsman in all of us, which can be enormously motivating and inspiring. History has drawn fault-lines between practice and theory, technique and expression, craftsman and artist, maker and user; and modern society suffers from this. But the past lives of craftsmen also suggests ways of using tools, organising bodily movements and thinking about materials, which provide viable alternative proposals about how to utilise one’s talents. In The Craftsman Richard Sennett argues that we need to recognise this if motivations are to be understood and lives made as fulfilling as possible.”
Thank you as usual Sharon!
I am struggling with the subject of ‘minor arts’ from the theoretical point of view, and the links you gave are just perfect.
They will be really helpful.
cheers,
Claudia
Hi Sharon,
Thanks to the link about Richard Sennett’s lecture. I thought it was very interesting. Especially the part about testing things and finding out what worked and what didn’t work. When my husband and I were both programmers and worked together, we often had to debug programs. Sometimes we would find ourselves at a loss after trying many things and not getting the software to fail, so we could figure out what was wrong. My husband would often suggest that we add code to break it on purpose, so that we could get more information. This was not an intuitive approach for me, but very smart, I thought. It seems that so much of our preconceived notions about this type of work has to do with saving time. When actually, if we slow down to analyze a little more, we might actually save time in the long run. I love the luxury of being able to slow down on a project and go off and try different things and then come back and add them to the project. But with kids, job, house, I don’t always have this luxury. Well, I digress…Thanks again.
~Lin Moon
Thanks for the link. This is a subject dear to my heart, as I think the terms “craft” and “craftsman” has taken an unfair beating in recent years.
pdc
I just mentioned this book briefly on my blog, and also linked to your discussion of the topic.