Craft vs Design

Craft Vs Design

One axiom has it that the machine is the predestined enemy of art.  The hour has finally come to discredit such ready-made ideas.  The machine can propagate beautiful designs, intelligently thought-out and logically conditioned to facilitate multiplication.  It will become an important factor in raising the level of public taste.  Through the machine, a unique concept can, when sufficiently inspired, popularise endlessly the joy of pure form, while preventing the distribution of a multitude of inept creations whose sole claim to being works of art stems from the presumable difficulty or skill involved in making them by hand. Siegfried Bing, 1895

Quote Highlights

“The machine is the predestined enemy of art - discredit such ideas” “machine can propagate beautiful designs” “the machine can – popularise endlessly the joy of pure form” “whilst preventing the distribution of a multitude of inept creations”

Siegfried Bing’s quote suggests that art or artists should not be separated from designers and “the machine”. That machines when used in conjunction with an “intelligently thought-out” design could create beautiful art, capable of demonstrating the “joy of pure form”. It is important to note that this quote was written in 1895, notable events that year include;

·         Auguste & Louis Lumiere showing the first movie to an audience (audiences where obviously astonished).

·         The first US patent was granted for the auto-mobile (a new and highly desirable modern wonder).

·         Wilhelm Röntgen detects and displays X-Rays (also known as Röntgen-Rays).

All of these events show the machine in a favourable (progressive) light and the quote was made prior to the First World War, something that will forever change some people’s minds about the human race’s use of machines (I would be curious to know Siegfried’s thoughts).

I do agree that art and design (for any kind of manufacture) are not (and should not) be mutually exclusive, but as Siegfried says the design must be thought out. It could be argued that machinery has become an integral tool in modern artists work;

·         We use belt sanders and lathes that where once hand powered and took a huge amount of time and effort, now these are electrically powered machines (requiring a fraction of the time to use).

o   This does not take away from the artistry of the work.

Using machines to compliment the work of the artist is obviously beneficial allowing for faster production and “preventing the distribution of a multitude of inept creations whose sole claim to being works of art stems from the presumable difficulty or skill involved in making them by hand”.

The work itself should be beautiful and well-made not just beautiful because it is hand-made.