Veronica Simpson on the Craft Council’s Make: Shift conference
Worried about the typical design student’s lack of knowledge and contacts with industry, one enterprising graduate has set out to catalogue all the talent that’s available in her back yard.
Words by Veronica Simpson
All Images: Studiororo
There has been a profound shift in our attitude to making and crafting, caused by the massive incursion of digital technology into the way we design as well as the way we live. But there is a more worrying, fundamental depletion of manual dexterity being caused by the way we, in the UK, are taught: hands-on making has almost disappeared from primary and secondary school curricula, and has even been sidelined within design education (the last UK college actually teaching a degree course in Craft Skills - Falmouth - is planning to close it down).
There are severely worrying implications about this, not least for our craft industries but also for the vital skills of our future surgeons. Professor Roger Kneebone, a leading UK consultant and surgical educator, declared that the UK students coming on to his surgical training schemes increasingly have little or no manual dexterity. His solution? Take them to workshops with makers whose skills cross over into their own areas - fine tailoring, embroidery, pottery and instrument-making - in order to inspire them to get stuck in and explore the joy of thinking with your hands.
Kneebone was one of the many inspiring speakers from outside of the usual craft and design disciplines at the Crafts Council's first Make: Shift conference, held at Ravensbourne art college in November (a college which, ironically, designed out all its own manual workshops and studios with its new building). The conference aimed to show the benefits of the increasing marriage of craft and design skills within collaborative multidisciplinary teams incorporating everything from biomedical scientists, engineers and digital technologists to social anthropologists. But although the emphasis of the day was on how exciting it is for creatives to have this world opened up to them, one of the key points emerging was that it is vital we do not lose our connection to craft.
One of the smartest antidotes to this very real threat was offered by another speaker, Fi Scott. While studying product and service design at Glasgow School of Art, she felt a desire to get some hands-on making skills. Luckily, in the third year there is space for students to go and fill in the gaps in their learning, so she took herself off to Philadelphia's University of the Arts where she studied industrial design. This led to four months working as an intern with a Brooklyn-based furniture designer, surrounded by the vibrant culture of the Brooklyn Maker Movement.
The experience was pivotal. When she returned to Glasgow, Scott 'found myself wondering how, as creatives, do we end up working in industry and making things happen?
I wanted to create a directory of makers and industry in Scotland.' She embarked on an odyssey around the Scottish mainland and islands to interview and catalogue as many skilled and experienced manufacturers as she could unearth. She blagged a VW camper van from a furniture-maker friend, got hold of a video camera and persuaded her fellow student Vana Coleman to join her on a self-taught, crash course on filming techniques, and then talked another friend, Ross Fraser McLean, into driving the van for the initial three-month tour. The tour covered the full spectrum, from large steel-manufacturers to Iona's only stonemason, via glass lamp blowers and couture knitting factories. Scott's interviews demystify what they do and showcase the range of work they have been involved in. In this way she hopes to encourage more interaction between them and the design industry, from students to established designers looking to support the UK's manufacturing and craft industries - before they disappear.
Like any quasi-mythological journey, Scott had to overcome obstacles, including her own prejudices: she soon learned that the bland, out-of-town industrial estate can be a thing of wonder, often containing a wealth of craft skills and know-how; and that you shouldn't judge a manufacturer by their (often awful) website design. She acquired new skills in interviewing and film production, and every week she took a different design or art student with her so they too could discover the wealth of technical skill and machinery available to them on their own back doorstep.
On the road.Fi Scott's distinctive Make Works VW van toured Scotland looking for manufacturers and makers.
Scott found the community of manufacturers extremely happy to talk. She says: 'One question we asked was: have you ever worked with an artist or designer? Every single one had done it - between one and five times. And they really loved it. It was the thing that made their staff realise they could do something else with their machines. It's not about manufacturers being more open to artists and designers; it's about artists and designers being more open to the mindset of the manufacturers.'
Scott met up with some 120 manufacturers and makers in her first foray. More are to follow
Her first batch of 120 interviews are now available on her directory online (makeworks. co.uk), though her research has thrown up another 200 Scottish makers she plans to interview by April. Thankfully, Scott's efforts are now being funded by Creative Scotland and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. And her ambitions are expanding. Scott wants to secure funding to do the same in England (then Wales and Ireland); she is also setting up 'speed dating' sessions where 20 designers meet 20 manufacturers at a central venue to exchange ideas and explore potential collaborations; and she wants to set up residencies for artists and designers.
Her own making has taken a backseat, for now. But in a neat twist she can take pleasure in having designed a service that, thanks to digital media, will hopefully spread new enthusiasm and opportunities for hands-on making to the widest possible audience.
