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Digital Entanglements: Craft, Computation and Collaboration in Fine Art Furniture Production

Published: 28 February 2015 Publication History

Abstract

This paper joins a growing body of CSCW and HCI work exploring questions of creativity and collaboration at the intersection of digital and material practices of craft. Drawing on studio visits and interviews with fine art furniture maker Wendell Castle and his team, we investigate one studio's experience with integrating digital fabrication tools into their studio practice, and its implications for the collective organization of work and creativity. We explore how the introduction of new computational and industrial machine objects (here, Computer Numerical Controllers) remediates traditional relations of craft and the forms of human-object value, care, and creativity built around them. We also chart new forms of creative practice and material flow that emerge from this encounter, and show how remediations of craft in the Castle studio may pose questions and opportunities for wider CSCW concerns around craft, creativity, and design.

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  • (2024)Crafting the Computational: Artistic Production, Generative Systems, and Digital FabricationCompanion Publication of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3656156.3665122(24-29)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CSCW '15: Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing
    February 2015
    1956 pages
    ISBN:9781450329224
    DOI:10.1145/2675133
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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    Published: 28 February 2015

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    Author Tags

    1. computer-aided design
    2. craft
    3. digital fabrication
    4. fine art
    5. handwork
    6. post-digital
    7. studio

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    CSCW '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 161 of 575 submissions, 28%;
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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Crafting the Computational: Artistic Production, Generative Systems, and Digital FabricationCompanion Publication of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3656156.3665122(24-29)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024)Millipath: Bridging Materialist Theory and System Development for Surface Texture FabricationProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661599(50-68)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024)Practice-driven Software Development: A Collaborative Method for Digital Fabrication Systems Research in a Residency ProgramProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661522(1192-1217)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024)Characterising CSCW Research on Human-Robot CollaborationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36409998:CSCW1(1-31)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
    • (2024)What Counts as ‘Creative’ Work? Articulating Four Epistemic Positions in Creativity-Oriented HCI ResearchProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642854(1-15)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
    • (2024)Learning from Hybrid Craft: Investigating and Reflecting on Innovating and Enlivening Traditional Craft through Literature ReviewProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642205(1-19)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
    • (2023)“A Patchwork of Data Systems”: Quilting as an Analytic Lens and Stabilizing Practice for Knowledge InfrastructuresScience, Technology, & Human Values10.1177/01622439231175535(016224392311755)Online publication date: 25-May-2023
    • (2023)(Re)collecting Craft: Reviving Materials, Techniques, and Pedagogies of Craft for Computational MakersProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36100417:CSCW2(1-23)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
    • (2023)Nothing Like Compilation: How Professional Digital Fabrication Workflows Go Beyond Extruding, Milling, and MachinesACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/360932831:1(1-45)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2023
    • (2023)Dynamic Toolchains: Software Infrastructure for Digital Fabrication WorkflowsProceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3586183.3606802(1-20)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2023
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