Digitaltag

Fast and good isn’t cheap !
Good and cheap isn’t fast !
Cheap and fast isn’t good !

In «The Unknown Craftsman: A Japanese Insight Into Beauty» (Tokyo, New York: Kodansha International, 1989) Soetsu Yanagi says: «In my opinion, now that capitalism has killed handcrafts, the only way is through the guild system. The finest crafts of the past were produced under it. Guilds and crafts were inseparable. Beautiful crafts were the outcome of the co-operation between craftsmen.»

In a time where digital manufacturing is seen as the obvious path for object production, the creation of a discussion space to question the role and impact of craftsmanship is needed. This masterclass will therefore be the first membership meeting of the Digital Guild, a community of peers, reflecting on the future of production, working with academia and industry, exploring the intersection of product design, craftsmanship and technologies.

We will question and debate the interactions between the apparently antagonist worlds of handcrafts and digital production, considering their common future, mutual influence but also about the role of new technologies in product design, wondering about the qualitative nature and the inherent attributes of the processes. Through these reflections, we wish to shape the basic principles that will guide the Digital Guild and its new members, allowing every participant of the masterclass to become an active part of the initiative, for the day or for longer.

An open discussion moderated by Cécile Vulliemin will follow short presentations of projects by product designers Christophe Guberan and Carlo Clopath, questioning the future role(s) of digital production and craftsmanship through the concepts of localism, work environment, culture, quality, materiality and aesthetics.

Christophe Guberan

Christophe Guberan is a formally trained architect and product designer based in Switzerland and the USA. He graduated from the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne ECAL and is the 2016 laureate of the Hublot Design Prize. As a product designer, he explores the possibilities of material interactions, digital manufacturing, self-assembly and variable aesthetics in his creations. Christophe’s products have been showcased at internationally recognized exhibitions and festivals such as Mutations / Créations at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Miami Design Art Basel, the Milan Furniture Fair and the Salone Satellite in Milan. In parallel, his designs they have been produced by leading companies such as Alessi, USM, Steelcase and Google. His Hydro-Fold project, consisting of self-folding paper printed from a desktop 2D printer, has received wide academic and public attention that resulted in an ongoing collaboration with MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab. Their most recent collaboration «Liquid to Air: Pneumatic Objects», pioneers rapid liquid printing and is currently on view at Patrick Parrish Gallery in New York City.

Carlo Clopath

Carlo Clopath is a swiss industrial designer. He studied at ECAL/University of Art and Design in Lausanne. In 2012 he worked at Cecilie Manz’ Office in Denmark. In 2013 he is artist in residence at the Statens Værksteder for Kunst (Danish Art Workshops) in Copenhagen. Subsequently he installed his office in a house in the Alps (Grisons). Carlo has since exposed his objects in Milan, Eindhoven, Tokyo, in Copenhagen at the Designmuseum Danmark or at the Villa Noailles in Hyères (France). In 2014 he was awarded a Swiss Federal Design Award and a Förderungspreis Graubünden. Nominated for the Swiss Design Award, 2016.

Cécile Vulliemin

Cécile Vulliemin currently works at ECAL, the University of Art and Design Lausanne, where she oversees strategic partnerships and deals with R&D activities. She is the former Project Leader for Art/Science programs at swissnex Boston, Switzerland’s innovation outpost in the US, where she worked at the intersection of art, science, and technology by bringing together Swiss creative projects with renown US organizations (MIT, Harvard, MoMA, SXSW, Society for Arts and Technology, ...). Graduated with a MA in art history and museum studies, she has always been engaged on interdisciplinary and cross-cultural projects ranging from the promotion of electronic cultures in Switzerland to the organization of residencies between traditional craftsmen and product designers from different geographies with the project «Hors Pistes».

Team:
Christophe Guberan
Carlo Clopath
Cécile Vulliemin

Room:
NN

Language:
English

Website:
christopheguberan.ch