Richard Sennett: Craftsmanship

SUN, 9.10.2016, 4.00 PM
MAK LECTURE HALL
The American Richard Sennett, one of the most outstanding sociologists and cultural philosophers of the modern age, talks in his presentation about his deep-rooted interest in the complex topic of handicraft. For Sennett, handicraft and craft skills involve much more than mere manual dexterity; they encompass a fundamental human impulse-the urge to carry out a task as well as possible for its own sake. Whether goldsmith, cobbler, politician, pianist, app developer or educator-to practice a craft is to “know one’s job.”
Sennett’s book The Craftsman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008) provided significant inspiration for the upcoming MAK exhibition handiCRAFT: Traditional Skills in the Digital Age, which may be seen at the MAK from 14 December 2016 to 9 April 2017 ( / 997999880318716 )
The exhibition reflects on the significance and status of handicraft as an integral component of material culture and cultural identity. In six sections, this comprehensive exposition encompasses handicraft from historical times to current European perspectives, examines how handicraft can help preserve natural resources, explores new developments on the interface to digital technologies, and presents masterpieces from a range of craft disciplines.

[@JasonBennett1]

I'd watched some of Sennett's other lectures on YT recently, which lead me here. I fully subscribe to the problem of the technology economy devaluing human labor in a way that orients toward "simplifying problems" as the only solution to problems of usage. I think this is simultaneously a bigger and smaller problem than he can describe. Bigger in that capitalism as was practiced 100-200 years ago is not capitalism that is by and large practiced today. We seem to have (bigger but) fewer tools to improve products, driven by not by craft but by shifts of capital. The volatility of these shifts require so much more speed to market. This undermines the craft in favor of speed to accomplish the necessary market penetration. Finance itself used to be a craft, but has become a bludgeon of debt and ROI such that fewer good ideas seem possible. Smaller in that the solutions he proposes around Open Source and Linux is that those products do not touch actual product consumers. They touch only other writers of code. Access to the design language is not transparent to the consumers. This disconnect ultimately dooms the utility of the craft to others who can speak the same language. The followup questions I have is: Does Sennett sees specific culture-wide benefit to code literacy. If so, how we might build that into the current educational curriculum without simply replicating all of the current woes with code writing? And from a macro level, what changes might be needed in government and corporate policy to address the problems of corporate finance as a craft?

[@sheilamaceira]

Lucid, relevant, and lucidly provocative as usual. Great talk, glad I found it!

[@yamanayk]

Very inspiring, thank you!

[@lifeislikeaproject7046]

great talk, makes me thinking a lot my work. thanks.

[@user-is4gy7be3n]

Thanks a lot!

[@user-pe7uf4om8r]

Certain kinds of disorder need to be increased in city life so that men can pass into a full adulthood........👖

[@stevegluck8990]

Unfortunately, Sennett doesn't know jack-shit about craftsmanship ... (or anything else) ...

[@treebeard68]

Yes he does :)

[@SimonBaddeley]

I think Sennett may be difficult for you. He is for me! But he's getting at some fascinating distinctions about the difference between mechanical craftsmanship and learning craftsmanship. This talk begins to take off from 12.35. When you learn how to do one thing, rather than achieving closure, you opens up other things that need to be addressed. RS says over and over that there's no such thing as 'mastery' of a craft, because each apparent achievement leads to new challenges. There is gold to be mined from Sennett's thinking. I enjoy his point about the unbeatable levels of mediocrity that results from Microsoft's production strategy of 'quick releases' that are then 'refined via user feedback'. See his core point from 40.35 about the character of craftsmanship.

[@infernoglass_]

this is an amazingly thoughtful and adequate critique thanks a lot for sharing 😊