Reading 4

"Material Conciousness" From Craftsman by Richard Sennet (2008)

Sennett writes that craftsmen have been depressed, ignored, or misunderstood by social institutions in history and the social space of the workshop became a fragmented space. However despite this mistreatment, what has kept craftsmen doing good work is belief in their work and their involvement with its materials. 

To explain material consciousness, Sennet focuses on what makes an object interesting. Since good quality work depend on curiosity about the material and people become interested in the things they can change, their material awareness or material consciousness has taken the 3 forms; metamorphosis, presence, and anthropomorphosis.

Metamorphosis is a change in procedure as when potters switch from coiling rope on a fixed platter to building it up on a free spinning wheel which is an entirely new way of building up form. This change leads to the next; Ancient pottery became more complex with the use of slip and controlling firing to achieve a vitreous shine surface. Slip decoration also opened up expressive possibilities that serve as social commentaries and economic value.

Challenging the ancient concept of metamorphosis which is the natural cycle of form decaying into its simplest elements, Western civilization found a philosophic solution in the Plato’s dualism between intelligible world of a mathematical formula and sensible world of images. The craftsman could guard against decay in three different ways. Metamorphosis can occur through the evolution of a type-form, in the judgment about mixture and synthesis, and by the thinking involved in a Domain shift.

Presence as a second category of material consciousness is a personal mark of his or her presence on the object. Presence relates to self-referential, emphasizing the word “I” in the modern way of thinking. The history of ancient brick stamps shows a connection between craftwork and politics because craftworkers, and especially slave craftworkers, dwelled in an anonymous space between warfare and personal service. The small size of bricks also suggest of their presence. A brick which suits the human hand implies a human and intimate quality.

Anthropomorphosis is the metaphor referring to human qualities discovered in the material. The humanizing language such as the “honesty” of brick or the “friendliness” of brick wall, shows the dualisms of modern material consciousness; the contrast between naturalness and artificiality. “Honest” brick in the 18th century is brick to which no artificial color has been added to the clay and it makes the building honest; rough-hewn and irregular. Brick seemed to fit more largely in the search for authenticity.

Contrasted to brick, stucco is a dynamic material that permitted quick, cheap constructions of grandeur, thus could give craftsmen more freedom to experiment in a way of play and fantasy. The modern debate on two different versions of craft is about the virtues of naturalness and the contrary freedoms of fantasy-artifice. But craftsman can pair honesty and fantasy, brick and stucco and play off each other. For example, Alvar Aalto’s Baker House with curved walls that are made of brick and in a self-consciously “primitive” way simulated some of the qualities of “honest brick” by technology.