Digital Mirrors of Materiality | Symposium & Panel @ Stanford
With Katherine Behar, Nick Benson, Hideo Mabuchi, and Camille Utterback
Moderated by Vanessa Chang
We are all in some way navigating widespread futureshock over paradigm-breaking growth in the power of computation and robotics. Stepping back from the most expansive societal stakes to seek grounding at personal scale, expressive making offers a rich context within which to reflect upon what craft does for the maker, and what is lost or gained when we augment or supplant embodied engagement with digital technologies. If our goal is not just to produce but to make things as a way of being at home in the world, what could we possibly want from the leverage of fabulous machines? Can traditional craft assimilate the expansiveness of the digital? How does this historical moment call for us to affirm the value of practicing heirloom modes of creativity?
This symposium and the exhibition Tangling the Digital: Weaving, Printmaking, Computing (Coulter Art Gallery, September 29 - December 4) serve as final focal points for Digital Mirrors of Materiality, a MacArthur Foundation X-Grant project.
Reception to follow, 5:30-6:30PM
McMurtry Building Courtyard