John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

of basic skills and at the same time you need these advanced skills if you like
moving on to use the technology in other ways - is there a bit of a paradox here?
Tavs Jørgensen: There is – and that also comes back a bit into what Human
Beans were saying that skills will become redundant. And I think there is a
value in terms of forgetting skills and finding new ways of doing things – I think
material knowledge is particularly important – knowing the qualities of what
glass does when it is heated up or what clay does.
Julian Malins: Can I ask what the future of education is? Where do you see
it?
Mickael Charbonnel: I think that ties up with something I wanted to say
earlier on about what we were discussing. When you actually create these tools
that you guys create where there is quite an element of randomness - you
establish rules - it is a bit like when the first synthesisers were created: you
pressed a button and you wouldn’t really know what would come out. But the
thing is that through that particular complexity you actually develop a certain
sensitivity and then you develop a skill and then you develop some instinct and
then off the back of that you end up creating something that in terms of skills
and sensitivity and understanding of that process is as valuable as handling
something physical, I think. It is a matter of developing these techniques or
tools or processes or mediums whatever we want to call them enough so that
others can share them and in turn teach it and make it something that can be
exploited.
Tavs Jørgensen: But I want to add to what I’ve said that none of what I have
done here I wouldn’t be able to do it if I didn’t have grounding in material
knowledge. My skills with 3D software is - I think going back to what John is
saying - is really quite limited. What I am bringing to the table is my
background as a maker and using the technology in that context.
Aoife Ludlow: I’d have to agree with that I think you can’t lose sight of the
importance of the material skills and the handling and forming and setting well
in textiles – there are so many craft elements and there are so many basic things
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