Abstracting Craft (book by Malcolm McCullough)
In Abstracting Craft (MIT Press, 1996), Malcolm McCullough argues that computation had become a medium rather than a set of tools, and that giving form with software is a craft practiced through hands, eyes and mind.
Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand (MIT Press, 1996) is a book by Malcolm McCullough, then at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, arguing that computation had become a medium rather than a set of tools, and that giving form with software is a craft practised through the hands, eyes and mind. Its three parts move from hands, eyes and tools, through symbols, interfaces and constructions, to medium, play and practice, and it argues for keeping humane values in place while digital practices were still being formed.
The choice of a tool, as Malcolm McCullough explores in Abstracting Craft, mediates the designer's relationship with the material and the final outcome.
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Related in Community
Entries this one is tied to through the book.
Examples
- Caress of the Gaze (Behnaz Farahi / Critical Matter group, MIT) · both placed under Tools
- Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design · discussed together in section 152
- Kamikatsu Zero Waste · discussed together in section 152
- Materiom · discussed together in section 152
- Passive House (Passivhaus) · discussed together in section 152
- Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) · discussed together in section 152
- Thinking in Systems (book by Donella Meadows) · discussed together in section 152
- Tocco.earth · discussed together in section 152
Methods
- Passive House (Passivhaus) · discussed together in section 152
In the framework
- Tools · variable
- Technological Component
In the book
- Chapter 15, section 152 · Variables
Mentioned in
Examples