My friend and colleague Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez authored this column in today's Boston Business Journal. Indeed, whatever did happen to craftsmanship?
There was a time not long ago when communities and entire nations cherished producing hand crafted, substantive things. These were tangible objects that told powerful, life-affirming stories and honored the craftsman’s hands as an extension of the head and heart.
A piece of furniture, a musical instrument or a leather-bound book might embody family stories spanning several generations, or speak of the knowledge and achievement inherent in its creation. It could also voice the narrative of fine craftsmanship that neurologist Frank Wilson underscored when he wrote that “no serious account of human life can ignore the central importance of the human hand.”
For so many in today’s lightning-fast, technology-obsessed economy, however, the hand seems but the province of carpel tunnel syndrome and other afflictions of a public almost umbilically attached to keyboards, cell phones and personal digital devices.
Indeed, the hurried and harried nature of today’s world hardly affords the time and patience to cherish the stories found in the relationships among a hand-made object, its maker, and its user. These are the stories of passion, place and permanence that connect us to one another and unify our past, present and future. We lose them and the wisdom they embody at our own great peril.
A craftsmanship metaphor can extend to the conduct of business or even statecraft these days, as well, with their preference for short-term interests and even shorter sound bites. Yet, it is wrong to suggest that the fine-craftsmanship sensibility that forged the American ethic has somehow disappeared; let alone blame such a development on technologies that have accelerated everything.
If anything, there is too much hand-wringing about the loss of “soulcraft” accompanying a perceived decline of traditional artisanship. Yes, we should do whatever it takes to preserve the heritage of hand skills, but not from a false sense of duty or tradition. Rather, we should do so because patient, exacting craftsmanship still matters in all things from the manufacture of fine objects to the formulation of public policy.
The growth of so-called knowledge workers today does not come at the expense of traditional hand work and craftsmanship. Knowledge workers and expert craftsmen do not occupy separate worlds. Both must be comfortable with ideas and abstractions; both are concerned with creativity and innovation. To think of craftsmanship trades such as cabinet-making, bookbinding, jewelry making and even violin making as lost arts somehow devoid of relevance and utility is to deny the fact that these creative endeavors are the very embodiment of knowledge passed from one generation to the next.
The truth is that fine craftsmanship today is very much alive and well. In fact, it’s booming in some quarters and made even better by the existence of the Internet and other technologies that help organize worldwide communities of makers and users. The health of the fine craftsmanship trades does not rest on hobbyists, either. These careers are very much part of the “creative class” that economist Richard Florida says is essential for building vital cities in which young people want to live and work.
Graduates of fine craftsmanship schools today are finding meaningful careers both as entrepreneurs and with a wide spectrum of employers across many industries. There is no conflict when carpenters, locksmiths or piano makers move back from the workbench to use software to learn, a website to discern, or a blog to earn well-deserved raves for their latest creations. So too is the celebration of virtuosity on an elegant hand-crafted violin no less dignified when the beauty created uses today’s technologies to tune it, amplify it and share it with fans across the globe. We live in what is truly the best of both worlds, where the exacting standards of longstanding creative economies integrate purposefully with the exciting possibilities of the new economy.
Aren’t growing numbers of consumers worldwide purchasing artisan breads from neighborhood bakeries, shopping for locally grown produce, and enjoying beer from regional micro-breweries? Aren’t large numbers of mid-life professionals turning to careers that involve hand skills and craftsmanship as sources of greater meaning and authenticity? The poet David Whyte writes movingly of the soullessness of corporate life, suggesting that the “the split between our work life and that part of our soul life that has been forced underground seems to be at the root of much of our current unhappiness.” Imagine, then, the joy of the craftsman whose jewelry symbolizes a loving marriage, whose table becomes the symbolic center for a family, or whose violin produces music that gives us goose bumps.
As today’s throwaway society seems to grow increasingly less authentic, it’s essential to remind ourselves that true purpose and passion are economically practical and remain highly coveted in any sense of what it means to be a successful economy and livable regional economy. So, whatever happened to craftsmanship? Nothing! It’s right in front of us, albeit sometimes hidden by the ephemera of far less durable products, services and ideas.
Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez is Executive Director of the North Bennet Street School in Boston’s North End.
There was a time not long ago when communities and entire nations cherished producing hand crafted, substantive things. These were tangible objects that told powerful, life-affirming stories and honored the craftsman’s hands as an extension of the head and heart.
A piece of furniture, a musical instrument or a leather-bound book might embody family stories spanning several generations, or speak of the knowledge and achievement inherent in its creation. It could also voice the narrative of fine craftsmanship that neurologist Frank Wilson underscored when he wrote that “no serious account of human life can ignore the central importance of the human hand.”
For so many in today’s lightning-fast, technology-obsessed economy, however, the hand seems but the province of carpel tunnel syndrome and other afflictions of a public almost umbilically attached to keyboards, cell phones and personal digital devices.
Indeed, the hurried and harried nature of today’s world hardly affords the time and patience to cherish the stories found in the relationships among a hand-made object, its maker, and its user. These are the stories of passion, place and permanence that connect us to one another and unify our past, present and future. We lose them and the wisdom they embody at our own great peril.
A craftsmanship metaphor can extend to the conduct of business or even statecraft these days, as well, with their preference for short-term interests and even shorter sound bites. Yet, it is wrong to suggest that the fine-craftsmanship sensibility that forged the American ethic has somehow disappeared; let alone blame such a development on technologies that have accelerated everything.
If anything, there is too much hand-wringing about the loss of “soulcraft” accompanying a perceived decline of traditional artisanship. Yes, we should do whatever it takes to preserve the heritage of hand skills, but not from a false sense of duty or tradition. Rather, we should do so because patient, exacting craftsmanship still matters in all things from the manufacture of fine objects to the formulation of public policy.
The growth of so-called knowledge workers today does not come at the expense of traditional hand work and craftsmanship. Knowledge workers and expert craftsmen do not occupy separate worlds. Both must be comfortable with ideas and abstractions; both are concerned with creativity and innovation. To think of craftsmanship trades such as cabinet-making, bookbinding, jewelry making and even violin making as lost arts somehow devoid of relevance and utility is to deny the fact that these creative endeavors are the very embodiment of knowledge passed from one generation to the next.
The truth is that fine craftsmanship today is very much alive and well. In fact, it’s booming in some quarters and made even better by the existence of the Internet and other technologies that help organize worldwide communities of makers and users. The health of the fine craftsmanship trades does not rest on hobbyists, either. These careers are very much part of the “creative class” that economist Richard Florida says is essential for building vital cities in which young people want to live and work.
Graduates of fine craftsmanship schools today are finding meaningful careers both as entrepreneurs and with a wide spectrum of employers across many industries. There is no conflict when carpenters, locksmiths or piano makers move back from the workbench to use software to learn, a website to discern, or a blog to earn well-deserved raves for their latest creations. So too is the celebration of virtuosity on an elegant hand-crafted violin no less dignified when the beauty created uses today’s technologies to tune it, amplify it and share it with fans across the globe. We live in what is truly the best of both worlds, where the exacting standards of longstanding creative economies integrate purposefully with the exciting possibilities of the new economy.
Aren’t growing numbers of consumers worldwide purchasing artisan breads from neighborhood bakeries, shopping for locally grown produce, and enjoying beer from regional micro-breweries? Aren’t large numbers of mid-life professionals turning to careers that involve hand skills and craftsmanship as sources of greater meaning and authenticity? The poet David Whyte writes movingly of the soullessness of corporate life, suggesting that the “the split between our work life and that part of our soul life that has been forced underground seems to be at the root of much of our current unhappiness.” Imagine, then, the joy of the craftsman whose jewelry symbolizes a loving marriage, whose table becomes the symbolic center for a family, or whose violin produces music that gives us goose bumps.
As today’s throwaway society seems to grow increasingly less authentic, it’s essential to remind ourselves that true purpose and passion are economically practical and remain highly coveted in any sense of what it means to be a successful economy and livable regional economy. So, whatever happened to craftsmanship? Nothing! It’s right in front of us, albeit sometimes hidden by the ephemera of far less durable products, services and ideas.
Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez is Executive Director of the North Bennet Street School in Boston’s North End.