Celebrate the Work of Hands

Photo by SwapnIl Dwivedi on Unsplash

Before machines invaded and took over this world, we had a long standing tradition of hand-built art, architecture and artifacts. The artisans were engaged in the process with their hands and mind. What was lost with the industrial age was what is described as the “visceral quality of execution.”

According to Donald Norman, there are three aspects to design - visceral, behavioral and reflective. The visceral level concerns itself with appearances and impressions - how someone perceives a thing or a space or how they feel about it. While the behavioral aspect is with regard to ease and efficiency of use, the reflective level is about rationalization and how it speaks to or about the user’s identity. The argument here is that machine-made design doesn’t take into consideration these different aspects of design, seeing as how popular machine made and mass produced products are. But the starkness of machine-made perfection leads us to consider the product as a separate entity and not an extension of our selves. The emotional connect that one has with a product shaped by human hands, unique and perfect in its imperfections, is missing in the things churned out of an assembly line.

So today, we find ourselves in a position where the old and beautiful traditions of craft dying out as they make way for the cheap, mass produced bounty that floods our markets. We need to be mindful of what we buy, who made it, how if affects us and how it affects the health of the Earth. It is a big responsibility. But our thoughtless behavior in the past has led to this present, so we should hold ourselves accountable and do our bit to fix it.