The success of the 2008 book by Richard Sennett, The Craftsman, went actually beyond the range of a serious and meticulous essay in pragmatic philoshophy. Actually, the topic was in tune with the mature trend of 'return to handwork', that I will call New Craftsmanship. This article outlines the profile ot the New Craftsman or Craftswoman in semiotic terms, evidencing the social background of the persons involved in the trend and the connections to well being. Firstly, the new artisans are typically learned, in contrast with the traditional division between higher education and manual labour, mapping the even older opposition between theoretical and practical life. I assume the division is between workers whose professional life is spent in combining symbols, mainly via digital devices (that is, a semiotic work), and workers who use their hands to make material artifacts, by means of automatic devices or manual tools. Today, the continuous growth of the tertiary sector in western countries has drastically changed the equilibrium between 'makers of things' and 'makers of texts' in favour of the former. Such a distance between semiotic work and handwork has produced a general lack of ability, namely, incompetence in 'handling', both in the denotative and connotative sense. The lack of 'handling' experience separates people from things and from other people, and weakens the interaction between brain and hands. This produces lacking in control. This situation generates frustration, that is, low life quality and well being feeling. Sennett proves that handwork is not dull at all but just another way (maybe more complete and fulfilling) of using the brain, in strict connection with tools and materials, via the hands. Thus, we don't have an opposition between semiotic and material work but between two semiotic kinds of work: the former deals with symbols and the latter with indexes. The New Craftswomen, however, have another feature, besides education, since their activity is more connected to design, creativity and in general strategic thinking than that of traditional craftsmanship. New Craftswomen manage the whole fashion production process, from design to retailing. It is impossible, as today, to know whether this movement will be able to renew the fashion industry, or even to partially affect it, but the attempt is important and becoming visible on media and on market as well. The return of learned people to handwork is actually putting together again theoretical and practical activity, allowing the persons to have a more complete professional life and a better well being. Yet, this production model is not a return to tradition but a decisive step forward, introducing us to a completely new paradigm, that will change the industrial system and the social and cultural sphere as well.

"Nuovo artigianato e benessere"

PRONI, GIAMPAOLO
2014

Abstract

The success of the 2008 book by Richard Sennett, The Craftsman, went actually beyond the range of a serious and meticulous essay in pragmatic philoshophy. Actually, the topic was in tune with the mature trend of 'return to handwork', that I will call New Craftsmanship. This article outlines the profile ot the New Craftsman or Craftswoman in semiotic terms, evidencing the social background of the persons involved in the trend and the connections to well being. Firstly, the new artisans are typically learned, in contrast with the traditional division between higher education and manual labour, mapping the even older opposition between theoretical and practical life. I assume the division is between workers whose professional life is spent in combining symbols, mainly via digital devices (that is, a semiotic work), and workers who use their hands to make material artifacts, by means of automatic devices or manual tools. Today, the continuous growth of the tertiary sector in western countries has drastically changed the equilibrium between 'makers of things' and 'makers of texts' in favour of the former. Such a distance between semiotic work and handwork has produced a general lack of ability, namely, incompetence in 'handling', both in the denotative and connotative sense. The lack of 'handling' experience separates people from things and from other people, and weakens the interaction between brain and hands. This produces lacking in control. This situation generates frustration, that is, low life quality and well being feeling. Sennett proves that handwork is not dull at all but just another way (maybe more complete and fulfilling) of using the brain, in strict connection with tools and materials, via the hands. Thus, we don't have an opposition between semiotic and material work but between two semiotic kinds of work: the former deals with symbols and the latter with indexes. The New Craftswomen, however, have another feature, besides education, since their activity is more connected to design, creativity and in general strategic thinking than that of traditional craftsmanship. New Craftswomen manage the whole fashion production process, from design to retailing. It is impossible, as today, to know whether this movement will be able to renew the fashion industry, or even to partially affect it, but the attempt is important and becoming visible on media and on market as well. The return of learned people to handwork is actually putting together again theoretical and practical activity, allowing the persons to have a more complete professional life and a better well being. Yet, this production model is not a return to tradition but a decisive step forward, introducing us to a completely new paradigm, that will change the industrial system and the social and cultural sphere as well.
2014
Giampaolo Proni
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/451568
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