Although I cast these modules from a single mold, I then employ
a series of post-processing cutting operations to differentiate pieces.
This investigation into hybridizing ceramic slip-casting and CNC
manufacturing questions traditional mold-making by integrating
contemporary notions of mass customization with the economies
of scale inherent in mold/cast systems. I capitalize on the potential
of one mother-mold to create a family of casts, which are then dif-
ferentiated through a set of post-processing modifications.
Up-scaling
explores the challenge of moving from the scale of the
object to that of architecture. As a point of departure, this series
tests the more literal architectural implications of the pieces from
In Foam Falls Function.
Through doubling the dimensions of one of
these objects,
Up-scaling
exposes a series of scalar limitations posed
by material and processes. Rather than viewing these limitations
as problematic, I exploit them as design opportunities.
In order to reproduce this particular object at double its original
size, it was necessary to produce plaster molds as a set of slices.
Once these mold slices were produced, I could use them to cast the
enlarged original object, or I could reshuffle the slices to create
new objects. The set of molds becomes a form-generating machine,
producing not only objects but new forms as well. This slice meth-
od both exaggerates the seams between slices and regularizes this
condition so that these discrepancies become yet another pattern
of information to be explored in the next enlargement.
Up-scaling
allows the immediacy of material patterns and decisions to generate
a ripple effect—projecting potentialities across other scales. Texture
becomes formal information for the next doubling, which may in
turn imply spatial possibilities for the followingjump.
W hy Radical Craft?
When I decided on the name for my firm, craft was a term and con-
cept that seemed marginalized in the discipline of architecture.
Some schools and museums were dropping the word “craft” from
their names (perhaps to sound more respectable). Most of the archi-
tecture world was interested in the power of technology as a repre-
sentational tool (slick, digitally generated renderings) and had little
patience with the slow pace of the material world. As my education
was a part of this digital trend, I was curious about what it would
mean to bring the sensibility of craft back into contact with the pos-
sibilities of the virtual.
Usually when architects think of craft they think of everything
else but radical. We think of tradition, history, vernacular, humility.
O f course I’m interested hi all of thesetbut mortty because I believe
these influences can he rediscovered and rewired to create some-
thing new, something counter to the expected—simultaneously
against the grain and growingout of it. By titling my practice Radical
Craft, I hoped to infuse a progressive technological agenda with an
un-ironic inclusion of thttlnstorical, ornamental, commonplace and
vernacular. I view these influences as vital and generative source
material for contemporary practice.
Clearly “craft” conjures an intimacy with materiality that I’m
very tied to, while “radical” implies a certain liberty of experimen-
tation. For me this liberty is in allowing the logics of materiality
to move into other arenas and scales, no longer limited by the con-
straints of one particular material. In addition to research through
practice and academia, I regularly engage in artist residency pro-
grams where lengthy immersion in material technique and collabo-
ration with traditional craftspeople develop the sensibility that
allows me to innovate inside existing systems. These sessions serve
to train and hone a methodology that I hope to then translate to
other scales and mediums. For me, material research moves beyond
a simple topic of investigation to a more fundamental philosophy
for design. While the primacy of scale and material grounds my
practice in the immediate, the potential of technology affords me
space for the speculative.
The term “radical craft” clearly points toward a practice that
locates and reworks existing logics into unexpected solutions.
My work at all scales focuses on exploring craft steeped in tradition,
expertise and intuition, and injects a critical investigation into
emerging technologies and typologies, creating new situations
that appear both logical and novel. +
Joshua G. Stein heads Radical Craft, a research and design office based
in Los Angeles, radical-craft, com. He has taught design studios and
seminars at Cornell University, SC I-Arc, Woodbury University and the
Milwaukee Institute of A rt & Design, as well as fabrication workshops
in Rarcelona, Istanbul, and Krefeld, Germany.
050 american craft
feb/m ario
www.journal-plaza.net & www.freedowns.net
