Experiential craft: knowing through analog and digital materials experience

Author: Nithikul Nimkulrat

book chapter, 2021

This chapter investigates the intertwinement of analog and digital materials experience generated from within a process of handcrafting through digital means. It grounds an understanding of the relationship between materials (i.e., the substance of artifacts) and experience (i.e., a way to gain knowledge about the world) on the following three concepts: materialness (Nimkulrat 2009), materials driven design (Karana et al., 2012), and material agency (Gell, 1998; Knappett and Malafouris, 2008). The craft practice presented in this chapter exemplifies how a craft practitioner-researcher attempts to discover ways of translating handcrafted artifacts into a new form of craft using digital tools. The outcomes show how experiential knowledge is gained through the experience of working in dialog with the analog and digital materials and how the interweaving between analog and digital materials experience emerges.

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Suggested Citation: Nimkulrat, N. (2021). Experiential Craft: Knowing through Analogue and Digital Materials Experience. In O. Pedgley, V. Rognoli, & E. Karana (eds.). Materials Experience 2: Expanding Territories of Materials and Design (pp. 33–52). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819244-3.00026-0.