Professor Justin Marshall: Hand Thought- Hybrid Digital / Analogue Craft Practices
Exploring the edges of analogue and digital making, Hand Thought is a research project driven by an interest in the aesthetic opportunities digital technologies offer the craftsperson. At the same time, it challenges conventional perspectives by demonstrating how a craft-based, disruptive engagement with digital tools can prompt a reevaluation of the relationship between hand and machine, as well as our broader interactions with technology and its value.
On a practical level, this involves blending traditional green woodworking tools—such as the axe, adze, spoke shave, and chisel—with CNC milling, and combining brushes, pens, and pencils with digital plotting. The result is a series of 2D and 3D works that are neither entirely handmade nor purely digitally manufactured.
In this lunchtime seminar, Dr Justin Marshall will briefly discuss the hybrid processes he has developed through reflecting on his experiences with digital technologies. Situating his practice within an Embodied Pragmatic theoretical framework, he will propose a ‘Digital Craft Ethos’—a perspective distinct from the instrumental approaches typically found in design and engineering.
Dr Justin Marshall is a Professor of Craft and Digital Making at Northumbria University. As an early adopter of digital making in craft, his work has been widely exhibited and published. For over twenty years, he has explored how digital design and production technologies intersect with craft, and how craft as both practice and ethos can contribute to multidisciplinary research.
