This presentation was part of the symposium Unhanded. In this panel we ask about the variety of new relationships with materials that emerging with the increasing ubiquitousness of digital technologies. With the increased complexity of tools we wonder how do we learn about materials? How do we get to know them? How do we share this knowledge? We can now know the molecular structure of wood or metal without touching it. Is this a more intimate relationship than working directly with our hands? Does it matter? If the objects coming out of digital and mechanical processes are more removed from our handywork, how might they carry the mark of the machine? Should we be able to read the machine in the material?
It is with very heavy hearts that we acknowledge the untimely passing of Dr. Sandra Alfoldy on February 24, 2019.
NSCAD University invites you to remember and honour Sandra, by helping future students continue her intellectual legacy through the establishment of the Dr. Sandra Alfoldy Memorial Scholarships, in her memory. Your financial support will help students pursue and continue their studies and contribute to and continue work in craft history and media.
Dr. Sandra Alfoldy was a respected scholar in craft history, having received her Ph.D. from Concordia University in 2001, and completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Rochester in 2002. Her research notably focused on the relationship between craft and architecture in post-war Canada, as well as the historical tensions between Canadian studio craft and industrial design. She authored “Crafting Identity: The Development of Professional Fine Craft in Canada” (McGill Queen’s University Press, 2005), edited “Neocraft: Modernity and the Crafts” (NSCAD Press, 2007), and co-edited “Craft, Space and Interior Design: 1855-2005” (Ashgate Press, 2008). These works underscore her significant contribution to the understanding and appreciation of craft in both historical and contemporary contexts.
If technology is used, it is often described as facilitating the maker's vision. So there is an idea that technology is very positive, it helps, but the maker has not lost use of his or her hand.
What does it mean to speak of “aural culture?” What does listening offer, as a tool or technique for understanding our world, that visual perception cannot? The sounds that fill our lives are dense with information about the interwoven cultures to which we belong, and approaches to their investigation can take similarly varied routes. For Linda-Ruth Salter, language is a primary element of culture. Expressed aloud it is a richly coded meaning system, but it can also speak volumes when forced into silence.