Craft and Innovation: Serious Play and the Direct Experience of the Real

Abstract

This paper looks at a way of studio teaching that emphasizes direct experience with real materials. It argues that innovation takes place when a student “plays” with real materials and adopts a critical attitude toward craft. Recent studios demonstrate a way of working that discovers forms, strategies, and techniques unlike those discoveredby a student when working to scale in drawing or model. An essential aspect of this teaching is the emphasis revealing to the student the critical thinking inherent in the activity of making.