CRAFT EDUCATION IN DESIGN

Abstract

The idea of design has stayed imbibed in the brains of humans since the early man’s time. The essence of design remained in every activity of the early man’s day to day life, even though the word was not coined then. As humans evolved and were logically able to define things around them, the term Design lead to the evolvement of Design Education whose essence was built long ago through the evolutionary genes. Amongst the many chronological events of identifying things around, the term Craft introduced itself to the world well before the word Design did. If we look back to the early man, the essence of craft was well within design to him. Everything created was new and a fresh idea, which if translated in today’s words would be design for livelihood. But since now craft and design have been diversified, it is important to understand craft as a design research of its own epistemology. Craft has a history of its own. It is an accepted lifestyle and a source of heat for livelihood. There remains a hierarchy to the guild, a distribution of work, and a generative learning through generations. It speaks volumes of unvocalized ethics, attention and consistency, without a formal education setup. This design method has proved to be a successful venture on its own. Thus understanding this system wholesomely would be of great value to the design education system which could teach Ethics in Design. Today the urban crowd receiving design education bends toward being individualistic and requires an effort to learn to work collaboratively in harmony as a holistic community. Varied contributors with different skill sets contribute to the setup but a comprehensive modulation of effectiveness is seen lacking. The comparison could be seen alongside the indigenous craft makers associated to a guild for survival and sustenance. This paper shall analyze the aspects of ethics which can be learnt from craft and can be incorporated in the ethics towards modern day design. The ultimate objective of the paper would be to Deliver Design Ethics in Design Education Through Craft. It would help the education system to generate an understanding of the unspoken dialogues intercepted between the guilds and incorporate them into the ethical language of designing.