Held in Tension: Craft, Design, and Technology

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This paper considers the trajectory of thought that has repositioned craft, design, and technology within a relational framework. It then discusses three different approaches to the integration of craft, design, and technology: the first having to do with human and architectural bodies; the second with repairing social fabrics; and the third with the aesthetics of computation. I argue that when craft, design, and digital technology are integrated in the pursuit of communicating knowledge in novel ways – as they are in the three case studies discussed here – they collectively contribute to the understanding of design as integral (versus instrumental) in world-making. A coda speculates on the broader implications of situating design and designing as one among several practices operating in tandem with each other.