Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft

Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft will showcase crafted items made either wholly or partially using digital technologies.

The Crafts Council touring exhibition, curated by Max Fraser, has been designed by maker Tomoko Azumi. It includes work from designers including Tord Boontje, Michael Eden, Gareth Neal, Timorous Beasties and Nina Tolstrup in disciplines including textiles, ceramics, furniture, jewellery, glass and  lighting.

The beautiful range of pieces on show proves that ‘craft’ and ‘digital’ are far from mutually exclusive. While some argue that the ‘humanness’ is what makes craft-objects unique, new technologies are used in a highly original and innovative way through means such as rapid prototyping, laser-cutting, laser-scanning and digital printing.

For instance, materials can be etched and cut from computer controlled lasers and milling machines, and 3D printing technology has been used to create objects three-dimensionally printed from a bed of nylon powder.

The endearing slip-of-the-hand errors in handcrafting, too, can be translated into the digital world, with new technologies randomly generating shapes form sound waves and movement.

Lab Craft will run from 1 December – 20 January 2012 at The Gallery at The Civic, Hanson Street, Barnsley S70