Crafting the Digital: Developing expression and materiality within digital design and manufacture
- Submitting institution
-
Manchester Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 222990
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1080/14606925.2017.1352878
- Title of journal
- The Design Journal
- Article number
- -
- First page
- S3735
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- sup1
- ISSN
- 1460-6925
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- September
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
-
https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1352878
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
C - Design
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The current use of CAD/CAM within design and manufacturing, and the dominance of screen-based modelling and form generation, disconnects the design development process from materials and processes, and precludes opportunities for design and manufacturing innovation to be informed by deeper material knowledge, developed through engagement with the physical act of making. This article reports on research into CNC Router manufacture for wood carving/milling, that investigates how innovative surface textures can be generated through deeper engagement with the machining process, and adjustments to CNC Router tool sizes and cutting parameters. The research references David Pye’s concepts of ‘risk’ and ‘certainty’, and his materially engaged approach to wood carving where the process of cutting generates distinct and individual surface textures. This approach informs an original investigation into the innovative application of CNC milling where finished surface characteristics are not fully determined at the CAD modelling phase, but developed at the point of physical production, and are responsive to the digital making process and the materials of manufacture. It builds on and advances works by Unfold, Jonathan Keep and Emerging Objects and their research into process-led form and surface generation within 3D printed ceramics, to develop this ‘risk’ taking approach to making within the highly constrained process of CNC wood milling. The research methodology employs direct engagement with the CNC milling process, and systematic and iterative testing, to generate innovative and materially led surface textures. It demonstrates that integrating material and tacit knowledge of craft within digital manufacturing, can produce original and innovative outcomes, and highlights the potential for craft informed making philosophies to produce innovative outcomes across wider digital design and manufacturing technologies. In addition to this journal article, the underpinning research has been referenced in other publications, and widely disseminated at internationally recognised conferences, exhibitions, and invited lectures.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -