The Topicality of Craftsmanship: Technology and Tradition Together for a New Concept of Craftsmanship

Abstract

Starting from the literature that feeds this debate, I propose a key for rethinking in an ethical, creative and participatory sense of the role of technology in contemporary society. We imagined a digital that no longer accompanies the individual, but rather put itself at the service of a productive dimension in which man tends to disappear for the benefit of an artificial intelligence that puts the human figure even in a corner, literally excluding it. There has been a collapse of confidence in production technologies, but also in the tools that seemed to be of use to us and seemed to be the natural means to describe a product, such as the Internet. An exhibition like Homo Faber 2018. Crafting a More Human Future is an example of how we can bring forth a different idea of work, production and consumption. There is nothing written in this path and the essential weight in conditioning the trajectory that we are going to undertake in the coming years depends on the investment in human capital. This essay therefore reflects on this widespread presence of the craftsman, of his relationship with technology, and then on the relationship between craftsmanship and the new generations. The phenomenon of returning to the origins that combines artisan know-how and new technologies made available by progress occupies a position of current international interest.