The trouble with the Internet is it’s become too darn accessible. For every digital work of art, there’s an optimised-to-the-max site bumping genuine articles out of search engine listings, re-routing traffic to unhelpful destinations and making a fair amount of cash on the way. There’s no craft here anymore… right?
Shortly before Christmas I went to see my friend Alan at the Gallery of Modern Art*, who had very kindly offered to give me a tour around the conservation studios.
The tour consisted of four main areas: paper conservation, the mount cutting studio, lining and framing and the painting conservation studio. Rather ignorantly I’d never really given much thought to the conservation of historical works of art and had, pretty much, just taken it all for granted. The education on restoration was fascinating… like taking a pinhead sized sample of paint, casting it in resin, cutting the block into slices and then taking a section to put under a special microscope to view the layers of paint, so the painting can be restored authentically and flawlessly.
Look here’s a photo taken on my trusty iPhone:
The conservation studios at the Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
What also made an impression was the painstaking dedication each team had to their part in the restoration process.
Their crafts.
A painting that needed restoration was given the time and attention it deserved; it was finished when it was finished and no deadlines were imposed to hurry the work along.
Perhaps the trouble with Digital is it the ease at which work can be replicated. We always seem to be in such a hurry to get work out, because if we take too much time, there’s every possibility that somebody else will get there first. But if we get there first, what if somebody trumps us with a better solution? It’s exhausting!
Perhaps the thing about craftsmanship is that it’s actually very difficult to copy. It is indeed a fine art of a finely tuned skill and genuine creative talent. In the context of digital marketing, finely tuned skill and creative talent might even be defined as “Brand”; that intangible blend of characteristics, where there is a unique and original strength in the sum, but virtually no value at all in the parts. Digital marketing becomes a craft when it appears to seamlessly meet the demands of an audience, without the audience having to explicitly communicate anything at all… without an audience knowing it’s an audience. I would argue Google, Amazon and Facebook are examples of companies which pursue digital craftsmanship.
This reminded me of some questions that were recently asked in an EEC talk by Alexis Ohanian from Reddit, essentially enquiring what distinguished those individuals and companies which made substantial amounts of money as start-up ventures and…. Well, those which didn’t.
I think this brief post by Seth Godin sums up the case nicely:
“Craftsmanship
Find a calling and then deliver.
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’” – Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Inspired.
* Thanks Tim.
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Interestingly there can be a huge amount of craft in software engineering. Sadly the web doesn’t seem to care much about that as sites are generally disposable. The equivalent of tearing a building down to build a new one. However some systems should be built to last, to be the basis for future expansion and hence carefully crafted for maintenance.
There is beauty in code, just as there is fine carpentry, even a nicely built piece of scaffolding. But it takes time, care and money.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
A lovely post, busting with sensitivity and insight.
And I agree with your conclusion.
But it’s the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.
The Museum of Modern Art is in New York.
Sadly x