“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and head is a craftsman. He who works with hands, head and heart is an artist.”
It is factual that arts and craft is a significant part of every culture in our society. Arts and craftsmanship emphasizes the natural elegance of the material which expresses freedom and creativity of one’s soul. Freedom of creation do gives off satisfactory for its autonomy, but what if work that has to be done had become a listless enterprise with no other purpose but to create pieces that are called "soulless" for the sake of Industrial Revolution? Would you sought to compromise with the efficiency of machines or the skills of craftsmen?
In the 19th-century, Britain established the Arts & Crafts Movement as a protest against the fashion of imaginative sham, over-executive architecture and as an effort to reverse the increasing dehumanization of labour in society. It was based on basic shapes, the truth of materials, and the use of nature as a basis of pattern. Young London architects are influenced by the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris. The Art Workers' Guild was formed in 1884 to break down walls between architects, authors, and designers. The word 'Arts and Crafts' was first used at the request of the bookbinder T J Cobden-Sanderson, the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in 1888.
The Arts and Crafts Movement was a revolt of both material and form. Its influence originated from the idea that art and design could transform people's lives. Its strong social and spiritual function has ensured its on-going importance. A variety of guilds and workshops have been set up that have had a long-lasting effect on societies. The central characteristics of the Arts and Crafts movement are the belief in craftsmanship, which emphasizes the natural elegance of the material, the importance
of nature as inspiration, and the appreciation of simplicity, usefulness and design. The movement has often promoted reform as part of its philosophy and advanced the idea
response to industrialization, if we look at the European whole, it was neither anti- industrial nor anti-modern. Any European factions argued that computers were still important, but they could only be used to alleviate the tedium of mundane, repetitive activities. Around the same time, some Art & Design pioneers were of the view that artefacts should also be inexpensive. The tension between quality development and 'demo' design and the effort to reconcile the two prevailing discourse on design at the turn of the last century.
One of the most important facets of the movement that would have had contemporary practice is the establishment of guilds. People within the guilds were trained by professional artists and finally, after gaining well-paid training and experience, they became instructors themselves in the artistic period represented within
a sense of respect not just for art but also for individuals beyond the creative circle is a central element of the movement that has contributed to such a valuable and extraordinary extension of creative growth over time.
The Industrial Revolution began at the end of the 18th century and grew into the second Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America during the 19th century. This was a period of transformation characterized by dramatic shifts in culture and business. With technical and science advances and new materials available, robots have increasingly displaced men in factories. It was possible to produce goods faster and cheaper, leading to mass production. This development has prompted significant questioning in the arts. What was the position of the artist or craftsman before the robots replaced them? The Arts and Crafts is an artistic movement that has developed from these interrogations.
Nowadays, people don't know much about making things like they did in the past centuries. People rely heavily on machines and have lost their enthusiasm for creating and learning products. Factories manufacture items in an assembly of staff assigned to of a designer as a craftsman. Yet, while the Arts and Crafts movement was primarily A the guild system. A sense of identity, a sense of social obligation and, most particularly, a particular, routine role in the manufacturing line.
Applying the educational component of the Arts and Crafts Movement to modem situations adds not only a greater production of products at an individual level, but also a potential at better wages as encountered by women in the movement at the beginning of the 20th century. Yet not all of the advances of the Industrial Revolution have been beneficial to society. Countries, mostly predominantly rural and pastoral, have developed into urban nations. Rural neighbourhoods appeared out-dated at the time. As cities grew, the increasing number of coal-fired plants hissed thick smoke in the air, and the climate worsened. Several citizens, including musicians and architects, have opted to leave bustling cities to the countryside.
In summary, the social problems mentioned and dealt with during the Arts and Crafts movement can be seen very much today, albeit on a larger scale. People of today are producing massively produced goods for use by billions of people all over the world. Increasingly, demand for these products is not based on quality, but rather on quantity. People want inexpensive products, brand-name objects just to have them, not so much to fulfil a reason or to help an artist. In fact, the advocates of the Arts and Crafts movement were against the concept of division of labor which, in some cases, could be independent of the existence or absence of machines. They were in favor of the concept of a master craftsman, making all the parts of a furniture piece. The Arts and Crafts movement aimed to reunite what had been torn apart in the essence of human work, and to make the artist work with his hands at every point of production. Some of the most prominent apostles of the revolution, such as Morris, were more than happy to design computer manufacturing goods, when this did not entail the wretched division of labor and the destruction of craft ability, which they denounced.
In the world where we are faced with modern technologies, where the essence of original arts and craftsmanship is steadily slipping away for money, I’d ask you, would you still sought to compromise with efficiency of machines or the skills of craftsmen?
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