Reading Response: ‘Why We Make Things And Why It Matters?’ By Peter Korn
In the reading, Peter Korn talks about the ideas about creative work and craftsmanship especially within woodwork and how his own hunger for creating and using his hands is what’s so rewarding about his craftsmanship in particular.
- What is it about creative work, and craft, in particular that makes them so rewarding?
Creative work and the notion of a craft is very rewarding in numerous ways. Each way may differ between individuals but this doesn’t mean that it’s not rewarding just because ‘your’ concept of rewarding is different from others’. From my perspective and what Peter stated in his book, the aspects of creative work and crafts that make them so rewarding is the collective process and journey of making something by hand. Whether or not, it’s done perfectly, wrong or completely different than one intended, it’s still rewarding to learn what happened to achieve the outcomes and how to either recreate them or avoid certain things. Regardless there’s a lot to be taken into and that in itself is rewarding all on it’s own. These feelings of accomplishment also fall into place of not only the individual but the whole culture of being a craftsman, sharing and learning from others within the same community.
- What are the natures of those rewards?
The nature of these rewards goes beyond the craft itself and into the person or craftsman that created it. There is an extension,a story or a metaphorically piece of it’s creator embedded into the finished craft and creative work which makes the reward of accomplishment to go beyond the finished piece as a single object. From this nature, certain craftsmanship can achieve rewards that can go beyond the single creator to the entire community that shaped the ideal of the craft to it’s modern state. There’s a whole community of people that have all taken a set craft and all personalized it by adding new techniques or removing certain techniques to cater to what the craftsman is hoping to create. This notion is so rewarding since it continues to change, shape and influence craftsmen all over the world as a whole community!
- What does the process of making things reveal to us about ourselves?
The process of making things can reveal a lot about ourselves since our finished projects can either show who we are through personality or as an artist through techniques used. It can visually express ourselves to an extent, but sometimes the process can allow us to fixate on the present moment and create something by using our subconscious self to take control and metaphorically “get lost in the sauce” of creating. In some other cases, it can allow us to be mindfully present and hyper-aware of our surroundings which we are able to focus on the notion of creating while having set intentions of creating something specific and following it through. Each way can express ourselves within the piece itself and allow us to realize certain things about our work ethics, creative process, physical process and our subconscious self when crafting and creating.
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