The Impossible Network 081: Craft Knowledge and Creativity From The Past Made Ready For The Future - Pamela H. Smith
Guest Overview
Born and raised in a small isolated California town, influenced by what she describes as a ‘consistent, persistent, and gentle’ math teacher father and the ‘artistic and creative’ mother, serendipity led her to discover her love of the history of science at Wollongong University in Australia and then commit her life to be a historian of science - is this weeks guest Pamela H Smith.
Pamela is a Professor of History at Columbia University and Founding Director of the Center for Science and Society where she leads the Making and Knowing Research Project.
In Part two we discuss how Pamela established the Making and Knowing Research Project, its purpose and we discuss the origins of her most recent launch - The Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition and it’s English Translation. That might sound dry to many but this is a remarkable sixteenth-century manuscript that contains over 900 recipes for making art objects, medical remedies, and materials for the household and workshop.
Pamela explains how the craft workshop practices record extensive first-hand experimentation with natural materials and provide unique insights into the material, technical, and intellectual world of the late sixteenth century and bring a better understanding of how and why nature was investigated, collected, and used in art in early modern Europe. It sheds light on the origins of the natural sciences in the creative labors of Renaissance artists and artisans’ workshops.
The digital critical edition is an open-source resource is available for anyone to experiment and follow the recipes and directions.
We also cover her views of education, failure, persistence and the need to create a more evolved and sustainable economic model.
Please enjoy and share this extensive exploration and mind-expanding journey through history of science with Pamela H Smith.
What we discuss:
Pamela explains the Making and Knowing project and the fusion of disciplines to study the connection between craft and science
The emergence of the Royal Society and the first project of interviewing artisans to identify general principles
Active Science vs Certain Science
The parallels to the creative class of today
I ask Pamela about her thoughts in imitation and she explains the development of Intellectual property and propriety forms and the nature of our economy.
We discuss theory and practice and persistence and the culture of fearing failure.
Pamela describes the development of The Digital Critical Edition the verbatim translation of the French Manuscript of over 400 pages of artisanal recipes and makes this open-source and available for the public and artisans.
The recreation of the objects that have been created by her students.
Interest in the human hand and it's capacity in nature.
We discuss the aims of Pamela to facilitate and create a new maker sensibility in today's world and how this could create a new economic and sustainable model based on handwork and craft. Pamela cites examples from India.
We also discuss the imperative of embracing new economic models, the need to celebrate diversity, the importance of persistence.
Social Links
Links In the Show
Bernard Pallisy on Theory and Practice
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