On the eve of the major revival of innovative industrial processes, the design world is suddenly seeing several designers who are compelled to invent their own machines or reform existing engines in order to manufacture their designs – a fresh generation of inventor/designers interested in the process as much as in the final product, while viewing the machine as an ally rather than a constraint. These designers love their machines so much that they treat them as partners or assistants. Designers even publicly thank their industrial peers for helping them, thus restoring a lost relationship between the production process and the creative class. The result of this thorough process of research and cutting-edge development is the birth of a new hybrid form of production that brings together man and machine, opening up a new range of options conceived of by our living memories and unbridled imagination.

Bridging the gap between different age groups and genders, between rich and poor, and between craft and industry, these options offer made-to-measure and made-to-taste solutions for the public at large. In becoming one, man and machine create a bond that is a promise for all future developments in the 21st century. The hand and the engine gather together to create a new manual for the design discipline that is waiting to be explored, and making the exhibition “Gathering: From Domestic Craft to Contemporary Process” at Design Museum Holon into a moment to remember. (Exhibition on show until October 25, 2014).

Lidewij Edelkoort
 
www.dmh.org.
 
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