The Hand vs The Machine

Using sound and image, I created a short interpretation about the ideals, challenges, and ironies about the Arts and Craft Movement and The Industrial Revolution.

Industrialization resulted in a decline in creativity as designs by engineers focussed on efficiency. This resulted in a move away from handicraft in favor of mass-produced goods. In reaction against the social, moral, and artistic confusion of the Industrial Revolution, the Arts and Crafts Movement arose during the later part of the nineteenth century.

This short video interprets some of the ideals, challenges, and ironies of this period of time. The ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement were a return back to the craftsmanship and quality of objects created prior to the Industrial Era. This combination of art and craft could bring happiness back to workers in a man-made environment. However, the challenges of competing with machines were prevalent in society at the time. The demands of society and expectations that technologies created caused pressures to conform to the ideals of industrialization. The Arts and Craft Movement was continually chased by the ideals of the Industrial Revolution. The irony of the Arts and Crafts movement is that as time went on, technologies were gradually being adopted into designs of the time. Eventually, guided by the economy, industrialization soon engulfed the Arts and Craft Movement as a necessary evil.

The project video can be viewed here.