Irrationality and Craft : Towards a Manifesto for Crafts of the Future

IRRATIONALITY

& CRAFT

IRRATIONAL ( adj ) 1. Not logical or reasonable.

2. Lacking usual or normal mental clarity or coherence.

3. Not governed by reason.

“I cherish a tale from 11th-century India with the Patola weave at the centre of it. While the rest of the world was engaged in tribal-like barbaric scuffles about mundane things, this battle was fought for an authentic hand-weave.

The illustrious King Kumarapala, from his state capital Patan, belonged to the Solanki dynasty. He offered his daily prayers draped in patola-woven yardage that was bought from Jalna in Maharashtra.

Now the mischievous king of Jalna made sure to send sullied yardage that was used as his bed sheet to King Kumarapala, until one day, a psychic priest, sensing the impurity of the garment, stopped the king from entering the temple.�

Pallavi Datta, www.vervemagazine.in

“Naturally, the king was so enraged with the evidence of such malicious slander that he did not undertake his daily ablutions with diligence. He attacked the erring king of Jalna and defeated him.

As spoils of war, 700 Patola weavers, the Salvis, were uprooted from Jalna and settled, with due respect, in Patan.�

Pallavi Datta, www.vervemagazine.in

The History of Craft is filled with examples of temporary irrationality, that have pushed Craft in seemingly chaotic directions.

This random mutation-like process of propagation allows Craft to constantly explore new models of patronage.

Constant geographical displacement and evolving technologies keep the Craft in a state of constant evolutionary flux.

New research in Neuroscience points to the Brain as being a disabler, not an enabler.

If we assume that our own brains cannot supply us with the irrationality required to advance our own Crafts paradigms, where must we look for constant flux ?

Not surprisingly, a continuous fount of Irrationality may exist very close at hand.

With recent advances in computing, processing, progressive mathematical modelling and other affiliated computer-aided disciplines, the generative power of Irrationality can now be productively harnessed.

Mixing raw generative power with the oldest traditional disciplines may offer up to Crafts practice a never-before seen impetus.

By tasking AI and Machine Learning loops with creating new markets, new expressions and new horizons, we see ourselves as baton holders for the continued propagation and mutation of Crafts practice.

Experiments with Digital Pottery

The Mughal AI : Deploying Machine learning Algorithms across Mughal image databases to create new expressions.