MA Communication Design
Project: The Tools of Change
Project: The Tools of Change
A project visually exploring the philosophical concept of Homo Faber (man the maker), and how being physically connected to our objects by making and repairing can act as an antidote to an unsustainable single-use, throw-away culture of commercialism and consumerism.
The project aims to consider how being physically connected and investing our individual time and skill in the things we use and consume is also a hugely empowering act in a hyper-connected digital consumer age where we can be bafflingly disconnected from how almost everything we consume is produced or where it comes from.
Also exploring how the notion of homo faber refers to humans controlling their environment through the use of tools (both physically and metaphorically in the context of this body of work) and how language and typography are also tools within this paradigm. Through the documentation of large amounts of old worn hand tools (and photographing them as letter forms)
I hoped to create a body of work with an interesting, unconventional aesthetic, whilst also provoking consideration on the nature of craftmanship, means of production, and conservation, whilst drawing on a wide body of research; from anthropology, philosophy, and literature, to fine art and craft.
Also experimenting with book design, the book as art object, and elements of editorial design. A main point of reflection was ‘the lost art of bodgery’ - the decline of the make do and mend mentality and the skills with which we make and repair things.
