The art of making

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

The art of making begins in the mind. It begins with an idea. What we imagine is always imagined through the framework of what we are already able to perceive and understand. For instance a mason will sculpt a deer with thick legs while a blacksmith will craft one with slender legs. This is not just the nature of the material but the way in which the ‘maker’ is able to imagine. In order for us to broaden our imagination, we test our ideas through the act of modeling & making. When we ‘make’ we often encounter challenges which we could not have imagined. Overcoming these challenges changes the way we imagine in the future. Thus Imagining is a constant process of refinement and expansion of the mind which is greatly influenced by our capacity to make.

Sometimes however we do imagine the impossible – the real question is ‘is it really impossible?’. Part of our journey is to test what is possible and discover the limits of possibility should they in fact exist. We do this by making. Each time we make, it is an attempt to answer a particular question – even one as simple as will it look the way we thought it would? Often the act of playfully making leads to discovering interesting new forms, functions and possibilities. We put emphasis on being playful because you can’t be kind to your ability to imagine if you aren’t playful. Making ‘stuff’ in the virtual world is also fun and useful but we understand the importance of the tactile world and how important it is to physically make something. How else does a designer increase their understanding of the physical world without making ‘stuff’ we can see and touch and smell? So we love to imagine and we love to make.