Digital Craft
Project information
Team
Dr. Michael Braun (Project lead)
Title
Potenziale Digitaler Handwerklichkeit: Ein modell-basierter Ansatz zur Wiederentdeckung handwerklicher Prozessualität im digitalen Entwurfs- und Fertigungsprozess, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des robotischen 3D-Drucks von Porzellan
Format
Research project (and doctoral thesis)
Status
completed
Experts
Prof. em. Wolfgang Sattler, Prof. Dr. Jan Willmann
Funding
n/a
Support
WASP S.r.l., JUGARD+KÜNSTNER GmbH
Contact
michael.braun[at]uni-weimar.de
Project description
This research and doctoral project investigates how craft-based processuality can be operationalized within digital design and fabrication systems, with a particular focus on robotically controlled porcelain 3D printing. Material deviations are not understood as disturbances but as epistemically productive events within the design process, generating new insights into material behaviour, machine operation, and process dynamics. Building on this perspective, the dissertation develops a model of craft as a double ontology, describing the coupling of material transformation and reflective making. Within this framework, differences between digital intention and physical realization are interpreted as a productive dynamic rather than a problem to be eliminated. Based on this theoretical foundation, the research formulates the design approach Deviation-driven Design (DDD): an iterative and materially aware design practice in which robotically generated results are continuously fed back into process control. A series of experimental case studies in robotic porcelain 3D printing demonstrate how emerging deviations can be systematically typologized and productively integrated into the design process. In this way, the relationship between design and execution is redefined as an information- and material-driven coupling, positioning the unforeseen as a constitutive element of contemporary design practice.
For more information: https://www.db-thueringen.de/receive/dbt_mods_00066699