Finished Peter Korn’s book “Why we make things and why it matters” tonight. It was a wonderful read which I can fully and hardily recommend to anyone interested in living a ‘good’ life and making things. He eloquently weaves a narrative that has making things as the warp of a canvas with common daily activities threaded throughout to produce what a feeling of goodness. He describes three types of makers. First person, the original maker. Second person, a person experiencing the maker’s craft. Third person, the writer, critic, magazine - anybody viewing a facsimile of the object. Each has a place in the work. He describes the work of a maker as the shaping of a culture, little by little. A maker either reinforces or pushes the boundaries of what is considered normal in a culture. If the maker is a little out there, then the second and third person in this chain can reinforce or not, the makers notion. This is how design evolves.
This book is also an autobiography. Peter thought early on, that being a master craftsman meant that you’d be enlightened. And so went his search for meaning. But Peter so found out and shared that some master craftsmen are a-holes. Really what he was searching for was a good life. Something we all are after. We create our little part of the world each day. Each choice we makes adds up to our life. We are both a maker of things and a maker of our life.
Great writing and a great narrative. this I’ll defiantly reread.