Redoing is the new undoing: Workmanship of risk and certainty in digital craft

David Pye, the late 20th century English craftsman and writer, established a relationship between undoing and the aesthetic dimension of manufactured objects, a potent framework still cited by theorists in their attempt to rescue the value of craft. Pye believed that craftsmanship is a response we instinctively read into the object through the level of 'risk' associated with its making. Although published in 1968, Pye's terms have remained remarkably durable, and he continues to be referenced by theorists and re-discovered by architecture students even in the digital age. Although digital fabrication has disassociated the link between industrial production and seriality, enabling bespoke manufacturing, the nostalgia of craft persists. As a new generation of digital natives enter the profession, these nostalgias are re-emerging and are stronger than ever. In this way, it may be important to return to Pye and ask about craft once again.