ABSTRACT
Humans are softer machines, our value steeped in seemingly opposed notions of virtuosity: virtue in the Romantic sense of John Ruskin, attached to the acceptance of flaw as beautiful, Denis Diderot’s enlightened reverence for technical virtuosity, as close as possible to perfection and thus an expression of the sublime in human nature. Richard Sennett positions himself in the more human(e) center of this argument. He focuses on craft as active labor, centered on the notion of work and practice to develop skill, yet allows imperfection to exist within the aesthetic standards that constitute a skilled product. The mistake forces the worker to strategize for the improvement of her skill, providing a problem to solve or a moment to reflect upon strategies for solving problems. The first sector of weavers was motivated to weave fabrics that implied higher skill levels and thus larger economic return.
