Carter Skemp
| Title | Assistant Professor of Architecture |
|---|---|
| Telephone | 207.621.3243 |
| carter.skemp@maine.edu | |
| Address | Handley Hall |
| Bio | Teaching and Research Interests Learning the craft of architecture, whether it is with hand drawings or digital methods, is about the process as much as the result. In today’s paradigm of ever-shifting technologies and constant re-invention, students must learn to learn. My teaching focus is on developing student skills to become well versed at the underlying logics of tools in conjunction with design and design theory, allowing them to become designers that will be well-positioned to adapt to this permanent constant change. My research agenda has evolved to look at the idea of traditional craft viewed through a modern digital lens. What used to be only the domain of the proven designer or seasoned craftsman, industrial fabrication is now being made available to the general public with the burgeoning numbers of DIY shops and ‘Fab Labs’. How the perceptions and applications of craft shift and change will be a focus of my research work. It used to be that the knowledge of a craft was passed down from craftsman to craftsman, with craftsmen and designers working collaboratively, and the attribution of design often hard to distinguish in the finished work. As craft shifts into the ones and zeroes of digital fabrication, will creativity shift, change, or even get lost? The same question arose with the advent of the industrial revolution as well, but today’s revolution is more personal and therefore more accessible. The bar to digital fabrication is getting lower and lower making it more and more accessible to the average person. This accessibility democratizes the process for certain, but what will that mean for design? With a digital fabrication box on every desk, how, for example, will proportion and balance be learned? In collaboration with my teaching at UMA, I am working on research and art projects in multiple scales that work to explore this intersection of creativity, craft, and digital tools. Education Masters of Architecture I, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2010. |