Poiesis and purpose: lessons in making

A text inspired by a conference held at the Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto (FDAUP), Porto, 30–31 January 2020. I was invited to give a keynote presentation at the conference and then to contribute to the subsequent publication Post-digital letterpress printing: research, education, and practice, Routledge (2024).

As the subtitle suggests the book is divided into three sections: research, education and practice. This text opens the second section on Education and explores the value of a process such as letterpress within the wider context of the dematerialised emphasis in contemporary design education in which the material experience of making that letterpress offers is being called into question.

Contribution to knowledge
I argue that in its advocacy of a maker-intelligence, which engages with the conceptual alongside the material, letterpress offers a way of thinking-through-making and the possibilities for poiesis. Such an approach to making steps beyond an analogue-digital binary and opens up space for new kinds of hybridity, collaboration and craft competences. Anchored in communication and through its concretization of language, letterpress also offers a cross-disciplinary opportunity to connect people and ideas. Examples of teaching practices from Europe and Brazil show how effectively education and letterpress combine with purpose in building community and facing social challenges.

Impact
• My individual reflection is amplified through the collective assembly of international voices in a focused book which gathers insights across a range of approaches and relevant aspects of the post-digital letterpress experience: research, education, and practice.

• https://pdlp.fba.up.pt/