Futuristic creatives merge traditional crafts and technology to create a new world of design

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are helping to bring forward the evolution of traditional crafts by connecting the past and the present, to create the future.

Technological advances formed the focus of a panel discussion at Expo 2020 Dubai on Tuesday organised by Menasa – Emirati Design Platform, which brought together futuristic creatives who discussed how tradition and technology can work together without eroding age-old customs.

Dr Hayat Shamsuddin, Senior Vice President, Art and Culture Expo 2020 Dubai, said the forum proved “there is no resistance to technology” but rather “an embracing [of it] to revive and strengthen the crafts.”

Dr Shamsuddin said: “That was clearly the message discussed here, unequivocally, and I think that is truly the way to go, whether to revive or preserve crafts or to expand and develop crafts. I think technology can help us do it, and as a result, we can have a pool of creatives.”

Other members of the panel included Salama Al Shamsi, Director of Qasr Al Hosn, the oldest-standing structure in Abu Dhabi and home to an original watchtower; Mohamed Maktabi, co-founder of Iwan Maktabi, purveyors of antique carpets; Barcelona-based Edouard Cabay, architect and head of Machinic Protocols, which is engaged in computational drawing; and architect Carmelo Zuppullo PhD, owner, External Reference, which specialises in urban, architectural and interior design, also based in Barcelona.

Cabay said robotic machines are actually “an extension of man and not a separate entity… Very often we imagine that we are competing [with machines], but maybe we have to understand the machine as an extension of our own body.

“The hammer, before it was a hammer…was the hand that was hitting something, and then at some point, [humans] decided that maybe it would be more useful to have a piece of wood with a stone or a metal piece at the end. So, the development of tools has always come with the development of the human body and I think that there is no exception for the future – whether it is machines or whether it is digital tech such as AI.”

But, he said, someone still has to understand the technology itself: “The autonomy of the machine is interesting, but I think there always [has] to be the implementation by a mind, or many minds behind [it], potentially.”

Zuppullo said technology is an opportunity to allow crafts to evolve:  “Craftsmanship is an evolution of knowing how and knowing why. With technology, nowadays we have the direct connection between our mind, the computer and then the fabrication [of crafts]. At the same time, it is an opportunity for decoding craftsmanship into something that we can reproduce with the machine or [for] which we can establish a dialogue between the machine, the craftsman and the designer.”

Zuppullo added: “It is not like that new technology makes the past disappear. No, we know the past. With the awareness and knowledge of the past, we can [codify] this knowledge and transform it into something new through the use of new technology.”

Maktabi said technology has been making the lives of craftspeople easier: “Today, we visualise every single design [for] carpets through a computer programme that lets us see exactly [what] the carpet looks like even before we start to weave it.”

He continued: “Technology will help crafts in the future by making it more relevant for people. We [will] use [a] data algorithm to make a design.”

Al Shamsi said: “Qasr Al Hosn’s participation in the platform’s activities aims to highlight the importance of Emirati heritage and crafts through the use of technological techniques to ensure that they reach the largest [possible part] of the public, get acquainted closely with traditional Emirati crafts, and contribute to their transmission to the coming generations.”

© Press Release 2022