From: tigger@satyr.Sylvan.COM (Grace Sylvan)
Newsgroups: alt.sewing
Subject: Re: What makes a Bozo alarm go off
Date: 6 Nov 92 08:15:51 GMT
Organization: Sylvan Associates

In article <1992Nov4.180400.14058@cbfsb.cb.att.com> motto@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mary.rita.otto) writes:

   What exactly is the Bozo Alarm?  And what is it for?  I have read your
   interpretations, and want a chance to answer.

   The Bozo Alarm is for:

   1.  People who would like to displace the human designed with the machine
   scanned.

   2.  People who would like to take jobs away from those who product fine
   work by hand by replacing them with a machine.

Excuse me, but to each his own. Handcrafts will **never** be totally
replaced - they will continue to be done by those who love to do them.
And I'd suppose some people will be willing to pay for the fact it's
handmade. Just as people are willing to pay for any art - some buy
prints, some buy the originals.

   3.  People who feel that using a machine to generate a picture is superior
   to a hand rendering.

A machine is a tool. When I worked as a graphics artist, I used a
computer to do almost all of the design. It's just like the
typesetting issue - some training (or natural eye) is needed to do a
*good* layout, etc. Computers put powerful tools in the hands of many
people, and some will create inferior art with them. And a machine is
a wonderful tool for quickly replicating something, like a logo.

   4.  People who despise the small variations of manual work which make each
   piece slightly unique in favor of machine generated uniformity.

To each his own. Actually, I'm a fussy worker, and I do my best to
have my sewing and artwork be perfect. For me, it's a compliment to
have made a garment as nice as the (high quality) RTW. And I'd assume
that you *like* the variations.

   5.  People who always feel that a machine could do it better.

To each his own. So, they'll like the machine produced stuff.

   6.  People who want the look and feel of handcrafted without needing
   the services of a craftsman, and create a market for imitations which
   are demeaning to the human creative spirit and heritage.

Huh? I just don't get it. This sounds like the argument against all
technology -- it is happening, less and less items are handcrafted in
general. That is one reason why my friends treasure the outfits I make
for their kids (with a sewing machine, I might add, using fabric made
by machines). Times have changed, women spend much more time away from
the home, and have other obligations. I know that I'm lucky to get 1/2
hour a couple of times a week in my sewing room.

   7.  And, people who want those crafters and designers who are trying
   to perpetuate those arts and crafts to provide information on how
   things can be produced without the crafters and designers.

Look, if I decide to make a quilt, I'll probably just pick up a book
or pattern and do it. The only expert involved is the author of the
book. There was a time when everyone did crafts, and, as I understand
it, you want to preserve the art of it. So, teach it, and do your
thing. But don't assume that everyone else out there is artistically
incapable just because they want to use technology to create their
handiwork. I guess you must hate Norm Abrams, too. (He loves old
furniture, but he makes his versions with power tools)

   When somebody scans a photograph and then makes a cross-stitch of the
   photograph, it does not have the artistic spirit, nor make use of the
   artistic conventions of cross-stitch design.  For example, these "designs"
   rarely, if ever, have any back-stitching details which bring out the
   depth of design.  So, the finished product looks, in my opinion, stupid.

   The same can happen when other things "designed" by the computer are
   used in other crafts.  There are limitations to crafts which computer
   graphics programs do not understand, like the thickness of the media (yarn,
   for example) being used.  Or that in needlepoint, the stitches all slant
   and solid lines are not created in the same way in each direction.  But
   an artist and a crafter does understand these things.

And that's because the programs are in their infancy. Or do you not
remember when page layout on the Macintosh computer was done with
MacWrite and graphics created with MacPaint? It will take the united
efforts of a designer and computer person(s) to produce an excellent
program.

   What happens is that "Bozos" don't want to learn about what a designer can
   do for them.  They shut their minds to our creative input, and want instead
   the cold facts on how we can help them eliminate us.

Shut their minds to your creative input? I would bet you'd NEVER give
creative input to someone wanting to create a superior program to do
needlepoint, because you clearly believe that only human designers can
do it. Instead you call them a Bozo for even thinking about using a
computer to bring some level of availability of such crafts to those
who will never have the time for the training you have.

   If you feel I'm out of line for defending these principles, or for
   criticizing those with whom I take issue, I can live with that.  But
   if you are one of the people described by 1-7 above, then, I think
   you're a Bozo.

I don't care what you think people are, and I do think it's not very
appropriate for you to start namecalling on this forum. That's not
what this forum is about. You'd get further if you'd ask them for more
specifics about the project they have in mind, and perhaps suggesting
they get some skilled assistance than by calling them a Bozo.

Something machine made (run by a human, remember that) is simply
*different* than handcrafted, in my book. I know that the knit shirts
I can produce with my serger are superior to anything I'd do by hand,
partially because I'd probably try and do it as quickly as possible by
hand, being my children will outgrow them quickly. Having a serger in
my house has opened up entire areas of clothing making that I had not
been able to do before.

So, I'm an artist who loves to use technology in whatever way possible
in my creating. Maybe I'm a new kind of artist, I don't know... I
think it's great that you like to do things the 'old' way, but I have
lots of creativity to express, and don't have the time to do it all by
hand.

-- 

Tigger (Grace Sylvan)                Mom of Katherine Yelena, 8/8/89,
tigger@satyr.sylvan.com              Corey 1/31/91; we loved him so,
                                     Robin Gregory born 2/28/92

 "It seems to me that our large goal is to find the ways to help our
 children become humane and strong."
 
              - Dr Haim Ginott quoted by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish
Newsgroups: alt.sewing