Production: An Engineering Perspective

The science of modern manufacturing engineering plays a central role in my work as that work has always had a business component. This may seem antithetical to someone who works solely in the context of true art. For me it has always been a necessity.

My workshop here in Minnesota is as much a space for learning as it is for building, and by learning I mean applying concepts in art and engineering to produce design outcomes and the understanding that those outcomes provide.

I am most interested in exploring the engineering concepts of design through the production of product platform architecture and the production of structural form, and the fundamental visual concepts of subject, form, and unity.These were always principle in organ building, so it is natural that I want to continue their development and study here in my current workshop space building functional design for local galleries.

My design method begins with a produce-first approach that helps to answer the two questions that I most often face. Can I build this thing I am trying to build, and can I build more than one or multiple variations of that one thing? This is why I design from methods or technique, and start with the mortise and tenon or dovetail joint for instance. The integration of a set of basic techniques form the foundation for a product or object platform architecture that, if developed correctly, can easily scale to produce a family of related yet different objects. This is not economy through scale, but a simplification through scalable commonality.

The contribution of manufacturing engineering science to the design of an object begins with an emphasis on production. Build methods and technologies drive the creative process back towards the beginning and result in the creation of an initial product platform architecture.

That there can be a plausible integration between what could be considered true art as human expression, and the introduction of a business case argument in determining a design configuration through the application of production engineering sciences is my current focus in developing new uses for my engineering aptitude.