Reading 1

In this excerpt, Lars Spuybroek makes varied philosophical points centered around the modernization of John Ruskin’s Gothic characteristics and their related philosophy. Generally, I agree with the points made, as Spuybroek defends the use of digital tools as tools versus automation, points out variation in production processes and written programs, promotes the creation of machines and programs to accomplish tasks in novel ways, and advocates for more unique interactions and connections to be built between artists/designers and their digital tools.

However, the text is extremely verbose. For example Spuybroek often draws in contemporaries of John Ruskin for comparison. This would be helpful, except that Spuybroek seems to provide either too much context (to the point of going on a tangent), or too little context (requiring outside knowledge). As this is clearly a persuasive and editorial text, clarity would be nice. Simultaneously, as Spuybroek is trying to bridge the gap between two concepts that have been traditionally been separate, because of his circuitous writing, his points sometimes get lost in the exchange of precedent and contemporary ways of thinking.