FROM INDIGENOUS TO 3D PRINTED FOOTWEAR
‘Over the course of the research, Willems has realized that there are many unexpected connections between 3-D-printed shoes and handmade local footwear. Most striking is the scale of the production. Both approaches concern the making of customized single products, or small batches to order, usually in just one material. FFF is trying to avoid the “hit-and-run” tactics often adopted by Western designers when they parachute into craft culture, extract ideas and feel-good symbolism, and then move on. Willems therefore insists that the Indigenous communities retain intellectual property over their contributions; once the FFF designs enter the mainstream market, profits will be shared with them. In this practice we see how learning about materials can serve as a powerful means of cross-cultural motion, even if only one step at a time.’
In Fewer, better things. The hidden wisdom of objects, p. 209.
Glenn Adamson (2018).
