Hand, Heart and Machine: craft in an age of automation

Hand, Heart and Machine: craft in an age of automation

Automation promises efficiency, but at what cost to the human?

By Global Design Forum

Date and time

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:30 - 14:30 GMT+1

Location

King's College London

Strand London WC2R 2LS United Kingdom

About this event

  • Event lasts 1 hour

Automation promises efficiency, but at what cost to the human? This talk probes into what vanishes when machines replace hands, the emotional resonance of the making process and how design can bridge the gap between craft and industry. The speakers include designer and researcher Thomas Thwaites, who is best known for his project to build a toaster from scratch; jewellery maker Steve Ali, who discovered metalwork after leaving Syria in 2013 and living in a refugee camp in Calais. The talk will be chaired by Annie Warburton, chief executive of the Goldsmiths' Company, one of the 12 Great Livery Companies of the City of London, which through its foundation supports creative, technical and vocational skills in craft. [final speaker to come]


Location: The Great Hall, King's College, London

This edition of the Global Design Forum is supported by our Digital Media Partner, STIR.

Should you have any access requirements, please contact us at rsvp@globaldesignforum.com to accommodate your visit.

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Global Design Forum

As part of the London Design Biennale programme, from 10 - 12 June 2025 the Global Design Forum will host a series of talks and panel discussions at King's College London, under the title ‘Design and the Invisible’.

How can we dismantle outdated systems and forge radical new ones? Join Samuel Ross, Mariana Mazzucato, Kengo Kuma and dozens more of the world’s most exciting designers and thinkers for a series of talks that will rethink the hidden powers shaping our world.

Beneath every object, building and space lies an entangled network of invisible forces – financial flows, digital networks, contested borders and unspoken cultural codes that shape lives and govern the world.

Inspired by artistic director Samuel Ross’ Biennale theme, Surface Reflections, we pull back the curtain on these unseen drivers of design. Over three days, leading designers, architects, economists, activists and technologists will shine a light on the impulses that come from within us, those that lie outside us and those that connect us, and envisage a future where design’s transformative power is freed from invisible constraints.

This edition is supported by our Digital Media Partner, STIR.

FreeJun 12 · 13:30 GMT+1