Des robots et des mains

It is said that in the 18th century, Jacques Vaucanson, the famous French inventor of the automatic flute and the digestive duck, was so enthusiastically received in the salons of Paris that King Louis XV commissioned him to modernise the looms of the silk weavers in Lyon. The canuts in Lyon did not receive such a warm welcome, however, and ended up being pelted with stones...

However, the Vaucanson loom was a forerunner of the Jacquard loom, a machine that is now considered to be an asset in the weaver's toolbox, a craft that belongs on the list of ‘métiers d'art’!

This anecdote highlights the ambivalence of our subject. There's a fine line between saying that yesterday's robots are tomorrow's tools and saying that the craftsman will find them in yesterday's robots, but I wouldn't want to cross it without a full debate... And that's precisely the subject of the next session of New Perspectives on Crafts, entitled Des Robots et des Mains (Robots and Hands).

To tackle this subject, I'd be delighted to hear from Manufacture Pinton, which recently equipped itself with a tufting robot to manufacture its exceptional carpets; the Centre de Robotique at Mines Paris - PSL, which specialises in capturing the artisanal gesture applied to robotics; as well as the creative duo AATB, insatiable explorers of the non-industrial practices of robots, and the Compagnons du Devoir, who have been taking part in the evolution of artisanal practices since the time of the cathedrals!
Grégoire Talon

Guests:
– Manufacture Pinton: Caroline Magre, Communications Manager 
– Centre de Robotique de Mines Paris - PSL: Alina Glushkova, research professor
– AATB: Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet, artists and designers
– Les Compagnons du Devoir: Julien Lecarme, Compagnon Charpentier, Deputy Director of the Collège des Métiers, Les Compagnons du Devoir et du Tour de France

Moderator:
– Grégoire Talon, Coordinator of the Conservatoire des gestes et savoir-faire / Re-Source, Campus Momade