Nothing in special collections at Mullins Library on the University of Arkansas campus is as old as the Ten Commandments, but the division is best known for supporting research, teaching and learning through a collection of unique, rare and often older materials. However, the current exhibition on the first floor of Mullins isn’t about eighteenth century manuscripts or rare books. It’s very much about how the past, present and the future can align.
Craft and technology. Digital design and making across campus is about allowing students and faculty to merge old and new tools. The exhibit includes work by students in the School of Architecture, School of Art, and Department of Mathematical Sciences. Emily Baker, associate professor of architecture, says the exhibit proves handheld tools and newer tech like augmented reality can mix and mix well.
“Hopefully. I mean, I think if you’re led into it in a way that creates openings. And I know that’s what all three of us are trying to do.”
Baker led the creation of the exhibit, along with Edmund Harriss, assistant professor of mathematical sciences, and Vince Edwards, director of technology in the School of Art. Harris says the classes and workshops involved in the exhibition were designed to exhaust barriers associated with new technology. He says there are increasingly more opportunities to use tools like digital virtualization in conjunction with traditional craft, like woodworking.
“But it takes time to master the software that controls them. And Vincent is someone who’s done that, and there’s a lot you can do with that. But it means that you then sort of separate it into the software versus the creation of the software. And so we don’t think about how to bring people together to actually think about not just what this tool has already been able to use, but how it can be used differently. And I think this is where bringing it in. I think architecture has been very good at sort of finding new ways to use these tools. I think having technology in a school of art should be not something that’s being brought in from outside, but it’s part of the ancient tradition of technology.”
Harris says he wanted students to not be limited by what they had been told a new technology could do, but wanted them to experiment with the technology to see if it could do what the students wanted. One of Harris’s students, a second year MFA student named Manahil, says it was that kind of encouragement she loved during the course. The class let students use CNC routers, machines that cut along precise lines. By redirecting the machine’s movements, students could investigate new patterns and new textures. Manahil, who is studying printmaking, says the course was exhilarating and maybe at first just a bit intimidating.
“It is like during the process it’s so hard to understand, like how you should, you know, go from one point to another. But I think like with the experimentation with the processes and all that and also with the good discussions. So you can always find some ways. But yeah, it’s overwhelming most of the time, like how and where and you know how to start beginning.”
Vince Edwards, director of technology in the School of Art, says software and robots don’t usually conjure up images of creative play for many people.
“But, um, definitely, we try to start out, we ease in. I do demos where often it’s very improvisational, like I am making decisions based on input from the students and how the demo goes. And so they can see that, oh, there’s a moment here where we can actually, you know, make decisions and like craft based or artistic decisions in the middle of a process that seems really rigid. And we start small. And I think the core idea really is that nothing is a failure in this class.”
Edwards says instead, the class is designed to push limits, and that’s exactly what Quinn Brown did in Vince Edwards class. Brown wanted to make a chair, his first using a CNC router and a single sheet of plywood.
“The technique we used for bending the wood is called kerf bending, and Vincent, the professor for the class, had never done a full three hundred sixty, and I was kind of hell bent on seeing if I can do it. So I did a bunch of math and cut it out on paper first.”
The chair is a sleek consolidation of mid-century modern and craftsman style, with ribbed arches for the chair back, all held together with wood. No screws, no glue. Vince Edwards says the process to make the chair served as a prime example of how new tech and old school artistry can eventually sync up.
“He made one version where it came all the way around together, and the seam didn’t quite close up and we had done everything we could in the software. I was like, well, this is a really great learning moment because software isn’t reality and material likes to do things that only material likes to do.”
Emily Baker with the School of Architecture, says she’s interested in these sorts of collaborations between disciplines and between old and new techniques, resulting in a democratisation of technology.
“You know, you can do certain things with a one hundred thousand or five hundred thousand dollars piece of equipment, but if you can do it with drills and saws that you’ve already got laying around and still capture the power of the technology at the same time, I think that’s really hopeful and hopefully gets that into more people’s hands.”
And Edmund Harris, mathematician and artist, says the act of stretching the work for this exhibition across campus through architecture, mathematics and art strengthens all three disciplines.
“Anytime you have to work with experts with a different skill set. Firstly, it puts you into a place where you’re humble. You know, if I’m working with Emily or working with Vincent, there’s a bunch of stuff that they master and I maybe want to know, but still going. And so I think that and I think especially for students, because they’re in an environment where everyone’s an expert on their discipline and they can come in and talk to someone, see that person, do something awesome that they can’t do, and then realize, oh, and I can do stuff that they can’t do and appreciate how much they’ve learnt.”
The exhibition, Craft and Technology, Digital Design and Making Across Campus is hosted by Special Collections on the first floor of Mullins Library on the University of Arkansas campus. The works remain on view through February 27, 2026.
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