![]() ![]() The words we use inform the ideas in play, and those ideas give form to what is produced. Every new project comes with a new set of questions, a new set of constraints, that require new skills, and new approaches for creative problem solving. It gives structure to what we know and how we know it. In this way, scaffolding is a form of learning. We can further extend our definition of scaffolding to include the skills and knowledge necessary for operating the tools that advance the project, as well as to the critical engagement that is fundamental to the creative process in general. The design of a jig can sometimes be as interesting as the design of the piece itself. When designing an effective jig, consideration must be given to the path through which the bit or blade will pass, and how the piece is fixed, but it must also do so in a safe manner. Like the scaffolding that Vasari describes, which was designed to bring the body of the artist into close physical proximity with the work, a jig allows the craftsperson to adapt his/her tools to act on a given material in a precise, repeatable fashion. Woodworkers, for example and by comparison, will often design jigs to position a part in relation to a tool in order to augment the function of that tool. Scaffolding can take many different forms, but in the narrowest sense, it is a tool. But scaffolding of this kind not only gives structure to the process it demands a consideration of the tools, knowledge, and resources that are necessary for crafting novel and uncommon things. Often, the most difficult part of any creative process is just getting started preparing for the tasks at hand by putting the necessary structures in place that will bring the project to fruition. And so Michelangelo ordered scaffolding built on poles which did not touch the wall, the method for fitting out vaults he later taught to Bramante and others, and with which many fine works were executed. Michelangelo then realized that either Bramante knew little about it or he was not much of a friend, and he went to the pope and told him that this scaffolding was unsatisfactory and that Bramante had not understood how to build it in Bramante’s presence, the pope replied that he should build one in his own way. ![]() The pope ordered Bramante to build the scaffolding in order to paint it Bramante did so by piercing the ceiling and hanging everything from ropes upon seeing this, Michelangelo asked Bramante how, once the painting had been completed, he would be able to fill the holes and Bramante replied, ‘We’ll worry about that later’, and added that there was no other way to do it. Vasari tells us, that in preparing to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a debate arose between Bramante and Michelangelo about how to design the scaffolding necessary to proceed with the project: By Ian Gonsher ( republished with permission)
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