On Fabrication: Conversations between Designers and Makers

This series of conversations, organised and chaired by AA tutor Juliet Haysom, explores the relationship between designing and making, and between designers and makers. The politics, poetics and practicalities involved in this exchange are regularly overlooked, with representation and documentation of completed projects tending to emphasise the role of the designer as sole author. Although a process of design delegation is intrinsic to construction at an architectural scale, the skills and expertise of a projects' makers are often integral to the development of the design itself. In a year defined by the challenges of working remotely, it seems particularly important to maintain a conversation about working relationships, and to examine the means by which practical experience is exchanged, instructions communicated, and designs developed as shared endeavours.

In the second talk, Peter Ballantine will discuss his working relationship with Donald Judd. Judd’s production method involved ‘extreme delegation’, in which decision-making was ceded to those who fabricated works for him. These individuals developed the necessary construction details through their familiarity with traditional carpentry and metal workshop practices. Judd’s practice raises significant ongoing philosophical questions about the politics of fabrication, and the relationship between authorship and authenticity within fabricated designs.

Based in New York, Peter Ballantine has specialised in the works and philosophy of Donald Judd since 1969. He first met Judd while he was a fellow at the Whitney Museum Independent Studies Program in 1968, and began working for him the following year. Between 1971 and Judd’s death in 1994, Ballantine fabricated nearly 250 Judd works himself, sometimes also supervising other US and European fabricators on Judd's behalf. Since 1994 he has restored at least 500 Judd works. Ballantine lectures and writes on Judd and Judd issues/implications and has curated 40 Judd exhibitions.

Image: Peter Ballantine in his workshop in 1976, working on a Judd