Here is a real door from more than a century ago and a modern piece of mass-produced fake wood, that doesn't have one touch of métier:
Nobody cares about this door. It is flat, boring, and standard.
There are probably thousands like this and they all look the same.
On the other door, however, every single square has a unique geometrical motif:
It is not only unique, it carries deep meaning.
This is the pattern recognition of Christianity, therefore the world is expressed here, the core elements of human experience.
This difference is not trivial.
These are not random shapes, but symmetrical relationships that geometric forms create.
Fractality
Notice the fractal patterns of three.
It is a motif that is repeated also within itself (each one of the three slots has 3 sides).
This is famously utilized by Bach in many of his pieces (ternary form, three notes, repeating 3 times, etc).
This is craft.
It is relatable. It was made by the very hands of another human being.
Just imagine the amount of patient work that went into building it.
Whenever you do something with your own hands it is inevitable that your emotional state, intentions, your understanding of the world, and personal footprint are transmuted into the work.
Excerpt from The Decline and Fall of Western Art, on the ancients:
If you were a craftsman making something, you imbued it with decoration implying symbolic meaning and style in accordance with your culture. It doesn’t matter what it was, or how utilitarian, one never forewent the æsthetic consideration, if it was so much as a spoon or a plastered ceiling.
It becomes personal and deep with more and more connections, that is, meaning.
Excerpt from The Language of Creation:
In general, ancient crafs were not merely practcal in nature. They were also expressions of higher spiritual truths. In additon to their technological advantages, these crafs also served a functon comparable to that of books. For that reason, it is a mistake to interpret traditonal crafs such as masonry, metalsmithing, weaving, and carpentry from a strictly materialistc perspectve because it always fails to recognize them as repositories of spiritual knowledge.
There was wisdom in everyday objects and architecture.
You can't expect to throw it all away with no consequences.
But we did.
Part 2 out next week.