"Discuss if the introduction of new technologies to traditional indigenous craft practices brings cultural anonymity?" Well this is a so difficult question for me because it is deep and contains too much information for a starter "craftsman".
Actually this is a similar question with the 3D printing issue which I have thought about many times: will the new technologies (3D printing or CNC, etc) somehow destroy the cultures of craftsmanship if the tickets to those are too cheap for everybody? As my own point of view, on the one hand I am quite obsessed with the traditional crafts but now I also very enjoy taking the advantage of the new technologies. The results of the collaboration of old and new are not so bad in my own practice. As for the cultural aspects, I want to discuss and give some examples related to the works from my class:
My classmates in the Digital Crafting in Glass course are from different places and cultures, so looking into their works will help to find the answer. We were all introduced to the same software and the same machine, however, some chose to make vessel, some chose solid, some chose mesh, and one chose not to use the Project Shapeshifter. So I think that is because we have different values on beauty. Cultures have big impact on people's appreciation of the beauty, and cultural background acts like the DNA of all of our works. It is so true that "Technologies are a great enabler of new creative endeavor", they've made it so easy for anyone to be craftsman, left out most of the hard work and shortened the time, however, deep down into the craftsman's heart, something can't be changed, and that is most likely to be the culture, which will always be seen in the artifact.
Technologies change the way we make things, but they cannot change who we are. After all, they're just tools.
