Construct distinctive physical objects for artistic, functional, or commercial purposes
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 9 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 9 occupations that perform it.
- Create functional or decorative objects by hand, using a variety of methods and materials.
- Use materials such as pens and ink, watercolors, charcoal, oil, or computer software to create artwork.
- Trim material and arrange bouquets, wreaths, terrariums, and other items, using trimmers, shapers, wire, pins, floral tape, foam, and other materials.
- Cut out designs on cardboard, hardboard, or plywood, according to motif of event.
- Design and produce displays and materials that can be used to decorate windows, interior displays, or event locations, such as streets and fairgrounds.
- Construct puppets and ventriloquist dummies, and sew accessory clothing, using hand tools and machines.
- Construct and position properties, sets, lighting equipment, and other equipment.
- Mount, frame, laminate, or lacquer finished photographs.
- Prepare work for sale or exhibition, and maintain relationships with retail, pottery, art, and resource networks that can facilitate sale or exhibition of work.
- Cut, shape, fit, join, mold, or otherwise process materials, using hand tools, power tools, or machinery.
- Create finished art work as decoration, or to elucidate or substitute for spoken or written messages.
- Attach handles to pottery pieces.
- Cut, bend, laminate, arrange, and fasten individual or mixed raw and manufactured materials and products to form works of art.
- Create sculptures, statues, and other three-dimensional artwork by using abrasives and tools to shape, carve, and fabricate materials such as clay, stone, wood, or metal.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
9 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Create decorative objects or parts of objects”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Attach decorative or functional accessories to products | 6 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.