10th U6+ Consortium of African Universities International Conference

South African fine art education has long balanced subjective aesthetic judgement against institutional demands for transparent, defensible evaluation. Digital fabrication tools, such as FDM printing and CAD modelling, sharpen this tension by merging measurable technical skill with creative practice that resists fixed criteria, all within a context shaped by unequal resources and ongoing efforts to decolonise assessment. This paper contends that current assessment approaches are unequipped for evaluating digital fabrication work and proposes the Digital Fabrication Assessment Literacy Framework (DFALF), built on sustainable assessment theory, evaluative judgement, research on tacit standards in arts assessment, and decolonial critiques of South African higher education. The DFALF comprises five domains: Technical Realisation (translating digital designs into physical objects), Formal Judgement (assessing aesthetic qualities against creative intent), Process Transparency (documenting and reflecting on design decisions), Conceptual Coherence (linking fabrication practice to broader artistic aims), and Critical Positioning (engaging with the cultural and material implications of digital making). The paper offers guidance on developing criteria, setting standards, designing rubrics, and conducting moderation for each domain. By addressing the entanglement of technical and creative competencies explicitly, and doing so within the South African context, this work contributes a novel, theoretically grounded model to assessment literature, advancing discussions on decolonising evaluation and assessing hybrid creative-technical learning.