Back to Search
Start Over
On Dullness: A Sensory Portrait.
- Source :
-
Journal of Modern Craft . Mar2024, Vol. 17 Issue 1, p13-20. 8p. - Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Dullness is a quality that is hard to pin down for a woodworker; it defies easy definitions, and yet has the power to radically change the temper of experience. Using methods of self-observation drawn from sensory ethnography, I describe how I encounter dullness in my own skilled craft practice. I capture the intersensory nature of perception, how dullness is known through touch, sight, and sound. I follow traces of dullness on the wood I carve, in my body, and along the edge of my tool. This sensory portrait of dullness as elusive, relational, and shifting is a textured and nuanced account of how a craftsperson knows what they need to know from the body and experience. In the analysis section, I draw on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's theory of the inexhaustibility of perception to enhance my claim that dullness is not a fixed object, but a state filled with ambiguity. Perception does not give us easy answers. The article counters popular renderings of craft as practical or technical know-how with a contrary theory of craft as filled with poetic ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *WOOD carving
*INTROSPECTION
*AMBIGUITY
*ARTISANS
*ETHNOLOGY
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 17496772
- Volume :
- 17
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Modern Craft
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 177082795
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/17496772.2024.2316482