The Form of Movement
In his theory on tacit knowledge Polanyi (1886-1964) is insistent on the fact that one can only learn to swim on the water, or learn to cycle on a bicycle. But I couldn’t help asking myself, what happens then with the knowledge acquired, where is it stored?
- Project:
- The Learning Hand
In the video Wheel Throwing by Heart (2014) I asked an experienced potter to wheel throw a pot departing from his embodied memory, without using clay. The experiment turned to be a challenge, even for the expert hands. He could without the materiality of the clay at hand follow with accuracy the sequence of the movements needed to throw a pot; but who was in command of the action, the brain or the body? This recording of the choreography of his hands is not only fascinating to watch, but has proved to be helpful as a tutorial.
The Form of Movement goes yet again a step further; the potter is using hand-motion sensors that register the accurate sequence of gestures of wheel throwing a pot without using clay. The data acquired is transformed into a 3d print.
The result makes evident only one part of the process of making. It materializes the movements of potter into a form, as if this choreography of the hands, is just the technical part of the making. What is the evidence? Is making something by heart only an exercise of extreme mental concentration, directing your hands to execute a sequence of gestures?
Or is it indeed the relation with the material at hand that wakes up the tactile senses and defines the expertise of the artist?
The artistic result of this research is a series of pots, which are testimonies of several aspects and steps of wheel throwing.