Body, environment and object
An exploration of craft making as interconnected knowledge
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.6341Keywords:
craft, making, knowledge, ecosystem, environmentAbstract
This paper explores craft making as an embodied process of knowledge creation. It examines the transmission of material knowledge rooted in the body, the making process and its context. By positioning the craft object as a connector between embodied knowledge and embodied encounter, the dominant frameworks that marginalise nonverbal, slow, process-based knowledge are challenged. This paper argues for the need for new criteria of value grounded in craft’s own logic and illustrates the relational nature of craft making, highlighting its role in reconnecting us with our environment through the concept of an ecosystem of making. It proposes that making is both a legitimate mode of inquiry and a form of resistance in the face of ecological crises.
References
Adamson, G. (2019). The invention of craft. Bloomsburg Publishing.
Aktas, B. (2020). Entangled fibres - An examination of human-material interaction. [Doctoral Thesis, Aalto University]. Aalto University. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-64-0086-0
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12101zq
Bray, A., & Colebrook, C. (1998). The haunted flesh: Corporeal feminism and the politics of (dis)embodiment. Signs, 24(1), 35–67. https://doi.org/10.1086/495317
Brinck, I. (2025). ‘Craft thinking: a relational approach to making and design’ in Eds. Nimkulrat, N., Groth, C., Craft and design practice from an embodied perspective. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003328018-5
Brindle, J. (2022). Ways of being: animals, plants, machines: the search for a planetary intelligence. Penguin Random House.Chapman, J. (2015). Emotionally durable design: Objects, experiences and empathy. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315738802
Cuno, J. (Ed.) (2004). Whose muse? Art museums and the public trust. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691188683
Dormer, P. (1994). The art of the maker. Thames and Hudson.
Dormer, P. (1997). The culture of craft. Manchester University Press.
Farnham World Craft Town (2024, April 19). Farnham World Craft Town's first Artist in Residence: Fiona Byrne [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H806xor3os
Groth, C. (2017). Making sense through hands: Design and craft practice analysed as embodied cognition. [Doctoral Thesis, Aalto University]. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-60-7130-5
Groth, C., Bentz, H., Harald, Melin, K., & Leijonhufvud, F. (2024). T-shaped craft researchers’ contribution in transdisciplinary research projects. Journal of Material Culture, 29(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/13591835241248341
Hand, C. (Host). (2025, April 14). Rejecting convention & keeping artistic integrity with Richard Malone (No. 95) [Audio podcast episode]. In Extraordinary Creatives. https://cerihand.com/podcasts/rejecting-convention-keeping-artistic-integrity-with-richard-malone/
Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066
Haraway, D. (2003). The companion species manifesto: Dogs, people, and significant otherness. Prickly Paradigm Press.
Hill, D. (2006). ‘Perversion and Global Neoliberalism’ in Ross, E. W. & Gibson, R. (Eds.), Neoliberalism and education reform (pp. 107-144). Hampton Press.
Ingold, T. (2013a). Making: Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. Routledge 2013. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203559055
Ingold, T. (2013b, October 31). Thinking through makin Tales from the North 2012. [Conference Presentation, LUC Culture, 2012]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygne72-4zyo
Kant, I. (1998). Critique of pure reason (P. Guyer & A. W. Wood, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1781) https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511804649
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind & its challenge to Western thought. Basic Books.
Mäkelä, M. & Latva-Somppi, R. (2011). Crafting narratives: Using historical context as a reflective tool. Craft Research, 2, 37–59. https://doi.org/10.1386/crre.2.37_1
Mäkelä, M. & Nimkulrat, N. (2017). Documentation as practice-led research tool for reflection on experiential knowledge. FORMakademisk, 11(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.1818
Mäkelä, M. (2022) In dialogue with the environment: The environment, creativity, materials and making. Craft Research, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00064_1
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). Phenomenology of perception (D. Landes, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1945) https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203720714
Miller, D. (2010) Stuff. Polity Press.
Nimkulrat, N. & Groth, C. (Eds.). (2025). Craft and design practice from an embodied perspective. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003328018
Noë, A. (2009). Out of our heads: why you are not your brain, and other lessons from the biology of consciousness. Hill and Wang.
O’Connor, E. (2005). Embodied knowledge: The experience of meaning and the struggle towards proficiency in glassblowing. Ethnography, 6(2), 183–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138105057551
O'Connor, E. (2017). Touching tacit knowledge: Handwork as ethnography method in a glassblowing studio. Qualitative Research, 17(2), 217–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794116686651
Oliver, M. (1986). Dream work. Atlantic Monthly Press.
Pallasmaa, J. (2009). The thinking hand: Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture. John Wiley & Sons.
Pallasmaa, J. (2016). Matter, hapticity and time material imagination and the voice of matter. Building Material, 20, 171–189.
Pallassmaa, J. (2017). Embodied wisdom in architecture: The thinking hand. Body & Society, 23(1), 96–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X1668144
Polanyi, M. (1962). Personal knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Polanyi, M. (1967). The tacit dimension. Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company.
Rosler, M., Bynum, C. W., Eaton, N., Holly, M. A., Jones, A., Kelly, M., Kelsey, R., LaGamma, A., Wagner, M., Watson, O., & Weddigen, T. (2013). Notes from the field: Materiality. The Art Bulletin, 95(1), 10–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2013.10786104
Sennett, R. (2008) The craftsman. Penguin Books.
Valentine, L. (2011). Craft as a form of mindful inquiry. Design Journal, 14(3), 283–306. https://doi.org/10.2752/175630611X13046972590806
Whitehead, A. N. (1978). Process and reality: An essay in cosmology (Corrected ed., D. R. Griffin & D. W. Sherburne, Eds.). Free Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Fiona Byrne
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- The author(s) must manage their economic reproduction rights to any third party.
- The journal makes no financial or other compensation for submissions, unless a separate agreement regarding this matter has been made with the author(s).
- The journal is obliged to archive the manuscript (including metadata) in its originally published digital form for at least a suitable amount of time in which the manuscript can be accessed via a long-term archive for digital material, such as in the Norwegian universities’ institutional archives within the framework of the NORA partnership.
The material will be published OpenAccess with a Creative Commons 4.0 License which allows anyone to read, share and adapt the content, even commercially under the licence terms:
This work needs to be appropriately attributed/credited, a link must be provided to the CC-BY 4.0 licence, and changes made need to be indicated in a reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests that the licensor endorses you or your use.
Cited by
