Reading: The Craftsman

Sennett, Richard, (2008) The Craftsman, London: Penguin

PP. 149-178, Chapter Five

Notes, in chronological order.

This exert contains chapter five of The Craftsman, which is described as 'an exploration of craftsmanship - the desire to do a job well for its own sake - as a template for living.'

The chapter is titled The Hand, and discusses how this limb is in relation to the mind and what it can do within the context of making. It explores technique and what that means of a craftsman and how to achieve it.

Drawing thoughts on my subject of interest...

...'the brain receives more trustworthy information from the touch of the hand than from the images in the eye - the latter so often yielding false, misleading appearances.'

This is the first sentence that grabbed me from the text. This grows the idea of the importance of tactility in our lives. A subject of interest for me within my practice is the necessity of physical printed and bound books. In an age where technology could easily take over and books become electronic, e-books, I endeavour to understand why we are so reluctant to make this shift happen. This is something I researched during my Bachelors degree, and I found that there is much reason for folk to make the switch to e-books; accessibility, convenience, some may argue for environmental reasons, are just a few of many. Yet there are reasons books remain to be produced, and this touches upon a big one; tactility. A language that the eye is unable to pursue dialogue with. One could argue that digital forms of reading rely on the eye and leave other senses behind, which could explain a part of the reasoning for why the experience of reading a book is unmatched by an e-book.

'Grips are voluntary actions; to grip is a decision, in contrast to involuntary motions like the blinking of the eyelids.'

This quote provides further insight into why the experience of reading a book may be more satisfying for a reader than the experience of an e-book. Reading a printed book likely requires more grip than a tablet or laptop. They use more of the body; to hold it and to physically move the pages, rather than press a button. This is a voluntary motion that creates a 'dialogue between the hand and the brain', which gives the human a feeling of control over the object and experience, and could aid in keeping concentration by continual problem solving and decision making, keeping the brain active and alert.

Sennett goes on to discuss touch and how it delivers a different kind of 'sensate information' to what is delivered from sight. He implies that there are more boundaries to sight as it is 'contained in a frame'. This could be applied to the context of comparing books and e-books, one being contained in a frame, as sight is, and the other involving more senses. When touch is involved, the whole body may be provoked into reaction. He then suggests how sight is easy to diminish by closing the eyes, which is true, however he doesn't acknowledge how memory is another way of seeing that could detract this point. 

Despite this, the main point of touch providing 'invasive, unbounded data' could support how books have more of an impact on people, which may make the experience of reading from one more memorable and desirable.

Prehension; 'the technical name for movements in which the body anticipates and acts in advance of sense data. 'Prehension signals alertness, engagement, and risk taking'.

As touched upon earlier, the requirements of more movements when reading a book could aid in keeping the brain active, which is where the term prehension comes in. You are aware you are coming to the end of a page and will need to turn it, even though you may be so engrossed in what you are reading; anticipating and acting in advance. So, prehension must be involved in the experience of a book, but for an e-book, less dramatically so. Yes you are to click a button to go onto the next page, however this is contained within 'the frame' and is far less demanding physically. This could suggest that the reader is more mentally active when reading a book rather than an e-book.

'..."Transitional objects" - technical jargon for the human capacity to care about those people or material things that themselves change.'

This is a new term to me that is certainly could be used as a part of the answer to why we continue to consume the printed book in a digital age. This term is used within the book in the context of infants disconnecting from the separation of their mother and her breast, and how this creates anxiety, so children look outward and find new relationships, leading to transitional objects.

The effect of having an object that the person can change creates control and a sense of security. It provides an emotional experience of gaining control over something that is uncertain or unstable. A printed book provides this experience for the reader with its form being far more prone to change by the reader than an e-book. As you read, your physical movements with the book changes its shape, whether one likes it or not, so that it is 'worn'. A new book is no longer new, once one commences the reading experience. This quality is not involved in e-books. Digital books remain unchanged no matter the amount of times it is read, who it is read by, or how it is used. This feeling of control of the object in hand is non existence, whereas for printed books, there is far more at stake.

Drawing thoughts on my Creative Practice...

 '... the probing craftsman does more than encounter mess; he or she creates it as a means of understanding working procedures.'

A quote that I love, encouraging and valuing mess as a craftsman. Sennett says,

'the work process has to do something distasteful to the tidy mind, which is to dwell temporarily in mess - wrong moves, false starts, dead ends.'

This draws upon an uncomfortable reality for someone who wants to do a good job and reach high standards, but also this idea may change the mindset entirely. When accepting that to progress, you have to make mess, it brings freedom into creating. In fact, in order to improve skill, this idea cannot just be accepted, you have to be 'willing - more, to desire - to dwell in error'. To improve skill, one must 'prepare, dwell in mistakes, recover form'. Without this, there would be no way to know what to improve or how to.

Drawing new ideas...

The text discusses how our biological form as a human is lopsided. With my head constantly thinking of books, this probed an idea for making a book that facilitates this fact. Books are always made as symmetrical as possible. I suppose for many reasons, but undoubtably to accommodate both the right handed person and the let handed person. I question, what may a book built for each type of person lookalike? How might that change the form and flow of a book?

Sennett goes on to discuss force, looking at how knives may be used and what this could suggest in the context of a craftsman. It states how knives are seen as dangerous objects, thus being socially appropriate behaviours when handling them, tailored to each culture. He uses the example, 'in setting a table, we place the knife with its sharp edge inward rather than facing outward and so threatening our neighbour.' 

This had me thinking how we see objects and how that influences how we handle them. If a book was made out of knives, for example, we would handle it very differently to the expected book of printed paper pages. A book of knives would present the way we feel about objects and how this changes our interaction with them.

Drawing on being a craftsman...

"Cleave a grain of rice" thus stands for two bodily rules intimately connected; establish a base line of minimum necessary power, and learn to let go.'

Inevitably, I have read this text and reflected on my skills as a craftsman. I found this quote to stand out as I often have to be aware of my physical power when I am practicing bookbinding and printmaking. I have found that being aware of this and adjusting is most useful to create work successfully. It also helps that achieving this balance is good for my body, reducing aches and pains. For example, when carving Lino, I started by using too much force, carving too deep and ending up with pain in my body, mistakes in the carving and accidents such as cuts on my fingers. Once I learnt and harnessed the technique of letting go and finding the balance of power, I had less problems and a better outcome. As Sennett says, 'self control pairs with ease', and in carving this is essential; when achieving the right balance of power, pressure and force, you become the most in control of the mark-making.

Sennet goes on to suggest that the correct balance of power can only be physically achieved with a sound mind. He says, 'mentally, the craftsman of words could no more explore and use them well if he or she were full of anxiety', which suggest why making a successful piece of work is harder to achieve when one is not calm. He explains that these feelings move through the body into the arms; 'shame, anxiety and muscular tension form an unholy trinity in the human organism.' So, to craft successfully, it is important to be of sound mind, to gain what is describes as "soft power".

'Built into the contractions of the human heart, the skilled craftsman has extended rhythm to the hand and the eye.'

I really connected with what he says in these pages (174-175) as it explains the state you achieve when practicing your craft, and why it feels so good. He states how 'movement repeated becomes a pleasure in itself', due to the stimulation it creates. You fall into rhythm, and enter an all engulfing state; what Michael Polanyi calls "focal awareness". Sennett says; 

'you become absorbed in something, no longer self-aware, even of our bodily self. We have become the thing on which we are working.'

Drawing on acts of faith...

'religious rituals need to be repeated to become persuasive, (...) the celebrant anticipates each time that something important is about to happen.'

Here he likens being a craftsman to practicing religiously. One will make a decision by judging the worth of the action, then one will commit to doing it; 'we submit to a duty, a custom, or to another person's need, not of our own making.' One part self directed, the other not. It is same in practicing religion, part choice, part submission. This results in commitment, and commitment becomes important.

'the person able to perform a duty again and again has acquired a technical skill, the rhythmic skill of a craftsman, whatever the god or gods to which he or she subscribes.'

I love the idea of craft being ritual, it become sacred. Although it isn't discussed in the tex, this paragraph prompted how there is something very intimate and romantic about being a craftsman. Perhaps it is to do with achieving "focal awareness", or as Maurice Merleau-Ponty describes it, "being as a thing". Or maybe it is the aspect of commitment, creating a sense of importance. It could also be the relationship of the mind and the physicality of being a craftsman, how one has to deeply understand and control oneself and the way in which that transfers through into what is being created. It is likely a combination of all of it; a rhythmic committed practice of the personally curated route to being through a thing.

Discussion notes

• Sennett's teacher was Hannah Arendt and best friend was Michel Foucault.
• Learning language - taught memory based, like the tape on instruments. But you learn best when living the challenge it out and having conversations easier for learning.
• Leaving as an undergrad like ripping off the tape. New learning curve with no structure or groundwork. But opportunity to find own path.
• Making mistakes and mess is important and useful. Precious!
• Question what is natural and what is taught? What have you created and what is created for another reason.