Abstract
This paper presents the research and development of pre-17th century kiln technology, which has led to the design of a new sustainable studio glass furnace with modern technology and materials. The aim of this research was to provide a breakthrough for sustainable studio glass technology. This way of working is far more labour-intensive, but this is not a negative. With the glassmaker more in control of the materials and the process, the skills that previously were thought beyond modern knowledge are retrievable again. Underpinning this research is a deeper enquiry into the place and position of tacit knowledge. Comparing the technical rationality of today with pre-industrial revolution reflective rationality, I will suggest that our actual mode of thinking, the way we think as a society, actively undermines the importance and recognition of tacit skill. There is a necessity for the re-evaluation of tacit skills. People who work with their hands and hearts can’t act as they feel they should because that way of acting, that thing they know they should do, is not in the job description. In modern society with technical rationality as its dominant model of thinking, the working practitioner has very little credibility or voice. All my work is an attempt to square the circle – joining learning and making a living, history with the future, valuing the whole person – learning as much as writing – and the kiln design is an aspect of this determination to look to the past for what could be used in the future, just as I use a historical lens to view how tacit skills were valued in the past and how they could and should be valued again.
Keywords
Tacit; technical; reflective; rationality; glass
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2011.113
Citation
Hankey, I.(2011) Technical and Reflective Rationality and Craft Practice, in Niedderer, K., Mey, K., Roworth-Stokes, S. (eds.), EKSIG 2011: Skin Deep - Experiential Knowledge & Multi-sensory Communication, 23–24 June 2011, Farnham, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2011.113
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Technical and Reflective Rationality and Craft Practice
This paper presents the research and development of pre-17th century kiln technology, which has led to the design of a new sustainable studio glass furnace with modern technology and materials. The aim of this research was to provide a breakthrough for sustainable studio glass technology. This way of working is far more labour-intensive, but this is not a negative. With the glassmaker more in control of the materials and the process, the skills that previously were thought beyond modern knowledge are retrievable again. Underpinning this research is a deeper enquiry into the place and position of tacit knowledge. Comparing the technical rationality of today with pre-industrial revolution reflective rationality, I will suggest that our actual mode of thinking, the way we think as a society, actively undermines the importance and recognition of tacit skill. There is a necessity for the re-evaluation of tacit skills. People who work with their hands and hearts can’t act as they feel they should because that way of acting, that thing they know they should do, is not in the job description. In modern society with technical rationality as its dominant model of thinking, the working practitioner has very little credibility or voice. All my work is an attempt to square the circle – joining learning and making a living, history with the future, valuing the whole person – learning as much as writing – and the kiln design is an aspect of this determination to look to the past for what could be used in the future, just as I use a historical lens to view how tacit skills were valued in the past and how they could and should be valued again.