Gustav Thane's research proposes a Workshop Floor Theory that makes it possible to recognize and access patterns of thinking and knowing, informed and guided by craft skill. Drawing on the grund verbs of the blacksmithing craft, Grounded Theory and concepts from craft scholarship, skilled actions are conceptualized to form the basis of a pragmatic piece of embodied craft theory. In this research, Grounded Theory is adapted to embodied actions, grounding technique verbs in skill to narrow the gap between a Master’s perception and that of a craft connoisseur or interested scholar. Craft-specific technique verbs, following Strauss and Corbin’s pragmatic understanding of theory, are conceptualized through infographic video descriptions and systematization into a nomenclature of craft techniques.
Workshop Floor Theory offers a discursive access to embodied modes of thought, potentially applicable to research as wide as craft practice, the sciences, and the humanities, and puts the craft concepts material negotiation, material force, and material flow in dialog with the more generally used concepts of material agency and material affordance. Specifying the connections between conceptualizations makes the academic tradition of Research applicable to craft practice, but also the hands-on tradition of craft practice applicable to wider academic research. Concepts are developed as a tool for researchers to theoretically access—and apply—embodied knowledge within academic discourse and vice versa.
Faculty Opponent
Andreas Nobel, Dr. Art. Professor in Furniture Design, Malmstens Linköping university
Examining Committee
Mary Hackett, PhD, Artist, Melbourne Polytechnic, Australia
Harald Bentz Hogseth, Professor, Dr. Art. in Art and Craft, Department of Teacher Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU
Tom Martin, PhD, Researcher, USA
Chair for the Public Defense
Elena Raviola, professor i design management, HDK-Valand
Supervisors
Jessica Hemmings, Professor in Craft, HDK-Valand
Mårten Medbo, PhD in Craft, Artist
Tom Cubbin, Senior Lecturer, The Design and Crafts Steneby Unit, HDK-Valand
The public defense will be held in English
You can join via Zoom and ask questions in the chat
