[ISEA2022] Paper: Jihan Sherman & Michael Nitsche — Corresponding Wood Tools: Speculative Fabulations of Material Correspondence in Woodworking

Abstract

Short paper, theme: Humans and NonHumans: Aesthetic experience and speculation
Venue: CCCB, date: June 14

Keywords: materiality, new materialism, material correspondence, craft, speculative fabulations

Based on the theory of material encountering, this paper presents the Corresponding Wood Tools project as “speculative fabulations” exploring the ways in which correspondence can be made visible. It argues for re-shaping the encounter in woodworking to allow new reflections on shared themes, such as care and collaboration.

The rise of materialism questions the position of humans in relation to their surroundings. We engage craft practices as rooted in material encounters that directly affect crafters on various cognitive and physical levels. In these encounters, the crafter’s body is also material which interacts on its own terms. The body’s condition, and the material-at-hand act and correspond with each other. We argue that this contact is an in-the-moment material one, a shared moment of production and becoming. Based on this theory of material encountering, this paper presents the Corresponding Wood Tools project as “speculative fabulations” exploring the ways in which this correspondence can be made visible. It argues for re-shaping the encounter in woodworking to allow new reflections on shared themes, such as care and collaboration.

  • Jihan Sherman is an architect, designer and is currently a PhD candidate at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. Her research seeks approaches to design that confront historical transgressions, engage present bias and harm, and imagine progressive futures. She is currently exploring counter-narratives of design and craft-based methods that center on materiality and care.
  • Michael Nitsche works as Associate Professor in Digital Media at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, where he directs the Digital World and Image Group. His research combines elements of craft and performance to develop novel media and interaction designs. Nitsche’s publications include the books Video Game Spaces (2009), The Machinima Reader (2011) (co-edited with Henry Lowood), and the forthcoming Vital Media (2022, all with MIT Press). He is co-editor of the Taylor&Francis journal Digital Creativity.