Can That Be Taught? Lessons in Embodied Knowledge from Memoir Writing for Craft and Design Education

Abstract

This chapter considers examples of self-education that rely on embodied knowledge described in memoir writing that may hold useful lessons for design and craft education. Shusterman’s somaesthetics seek alternatives to bodily communication that do not revert to language en route back to the body. The admittedly eclectic range of examples I have drawn together from memoir writing attend to the very challenge of articulating the knowledge that begins within our bodies. In the memoirs discussed, the acquisition of embodied or tacit knowledge occurs in situations (far beyond design and craft education) where bodily safety is at risk: learning to read the snowpack in avalanche conditions, landing an airplane, lunging a horse or training a falcon to a lure. These examples not only confirm that our bodies know far more than we credit, but, I hope, may encourage a wider range of learning situations to be considered comparable, at least in aspects, to design and craft education. Educators such as myself based in design and craft are far less unique in the challenges we face teaching embodied knowledge than we may wish to recognise.