Meditation on a simple stitch

Melinda Wax

doi:10.18682/cdc.vi48.1386

Abstract

En la actualidad, en una escuela de arte y diseño, los estudiantes se encuentranfísica y creativamente comprometidos por la demanda en el uso de múltiples dispositivosque desafían sus mentes y cuerpos haciendo del aprendizaje un debate constante entre elintelecto-conocimiento y el instinto-práctica. En la mayoría de los casos, los estudiantes sealejan de la oportunidad de aprender y desarrollarse en una metodología que les permitael anclaje con su oficio.Este artículo tiene por objetivo concientizar acerca de la importancia de construir lainteligencia táctil, sensorial y creativa a través de la simple práctica y el uso de trabajomanual en la producción de objetos. A través de ejemplos de estudiantes de sombrerería,se intenta demostrar que esta práctica conduce en última instancia a un mayor nivel dereconocimiento de la artesanía que se expresa no sólo en el trabajo sino en los múltiplesaspectos de la vida personal. Asimismo, este trabajo defiende el cultivo renovado de lacompetencia manual en equilibrio con las tecnologías digitales como puente entre losmétodos en los que se combinan las manos y la mente en un solo esfuerzo / ejerciciocon resultados inmediatos frente a los métodos que requieren tiempo y paciencia, y queresultan en una experiencia de aprendizaje con múltiples facetas y de por vida. Meditarsobre una simple puntada tiene un poder que trasciende el acto de hacer y construir paraconvertirse en una parte esencial de la vida como una persona creativa.

Highlights

I wonder sometimes if letting our students work in a playful and experimental process in the beginning, without a true sense of the marketplace where their designs will produced and sold, robs them of the foundational learning, the cognitive process that can take place when the work is grounded in classic skills and craftsmanship rather than starting out designing from a place of whimsy
The work required, the details of hand stitching for a specific need of the materials, learning to hold what you are working on in your hands, being part of the total completion of the finished piece; there aren’t many activities today where we can have this kind of experience, and this is where meditation on a simple stitch begins
Many of my students initially don’t like the couture technique handwork required for making hats in my millinery course

Summary

Melinda Wax *

Summary: Today, in a school of art and design, students are physically and creatively compromised by the demand for use from multiple devices that challenge their minds and bodies making learning a constant debate between the intellect/knowledge and instinct/ practice. Women had worked with their hands sewing and doing embroidery, it wasn’t until it became a financial necessity to work outside of the home, that women became part of the larger system, Milliners and dressmakers came from families who had enough money to pay for them to be apprenticed to learn the trade This type of employment was part of an old, established apprenticeship system (like tailoring among men), and it was one of only a few occupations open to women which offered a skill and a sense of belonging to a trade, and which promised, at least after the apprenticeship period was served, a decent and respectable living (Harris, 2002). Add to this the constant use of digital tools, which offer immediate access to whatever is being looked for, and a misconception, not unreasonably, develops about the very nature of time and process

The separation of thinking from doing

Working above the earth

The value of cognitive learning

Building a holistic design toolbox

Zen and the art of using our hands