On Dullness: A Sensory Portrait

Abstract

Dullness is a quality that is hard to pin down for a woodworker; it defies easy definitions, and yet has the power to radically change the temper of experience. Using methods of self-observation drawn from sensory ethnography, I describe how I encounter dullness in my own skilled craft practice. I capture the intersensory nature of perception, how dullness is known through touch, sight, and sound. I follow traces of dullness on the wood I carve, in my body, and along the edge of my tool. This sensory portrait of dullness as elusive, relational, and shifting is a textured and nuanced account of how a craftsperson knows what they need to know from the body and experience. In the analysis section, I draw on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the inexhaustibility of perception to enhance my claim that dullness is not a fixed object, but a state filled with ambiguity. Perception does not give us easy answers. The article counters popular renderings of craft as practical or technical know-how with a contrary theory of craft as filled with poetic ambiguity.