Research in ceramics production includes not only the materials but also techniques, associated gestures and their transmission. This demands the incorporation of another layer of knowledge into the technical art field, which may be called gesture knowledge. This concept is defined by Heinz Otto Sibum as "the body of information, understanding, experience, and skill required to produce gestures effectively in a given context of use".
How can one tackle the study of know-how? If skill and tacit knowledge are determined not only by the used materials but also by the human interaction with objects, tools, techniques and each other. We therefor must approach these studies by designing and building historically accurate materials, replicas, performing techniques and use of objects, along with historical, archival exploration of the world in which these historical experiments were developed. These steps may help us to reconstitute tacit dimensions of present and past practices.
Cultural and economic pressures to move towards hybrid practices, combining tacit knowledge of centuries of material expertise with innovations such as additive manufacturing, are common. However, the reality is that such industrial imperatives do not align with the sustained heritage of the craft subject and its pedagogic needs.
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have become the de facto custodians for traditions of skilled artisanship, whilst the Heritage Craft industries face a potential decline of skills in the face of economic and technological developments. As a consequence, the educational institution which has become the home of the more traditional craft practices and a laboratory for the experimental and innovative combination of these traditional technologies with the tools and methods of industry 4.0. This ceramics ecosystem is fragile. Educational departments across Europe are run by a small group of experts, with a tiny and dedicated workforce keeping hundreds of years of traditional savoir-faire alive. There is a need to make access to specialist forms of expert knowledge open and fit for the purpose of transmission, to record and elucidate embodied and tacit knowledge, usually gained through experience and repetition, with the intention to valorise and sustain ceramic knowledge and practice into the future.
Focusing on ceramics we are establishing methodologies to produce in-depth documentation of traditional techniques, know-how and material knowledge of craft manufacturing on this material. The work is built on the mapping of craft techniques developed within the Erasmus+ KA2 CRAFT project. The focus of the comprehensive documentation will be on collating and deepening knowledge of techniques in the manufacture and researching traditional and novel methods. Digital media technologies are enlisted to confront the challenges traditionally involved in documenting, archiving, and sharing practices rooted in tacit craft knowledge. This will enable us to exploit the value of digital technologies for transmitting knowledge and skills, to create community-led narratives that are highly accessible and interactive, and which reflect the reinvention and repositioning of heritage-craft skills and maker identities.