ArticlePDF Available

Abstract and Figures

Art and craft practitioners have personal experience of the benefits of making: the handling of material can help to regulate our mental states through providing a means to reach flow states. The mirror neuron system helps in skill learning, and the plasticity of the brain ensures that skills may be learned at all stages of life. Arts and crafts play a role in controlling stress and enhancing relaxation. They also enable us to fail safely and handle our emotions. Furthermore, they facilitate social activity for many individuals who are at risk of social isolation. This article aims to integrate knowledge from both the field of neuroscience and the arts by focusing on the implications that flow experience and the mirror neuron system integral to making processes have on our psychophysical well-being.
Content may be subject to copyright.
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 1 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.1908
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth,
Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
Implications of creative practices on psychophysical well-being
Abstract
This article aims to integrate knowledge from the field of cognitive neuroscience and the arts
by focusing on the implications that flow experience and the mirror neuron system integral to
making processes have for our psychophysical well-being. Art and craft practitioners have
personal experience of the benefits of making. We propose that the handling of material can
help to regulate our mental states by providing a means to reach flow states. Furthermore, it
seems that arts and crafts play an important role in controlling stress and enhancing
relaxation. They enable us to fail safely and handle our associated emotions. It has also been
proposed that the mirror neuron system helps in skill learning, and the plasticity of the brain
ensures that skills may be learned at all stages of life. Finally, art and craft facilitate social
activity for many individuals who are at risk of social isolation.
Keywords: art, craft, creative activity, well-being, brain, flow.
Introduction
Traditionally, crafts have been understood as humanmaterial interaction mediated by the
practice of a person’s skill and material-based knowledge (Adamson, 2010, 2). Over the past
few years, interest in crafts has grown, as people recognise the enjoyment to be derived from
craft activities. Some researchers have also started to stress the importance of both craft skills
and the craft ethos, regarding these two facets as inherently characteristic of all making
activities (Adamson, 2007; Sennett, 2008). Using the notion of a ‘holistic craft process’,
researchers have strongly emphasised that craft is an entity including the idea of the product,
the embodied craft skill of making the product and the reflective evaluation of the product and
the process (Kojonkoski-Rännäli, 1995, 5860; Pöllänen, 2009, 251). Thus, this holistic craft
process is seen as an exploratory, inventive and experimental activity in its core nature.
Making crafts can both provide creative leisure and have therapeutic effects. Craft
making has been found to contribute to the well-being of textile hobby crafters in a number of
ways, and identified as a source of pleasure and creative self-expression (Burt, & Atkinson,
2011; Collier, 2011, Pöllänen, 2015). Some studies have emphasised the social side of craft
making: friendship, sharing and belonging (Burt & Atkinson, 2011; Maidment & Macfarlane,
2009). In describing the positive well-being effects of crafts, researchers (Collier, 2011;
Pöllänen, 2015) often use the well-known concept of flow, described by Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi (1996, 110113) as an intense involvement in an activity within which the
person experiences meaningfulness. Hobby crafters in textiles in particular emphasise the
experience of the flow of making as a major factor in their well-being. In addition, they
describe gaining well-being through bodily enactment. The time they spend quilting enhances
feelings of satisfaction, flow and confidence (Burt & Atkinson, 2011, 58). Most textile
hobbyists in Collier’s (2011, 110) survey underlined the aesthetics and beauty of textile crafts,
as well as their capacity to serve as vital means of expression and identity. They also enjoyed
the sensations of the materials, the repetition and the tempo involved in making. llänen
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 2 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
(2015, 74) found that crafting helped the makers organise their thoughts and feelings; it
promoted personal space, understanding of self and others and advanced physical and
cognitive capabilities. Similarly, Burt and Atkinson (2011, 57) found that the pleasure of craft
making arises from the purposeful and self-determined act of making and provides both
tangible and intangible benefits.
Some researchers regard leisure craft making as the therapeutic exploration of
materials, which provides a means of distraction from emotional stress by creating feelings of
relaxation and a sense of empowerment (e.g. Collier, 2011; Maidment & Macfarlane, 2009;
Pöllänen, 2015; Reynolds, 2000). Working with textiles in particular has been found to help
in coping with or even neutralising grief, depression, personal distress (Collier, 2011, 110;
Reynolds, 2000) and a range of physical illnesses (Reynolds, Lim & Prior, 2008), while
simultaneously revitalising the practitioners, cheering them up and allowing to experience
increased confidence. Professional artists to use craft making as a natural means of handling
their emotions (Mäkelä & Latva-Somppi, 2011, 4345) and to clarify the challenging issues
they encounter in their lives (Mäkelä, 2003).
The combination of art or craft making and social interaction that is used both in
educational and therapeutic settings affects the psychosocial well-being of individuals and
communities in many ways. Arts, crafts and creative activities can have a healing or
protective effect on mental, social and physical well-being (for a review see Clift, 2012;
Leckey, 2011). Watching art being produced and discussing the products can enhance
personally meaningful dialogue and contribute to social well-being (Berg, 2014, 217218;
Berg & Gulden, 2013, 57). Art making in itself has therapeutic effects, not only by providing
a means of self-expression but also by reducing blood pressure while boosting the immune
system and reducing stress (Abbot, Shanahan & Neufeld, 2013, 7475; Leckey, 2011). In
addition, art therapy reduces anxiety and distress, increases coping and quality of life and aids
in the expression and handling of previously unresolved emotions (Utteley et al., 2015). It is
also important to highlight the potential of the creative arts as a therapeutic tool in the
transformational processes that we need to undergo at different points in our lives (Rankanen,
2016b, 5758).
Lately, neuroscientific research has provided evidence to confirm the potential of arts
and crafts as a means for achieving relaxation and enhancing well-being (for a review see
Preminger, 2012). Because the equipment and methods of cognitive neuroscience are
constantly developing, there are increasing opportunities to conduct brain research studies
outside laboratories, using modern mobile research devices, focusing attention on more
natural tasks and approaching everyday issues (Figure 1). However, the strictly specified
methods that need to be applied in experimental brain research settings are still the largest
restricting factor in the whole research area, and there are still several phenomena that cannot
be studied (Seitamaa-Hakkarainen et al., 2016). The main challenges lie in the inability to
capture phenomena occurring during creative activity, as most brain imaging devices require
the phenomenon or event to be replicated several times and the participant to be still.
In the ‘Handling Mind’ research project, to which all the authors of the present article
contributed, attempts were made to measure the participating designers’ and artists’
physiological processes during actual drawing and clay-forming activities. Heart rate
monitors and actigraphs were used to measure stress and flow states and the amount of
physical strain (Leinikka et al., 2016). In addition, EEG measurements were conducted using
the same experimental setup, focusing mainly on the planning phase of the activities, such as
the designers’ planning for drawing or clay forming (Figure 2), in order to avoid excessive
artefacts in the data due to movement during the actual activities. However, interviews with
the participants suggested that this strict setting required them to make compromises in their
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 3 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
approaches to the making process and its products.
Figure 1: Finnish school children participating in a neuroscientific experiment (mobile EEG) in their
natural environment at school. Photo by Minna Huotilainen.
Figure 2: Participant performing clay-forming tasks during EEG. Webcam image of the participant
during the experiment. Photo by Camilla Groth.
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 4 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
Embodied cognition in making art and craft
Engagement in art and craft activities requires versatile cognitive and embodied processing,
which are tightly intertwined. Most of our brain activity is unconscious and a large part of our
cognition is linked to our motor system (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, 915). This can also be
referred to as procedural and implicit knowledge, concepts that are closely related to tacit
knowledge, which is familiar to artists and craftspersons (Polanyi, 1966, 813). Experimental
studies reveal that restrictions of physical activity also tend to restrict our mental abilities. For
example, a study in which the participants’ hands were immobilised showed that part of their
cognitive capacity was lost as a consequence (Toussaint & Meugnot, 2013), suggesting that
human cognition is enhanced by the use of the hands.
Organismenvironment interaction is the fundamental starting point for cognition, and
the mind is constructed through the experiences of the individual in interaction with the
material and social environment (Hari & Kujala, 2009, 453454; Noë, 2009, 78; Thompson,
2010, 1314; Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1991, 9–11). This understanding of ‘embodied
cognition’ can provide us with a new view of the material interaction that takes place during
the process of making arts and crafts and its implications and significance for psychophysical
well-being.
According to Margaret Wilson (2002), cognition has the following properties:
(1) Cognition is situated.
(2) Cognition is time-pressured.
(3) We offload cognitive work onto the environment.
(4) The environment is part of the cognitive system.
(5) Cognition is for action.
(6) Offline cognition is body-based.
These views have gained a lot of attention, resulting in applications for use in learning design
and also other cognitive skills. For example, the results from embodied cognition studies are
being used in architectural design, which has benefited from the use of hands and materials in
the early phase, or in engineering design, which can be taught with Lego bricks (Ringwood,
Monaghan & Maloco, 2005). Belcastro and Yackel (2008) present examples of utilising
embodied cognition and arts and crafts in mathematics education. Here, crafts allow the
students to use their full cognitive capabilities in grasping difficult mathematical concepts. In
addition, the use of embodied learning techniques helps the students both grasp and remember
what they have learnt (Belcastro & Yackel, 2008). Furthermore, therapeutic applications
involving arts and crafts seem to have potential for facilitating cognitive development and
rehabilitation in the fields of special education and in circumstances in which cognitive skills
are impaired in various disorders (Kim, Kim, Lee & Chun, 2008, 130, 131; Lusebrink, 2004,
129130).
With regard specifically to the knowledge that is gained from neuroscience, it is
evident that somatosensory, motor and visual areas all activated during making arts or crafts
occupy a large proportion of the cortical surface. The stimulation of these areas is
particularly crucial in childhood, because a lack of stimulation means that they will never
develop normally (Allen, Celikel & Feldman 2003); indeed, they are necessary for the brain
to develop to its highest level (Keifer & Trumpp, 2012, 19). In addition to being crucial for
normal development in childhood, somatosensory stimulation and the use of the hands are
important elements of rehabilitative practices for many elderly or disabled people, whose
sensory system may be impaired in different ways.
Touching and forming different materials and surfaces during creative activities gives
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 5 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
a rich variety of somatosensory stimulation (Lusebrink, 2004, 129130). It is thus important
to use different materials to enable the sensing of opposites, such as heavy and light, soft and
hard, warm and cold, because touching activates both cutaneous senses responding to
pressure, vibration and temperature and the haptic sense that is used in perceiving shape,
weight and surface texture (Gibson, 1983, 97; Lusebrink, 2004, 127).
There is already some empirical research evidence of the importance for mental well-
being of touching art materials. A recent study found that the tactile sensations of finger
painting facilitated a state of mindfulness that was connected with well-being, by providing
experiences of being more aware and present in the current moment and having a broader
scope of attention (Stanko-Kaczmarek & Kaczmarek, 2015, 283). In contrast to
‘mindlessness’, which is characterised by ruminations on the past or future and is a cognitive
style associated with depression, higher levels of mindfulness are related to increased
psychological health and decreased negative emotions.
Figure 3: Linda constructing her art piece at the Aalto University’s Design Experimentation and
Exploration course exhibition at the Design Forum Showroom, Helsinki, Finland, 2014. Photo by Krista
Kosonen.
Simultaneously, touching and forming art and craft materials also activate motor areas of the
brain (Lusebrink, 2010, 170). Movement is important for our psychophysical well-being, and
both fine-grained and coarse tasks are needed to enable the development of handeye
coordination, which is an important aspect of the somatosensory system and its development.
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 6 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
The ability to use the visual system in addition to the somatosensory system as an input to
make the actions of the motor system more precise begins to develop in infancy and is one of
the major milestones of human motor development (Bushnel & Bourdeau, 1993). The
development of the visual system is thus tied to the motor actions. The development of the
visual system benefits from art and craft making in the form of exposure to colour, small
details versus three-dimensional large objects, wide visual fields and seeing the effects of
one’s own actions (Figure 3).
The brain is plastic
Plasticity is a lifelong property of the brain. Plasticity means that the brain alters its function
and eventually its structure as a result of our experiences and actions: whatever we do for long
enough will change our brain. The most dramatic examples of brain plasticity are cases
involving the complete loss of sensory organs. For example, the occipital areas of
congenitally blind individuals the brain areas that process visual information in sighted
persons are shown to process auditory information (Kujala et al., 1995). Such cross-modal
plasticity gives the blind person a larger amount of capacity for auditory processing, resulting
sometimes in superior skills. These skills acquired by plasticity can be crucial for managing
with sensory impairments because they enable the use of other sense modalities to support
learning and personal well-being. For example, deafblind artists who participated in a ceramic
workshop showed an unusually developed ability to learn a new tactile skill, namely the skill
of throwing clay on a potter’s wheel, through an entirely tactile learning process (Groth,
Mäkelä & Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, 2013, 89). The multisensory qualities of art and craft
materials can hence be central in facilitating social communication and the development of
rewarding new skills for many people who have sensory impairments or restrictions.
Learning and therapeutic change, both of which contribute to our holistic well-being,
are to a large degree based on the plasticity of the brain. The brain modifies its function and
structure according to how we use it and also in relation to the kind of psychosocial
environment in which we spend time. The neural networks that we use frequently will
become stronger and those we do not use will weaken. This means that, over time, the neural
networks in each individual will modify in a unique way, depending upon how they act and
what kind of socio-emotional relationships they have. Naturally, these changes are not simple
but are affected by many factors, including genetic and personal features. For example,
proneness to flow, that is, the extent to which the person is gaining rewarding flow
experiences from practising a certain art or craft skill, may act as a major mediator of plastic
changes in the brain. The amount of practice needed to become an expert in certain skills may
be mediated by a multifactorial geneenvironment interaction model of how expertise is
reached (Ullen, Hambrick & Mosing, 2016, 11).
One example of fast brain plasticity comes from the study of musical hobbies. The
seminal studies carried out by Christa Hyde et al. (2009) showed that children’s brains
changed after 15 months of piano training. After training, more grey matter was found in the
auditory and motor areas, as well as a thicker corpus callosum. Practising the piano had made
these brain areas more active, increasing the connections between the neurons (Hyde et al.,
2009). These findings are supported by those from a longitudinal follow-up, showing that the
brain activity of children changes when they practise musical instruments (Putkinen et al.,
2014a, b; 2015; Virtala et al., 2012) or are engaged in playing music at home and as a hobby
(Putkinen, Tervaniemi & Huotilainen, 2013). Sara Bengtsson et al. (2005) have also
demonstrated changes in the white matter of the brain of musicians, suggesting faster and
more efficient transfer of information between brain areas and between the brain and the
muscles.
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 7 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
It is important to note that these plastic changes in children’s brains, which occur with
musical training, are not changing some ‘music areas’ in the brain but rather changing the
activity and structure of the general auditory and motor brain areas. Such an increase in grey
matter and in electromagnetic neuronal responses to sounds and other events means in
practice that there is greater processing power for the brain to compute any tasks that are
related to sounds and motor activity. Thus, the impact of the training is not only seen in
advanced skills in music but also translates into more potential capacity for any auditory or
fine motor tasks. Accordingly, Saarikivi et al. (2016) showed that individual differences
between children’s capabilities to perform difficult mental tasks, such as set shifting, which
require the use of attention and executive functions, were closely related to both their musical
activities and their brain responses.
Making crafts and visual arts may deliver similar effects to musical training, but the
hypothesis still needs to be confirmed by conducting more empirical research. In their review,
Tyler and Likova (2012) have suggested that, because the learning of visual arts relies on the
integration of multiple motor, perceptual and cognitive functions, it has a strong potential for
cross-cognitive transfer. In a series of studies focusing on the training of diverse groups of
people in spatial drawing skills, the subjects’ general spatio-motor cognition abilities also
improved (Tyler & Likova, 2012).
Craft work, like playing a musical instrument, involves a lot of fine motor movements
that stimulate the motor and somatosensory areas of the brain. In the ‘Handling Mind’
research project, this hypothesis was tested in a short-term study focusing on the plastic
changes in the brains of participants who were learning a new craft technique (either filet lace
or tatting). Brain responses to visual images of the instructions containing known and
unknown as well as to-be-learnt techniques were compared before and after learning in a
small group of participants. Changes in the responses reflected learning and plastic changes in
the brain (Seitamaa-Hakkarainen & al., 2016).
The mirror neuron system
One of the most important tasks of the brain is to understand and learn from the actions of
other people. A neurophysiological mechanism called the mirror neuron system is primarily
responsible for understanding, imitating and learning from other people’s actions, in other
words, for multiple psychosocial skills that affect our well-being. It helps us to align socially
and emotionally with our friends and family and to understand their intentions, as well as
simulating and mimicking actions performed by others (Gallese, 2001; Hari & Kujala, 2009,
461467; Iacoboni & Dapretto, 2006, 942). Mirroring systems are thus important in body-
based procedural and tacit skill learning with the help of social interaction. Further, the
process of learning arts or crafts is partially based on imitating others’ activities, which is
tantamount to mirroring, and partially on building upon one’s own experimentation and
testing. Mirroring systems have been studied in relation to dance, performance and
choreography (Calvo-Merino et al., 2005; Kozel, 2011). In a functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) study on motor skill learning, expert dancers viewed dance activities that
they had performed themselves and activities that were new to them (Calvo-Merino et al.
2005). The neuroscientific data showed that, when participants viewed actions familiar to
them, their brains simulated these motor repertoires, indicating that the human brain
understands actions by motor simulation (Calvo-Merino et al., 2005, 1243). Interestingly, not
only viewing movement but also seeing pieces of static abstract visual art that artists had
made by hand evoked motor simulation in the viewer’s brain – quite the opposite of the case
of computer-generated art (Umilta et al., 2012). Furthermore, Freedberg and Gallese (2007)
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 8 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
suggested that this kind of embodied simulation can be an important part of both aesthetic and
empathic responses to art and thus have special therapeutic possibilities.
In learning a manual skill, simulating or mimicking the actions of the teacher is
essential, as body-based knowledge often has an implicit or tacit quality. A system of craft
apprenticeships has enabled craft skills traditionally to be passed on from person to person.
This has taken place through simulation and socialising, transferring cultural habits as well as
manual skills and social norms attached to the profession (Hari & Kujala, 2009, 454, 458).
The human brain is well equipped for such learning, and the use of the mirror neuron system
permits knowledge about crafts to be passed down through the generations indeed, it has
been proposed as forming the basis of human culture. Furthermore, Ellen Dissanayake (2009,
148–150, 158) has suggested that the cultural evolutionary significance of humans’ artistic
behaviour is linked to the well-being of social communities and hence that making arts and
crafts is crucial for creating social cohesion and for emotional bonding especially during
uncertain and challenging circumstances.
Handling failures and emotions
Anyone engaged in a creative activity whether involving artistic processes, the manipulation
of materials in a craft or design context or a performative process such as music or acting
will recognise the emergence of emotions in this process. Current views in neuroscience
consider emotions to be a central part of our cognitive abilities (Damasio, 1994, 1999), and
emotions affect basic cognitive functions ranging from perception to memory and attentive
functions. Emotions are needed in the sense-making processes during the organism
environment interaction (Johnson, 2007, 6667). In a craft context, emotions guide our
creative process in craft practice by helping us assess the risks and possibilities of our actions
and the affordances of the materials (Groth, 2015, 1819). Material manipulation also
activates emotions connected to embodied experiences (Mäkelä & Latva-Somppi, 2011, 43
45; Niedderer & Townsend, 2014, 627; Seitamaa-Hakkarainen et al., 2013, 7).
When we face challenges that are imposed by the materials or the situations during the
creative process, we are putting ourselves at risk of failing (Figure 4). Failing is considered to
be an integral part of innovation and exploration, and we need safe contexts for failing and
dealing with the emotions that are related to it. Arts and crafts may provide a good arena for
practising failing. Carol Dweck (2006) has proposed that there are two different mindsets
the fixed mindset and the growth mindset that are related to how we interpret and
experience our failures. In a fixed mindset interpretation, failure is a sign of permanent
inability to function and complete the task, whereas, in a growth mindset, failure simply
means that the challenges accepted have been great enough and that a new approach is needed
to continue in the task. The growth mindset has been shown to enhance deep learning and to
sustain learning motivation and drive. Crafts are a prime example of a set of activities that
may promote a growth mindset, as they offer a safe possibility for failure and they illustrate
the fact that the making process is inherently slow, proceeding in a stepwise manner. The
personal nature of making arts and crafts allows a wide variety of interpretations of the same
theme to be created. At the same time, it fosters thinking outside boxes such as ‘right’ and
‘wrong’ answers or realisations. Accordingly, design and craft researchers have shown that
we may develop ourselves in the process of overcoming disappointments through a re-
negotiation of our initial motivations and the purposes of the activity (Groth, 2017, 5859;
Groth & Mäkelä, 2016, 18; Kosonen & Mäkelä, 2012, 236237).
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 9 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
Figure 4: The results of a failed attempt to throw a clay bowl on a potter’s wheel. Photo by Camilla
Groth.
While arts and crafts can be practised alone, in educational and therapeutic situations the
making process is interwoven with social interaction, in which emotions also play a crucial
part. Dissanayake (2009, 158) claims that artistic behaviour assists the managing of difficult
emotions in circumstances of uncertainty. In the context of art and design education, when
young adults are still uncertain about their personal and professional identities, art and craft
making has enabled students to ponder on these issues (Figure 5) and served as a method of
finding their own way to proceed in their creative practice (Mäkelä & Löytönen 2017, 1112).
With regard to art therapy, it has been noted that the social environment can foster the
handling of emotions if it offers a safe, trusting and accepting context for sharing creative
processes, personal expression and emotions (Rankanen, 2016a, 106). However, artistic
expression in the presence of others can also provoke feelings of vulnerability and
overexposure, and experiences of failure in artistic endeavour can make people with fragile
personalities feel fundamentally flawed (Haeyen, van Hooren & Hutschemaekers, 2015, 7;
Morgan, Knight, Bagwash & Thompson, 2012, 9596; Rankanen, 2016b, 42). In addition, it
has been noted that the activation of emotions may become a problem if the process is left
unresolved (Utteley et al., 2015). In contrast, if the ability to face up to, work through and
reflect on difficulties or failures in art making and the handling of challenging emotions is
supported, positive changes may result (Rankanen, 2016b, 115).
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 10 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
Figure 5: Kevin with his conceptual piece of furniture Dealing with Feelings at Aalto University’s
Design Experimentation and Exploration course exhibition in Atski Gallery, Helsinki, Finland, 2011.
Photo by Christiane Smeeing-Kneschaurek.
Craft as a means of shifting from a fight-or-flight state to a flow state
The brain and the body have different states depending upon the perceived experience of
safety or threat. Increased mental stress affects the autonomous nervous system, leading to the
activation of the sympathetic nervous system and an almost simultaneous withdrawal of the
parasympathetic nervous system. This prepares us for action by increasing muscular tension,
respiration and heart rate, and can create feelings of irritation or restlessness. Experiences of
physical, emotional or social threat affect our ability to learn by restricting the capacities
available for conscious reflection. Instead, the aroused energy is directed into a rapid and
direct reaction to the situation, which is most evident in the fight-or-flight state. Interestingly,
the flow is also described as a state in which attention is narrowed into a clearly framed
activity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, 110113). However, instead of feeling threatened, scared or
angry, rewarding feelings of mastering challenges are prominent.
The state of flow intense, focused and effortless concentration in intrinsically
rewarding activity during which consciousness of time and self disappear was originally
identified and defined in the course of researching artists and their creative processes
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). Lately, its physiological and hormonal consequences have also
been the subject of research, which has found parallels with people’s descriptions of being in
an area between anxiety and apathy, where preoccupation with simultaneously challenging
and rewarding activity engages their full attention (Chilton, 2013, 65; Ullen, de Manzano,
Theorell & Harmat, 2010, 302303, 309). This may well have interesting implications for
using arts and crafts in the therapeutic treatment of problems related to deficits in the ability
to control attention, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 11 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
Figure 6: Physiological states presented on a U-curve. Graphic figure by Minna Huotilainen.
One way to describe the continuum of physiological states in two dimensions is to use the U-
curve (Figure 6). Here, highly energetic states are in the upper part of the graphic figure,
while low-energy states such as drowsiness and sleep are in the lower part of the graphic
figure. The leftright dimension describes the valence of emotions, the left side representing
negative emotions and right side positive ones. In such a model, the flow state is in the upper
right corner, where high activity and arousal and positive emotions are found, while the fight-
or-flight state is in the upper left corner, with similarly high activity and arousal but negative
emotions.
It has been hypothesised that the state of flow takes place when the explicit
information processing system shifts into the implicit automatic, nonverbal, experience- and
skill-based processing system (Chilton, 2013, 6566; Dietrich, 2004). This means that
expertise gained by practice would ease the shift to the flow state. Novice practitioners,
however, would need to apply conscious effort and engage in less demanding tasks to be able
to reach flow and to avoid the anxiety and frustration that may arise from overwhelming
challenges.
Art and craft making has been widely associated with flow states, but working with
the hands can also elicit other, positive physiological states and be used to regulate our
physiological states. For example, a very simple act of making art or craft that does not
require much attention has been found to be beneficial for learning. Doodling or performing a
simple task such as knitting while simultaneously learning by listening seems to yield better
learning results than passive listening (Andrade, 2010). This may be the result of an automatic
physiological state regulation: working with the hands keeps us from falling to the bottom
part of the U-curve and allows us to maintain the steady, continuous arousal level required for
learning.
Arts and crafts, especially in the form of very simple and repetitive actions, can also
be deliberately used to push our physiological state lower down the U-curve. A very active
working life, fast transitions between tasks and continuous time pressure can produce a
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 12 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
situation in which it is difficult to recover from work. Many overworked and stressed
individuals suffer from symptoms such as an inability to fall asleep or maintain good sleep
quality throughout the night, feelings of time pressure, impairments of attention, decreased
working capacity, motivation and effectiveness, cynicism and decreased professional efficacy,
even leading to neural-level changes in attention and emotion perception (Sokka et al., 2014;
2016). In such situations, the regulation of the physiological states is vital for recovery. Here,
art and craft making can provide an embodied support to recovery by enhancing relaxation
(Abbot et al., 2013; Collier, 2011; Leckey, 2011; Maidment & Macfarlane, 2009; Pöllänen,
2015; Reynolds, 2000). We hypothesise that, when starting a craft activity that the worker has
frequently done before the symptoms of stress or burnout have appeared, the embodied
cognitive status may be regulated by such activity: it may appear that ‘the body knows how to
relax’ with the simple craft activity and may override the negative, arousing, threatening
thought loops circulating in the conscious mind.
Robson and Kaplan (2003) suggest an interesting interpretation of the meaning of arts
and crafts for the regulation of human physiological states by comparing our lives with those
of hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherer societies were dominant in the history of mankind for
approximately two million years. Arts and crafts were a crucial ingredient in the lives of
hunter-gatherer groups and were passed on from one generation to the next. The link between
our bodily activities, such as use of the hands, and our cognitive abilities, such as perception,
memory, attention or creativity, can be understood in the light of this link in hunter-gatherer
life. Continuous, repetitive hand movements related to crafts or food processing were a source
of security and were much appreciated by the community, rewarding not only the maker
him/herself but also her or his group (Robson & Kaplan, 2003). It is possible that such a
reward for hand movements is still present in our brainbody system.
Conclusion
Nurturing well-being through arts and crafts
In this article, we have discussed how arts and crafts, and in particular the sphere of making,
can enhance our well-being in a holistic way. To elaborate our arguments, we have brought
together diverse discourses from different domains craft science, design research, art
therapy and cognitive neuroscience. In this concluding section, we briefly sum up the reasons
why our brains love arts and crafts, in other words, how our embodied minds benefit when
handling materials in the wide range available within these creative fields. We suggest
implications for nurturing well-being throughout one’s life in various different contexts.
In infancy and early childhood, art and craft making serves several purposes. It is a
commonly shared view that the normal development of the brain and its functions requires
somatosensory stimulation (Allen et al., 2003), which can be obtained by working with the
hands (Dissanayake, 1995, 41; Keifer & Trumpp, 2012; Lusebrink, 2004), learning fine and
coarse motor skills and observing other people’s actions (Calvo-Merino et al., 2005; Hari &
Kujala, 2009, 464; Iacobini & Daparetto, 2006). Experimentation with an abundance of
materials without the purpose of creating anything useful is an integral part of play, which is
essential for brain development in infancy and childhood (Dissanayake, 2009). In addition, it
is crucial for the development of skills concerning emotion regulation, empathy and
imagination (Rankanen, 2016b, 6670).
In schools and other learning contexts, we believe that arts and crafts should be
utilised for visualising difficult learning tasks, for example in mathematics and biology.
Learning by doing in craft projects and working with the hands have been shown to enhance
the grasping of concepts, learning and memory (Belcastro & Yackel, 2008). Performing a
simple craft may help during auditory-based learning in the regulation of emotional and
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 13 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
arousal states, yielding better learning than passive listening (Andrade, 2010). This may result
in part from the close connections between the hand areas and the language areas in the brain.
In adolescence, arts and crafts can be used to empower young people and to help self-
construction. Arts and crafts are also invaluable means to express and handle emotions for
people of all ages (Collier, 2011; Rankanen, 2016b, 125126; Reynolds, 2000). For
individuals who suffer from stress, arts and crafts can help recovery (Abbot et al., 2013;
Collier, 2011; Leckey, 2011; Maidment & Macfarlane, 2009; Pöllänen, 2015; Reynolds,
2000), among other things aiding sleep quality. For the elderly and for those individuals living
in care homes, arts and crafts should be considered both as a rehabilitation (Kim et al., 2008;
Lusebrink, 2010) and as a human right. Learning new craft skills is possible at all ages. Arts
and crafts are ancient human activities that serve many purposes and are tightly woven into
the essence of human embodied cognition and well-being.
Acknowledgements
This article is based on the keynote speech made by Minna
Huotilainen during the Make it Now conference in Rauma, Finland,
September 2016. This research contribution is part of the Handling
Mind research project, funded by the Academy of Finland (project
numbers 265922 and 266125).
Minna Huotilainen
Professor of Educational Sciences
University of Helsinki,
and Cognitive Brain Research Unit, University of Helsinki
minna.huotilainen@helsinki.fi
Mimmu Rankanen
Postdoctoral researcher, Doctor of Arts
Center for Educational Research and Academic Development in the Arts (CERADA)
University of the Arts Helsinki
mimmu.rankanen@uniarts.fi
Camilla Groth
Associate Professor II in Art and Craft, Department of Visual and Performing Arts Education,
University of Southeast Norway
and Postdoc researcher at Fashion / Textile Futures Research Group, Department of Design,
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University
camilla.groth@usn.no
Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen
Professor of Craft Studies
University of Helsinki
pirita.seitamaa-hakkarainen@helsinki.fi
Maarit Mäkelä
Associate Professor of Practice-led Research
Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design
maarit.makela@aalto.fi
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 14 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
References
Abbott, K., Shanahan, M. & Neufeld, R. (2013). Artistic tasks outperform nonartistic tasks for stress reduction.
Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 30(2), 7178.
doi:10.1080/07421656.2013.787214
Adamson, G. (2007). Thinking through craft. Oxford: Berg.
Adamson, G. (2010). Introduction. In G. Adamson (Ed.), The craft reader (pp. 15). New York: Berg.
Allen, C. B., Celikel, T. & Feldman, D. E. (2003). Long-term depression induced by sensory deprivation during
cortical map plasticity in vivo. Nature Neuroscience, 6(3), 291299.
Andrade, J. (2010). What does doodling do? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24(1), 100106.
Belcastro, S. M. & Yackel, C. (2008). Making mathematics with needlework. AK Peters Ltd, Wellesley, MA.
Retrieved on December 18th, 2016 from: http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/pdf/10.1201/b10652-1
Bengtsson, S. L., Nagy, Z., Skare, S., Forsman, L., Forssberg, H. & Ullén, F. (2005). Extensive piano practicing
has regionally specific effects on white matter development. Nature Neuroscience, 8(9), 11481150.
Berg, A. (2014). Artistic research in public space: Participation in material-based art. Doctoral thesis. School
of Arts, Design and Architecture. Helsinki: Aalto ARTS Books.
Berg, A. & Gulden, T. (2013). Interdisciplinary connections between health care and design a case study in a
psychogeriatric ward in Norway. DRS // CUMULUS 2013 2nd International Conference for Design
Education Researchers Oslo, 1417 May 2013.
Burt, E. L. & Atkinson, J. (2011). The relationship between quilting and wellbeing. Journal of Public Health,
34(1), 5459.
Bushnell, E. W. & Boudreau, J. P. (1993). Motor development and the mind: The potential role of motor abilities
as a determinant of aspects of perceptual development. Child Development, 64(4), 10051021.
Calvo-Merino, B., Glaser, D. E., Gre’zes, J., Passingham, R. E. & Haggard, P. (2005). Action observation and
acquired motor skills: An fMRI study with expert dancers. Cerebral Cortex, August 15, 12431249.
Retrieved on March 9, 2017, from http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/8/1243.full.pdf+html
Chilton, G. (2013). Art therapy and flow: A review of the literature and applications. Art Therapy: Journal of the
American Art Therapy Association, 30(2), 6470. doi:10.1080/07421656.2013.787211
Clift, S. (2012). Creative arts as a public health resource: Moving from practice-based research to evidence-
based practice. Perspectives in Public Health, 132(3), 120127. doi:10.1177/1757913912442269
Collier, A. F. (2011). The well-being of women who create with textiles: Implications for art therapy. Journal of
the American Art Therapy Association, 28(3), 104112.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity. Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York:
HarperCollins.
Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human mind. New York: Putnam.
Damasio, A. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. New York:
Harcourt.
Dietrich, A. (2004). Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of flow. Consciousness and
Cognition, 13(4), 746761. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2004.07.002
Dissanayake, E. (1995). The pleasure and meaning of making. American Craft, April/May, 4045.
Dissanayake, E. (2009). The artification hypothesis and its relevance to cognitive science, evolutionary
aesthetics, and neuro aesthetics. Cognitive Semiotics, 5, 148173.
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
Freedberg, D. & Gallese, V. (2007). Motion, emotion and empathy in esthetic experience. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 11(5), 197203.
Gallese, V. (2001). The ‘Shared Manifold’ hypothesis: From mirror neurons to empathy. Journal of
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 15 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
Consciousness Studies, 8(57), 3350.
Gibson, J. J. (1983). The senses considered as perceptual systems. Connecticut: Greenwood Press. (Original
work published 1966)
Groth, C. (2015). Emotions in risk-assessment and decision-making processes during craft practice. Journal of
Research Practice, 11(2), article M5.
Groth, C. (2017). Making sense through hands: Design and craft practice analysed as embodied cognition.
Aalto University Doctoral Dissertations. Helsinki: Aalto ARTS Books.
Groth, C. & Mäkelä, M. (2016). The knowing body in material exploration. Studies in Material Thinking, 14,
article 02.
Groth, C., Mäkelä, M. & Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, P. (2013). Making sense - what can we learn from experts of
tactile knowledge? FORMakademisk Journal, 6(2), 112.
Haeyen, S., van Hooren, S. & Hutschemaekers, G. (2015). Perceived effects of art therapy in the treatment of
personality disorders, cluster B/C: A qualitative study. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 45, 110.
doi:10.1016/j.aip.2015.04.005
Hari, R. & Kujala, M. (2009). Brain basis of human social interaction: From concepts to brain imaging. The
American Physiological Society, 89(2), 453479.
Hyde, K. L., Lerch, J., Norton, A., Forgeard, M., Winner, E., Evans, A. C. & Schlaug, G. (2009). Musical
training shapes structural brain development. The Journal of Neuroscience, 29(10), 30193025.
Iacoboni, M. & Dapretto, M. (2006). The mirror neuron system and the consequences of its dysfunction. Nature
Reviews Neuroscience, 7(12), 942951.
Johnson, M. (2007). The meaning of the body. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Kiefer, M. & Trumpp, M. N. (2012). Embodiment theory and education: The foundations of cognition in
perception and action. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 1, 1520.
Kim, S. H., Kim, M. Y., Lee, J. H. & Chun, S. I. (2008). Art therapy outcomes in the rehabilitation treatment of
a stroke patient: A case report. Art Therapy, 25(3), 129133.
Kojonkoski-Rännäli, S. (1995). Ajatus käsissämme. Käsityön käsitteen merkityssisällön analyysi [The thought in
our hands. An analysis of the meaning of the concept handicraft]. PhD dissertation. University of Turku,
Sarja C, Scripta lingua Fennica edita 109. Turku: University of Turku.
Kosonen, K. & Mäkelä, M. (2012). Designing platform for exploring and reflecting on creative process.
Procedia Social and Behavioural Sciences, 45, 227238.
Kozel, S. (2011). The virtual and the physical: A phenomenological approach to performance research. In M.
Biggs & H. Karlsson, H. (Eds.), The Routledge companion to research in the arts (pp. 204222).
London-New York: Routledge.
Kujala, T., Huotilainen, M., Sinkkonen, J., Ahonen, A. I., Alho, K., Hämälä, M. S. ... & Salonen, O. (1995).
Visual cortex activation in blind humans during sound discrimination. Neuroscience Letters, 183(1),
143146.
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western
thought. New York: Basic Books.
Leckey, J. (2011). The therapeutic effectiveness of creative activities on mental well-being: A systematic review
of the literature. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 18, 501509
Leinikka, M., Huotilainen, M., Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, P., Groth, C., Rankanen, M. & Mäkelä, M. (2016).
Physiological measurements of drawing and forming activities. In P. Lloyd & E. Bohemia (Eds.),
Proceedings of DRS2016: Design + Research + Society - Future-Focused Thinking, 7(pp. 29412957).
doi:10.21606/drs.2016.335
Lusebrink, V. B. (2004). Art therapy and the brain: An attempt to understand the underlying processes of art
expression in therapy. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 21(3), 125135.
doi:10.1080/07421656.2004.10129496
Lusebrink, V. B. (2010). Assessment and therapeutic application of the expressive therapies continuum:
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 16 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
Implications for brain structures and functions. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy
Association, 27(4), 168177. doi:10.1080/07421656.2010.10129380
Maidment, J. & Macfarlane, S. (2009). Craft groups: Sites of friendship, empowerment, belonging and learning
for older women. Groupwork: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Working with Groups, 19(1), 1025.
Morgan, L., Knight, C., Bagwash, J. & Thompson, F. (2012). Borderline personality disorder and the role of art
therapy: A discussion of its utility from the perspective of those with a lived experience. International
Journal of Art Therapy: Formerly Inscape, 17(3), 9197. doi:10.1080/17454832.2012.734836
Mäkelä, M. (2003). Constructing female genealogy. Qualitative-Inquiry. Special Issue: The Arts and Narrative
Research. Art as Inquiry, 9(4), 535553.
Mäkelä, M. & Latva-Somppi, R. (2011). Crafting narratives: Using historical context as a reflective tool. Craft
Research, 2(1), 3760.
Mäkelä, M. & Löytönen, T. (2017). Rethinking materialities in higher education. Art, Design and
Communication in Higher Education (in press).
Niedderer, K. & Townsend, K. (2014). Designing craft research: Joining emotion and knowledge. The Design
Journal, 17(4), 624684.
Noë, A. (2009). Out of our heads. New York: Hill and Wang.
Polanyi, M. (2009). The tacit dimension. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1966)
Preminger, S. (2012). Transformative art: Art as means for long-term neurocognitive change. Frontiers in
Human Neuroscience, 6, 17.
Putkinen, V., Tervaniemi, M. & Huotilainen, M. (2013). Informal musical activities are linked to auditory
discrimination and attention in 23-year-old children: An event-related potential study. European
Journal of Neuroscience, 37(4), 654661.
Putkinen, V., Tervaniemi, M., Saarikivi, K., Ojala, P. & Huotilainen, M. (2014a). Enhanced development of
auditory change detection in musically trained school-aged children: A longitudinal event-related
potential study. Developmental Science, 17(2), 282297.
Putkinen, V., Tervaniemi, M., Saarikivi, K., de Vent, N. & Huotilainen, M. (2014b). Investigating the effects of
musical training on functional brain development with a novel melodic MMN paradigm. Neurobiology
of Learning and Memory, 110, 815.
Putkinen, V., Tervaniemi, M., Saarikivi, K. & Huotilainen, M. (2015). Promises of formal and informal musical
activities in advancing neurocognitive development throughout childhood. Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences, 1337(1), 153162.
Pöllänen S. (2009). Contextualizing craft: Pedagogical models for craft education. International Journal of Art
& Design Education, 28(3), 249260.
Pöllänen, S. (2015). Elements of crafts that enhance well-being: Textile craft makers' descriptions of their leisure
activity. Journal of Leisure Research, 47(1), 5878.
Rankanen, M. (2016a). Clients’ experiences of the impacts of an experiential art therapy group. The Arts in
Psychotherapy, 50, 101110. doi:10.1016/j.aip.2016.06.002
Rankanen, M. (2016b). The visible spectrum: Participants’ experiences of the process and impacts of art
therapy. Aalto University Doctoral Dissertations 141/2016. Helsinki: Aalto ARTS Books.
Reynolds, F. (2000). Managing depression through needlecraft creative activities: A qualitative study. The Arts
in Psychotherapy, 27(2), 107114.
Reynolds, F., Lim K. & Prior, S. (2008). Images of resistance: A photonarrative enquiry into the meanings of
personal artwork for people living with cancer. Creative Research Journal, 20(2), 211220.
Ringwood, J. V., Monaghan, K. & Maloco, J. (2005). Teaching engineering design through Lego®
Mindstorms™. European Journal of Engineering Education, 30(1), 91104.
Robson, A. J. & Kaplan, H. S. (2003). The evolution of human life expectancy and intelligence in hunter-
gatherer economies. The American Economic Review, 93(1), 150169.
Minna Huotilainen, Mimmu Rankanen, Camilla Groth, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Maarit Mäkelä
Why our brains love arts and crafts
www.FormAkademisk.org 17 Vol.11 Nr.2, 2018, Art 1, 1-18
Saarikivi, K., Putkinen, V., Tervaniemi, M. & Huotilainen, M. (2016). Cognitive flexibility modulates
maturation and music-training-related changes in neural sound discrimination. European Journal of
Neuroscience, 44(2), 18151825.
Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, P., Huotilainen, M., Mäkelä, M. Groth, C. & Hakkarainen, K. (2016). How can
neuroscience help to understand design and craft activity? The promise of cognitive neuroscience in
design studies. FORMakademisk, 9(1), Article 3, 116.
Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, P., Laamanen, T-K., Viitala, J. & Mäkelä, M. (2013). Materiality and emotion in
making. Techne Series A, 20(3), 519.
Sennett, R. (2008). The craftsman. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Sokka, L., Huotilainen, M., Leinikka, M., Korpela, J., Henelius, A., Alain, C. ... & Pakarinen, S. (2014).
Alterations in attention capture to auditory emotional stimuli in job burnout: An event-related potential
study. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 94(3), 427436.
Sokka, L., Leinikka, M., Korpela, J., Henelius, A., Ahonen, L., Alain, C., ... & Huotilainen, M. (2016). Job
burnout is associated with dysfunctions in brain mechanisms of voluntary and involuntary attention.
Biological Psychology, 117, 5666.
Stanko-Kaczmarek, M. & Kaczmarek, L. D. (2016). Effects of tactile sensations during finger painting on
mindfulness, emotions and scope of attention. Creativity Research Journal, 28(3), 283288.
Thompson, E. (2010). Mind in life: Biology, phenomenology and the sciences of mind. London: Harvard
University Press.
Toussaint, L. & Meugnot, A. (2013). Short-term limb immobilization affects cognitive motor processes. Journal
of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(2), 623632.
Tyler, C. & Likova, L. (2012). The role of the visual arts for enhancing the learning process. Frontiers in Human
Neuroscience, 6, 8. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00008
Ullén, F., Hambrick, D. & Mosing, M. (2016). Rethinking expertise: A multifactorial gene-environment
interaction model of expert performance. Psychological Bulletin, 142(4), 427446.
Ullén, F., de Manzano, Ö., Theorell, T. & Harmat, L. (2010). The physiology of effortless attention: Correlates
of state flow and flow proneness. In B. Bruya (Ed.), Effortless attention (pp. 205218). Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press.
Umilta, A., Berchio, C., Sestito, M., Freedberg, M. & Gallese, V. (2012). Abstract art and cortical motor
activation: An EEG study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 19. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00311
Uttley, L., Scope, A., Stevenson, M., Rawdin, A., Taylor Buck, E., Sutton, A., Stevens, J. Kaltenthaler, E., Dent-
Brown, K. & Wood, C. (2015). Systematic review and economic modelling of the clinical effectiveness
and cost effectiveness of art therapy among people with non-psychotic mental health disorders. Health
Technology Assessment, 19(18). doi:10.3310/hta19180
Varela, F. J., Thompson, E. & Rosch, E. (1991). The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Virtala, P., Huotilainen, M., Putkinen, V., Makkonen, T. & Tervaniemi, M. (2012). Musical training facilitates
the neural discrimination of major versus minor chords in 13yearold children. Psychophysiology,
49(8), 11251132.
Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(4), 625636.
... way to move the process forward. This way, the craft practitioner grows their resilience (Huotilainen et al., 2018). ...
... Craft practice requires activation of the body, from full-body interaction, such as sawing and hammering, to fine motor tasks, such as stitching and drawing. A neuroscientific reason for activating our bodies during learning is the fact that moving our bodies activates our brains (Huotilainen et al., 2018). Making small drawings or being active in other ways-for example, by handling material or knitting while listening to a lecture can yield better learning results than just passively listening (Andrade, 2010;Huotilainen et al., 2018). ...
... A neuroscientific reason for activating our bodies during learning is the fact that moving our bodies activates our brains (Huotilainen et al., 2018). Making small drawings or being active in other ways-for example, by handling material or knitting while listening to a lecture can yield better learning results than just passively listening (Andrade, 2010;Huotilainen et al., 2018). Touching and forming materials, such as typically happens in craft activities, stimulates certain areas of the brain. ...
Book
Full-text available
This book operationalises the new field—EmLearning—that integrates embodiment and grounded cognition perspectives with education using the 4E approach as a guiding principle, which suggests that cognition is embodied, embedded, enacted, or extended. Chapters highlight empirical data, providing readers with research-based insight into the theoretical foundations of embodied cognition in learning, illustrated by practical examples. Ultimately, the volume contributes a radical understanding of embodied cognition, demonstrating the importance of the field to the educational system more broadly and suggesting a fundamental change to the way learning, education, and curriculum design are viewed and considered. Based on contemporary scientific findings, the book addresses the educational area with a focus on opening the embodied approach to a wider audience that will circulate the new knowledge and support their educational practices. Written with the purpose of contributing to a broad spectrum of academic educational fields, this book will be of use to postgraduates, researchers, and academics in the fields of higher education, educational psychology, teacher education, and teaching methodology and practice. Teachers and school politicians should also benefit from this volume more broadly. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
... way to move the process forward. This way, the craft practitioner grows their resilience (Huotilainen et al., 2018). ...
... Craft practice requires activation of the body, from full-body interaction, such as sawing and hammering, to fine motor tasks, such as stitching and drawing. A neuroscientific reason for activating our bodies during learning is the fact that moving our bodies activates our brains (Huotilainen et al., 2018). Making small drawings or being active in other ways-for example, by handling material or knitting while listening to a lecture can yield better learning results than just passively listening (Andrade, 2010;Huotilainen et al., 2018). ...
... A neuroscientific reason for activating our bodies during learning is the fact that moving our bodies activates our brains (Huotilainen et al., 2018). Making small drawings or being active in other ways-for example, by handling material or knitting while listening to a lecture can yield better learning results than just passively listening (Andrade, 2010;Huotilainen et al., 2018). Touching and forming materials, such as typically happens in craft activities, stimulates certain areas of the brain. ...
... In addition, the therapeutic advantages of dramatic arts may strengthen students' mental well-being, which lowers stress and anxiety levels frequently linked to academic pressure (Huotilainen et al., 2018). Students acquire resilience and coping skills through self-expression and catharsis, improving their mental health and academic performance (Justin, 2020). ...
... Moreover, Kellner (2020) highlighted the transformational potential of the arts, media, and culture, emphasising how dramatic arts may foster creativity and critical thinking. Research on the neurology of music, a related art form, and its implications for improving cognitive function and controlling emotions have been conducted by Huotilainen et al. (2018). Furthermore, a study conducted by Cohen et al. (2007) shed light on the psychological processes that underlie selfaffirmation therapies, which have been demonstrated to improve cognitive flexibility and lessen ideological narrow-mindedness. ...
Article
Full-text available
The study investigated the influence of dramatic arts on academic performance among Grade 12 students. The study was framed within the social constructivism theory, which posits that learning is an active, social process where students construct knowledge through interaction with their environment and peers. The study employed an interpretivist qualitative research methods to explore the transformative potential of dramatic arts, emphasising the impact on critical thinking, problem-solving, and proficient communication. Data from 117 students in Grade 12 who were part of a purposive sample were gathered using open-ended questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations. The data was analysed through thematic analysis. The findings highlighted the positive impact of dramatic arts integration on academic performance, student engagement, empathy development, and communication skills. Participants reported enhanced critical thinking skills, deeper subject understanding, and a more meaningful relationship with academic subjects. The study also offered recommendations for educational institutions, including developing comprehensive programs incorporating dramatic arts, continual professional development for teachers, building robust assessment and evaluation systems, and collaboration with local theatre organisations and cultural institutions to enhance students’ understanding of dramatic arts.
... 219-220). Also, within literature on wellbeing, makers' experience of hardships is recognized (Gulliksen, 2023;Huotilainen et al., 2018) and productive creativity is not just the experience of being in flow but also requires successful working through temporary obstacles and frustrations (Seitamaa-Hakkarainen et al., 2013). Learning to work well with resistance is thus important for making and learning in craft and has inspired me to explore the encountered resistance in craft making processes. ...
... Niedderer and Townsend (2014) described intimacy, affinity, and emotions as essential characteristics of craft. According to Huotilainen et al. (2018), craft offers a means to reach flow, which can help regulate mental states and manage emotions (see also Niedderer and Townsend's chapter in this book). Craft also plays an important role in controlling stress and enhancing relaxation. ...
... In other words, with repetition comes immersion, which is the unconditional and empathic attention to the material and process. Immersion without distraction creates flow, a recognized state of mind (Csikszentmihalyi et al., 2014) that can be achieved within and through dedication to, and continual practice of, a (craft) process (Huotilainen et al., 2018, Singh, 2018. The nature of flow experience is defined as the subjective state (or feeling) of moment-to-moment activity, when attention is fully invested in the task at hand, and the person functions at their fullest capacity which may include mastery, control, and other forms of autonomous behaviour (Csikszentmihalyi et al., 2014). ...
... At the same time, this immersion into making enables mindful flow to arise for the practitioner within and through the embodied making process. Huotilainen et al. (2018) traced the physiological and cognitive aspects of arts and crafts making to explain how repetitive making enables the emergence of flow and how it is related to emotional wellbeing. They found that creative making activities can promote psychophysical wellbeing, e.g., through reducing blood pressure and stress, based on complex mechanisms and interplay between cognitive and motor-sensorial processes. ...
... Engaging in arts and crafts is a creative outlet and a cognitive exercise that can enhance cognitive capabilities, including mathematical comprehension. This aligns with (Huotilainen et al., 2018), who suggests that crafts enable individuals to utilize their full cognitive potential, aiding in comprehending complex mathematical concepts. In the context of education, (Pöllänen, 2011) discusses a pedagogical model that combines craft and art education, highlighting the importance of integrating self-expression into craft activities. ...
Article
Full-text available
In the past, there was a widely held belief that women lacked the aptitude for STEM careers, including engineering. Activities traditionally associated with women were perceived as less technical and rigorous than those associated with men. “Masculine” hobbies like woodworking and metalworking were seen as good preparation for engineering. In contrast, traditionally feminine hobbies like sewing, quilting, and knitting were considered preparation for homemaking. However, many traditionally feminine crafts require and develop mathematical knowledge and technical aptitudes, which are essential for success in engineering. This paper explores parallels between traditionally feminine crafts and technical aptitude. By analyzing information from various sources, including books and magazines related to these crafts, we demonstrate how these activities can develop technical aptitudes and explain this in the context of career theory, which is fundamental in comprehending how individuals navigate their professional paths. Childhood, early adult, and later experiences, such as engaging in craft and hobby activities, can significantly impact skill development that carries over into other phases of life. According to career construction theory, individuals actively shape their careers through various self-regulatory competencies. This theory posits that career adaptability, a key competency, can enhance job crafting behaviors, ultimately increasing work engagement. By understanding how these activities can enhance technical aptitudes, the engineering community can better identify and support individuals who may have a natural inclination for engineering, broadening our perception of what engineering aptitude looks like and encouraging individuals from diverse backgrounds, including a greater proportion of women, to pursue engineering careers.
Chapter
Sustainable development is integrated into the Finnish education system at all levels of education from early childhood to higher education. Early childhood educators’ study for a bachelor’s degree in higher education in Finland. The studies comprise many subjects, such as learning and teaching literacy and numeracy, but also developing, for instance, motor skills or creativity through arts and crafts. Craft studies are a five-credit course of the bachelor’s degree. In this case study, future early childhood teachers were given a project-based learning task to incorporate the Agenda 2030 goals into their craft project, and to contextualize it to early childhood learning situations. We are interested in gaining knowledge about how to concretise learning the Agenda 2030 goals through crafts in early childhood education. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse how early childhood teacher students concretize the Agenda 2030 Goals through crafts in a project-based learning task and what they learn during the process. We view through their learning portfolios how the students reflect learning through play and their interaction with materials and crafting methods, in order to understand their connection to their surroundings, while at the same time, developing their senses, motor skills, creativity, and thinking skills.
Article
Full-text available
Introduction This study explored whether engagement with Creating Arts and Crafting (CAC) predicted subjective wellbeing and loneliness, above and beyond known sociodemographic predictors. Methods Secondary data from 7,182 adults living in England from the Taking Part Survey (a 2019–2020 UK household survey of culture and sport participation) were analyzed. Hierarchical Linear regressions were used to explore the predictive effect of engagement with CAC on aspects of subjective wellbeing (anxiety, happiness, life satisfaction and a sense that life is worthwhile) and loneliness. Covariates included gender, Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), age group, health and employment status. Results Engaging in CAC significantly predicted increased life satisfaction, a sense that life is worthwhile and happiness, above and beyond known sociodemographic predictors. Conclusion Our study provides support for the wellbeing benefits of engagement with creating arts and crafting, and we suggest that this will be a useful tool at a public health level, noting that relative accessibility and affordability creating arts and crafting.
Chapter
Handloom textiles in the Southern Province are a testament to the cultural legacy and traditional knowledge passed down through generations. With the continued practice of traditional design methods and techniques, these textiles stand as a ‘Living Heritage.’ This term captures the intangible cultural heritage of handloom textiles, encompassing traditions, knowledge, and skills inherited over time. The Textile Department of the Southern Province consistently motivates and encourages the skill development of handloom textile weavers. As a result, these weavers are constantly engaged with ‘Living Skills,’ showing a readiness to learn at all times. Recognizing the industry’s interconnectedness with societal facets, such as culture, environment, and economic growth, a holistic approach to promoting and achieving sustainability in the handloom textile sector. The Textile Department of the Southern Province adheres to the Sustainable Goals by following a Strategic Plan. This Strategic plan seeks to balance the requirements of the various elements of Sustainable Goals. The aim of the study is to identify how handloom textile weaving heritage prevails as a living entity and living skills in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka toward advancing Sustainability Goals 01 and 04. Despite the challenges posed by the current economic situation and administrative shortcomings, the Department and its management recognize and value the weavers and the broader workforce for their significant economic contributions. These weavers and textile designers are valued as the vital human capital of the industry. This chapter emphasizes the alignment with SDG 01, which focuses on enhancing people’s skills for improved livelihoods, and SDG 04, centered on Learning and Education. It underscores the importance of collaborating with Universities to leverage their educational resources and training for the weavers. This partnership also facilitates the dissemination of information to the broader local community. This research employed qualitative research methods. The Primary data was collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The researchers directly observed Departmental documents to glean further information. Administrative Officers, Weavers, Coordinating Officers of the Department, and Instructors were interviewed to gain insights into the experiences, perspectives, and viewpoints of SGD 01, which is vital to nurturing people’s skills to attain a more prosperous and enriched life. SGD 04 focused on learning and education in the textiles industry, which has held a pivotal role in societies over the ages, offering a wealth of opportunities for exploration. Universities focusing on textiles can significantly impact the sector by offering free educational tools, training, and sharing expertise within the local community. Policymakers, academics, and government authorities will benefit from this study.
Article
Full-text available
Artikkelin aiheena on suolla marjastamiseen liittyvä kulttuuriperintö ja siinä tapahtuneet muutokset. Upottavilla ja märillä soilla marjastaminen poikkeaa metsämarjojen poimimisesta. Marjojen löytäminen ja suolla selviäminen vaativat erityistä tietoa ja taitoa, joiden välittäminen sukupolvelta toiselle perheiden sisällä on vähentynyt kaupungistumisen myötä. Tutkimuksessa kysytäänkin: millainen on soilla marjastamiseen liittyvä kulttuuriperintö nykypäivänä ja millaista hyvinvointia se tuottaa? Suolta perinteisesti haettujen aineellisten hyödykkeiden, kuten marjojen, sienten ja riistan tavoittelun rinnalle on noussut yhä vahvemmin luonnon aineeton hyödyntäminen. Tämä näkyy myös marjastuskulttuurissa, jossa soilta poimitut lakat ja karpalot eivät enää välttämättä ole pääasiallinen syy suolle marjastamaan menemiselle. Suolta haetaan virkistystä ja luontoelämyksiä, jotka syntyvät ennen kaikkea marjastajan ja suon välisessä vuorovaikutuksessa. Marjastus tarjoaa henkilökohtaisen väylän moniaistiseen yhteyteen ei-inhimillisen suon kanssa, missä syntyy tunne yhteenkuuluvuudesta muuhun luontoon. Marjasaalis lisää hyvänolon tunnetta. Näitä hyvinvointiin kytkeytyviä ulottuvuuksia halutaan välittää marjastukseen kuuluvana arvokkaana kulttuuriperintönä myös tulevaisuuteen. Tutkimuksen aineistona hyödynnetään vuosina 2018–2022 marjastuskokemuksistaan kertoneiden suomalaisten suolla kulkijoiden kirjoituksia ja suullisia haastatteluja. Aineistoa analysoidaan temaattisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin kulttuuriperinnön ja hyvinvoinnin käsitteiden näkökulmista.
Article
Full-text available
Art, craft and design activities are fundamentally creative in nature, requiring the implementation of ideas in the form of materially embodied artefacts. Within art and design education, initiation to the creative process is usually enhanced via a studio model where material experimentations are an integral part of learning processes. This case study explores materiality in learning from a relational perspective where material forces are at play in constituting learning: how learning is entangled with or an effect of the engagement with the materiality of places, environments and (organic) matter. We base our enquiry on an MA course called Design Exploration and Experimentation organized at Aalto University, Finland. The experiences of three students discussed in the article form the key data of the case study. By describing the relations between the experiences, environments and creative outcomes, the case study sheds light on the relevance of materiality in learning, especially in higher education.
Thesis
Full-text available
Design and craft practitioners’ thinking has been researched in design cogni- tion studies; however, lately research on the embodied mind has also begun to influence the field of design and craft. While this theoretical frame situates knowing in actions and thus ties design practice to cognition, few empirical studies on embodied cognition have been made in relation to design and craft practices. This doctoral thesis opens up empirically-based aspects of what em- bodied cognition theory could mean for design and craft practice. The general research question is: How do design and craft practitioners think through their hands? Through three case studies, notions of body-based knowing, especially related to haptic experiences were studied. The first case involved ceramic workshops with deafblind makers, conducted at the IIRIS Service and Activity Centre for the visually impaired in Helsinki and the Tampere Resource Centre for the Deafblind. The second case involved a practice-led self-study on tactile augmentation in ceramic craft practice. The third case examined Masters’ students’ use of their embodied knowing during a design and material exploration process. A multimethod for studying experiential knowledge was developed during the research process. Since much of knowing is situated in action and in relation to previous experiences and material skills, embodied cognition theory was considered to lend itself well to informing research on design and craft practice. Because ideation and concepting also rely upon these embodied experiences, a conceptual separation between making and thinking in design is not feasible. The practice-led research setting was found to be an efficient way of studying experiential knowledge as it includes the practition- er’s perspective, thus allowing for sensory experiences and emotions to be studied in action. The use of video documentation was found to be especially useful in both the effective study and dissemination of experiential data and research results due to its multimodal potential. Emotions were at the fore in all three cases, in different contexts and on several levels and especially in the different decision-making processes that the practitioner was confronted with. The research thus puts forward four theoretical and practical implications: 1) Embodied cognition theory lends itself well to informing design and craft related practice. 2) Design processes include embodied knowledge even in the cognitive and immaterial stage of creating mental images of the intended physical designs. 3) Making may be seen as a way of negotiating meaning through interaction between the embodied mind and the material environ- ment, thus it may affect intrapersonal growth and provide a useful platform in educational settings. 4) Design and craft research benefit from a combination of research approaches that aid in investigating both representational and non-representational aspects of the practice.
Book
Full-text available
Art therapy seems to be a highly preferred and satisfactory form of preventive and rehabilitative work for participants in different contexts from education to psychiatry. It consists of multiple theoretical and practical approaches that vary depending of clients’ needs and therapists training, but they are all based on the influences of art-making within a therapeutic relationship and joint interaction between therapist and client. This doctoral dissertation focuses on analysing clients’ descriptions of art therapy processes and on defining which ingredients are influencing on the qualities of these experiences. In addition, it aims to clarify, which impacts clients experience as personally significant after participating in art therapy. Previous research has not focused on the systematic observation of those experiences that clients describe as challenging during the art therapy process or on developing theoretical models for contextualising those ingredients that are crucial in aiding or hindering therapeutic change. In current research, these aspects are approached from multiple directions including the observation of both individual and group art therapy practices in the context of either adult education or psychotherapy. This research comprises four articles, enabling different methods and data sets to be triangulated. Thus, both the participants’ rich descriptions of art therapy process and its impacts can be analysed from multiple theoretical perspectives. These include different experiential aspects such as embodied sensations and perceptions, emotional and mental experiences as well as intersubjective and dialogical aspects. Of the four articles, the two case studies allow deeper analysis of the unique qualities in individual narratives, while the two systematic content analyses enable shared themes to be found from numerous participants’ descriptions. In this research, the facing-up to, working through and conscious reflection on unpleasant experiences, such as difficulties in art-making, challenging emotions and interaction, turned into important helping processes which aided change. Additionally, based on the findings of a single case study, qualitative change in art making from cognitive control into spontaneous playful processing can be significant in aiding the transformation of previously painful experience into ones that are emotionally manageable and in increasing resources for self-regulation. However, hidden or un-expressed experiences of vulnerability or incapability in relation to verbal expression, art-making or therapeutic tasks and goals turned into hindering ingredients that stagnated the therapeutic process and change. Unpleasant emotions that remain unsolved could arise during sensory interaction in art-making or in social interaction, and a fear for others’ interpretations could prevent or restrict expressing personally important issues. The results of the research create a clearer and better structured understanding of how crucial it is for the experienced outcome of art therapy to encounter and reflect those intrapersonal, intermediate and interpersonal experiences, which awake unpleasant emotions during the process. In addition, as a result of the current study, six themes were recognised in clients’ experiences of significant outcomes: (a) Art therapy increased insights and skills of self-reflection, (b) enabled experiences of self-expression and flow that gave resources for everyday life, (c) increased awareness and handling of emotions, (d) gave experiences of social support and acceptance, (e) increased understanding of self and others, and (f) enabled handling of the past and reflecting on the future. The findings of the current study reveal, how the distinct ingredients that influence the art therapy process are described by different clients and which impacts multiple participants experience as significant after their participation in art therapy. As a result of the study, these findings are contextualised by applying the notion of a triangular working alliance to the individual cases and by developing a new kind of triangular pyramid model to picture the working alliance and aiding or hindering processes in group art therapy. Furthermore, a transtheoretical model for art therapy practice which integrates both essential art based premises and psychotherapeutic core processes is constructed and described in the theoretical part of the research summary. Thus, this research creates both new kinds of theoretical models for exploring the influencing processes in art therapy as well as offers tools for therapeutic practices. It constructs increased understanding of clients’ perspectives on art therapeutic change and its failings both within the context of experiential groups in adult education and in individual art psychotherapy.
Article
Full-text available
Design practice involves multifaceted activities related to creative processes involving various design tools and material. In the present exploratory study, we investigated the feasibility of using contextual event sampling as a method of studying design activities, materiality and emotions in the making process. 'Event sampling' refers to a research strategy for studying ongoing daily experience and emotions as they occur in the ebb and flow of everyday life. A novel method (Contextual Activity Sampling System (CASS)) was implemented for recording and archiving design behavior. The data were collected using mobile-phone technology employing a CASS query along with a diary method. We report two case studies conducted using CASS query (set of questions) that analyzed the socio-emotional experiences (i.e., challenges – competence) involved in the process of designing and handling materials during the respective design projects. In the first case study, we were interested in the main aspects of professional designers' work; resources they used, the social dimension as well as the emotional side of their work experiences. The purpose of the second case study was to examine, longitudinally, one textile artist's 'street art project'. The second case study is an example of autoethnographical research that uses CASS-query to document one's own creative practice. We conclude that the CASS technology has the potential for design research as it captures time-based and multimodal data from designers. The present study also recognizes some limitations of data collection. Methodological implications regarding the contextual study of design practices and ideas of the tool development are discussed.
Article
Full-text available
Designing and making crafts is a complex, multifaceted process that requires sophisticated, professional thinking and competence, described as reflection in action and as an embodied process in which the hand, eye and mind collaborate. This article discusses these cognitive and embodied aspects central to designing and making crafts in light of cognitive neuroscience. Understanding the specific cognitive processes and forms of knowledge used in creative practices is essential. In this article, we propose that cognitive neuroscience provides valuable tools for analysing thinking and acting processes relevant to designing and making. We discuss the challenges and opportunities that the use of brain imaging methods, in particular, provides for understanding design activities, skills and cognition. Additionally, we present two neuroscientific experimental settings from our empirical studies in which the methods of cognitive neuroscience are applied to study and detect the interrelations between drawing, forming, skill learning and the functional activities of the brain and its subareas. We argue that cognitive neuroscience provides valuable instruments and methods which complement traditional design research.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The embodiment of tools and experiential knowledge of materials gained over time lies at the heart of both design and craft practices. However, empirical studies combining the study of mind and body in relation to design and craft practice is in its infancy. In the Handling Mind project, we conducted psychophysiological experiments in order to illuminate the relationships between making and feeling, handling creative situations and the embodied mind in thirty participants, both students and professionals representing expertise in various design fields, working with visual (drawing) or material (forming clay) tasks of 1) copying, 2) creating novel designs, or 3) freely improvising. Our findings highlight both the importance of the embodiment with respect to the material and the different physiological states observed in tasks differing in requirements related to following orders or creativity. We conclude that the embodied activities are both supported and altered by bodily and mental processes.
Book
Co-published in Association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London This book is a timely and engaging introduction to the way that artists working in all media think about craft. Workmanship is key to today’s visual arts, when high ‘production values’ are becoming increasingly commonplace. Yet craft’s centrality to contemporary art has received little serious attention from critics and historians. Dispensing with clichéd arguments that craft is art, Adamson persuasively makes a case for defining craft in a more nuanced fashion. The interesting thing about craft, he argues, is that it is perceived to be ‘inferior’ to art. The book consists of an overview of various aspects of this second-class identity - supplementarity, sensuality, skill, the pastoral, and the amateur. It also provides historical case studies analysing craft’s role in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, design, contemporary art, and the crafts themselves. Thinking Through Craft will be essential reading for anyone interested in craft or the broader visual arts.
Thesis
There is a need to put more effort into exploring new ideas of what role material-based art can play in society today. There are many technical and political perspectives describing the role of materials in the participatory development of the public space, but still more knowledge about the artistic aspects of environmental issues is needed, because when the environment is materialized, a meaning is always created, and from a social and cultural perspective, this meaning is important. There has been extensive research undertaken on participatory design and material-based art, and on the multiple pathways for creative practice and research practice to come together, but research is lacking on the relationship between participatory design and material-based art. When considering ethnography, it has also been proposed that more artificial set-ups should be used, and more novel and exciting ways of thinking about the work of fieldwork should be practised. One should not only passively live in a specific culture to observe it, but ethnographers should, to a larger extent, participate, act up and act out, as in the early legendary ethnographic studies. Based on this, the main research question concerned how participatory processes could contribute to material-based art. The supporting research questions consider how collective concepts can emerge in a participatory process and how collective concepts can be materialized into artworks. A final supporting research question involved how the artworks could be implemented into a specific institution. The research questions contribute to self-identification in terms of the research outlook on participation in material-based art, aiming for an expanded understanding through a hermeneutic and descriptive research approach. Three public institutions were chosen as contexts for the case studies to create a sense of unity: a church, a school and a hospital were chosen because they are both pillars of society and institutional frameworks for specific occasions in life. Material-based art was produced and used actively through a participatory approach to create public art. The approach, findings and analysis were employed to identify any relevant issues and topics that concerned the people who were connected to the material-based arts, and to highlight any issues that were related to the skills and actions of material-based artists. This included the exploration of how practice was carried out, which issues were important and which issues emerged in the research community in different contexts. The issues and themes that were identified through exploring public participation in art practice were thus validated in relation to existing research and in relation to what may be required for an art-based transformation process in society. The issues identified through the artistic research were related to knowledge, skill and general competence, aspects that are relevant from an educational perspective for participation in material-based art. In such a knowledge domain, it is relevant to have specific knowledge of an artistic production process and to be able to describe the properties, potentials and useful qualities of relevant media and materials. Another issue is to know how material-based art can become an integrated part of a place as a transformative social force. Further, a relevant issue was to imagine innovative solutions by applying accumulated knowledge to new areas. In the skill domain, an issue is to know how to follow formalized processes in political and institutional frameworks to determine the consensual values of artistic practice. Relevant skills are to undertake interactive fieldwork to get a deeper insight into how cultural values and social-flow patterns can be directly related to a physical environment. Another relevant skill is to carry out interviews that include material-based art. A skill is to create spaces and opportunities that enable the participants to take part in a creative process that can contribute to a mutual openness, in seeing ‘the other’ as a source of knowledge and inspiration. A skill to generate a new conceptualization of a space is relevant. The ability to compose both colour and tactile aesthetics to create a new experience of sensuous presence are relevant skills. Further, a relevant skill is to materialize an artwork with motifs and forms that resonate with a specific concept or context. A general competency requirement in terms of practicing participation in material-based art is to engage collaborators in emerging concepts through participatory dialogues. The reflecting art practitioner can take advantage of using artistic freedom with regards to the implications that this has for the integrity of others. A general competence is to propose and handle provocative solutions to the point of acceptance to constitute a productive transition from something familiar into something unknown and eventually to develop conflicting values into new common ideas. Further competence is to involve relevant external reference groups to create a higher degree of intersubjectivity in the process. A relevant competence is to contribute to a physical and conceptual environment that enhances more-being by creating room for imagination, communication and dialogue. In particular, this study has identified new knowledge on participation in material-based art and, in general, has shown how artistic work can be multidisciplinary when working with public art. Through the intertwined connections of conceptualization, materialization and implementation, the research introduces a new approach to working with public art and for how to use art in the public space. Discussions on these issues have contributed to an early-stage epistemological framework for participation in material-based art and to an early-stage ontological circle for artistic research.
Book
A new edition of a classic work that originated the “embodied cognition” movement and was one of the first to link science and Buddhist practices. This classic book, first published in 1991, was one of the first to propose the “embodied cognition” approach in cognitive science. It pioneered the connections between phenomenology and science and between Buddhist practices and science—claims that have since become highly influential. Through this cross-fertilization of disparate fields of study, The Embodied Mind introduced a new form of cognitive science called “enaction,” in which both the environment and first person experience are aspects of embodiment. However, enactive embodiment is not the grasping of an independent, outside world by a brain, a mind, or a self; rather it is the bringing forth of an interdependent world in and through embodied action. Although enacted cognition lacks an absolute foundation, the book shows how that does not lead to either experiential or philosophical nihilism. Above all, the book's arguments were powered by the conviction that the sciences of mind must encompass lived human experience and the possibilities for transformation inherent in human experience. This revised edition includes substantive introductions by Evan Thompson and Eleanor Rosch that clarify central arguments of the work and discuss and evaluate subsequent research that has expanded on the themes of the book, including the renewed theoretical and practical interest in Buddhism and mindfulness. A preface by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the originator of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program, contextualizes the book and describes its influence on his life and work.