Three Observations on Filming Tactility and Movement in Crafts-based Practice

Abstract

This film makes three observations on the filming of tactility and movement in order to adequately convey tacit knowledge in embodied ways. The author, Wuon-Gean Ho, studied the craft of traditional woodblock printmaking in Japan, and demonstrates planning, carving and printing of a woodblock print. The first observation is that an alteration of the time-base of the film and subsequent manipulation of the soundscape can provide embodied affects. Secondly the film refers to the effect of mirror-touch-synaesthesia with close macro shots and intimate angles. Thirdly, the use of a birds’ eye point of view, with the hands of the artist in the same anatomical position as the viewers’ hands, enables the gaze of the viewer to mimic that of the maker, conveying haptic knowledge through poetic means.The voiceover to the film is made with deliberate reference to ASMR videos that engender a sense of intimacy. The non-objectivity of the recording process is commented upon. The conclusion is that constructed scenarios might convey more than real-time truthful indexical footage.