Marie-Sophie Abramo

Passing on gestures: From body to material

This dissertation questions how artisan know-how is passed down today, at a time when the direct relationship between body, material and master tends to disappear. Based on research combining field observations, interviews and personal experiments, this work explores the elements that play a role in learning a gesture: time, attention, error, and the perceptible relationship to matter.
From contemporary educational frameworks to traditional models such as apprenticeships, this dissertation highlights the limits of passing on skills through visual media and digital tools, and affirms the importance of learning in person. As such, it questions the place of the body in manufacturing, and how this knowledge can continue to exist and change.

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