Paper short abstract:

When our hands are occupied, our fingers carry the flow of conversation into the objects we are making; how does this sensory ‘distraction’ alter the stream of discussion within a group? and how can we engage with these handmade things as tactile archives of collective discourse?

Paper long abstract:

Within my research in the northwest quilting community, there is an evident and distinct self-orating, remembrance, and engaged discussion that emanates from group stitching. Crafting as a collective slows down time spent together, producing unhurried and absorbed listening. If brought into the seminar room, this biographical and reflexive talking could produce a fruitful pedagogy that engages with personal reflections and shapes a more uninhibited and open conversation. I will demonstrate the power of working on something in your lap, head bent, alleviating the pressure of making eye contact, the needle dipping into the well of emotive discussion.

Secondly, I want to emphasise that stitching-whilst-talking should not be viewed purely as a prop to facilitate ‘serious’ academic discussion. The craft objects made within the classroom are tangible expressions of time spent learning, listening and engaging. Introducing the concept of busy hands carries with it the feminine foil of hobbyism and busywork. In response, I centre my own fieldwork on the notion that what is made in the material is, in and of itself, valuable testimonies of experience. These objects exist as tactile diaries, autobiographical creations that retell how the speaker/listener felt during the lesson, ready to be revisited as if reading back through your notes.

As a researcher in both craft and anthropology, I will address the benefits that making has on discussion and the imprint discussion has on making, drawing out a shared thread that when we seriously engage with the sensorial, we bring something new into being.