Doing Thinking: Working Wood, Crafting Ideas

Description

What do we know about how people learn "something" well? What is the relationship between thinking and doing, between the work of the mind and the work of the hand? Why does working through "the hard parts" move us closer to the elusive nature of mastery? How do novices become experts and apprentices turn into artisans? We will explore these questions in a learning environment which intentionally cross-fertilizes workshop and classroom learning experiences.

The practice of working wood begins with conceptualizing something and understanding its purpose. We choose a shape, size and structure; we select the material from which to make it; we assemble tools appropriate to the task. But, to actually make the object we must possess the necessary skills. Crafting ideas requires a similar level of discipline: the process is as imaginative, intentional, and skill-based as working wood. Intellectual work turns ideas into tools for analysis.

Doing Thinking: Working Wood, Crafting Ideas invites us to re-conceptualize our understanding of tools as instruments of both the hand and the mind as we address the program's overarching questions. Throughout the program, we will develop both our abilities to make things of consequence from wood and our abilities to work with ideas that matter in the world and that are worth understanding.