Page 18 - To know things we have to have the world inside us

How could things go together?

“The more you do this

the more connections you find.”

“They [the shells] ask to hold something.”

“There is a connection between having an idea and using the material
to express it and then the materials make you think differently.”

Four elements: a cotton reel, a pinecone, a leather button and part of a metal light fitting.

One arrangement was made – the button was put on top of the cotton
reel (1). Someone else took the button off and added the light fitting.
Someone else put the pine cone in the light fitting (2). Then the
pinecone was removed and the light fitting was turned upside down.
The button was then put on top of the light fitting (3).
1 2 3

“One arrangement was pleasing, another not. To another person it is the other way around.”

Gradually the connecting factor became less strident and more flexible. The forms started to offer suggestions and
clues as to their influence on each other. Teacher~researchers’ preferences became apparent. Working this way,
slowly and without a specific goal or endpoint, with the focus on sensitivity and awareness enabled
teacher~researchers to notice how things~objects~materials affect each other and our perception of them. Noticing
an element in one thing helps us to see it in another - and to see how it is also different from the other. Words are
never big enough to describe the actual thing and the relations between things~objects~materials.

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