DISCOURSE THROUGH MAKING:
THE ROLE OF THE JOURNEYMAN IN DESIGNING INTERACTIVE MEDIA TO SUPPORT THE LEARNING OF TACIT SKILLS

The central problem behind our research is how to understand and communicate the expert knowledge of skilled craftspeople: knowledge which frequently cannot be articulated through verbal discourse, but only through the making process. The main aim is to develop and evaluate a generalisable methodology for interactive media designers to elicit the expert, tacit knowledge of skilled craft practitioners in support of the design and development of interactive learning materials for craft skills.

This paper will reflect on the methods used during author1’s preceding research which had an identified limitation that it relied on the multimedia designer having a good general knowledge of the craft practices concerned to be able to engage in discourse with the practitioners. It will consider their application to the joint research project we are just commencing, with author2 as a journeyman: an intermediary "expert learner" both engaged with the making process as a discourse with the practitioner and, working in partnership with author1, providing interpretation which will assist with designing the resulting learning resource. This will be evaluated by asking a group of craft practitioners, experts and students to use the prototype resource as part of a learning programme which will culminate in them producing new creative work using these skills.

The area of craft skill chosen for this work is traditional custom knife making, for which Sheffield was once a thriving centre, but with increasing manufacture and growth in overseas production, the number of skilled craft makers in the city has greatly dwindled. A number of master craftsmen making custom knives still remain and some have agreed to support the work by giving training to author2. This process  will be observed and recorded by author1 using video as a starting point for developing interactive learning materials. These, and the understanding of the master craftsman's skills embedded in those materials, will be progressively evaluated using low-fidelity prototyping techniques following elicitation methods developed in the preceding research.

The learners taking part in the evaluation will come from a new generation of creative metalworkers whose interests lie in adapting old skills to new craft practices.  This will create an opportunity to open up a new investigation into how skills can be transmitted and transformed in ways that were common among pre-industrial craft practitioners but have faded away since the industrial revolution brought in a more functional idea of making, that allowed less room for reflection and artistry.