Centredness as social structure

Learning the skills to work with the material is a process of inducing in traditional artisan contexts. It is about learning the body language of approval and disapproval and finding the sense of one’s self to be able to relate to the environment. Centredness is an important concept in the daily physical practice of the artisan and it is also a quality of the products that are made.

Even more important is that it creates centred communities. A centred person creates a centred object, which will centre the users and as a result the community gets centred as well. In a technology context only reference to physical and sensorial qualities can be made. Up until today the sensorial experience of technology and the experiences one can share in online communities with others are still secondary to sensorial experiences one can share in real life contexts. A quality like centeredness may be approached in technological environments through knowing more and having more engagement, even though it is still very distant from the original experience of centeredness

CN