Transmitting Craft Knowledge: Eliciting and passing on the skills of craft masters with the help of interactive media

这项研究背后的核心问题是如何理解和传播熟练工匠的专业知识。我们尤其对可能正在消失的工艺技能感兴趣，尽管有人对保存和学习这些技能感兴趣。例如，许多传统的农村技能对于保护我们的建筑遗产和农村生活的其他方面至关重要，但很少有人能传承这些知识，学习者也没有时间接受传统的学徒制。这项研究是由设计师进行的，我们的兴趣是了解设计专业人员如何在解决这个问题方面发挥作用。谢菲尔德哈勒姆大学之前的研究表明，使用基于计算机的互动材料来帮助学习者是可能的，这些学习者已经从工艺大师那里得到了一些初步的指导，可以按照自己的节奏继续发展这些技能。除了开发设计这些互动材料的系统外，我们还有一套方法来发现工艺大师的隐性（未说出来的）知识，并通过一系列实验学习课程来测试我们的理解。在这个项目中，我们建议以两种方式结束这项工作。首先，我们将研究如何引入“专家学习者”，一个具有良好相关技能和经验的工匠，与互动媒体设计师一起工作，他们不能期望理解工艺实践的微妙之处。其次，我们将把2001年开始的研究项目的所有方法和知识汇集到一个原型学习资源中。这将通过要求一组工艺从业者、专家和学生使用原型作为学习计划的一部分来进行评估，最终他们将使用这些技能制作新的创造性作品。这项工作选择的工艺技能领域是传统的定制制刀。谢菲尔德仍然有许多工匠大师制作定制刀具，他们中的一些人已经同意通过培训我们的专家学习者来支持这项工作。参加评估的学习者将来自新一代的创造性金属工人，他们的兴趣在于将旧技能应用于新的工艺实践。这创造了一个机会，开启了一项新的研究，即如何以工业前工匠中常见的方式传播和转化技能，但自从工业革命带来了更实用的制作理念以来，这些理念已经消失了，这使得反思和艺术的空间更小。因此，研究的第二个方面将观察和记录聚集一群工匠学习一套技能的效果，每个人都有不同的议程和如何应用这些技能的想法。研究的结果之一将是这个小组的工作展览，我们希望从这第一步开始确定新的研究问题。这项研究汇集了谢菲尔德哈勒姆大学设计研究的许多方面。它利用了在设计、互动学习材料、当代工艺金属制品、视频制作和人机界面设计方面的隐性（潜）知识的专业知识，所有这些都是基于文化、传播和计算研究所。从某种意义上说，这项研究是“实践主导的”，即大部分调查是通过制造和评估事物来进行的。创造性实践与新知识发展之间的关系一直是这所大学和其他设计研究的一个特点，创造性实践可能是方法的一个重要特征，但重点是开发有用的知识，这些知识的含义超出了设计问题。

The central problem behind this research is how to understand and transmit the expert knowledge of skilled craftspeople. In particular we are interested in craft skills that may be disappearing, despite there being people interested in preserving those skills and learning them. For example many traditional rural skills are essential for preserving our heritage of buildings and other aspects of rural life, but there are few people left to pass on the knowledge and learners do not have the time for traditional apprenticeships.The research is being carried out by designers and our interest is to understand how design professionals can play a part in addressing this problem.Previous research at Sheffield Hallam University has shown that it is possible to use computer based interactive materials to help learners, who have had some initial instruction from a craft master, to continue to develop these skills at their own pace. As well as developing a system for designing these interactive materials we have methods for discovering the craft master's tacit (unspoken) knowledge and testing our understanding through a programme of experimental learning sessions.In this project we propose to bring this work to a conclusion in two ways. Firstly we will investigate how to bring in an 'expert learner', a craftsperson with good relevant skills and experience, to work with an interactive media designer, who cannot be expected to understand the subtleties of craft practice. Secondly we will bring together all the methods and knowledge from the research programme, which started in 2001, into a prototype learning resource. This will be evaluated by asking a group of craft practitioners, experts and students, to use the prototype 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. Sheffield still has a number of master craftsmen making custom knives and some of them have agreed to support the work by giving training to our expert learner. 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 creates an opportunity to open up a new investigation into how skills can be transmitted and transformed in ways that were common among pre-industrial craftsmen but have faded away since the industrial revolution brought in a more functional idea of making, that allowed less room for reflection and artistry.The second aspect of the research will therefore observe and record the effect of bringing together a community of craftspeople to learn a set of skills, each with a different agenda and ideas about how to apply those skills. One of the outcomes of the research will be an exhibition of work from this group and we expect to identify new research questions from this first step.The research brings together a number of aspects of design research at Sheffield Hallam University. It draws on expertise in the role of tacit (unspoken) knowledge in design, interactive learning materials, contemporary craft metalwork, video production and human computer interface design, all based in the Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute. The research is 'practice-led' in the sense that much of the investigation is pursued through making and evaluating things. The relationship between creative practice and development of new knowledge has been a feature of this and other design research at the university where creative practices may be an important feature of the methods, but the focus is on developing useful knowledge that has implications beyond the problems of designing.