Reading 4

In "Material Consciousness" Richard Sennett makes the claim that people are interested in what they can change, going through three stages when they attempt to change the object of their interest. Metamorphosis a change in procedure, Presence a sign or mark of existence, and Anthropomorphosis the imputing of human qualities to a raw material. Appropriately, Sennett compares metamorphosis with evolution. In that small things are gradually changed by virtue of individual craftsmen learning and passing on that knowledge with the end result of having created entirely new type-form from the slow improvement of the old one. This is only obvious looking back, as the contemporary craftsmen we have no idea what any given innovation will do. And this is still going on today. Thinking about not only pottery but any skilled discipline in this light encourages experimentation for its own sake. Any idea or theory, no matter how inane it may seem, becomes valid in the possibility of radical developments and changes to a discipline. The difficulty of thinking outside the box is that once done, a new box is constructed around the new boundaries. Humanity started with a tiny box. Through metamorphosis that box grew and multiplied. Even if a thought is only just outside the box it still extends the boundary further than ever before. It is the responsibility and privilege of skilled tradesmen to strive to increase the size of their box, and if nothing else place a sphere around it instead.