The Body Based Practices PhD Course was held at Notodden campus again 11-14 of April, with both national and international student researching their practices from an embodied perspective. The 7,5 ECT course is offered by the Culture studies doctoral program and runs once a year, in the spring semester. The course is constructed of both theoretical lectures and practical tryouts in which the students could reflect on their own research questions and practices. In the Body-based Practices course thinking and learning are viewed as embodied practices, and the course content builds on the tradition of phenomenology, including new research and theory from the area of Embodied Cognition that is now…

Members of EMAL, who work in the research project Maker-Centered Learning: Cultivating creativity in tomorrow’s schools (MAKER) presented preliminary results at the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) Congress 2023, 15-17 March. This years theme Digitalization and Technologies in Education – Opportunities and Challenges was fitting for the research projects aims and thus the group collected contributions to form an special theme symposium. The symposium had the following theme:  Research based practices in educating for innovation and creativity, and was a collaboration with researchers from Oslo-met, Helsinki University and University of South-Eastern Norway. Symposium Abstract   Digitalization has brought a new dimension to education, bringing technology into the curriculum on several levels…

Emal members that are part of the Maker Centered Learning project met Icelandic school makerspace researchers from the AUSTVEF research group in Reykjavik in a joint seminar and public presentation on October 26. Before the open presentations vi had a round tour of the University of Iceland and the Mixtúra Makerspace that had recently moved into the premises of the university. Image: The Mixtúra Makerspace offers professional development courses in maker activities for teacher students and in-service teachers. Image by Camilla Groth. Image: In addition to introducing ready-made commercial packages, they also promote “on the wheels” makerspaces that schools can borrow to cut costs of investing themselves. Image by Camilla…

The third and last craft science workshop in the series of three (see earlier blogs) was arranged on October 11-13 in Mariestad, Sweden by the Craft Laboratory and University of Gothenburg partners Gunnar Almevik and Tina Westerlund. Over three days the group of 20 researchers and teachers shared craft related information and knowledge through lectures workshops and discussions. The lectures involved themes such as artistic research in woodwork using only preindustrial tools, Research on the value and appreciation of crafts in society and IPR in Crafts. In hands-on workshops on plant propagation and masonry and plastering the participant were discussing learning a craft as a novice from a master and…

Edited by Tina Westerlund, Camilla Groth and Gunnar Almevik, this book gathers research made and authored by craft practitioners from a wide range of craft contexts. The book is open access, and you can download your free copy from the publisher Kriterium’s site, and you can buy your printed copy of the book there too. Abstract: The field of ‘Craft Sciences’ refers to research conducted across and within different craft subjects and academic contexts. This anthology aims to expose the breadth of topics, source material, methods, perspectives, and results that reside in this field, and to explore what unites the research in such diverse contexts as, for example, the arts,…

Image: Lovise Søyland’s whole body drawings done at site in a freezing forest with charcoal, exhibited at the USN Notodden campus gallery “Foajégalleriet”. Photo by Lovise Søyland. This year’s open research seminar was held on the 26 of September in collaboration with the Centre for kindergarten research, development and innovation (SEBUTI) Additionally, the theme for the whole research day initiative this year was “The Sea”. We therefore called the seminar: Between sky and sea! Material and bodily learning processes in early childhood and school environment (Mellom himmel og hav! Materielle og kroppslige læreprosesser i barnehagens og skolens miljø). While we aimed to share the research done during the year to…

This post is written by Associate professor Anniken Randers-Pehrson. As part of the second craft sciences workshop series, this time arranged in Notodden Norway during 4-6 of May, 20 craft-researchers from Nordic countries spent one lovely and sunny seminar day at Guvihaug Viking settlement, a place for cultural experiences from the Viking and Medieval ages. During the day, three craft-researchers performed sessions of “show and tell” about their craft research. We got to know about the close and embodied study of wool (Post doc Bilge Aktas from Aalto University), research at the intersection between embodied studies and neuroscience (prof. Marte S. Gulliksen) and the study and knowledge of boat-building traditions…

The Embodied Making and Learning research group is arranging a series of lectures by our visiting Professor II, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen. Pirita is professor of Craft studies in Helsinki University, and she has a long career in arts and crafts research which has led to the renewal of the related teacher education field in Finland. In this lecture series of three lectures, she provides insight into the various research strategies and methodologies for researching crafts and design activities that she has used and developed together with her research group over a long period of time. Lecture 1. 19 January, 2022 In this first lecture:Perspectives on craft teacher education and research  Pirita…

This Blog text was written by Morten Henrik Lerpold The “Man and Technology” (Mennesket og Teknologien) Seminar was held during the Research days on the 30th of September 2021 at Notodden campus. It was organized by EMAL-digital members: Morten Henrik Lerpold, Lovise Søyland and Ingrid Holmboe Høibo. In all times, humans have created different kinds of technology, and thus also had to adjust to, or in some way integrate with this technology. In this seminar we invited researchers to reflect on questions about the relationship we as humans have to our present technologies and what possibilities and challenges these have in our immediate future. The technologies we are now surrounded by is…

Emal researchers Ingrid Holmboe Høybo and Kirstine Riis participated and presented at The first Craft Research Workshop held at the University of Helsinki 17-18 November 2021 Arranged by Sirpa Kokko University of Helsinki, Emal researcher Camilla Groth USN and Gunnar Almevik University of Gothenburg. Craft Science is an established field of academic research in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. As a small and scattered academic discipline, existing in many different faculties and often subordinated to traditional academic disciplines, there is a need for dialogue and collaboration across universities and countries. The purpose of the workshop series is to consolidate Nordic craft research by developing a joint understanding of the state-of-the-art in…