Reflection on Tacit Knowledge - Effect of Providing EMG Visualization on Reflections on Throwing Clay

Abstract

Craft practitioners rely on reflection to train and improve their skills. The lack of media to represent and communicate their tacit knowledge makes reflection difficult, especially if this reflection happens after the fact. This paper presents a set-up that tracks and visualizes muscle activities of potters when throwing on the wheel. We use this set-up to investigate the effect of the visualization of potters' muscle activities on their retrospective reflections on their own practice. We conducted a preliminary user study with three expert potters. The preliminary results suggest that externalizing the once implicit muscle activities alters potters' reflection of their own practice and can potentially serve as a medium to communicate the tacit knowledge involved in throwing.