SV: [sw-l] NORWAY Full Body Writing for Research Project

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 21, 2005

Hello Harald!
Thank you for this excellent description. I will keep it so we can  
refer to it later...

Harald Bentz Høgseth in Norway wrote:
> For the moment the title of my project is: “The craftsman’s  
> language”. My
> study focuses on the language of craftsmanship lodged in  
> archaeological
> timber and extant wooden buildings in Norway.
>
> Craftsmanship is embodied knowledge where a sense of direction is an
> essential feature. The aim of this study will be to find ways to  
> capture and
> translate this into an academic format. My intention is to develop  
> a “common
> language” or a “notation map” for artisans and archaeologists like the
> “musicians note” or the “dancer’s notation system”. In that way we can
> experiment with, and reconstruct the knowledge and the body  
> gestures behind
> the working processes throughout the artisan’s signatures lodged in  
> the
> timbers.


This is an amazing project and we definitely can write these  
movements...A private SignPuddle for your project was created today,  
so you can create the Full Body manuscript directly on the web. You  
will also be able to create documents in SignBank, once the  
SignPuddle writing has been saved...

This will also be a service to my work, because I am trying to add  
symbols for Full Body writing into the symbols on the web (the IMWA).  
Years ago, we wrote Full Body writing only by hand...there were no  
computers at the time. We used Transfer Sheets. We pressed the  
DanceWriting symbols on paper with wax...time consuming but it looked  
nice. So we have never had a way to type or create Full Body  
documents by computer yet...There are some symbols for Full Body  
writing right now, in SignPuddle, but not all...so I will add them as  
you need them...this will be a good stimulus for me to get that work  
done...


> This is an important supplement to the written sources and the
> existing traditional knowledge. The knowledge behind the signatures  
> will in
> this way be more available. It is absolutely necessary to connect  
> analysis
> of the signatures with analyses of artisan’s movability and  
> theories of
> notation.

Is this a part of archeology? What field does this study fall under,  
in your University?...


> An example; Norwegian fishermen have up to 200 different words for
> waves, designating their shape, strength and behavior. Similarly,  
> carpenters
> have a rich vocabulary who describes their methods. Only part of  
> that has
> been transmitted into verbal form. Other parts are less easily  
> verbalized.
> The form, tool marks and timbers of wooden buildings hold what may  
> be termed
> craftsmen’s signatures. To read them it is necessary to understand the
> movements and perceptions of space of that govern the crafts that  
> produced
> them. Dance and music are performing arts that each has writing  
> systems that
> allow descriptions of movements and sounds: choreography or dance  
> notation,
> and musical notes.

I assume that you have seen our writing of DanceWriting under musical  
notes?


> Each of these signs holds meanings that are immediately
> understood by the performer, and by the informed audience.  
> Craftspeople also
> have forms of notation systems. Academics have begun creating notation
> systems to describe craftsmanship in an academic format,  
> designating tool
> marks, using annotated video films as referencing tools, and  
> exploring dance
> notation, film script and the navigation of space. My study aims to
> establish a theory and a method that allows us to record tool marks  
> and
> develop a system of signs that make the knowledge and the language  
> behind
> them available for a broader public. This is essential for the  
> creation of a
> discourse concerning tool marks as another language.

I find this beautiful and amazing. The dance-like language of Tool  
Marks...smile...

Attached is an example of DanceWriting under musical scores...



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