Tim Ingold’s wide-ranging studies encourage us to re-appreciate alternative knowledge or, put differently, things our bodies know but we do not always act upon, such as acquired skills, sudden reflexes and marked intuition. With a focus on alternative ways to find knowledge, Ingold offers imaginative workshop tutorials that include weaving baskets and flying kites with students. Tim Ingold’s writings cover themes as far apart as humans and animals, sensing, education, skill, perception, making, materials and becoming. His most recent book, The Life of Lines, is a wonderful example of his achievements and a poetic narrative that interlaces bodies, minds, landscapes, topographies and perceptions through a correspondence of lines.

Watch the lecture of Tim Ingold on Wednesday May 11 here.

Training the Senses

We tend to think of knowledge as school-taught, language-based and to a large extent visually acquired - through reading, viewing and insight. Yet we also know that our bodies are reservoirs of other forms of knowledge acquired through a collaboration of multiple senses: hearing, taste, smell and touch. We use our hands and noses to select fruit at the market. We smell to find a suitable mate, listen to sense danger and intuit to gauge the insecurity of others. The senses also provide information we are not always aware of. We know that a cook uses his sense of smell and taste to determine the freshness and combination of ingredients. Much less obvious is that a physician needs to train her hands to feel her way to a diagnosis or that a ceramics expert needs to hone his hearing to authenticate a porcelain bowl. This Training the Senses series consist of presentations, workshops and even warm-ups focused on providing insight into these knowledge fields. They explore the ways we recognize and use our senses and, through training, also make sense of the world around us.

Thanks to:
Maastricht University
Ike Kamphof
Joeri Bruyninckx
Anna Harris
Rob van Duyn
Arie van der Lugt
Emilie Sitzia
Annelies Jacobs