Episode 74: Eyes and Hands

Cræft, according to historian and author Alexander Langlands, is a Middle English word meaning “a form of knowledge, not just a knowledge of making but a knowledge of being.” The kind of knowledge that comes from a lifetime of making thatched roofs, for example, from cultivating the plants to living underneath one. And this desire for embodied knowledge hasn’t gone away, Michael says, as shown by the popularity of adult coloring books:

 In the industrial world and late capitalist society, people keep coming back to things you can do with your hands, if only because it’s sort of restoring some dim echo of that connection that obviously are hardwired into us at a fundamental level.

Also mentioned this week:

• Michael reviews Cræft by Alexander Langlands
• Architectural Digest, Why Doctors Should Be Thinking Like Designers
• Next City, These Future Doctors Are Learning How to Influence Urban Design
• Joyce Lee, Doctor as Designer
• NYT, Design Thinking for Doctors and Nurses
• David Owen, The New Yorker, The Brilliant Fake News of “LiarTown”
• Sean Tejaratchi, LiarTown
• iRi NYC sneakers
• Paper, Iri: The Breakout Shoe Brand You’ll Either Love or Hate

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