So Goes A Whittle

Abstract

The work So Goes a Whittle explores documenting an unfolding process. The activity of whittling is an age-old, very direct process that engages the material (wood), the mind, the hand, and one simple tool that acts as an extension of the hand (the knife), which does only one activity (to cut). What occurs in whittling is the dynamic unfolding of the object as the mind, hand, wood, and tool engage in a constant feedback loop where there is no absolute commitment to the design until the final act of putting down the knife and calling it done. Advanced technology that would displace the role of the hand would, in this case, subvert both the process and the outcome.

Following the activity of whittling, there is no trace of the subconscious responses or deliberate choices that have occurred other than the final result. The peeling and paring away of chips parallels the rising and falling of thoughts and associations of form that are not necessarily depicted by the end object.

Where, then, lies the work? Is it embedded in the process or in the object? As a maker, I strongly identify with process and can understand the object as both artifact and destination. In order to not only present the object (the whittle) but also to simultaneously depict and re-present the experience of process as an unfolding event, both standard and advanced modern technologies were utilised.

Digital technologies of computer drawing and laser cutting were used to depict distinct moments of process, where the continuously changing object being formed became representational for an instant before becoming amorphous again. An analogy would be that of naming and documenting cloud shapes as they coalesce into recognizable forms for a moment before drifting back into non-objective shapes. I employed laser-cutter technology to create numbered plates with clear text and illustrations in an old-fashioned children's schoolbook style to capture the ephemeral imagery that arose through process. Utilising standard woodworking machinery, I was able to fabricate a series of frames for the plates that stack and unstack to reveal the stages of process over time. The physical participation of the viewer as they use their own hands to unstack and re-stack a column of trays sets the making of the object against time. Finally, the whittled object itself is revealed at the end of the documentation of process, sitting in the bottom tray as evidence of the making.

The work was shown in this public exhibit for one week.