Project Holocene

The Clayful Phenomenology of Jōmon Flame Pots

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6043902
AutoresPaul Louis March (0000-0002-1521-6002, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume31
Fascículo1
Páginas1-19
Data de publicação2021-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCambridge Archaeological Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0959-7743 • E-ISSN: 1474-0540
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0959774320000189
OpenAlexW3027101710
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas50

As a ceramic artist, I was surprised to find that archaeological research gives little attention to the extraordinary sensorial qualities of Jōmon flame pots. To understand why, I consider the challenges of including sensory experience in archaeological method and the problems of leaving it out. Turning to the typological approach to Jōmon pottery, I highlight the assumptions it makes about cognition before introducing Material Engagement Theory (MET) as an alternative. A MET-oriented reanalysis of the typological evidence places sensation at the centre of enquiry and removes the need to interpret symbolic, representational content. Through MET, I consider the sensorial qualities of flame pots, not as prehistory but as they appeared recently and unexpectantly during the process of modelling clay into sculptures for a contemporary art project. Flame pots joined conceptually with the explorative activity of clay. A prehistoric/contemporary artefact/modelling system was created and developed itself into a method of monitoring intra-systemic experience—clayful phenomenology. The findings cover five themes: enacted agency, iconicity from indexicality, bending rules/undermining habits, the choreography of material engagement and the phenomenology of space

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Epistemology · Iconicity · Indexicality · Linguistics · Pottery · Prehistory · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · The Symbolic · Visual arts · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Anthropology · Embodied and Extended Cognition · History · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Philosophy · Psychology