Abstract
Multiple dimensions of time are omnipresent in wood and in crafts. Crafts are intertwined with historical time, time of learning and experience, with rhythm and marks of the craftsperson’s action, with time and meaning of work, with time perceived and the perception of the material. Biological and geophysical time is inscribed in the wood of the tree. Physical time governs the mechanical behaviour of wood material. A transdisciplinary project called Time4WoodCraft – for “it is time” to rethink our relationship to time and to the living – aims at creating a dialogue between four viewpoints in the human and social sciences, physics and material sciences, life and environment sciences, and craftspeople. To address this wide topic, we organised the research in three interrelated, realistic levels. A broad exploration is based on sharing knowledge from different scientific and woodworking fields, and on collecting information from written sources. Case studies connecting craftsmanship and laboratory analyses are examined in three main directions: perception and measure of temporal markers of wood; changes through time in the selected wood for specific uses; different meaningsof wood ageing. Interviews target the importance of time in craft work. The data gathered will be used for mapping connections between physical, biological, and cultural dimensions of time in woodcrafts and in crafts’ woods.