Object Hunger

It occurred to me during my drive home that an increase in "crafty" activities in my life has happened at roughly the same time my work has been focused more on computers and paper-pushing than anything else. Perhaps this comes from a hunger to do something with my hands, and, moreover, to do something that produces an object that can be handled further.

Paper and computers are okay, but they are not exactly a rich tactile environment (though I derive a certain satisfaction from the deft manipulation of staplers, paper clips, stacks of forms...). Nor are most of the things I encounter there all that rewarding for my other senses, as I think about it. (I hate computerized sound, so my net experience is almost exclusively visual.)

Hence, I think, this fascination with knitting and spinning and museum work, and renewed interest in physical activity. I'm also more obsessed with food than I used to be, though I'm still too lazy of a cook to act much on that impulse (instead I pester D. to tell me what he's cooking).

I think I'm faintly disturbed by this revelation. All this time I've been starving for sensation, and didn't even realize it.

Comments

[Cindy]

I think of this as a need to CREATE. It happens to me, too, but I think it isn't so much the desire to get my hands in something to feel it (though there is something about dirt) as it is needing to feel I have MADE something.

[Rana]

Yes, the creating is a huge part of it. I tend to be pretty goal directed; if I go on a walk I have to have a destination, if I work on a project there has to be something to hold at the end of it.

However, I find that I need to create something that has an actual physical presence; it's somewhat satisfying to, say, finish a review or write a poem on the computer; it's even more satisfying to have a printed copy of it.

[Amanda]

I know exactly what you mean. Several years ago, at a particularly frustrated and unsatisfied point in my graduate studies, I made a list of all the things I wanted to do (or wanted to be able to afford to do) but wasn't managing to do because my days were taken up with reading. As soon as I looked it over, I saw that everything on it had to do with sensation -- I wanted to spend all day cooking and then sit down to a really good meal, to wear soft smooth fabrics, to go to museums and just stand there looking at paintings, to listen to more music -- things like that. It wasn't until I actually made the list that I realized that sensory deprivation was one of the reasons for my discontentment with academia. More recently, I've also realized that I have more of an interest in making things with my hands than I used to; I started knitting, then I started wanting to decoupage everything in my immediate vicinity, and I fantasize about learning bookbinding someday.

I bet "object hunger" increases whenever people are more likely to work at indoor desk jobs. It does seem to be something we learn to ignore, which is a great pity.

[Rana]

Yes. If I could find a way to knit while at work, I would.

The trick of course would be to convince everyone that I was still getting the "real" work done; I have a fairly short attention span these days, so I actually would be -- I'm more productive when I have three projects going in alternating spurts than I am if I try to take each one through to completion before starting another.

(Though, this said, I am going through an act of discipline in trying to finish my father's sweater before starting any other knitting projects. Not that this keeps me from also working on origami, museum-going, tidying, blogging, and a bazillion other little tasks...)

Actually, even my knitting isn't that pure and focused; I have to read/listen to radio/watch tv while doing so or I get bored.

Maybe I'm just flighty. :)

[david foster]

This is an interesting discussion. It seems like primary & secondary school education is increasingly moving away from anything involving "objects" (crafts, modelling, lab science) and toward a purely verbal and symbolic world. If that has a negative impact on adults, it probably has a much greater impact on kids...

[Rana]

Hoo, that's a depressing thought. It's the arts and crafts classes I took as a kid that I remember; I can recall next to nothing about the others. I'm in favor of the concept of public education and the social contract it implies, but trends like this keep pushing me towards viewing home-schooling with an approving eye!

[Rana]

Or Montessori or Waldorf-type education. The Waldorf school explicitly incorporates handwork into the curriculum; knitting, for example, is taught during class and believed to help kids learn math, refine their fine motor skills, and deepen their ability to concentrate. Not only are kids permitted to knit during instruction in other subjects, they are encouraged to do so. (I don't know much about the other aspects of Waldorf education -- I've been too lazy to look them up -- but this aspect does appeal to me!)

[cindy]

From what I've seen David is absolutely right. Instead of cutting up paper and pasting or finger-painting or drawing (or remember gluing macaroni to cardboard?), kids are doing PowerPoint. Our close friends' daughter was working on a PP presentation one night as part of her 3rd grade homework! It was the kind of project we would have done with colored pencils, construction paper, glue, etc. Very sad.

[Michelle]

I can totally relate to this. I think that's what's going on with my painting binge. Cindy, that IS a sad story about doing PP in third grade. For pete's sake, they should be writing stories out and stapling pages together to make books. Then again, I don't have a third grader yet so this may be something I'll deal with later...