(De)composing Craft: An Elementary Grammar for Sharing Expertise in Craft Workflows

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Batra, Ritik, Kim, Lydia, Mandel, Ilan, Kwatra, Amritansh, E, Jane L., Jackson, Steven J., Roumen, Thijs
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866912962616229888
author Batra, Ritik
Kim, Lydia
Mandel, Ilan
Kwatra, Amritansh
E, Jane L.
Jackson, Steven J.
Roumen, Thijs
author_facet Batra, Ritik
Kim, Lydia
Mandel, Ilan
Kwatra, Amritansh
E, Jane L.
Jackson, Steven J.
Roumen, Thijs
contents Craft practices rely on evolving archives of skill and knowledge developed through generations of craftspeople experimenting with designs, materials, and techniques. Better documentation of these practices enables the sharing of knowledge and expertise between sites and generations. However, most documentation focuses on the linear steps leading to final artifacts, neglecting the distinct tacit knowledge, improvisational actions, and situated adaptations needed to meet the unique demands of each craft project. This omission limits knowledge sharing and reduces craft to a mechanical endeavor, rather than a sophisticated and contextual way of seeing, thinking, and doing. Drawing on expert interviews and literature from HCI, CSCW and the social sciences, we develop an elementary grammar to document improvisational actions of real-world craft practices. We demonstrate the utility of this grammar with a MLLM-powered interface called CraftLink that can be used to analyze expert videos and generate documentation to share material and contextual variations of practices with other knowledgeable but non-master craftspeople. Our user study with expert crocheters (N=7) evaluates our grammar's effectiveness in capturing and sharing expert knowledge with other craftspeople, offering new pathways for computational systems to support collaborative archives of knowledge and practice across time, space, and skill levels. We conclude by showing how our grammar address four key tensions of the craft learning environment: personal and shareable documentation, fragmented and discoverable expertise, linear and iterative practices, and data privacy and ownership.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_10891
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle (De)composing Craft: An Elementary Grammar for Sharing Expertise in Craft Workflows
Batra, Ritik
Kim, Lydia
Mandel, Ilan
Kwatra, Amritansh
E, Jane L.
Jackson, Steven J.
Roumen, Thijs
Human-Computer Interaction
Craft practices rely on evolving archives of skill and knowledge developed through generations of craftspeople experimenting with designs, materials, and techniques. Better documentation of these practices enables the sharing of knowledge and expertise between sites and generations. However, most documentation focuses on the linear steps leading to final artifacts, neglecting the distinct tacit knowledge, improvisational actions, and situated adaptations needed to meet the unique demands of each craft project. This omission limits knowledge sharing and reduces craft to a mechanical endeavor, rather than a sophisticated and contextual way of seeing, thinking, and doing. Drawing on expert interviews and literature from HCI, CSCW and the social sciences, we develop an elementary grammar to document improvisational actions of real-world craft practices. We demonstrate the utility of this grammar with a MLLM-powered interface called CraftLink that can be used to analyze expert videos and generate documentation to share material and contextual variations of practices with other knowledgeable but non-master craftspeople. Our user study with expert crocheters (N=7) evaluates our grammar's effectiveness in capturing and sharing expert knowledge with other craftspeople, offering new pathways for computational systems to support collaborative archives of knowledge and practice across time, space, and skill levels. We conclude by showing how our grammar address four key tensions of the craft learning environment: personal and shareable documentation, fragmented and discoverable expertise, linear and iterative practices, and data privacy and ownership.
title (De)composing Craft: An Elementary Grammar for Sharing Expertise in Craft Workflows
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.10891