MPT Literacy

MPT LITERACY

To describe the processing and possessing of embodied and material knowledge forms we propose the term: Material-Process-Tool Literacy (MPT Literacy). MPT literacy concerns aspects of objects that are illegible to either verbal/textual literacy or aesthetic/visual literacy.  An example of MPT literacy is the X-Ray vision Makers develop of the materials they work with: a sawmill operator can ‘see’ the boards contained in a trunk; a butcher can ‘see’ a cut of meat in a fleshy body. Material literacy is gained, received, and shared through making. Makers are MPT literate.

By considering MPT Literacy, we can broaden the landscape of experience and reveal new ways of relating to and understanding Makers and materials. Discussions of such literacy direct attention to the interactions amongst Maker, tool, and material, challenging traditional hylomorphic models. MPT Literacy unravels extended chains of agents, drawing attention to the variety of participants in processes, shifting focus away from human orchestration towards human/non-human collaborations. MPT Literacy also directs attention to material flows. For example, an MPT literate response to a sculpture might consider the ecological environment that imparted a piece of wood with a specific internal structure and how that structure determined cutting angles and influenced the resulting form.

MPT Literacy in the Academic sphere

MPT Literacy is a form of critical thinking that can provide new perspectives for academics and students. While amateurs will not be MPT literate, amateur making fosters MPT literacy. Fostering MPT Literacy helps reveal both Makers’ sequences of decisions that are active and reactive to the materials and tools they use as well as the knowledge directing those decisions. Developing MPT Literacy often draws attention to objects and processes which may be predominant sites of work during making but absent in the made object. By revealing hidden labor or ignored labor, such as maintenance work, MPT Literacy reveals the full extent of Makers’ interventions and material negotiations. By developing this set of tools to support sustained, decelerated analysis, MPT Literacy encourages academics and students to think across the boundaries of style and medium through process.