The Making and Knowing Project is a research and pedagogical initiative in the Center for Science and Society at Columbia University run by Professor Pamela Smith that explores the intersections between artistic making and scientific knowing. Today these realms are regarded as separate, yet in the earliest phases of the Scientific Revolution, nature was investigated primarily by skilled artisans b
y means of continuous and methodical experimentation in the making of objects – the time when “making” was “knowing.”
Drawing on techniques from both laboratory and archival research, the Making and Knowing Project crosses the science/humanities divide and explores the relationships between today’s labs and the craft workshops of the past, and between early modern conceptions of natural knowledge and our own understanding of science, art, and historical scholarship. From 2014 through 2019, the Project’s focus is the creation of a digital critical edition of an intriguing anonymous sixteenth-century French artisanal and technical manuscript, BnF Ms. Through the Project’s transcription, English translation, and encoding of the text, the edition will present the text of Fr. 640 in a searchable digital format in both French and English translation for the first time. The critical apparatus (including multimedia annotations, essay-length analyses of techniques and materials, a glossary of technical terms, and a list of resources for further exploration) will situate the manuscript’s contents within the material and historical context in which they were produced. The Project hopes to engage readers, whether researchers, students, or the broader public, in a new approach to exploring historical texts, one which emphasizes the importance of the material conditions, interpretations, and outcomes that emerge when the written word is realized through investigations into matter. The manuscript codifies procedures that were not meant to be reproduced solely through the act of reading but were rather an invitation to imitate and experiment. The edition will in turn, through its innovative critical commentary and accompanying videos and visual resources, invite its audience not only to read and analyze the text but also to explore and investigate the materials and processes detailed within it.
