open book

MONIKA AUCH’S STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BRAIN, MANUAL DEXTERITY AND CRAFT HAS RESULTED IN A BOOK AND TOURING EXHIBITION

MY BOOK, StitchYour Brain, describes a project which invites participants to create needlework using the brain as the subject for inspiration.The brain is our centre of creativity – or is it? What role do our hands play in the creative process? Swiping, scrolling and tapping on screens have taken over many manual actions.This deprives us of dexterity, sensory experience and the joy of creating.What is the influence of this impoverishment on the crafts, on our sensitivity to materials, on our well-being and even health? How do we define creativity? Does age affect our creative output? Did our experience of creativity change during isolation in the Covid years?To answer these and subsequent questions, I started Stitch Your Brain as a research project.‘It is such a sexy title,’ one Danish participant said.

I’m a textile artist based in the Netherlands. Previously, I worked as a medical doctor in women’s health. I had always been thankful for the sensitivity and dexterity of my hands. While at medical school I studied weaving and got hooked on constructing and exploring form and material. Later on in life, I studied textile design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and switched careers.The StitchYour Brain project and my book map the uncharted area of the handbrain connection with creativity. I argue for the importance of an education in crafts and strive against material illiteracy and the loss of crafting skills.