The moving body – the aesthetic significance of duodji and experience

Abstract

Duodji is a task where the craftsperson uses the knowledge that s/he has acquired as well as experiences from prior work on and use of duodji. Considering how duodji is understood among the Sami people, these activities will to some extent shape their understanding of aesthetics. In this article I discuss how duddjon activities, experiences, and movements affect our understanding of aesthetics in duodji. In the Sami language, there are terms that convey an understanding of what this means through concepts like vuogas (pleasant), and the expressions cieggat varrii (enter into the veins) and gamus dovdan (instinctive feeling). When we talk about duodji, it is part of people’s everyday life, not a separate activity. Deep memory resides in the body, and we make duodji to improve our possessions and our way of life. As human beings, we move through a multitude of experiences, both in mind and body. This is also true for duodji.

In the article I elaborate how we use our body while creating duodji, and how this experience affects the craftsperson. Firstly, I look at duddjon (the act of creation) in an everyday context, and then I address the aesthetic understanding one can find within duodji, and how this in turn can be understood in a wider indigenous context. I present examples from my own and others’ experiences of duddjon practices. By using a pragmatic and somatic aesthetic approach, I discuss how the creative process and the movements of the body affect both the duddjon and the duojár (the creator of duodji).