Tuesday 2 December 2025, 4.00-6.00pm (GMT)
This is an online event. Register for the Zoom here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kA7eWqa3Tk2jeeHUuf7y1w#/registration
Hands, Skills, Tools: learning the craft of violin making
Speaker:
Sarah May, cultural anthropologist, University of Freiburg
joined by
Sinah Osner (photographer)
Fabian Stransky (photographic artist)
and Janine Wilhage (violin maker)
Invited Discussant:
Marie Baltazar, anthropologist, Université Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, LISST-CAS
Abstract:
Violin makers strive to create instruments of perfect sound and form. In doing so, they navigate between contradictory objectives: institutional canonized standards and the maker’s own creativity. European violin-making schools occupy a powerful position in this negotiation process, but the institutions’ respective attitudes, practices and objectives differ substantially. We therefore ask, ‘How is violin making taught and learned in European schools at present? And how do the makers respond to technical and cultural changes?’
To answer this question, a violin maker, two photographers and a cultural anthropologist collaborated in carrying out fieldwork at the violin-making schools in Brienz (Switzerland), Cremona (Italy), Mirecourt (France) and Mittenwald (Germany). Following their joint photo-ethnographic explorations, they produced a book https://www.waxmann.com/buch4572. The seminar discussion will be framed by the following questions: ‘Which observations and interpretations were made with regard to learning in the craft of violin making at the various schools? Which challenges, joys and learnings did the research team encounter in their artisanal-artistic-scientific work processes?
Biographical note:
Sarah May is an ethnographer and cultural anthropologist. She has specialized in researching material culture (primarily wood), work and knowledge in political, economic and everyday fields. She is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Freiburg (Germany).
Sinah Osner is a photographer. She studied at Hochschule Darmstadt (Germany) and is especially interested in documentary style work as well as in portraying people, social constellations and natural environments.
Fabian Stransky is a photographic artist. He trained as a photographer and studied Communication Design at Hochschule Darmstadt (Germany). His work and interests focus primarily on the photographic translation of space and relationships into images.
Janine Wildhage is a violin maker who underwent training in both a violin-making school and a workshop. She has been operating her own studio in Berlin for fifteen years and focuses primarily on restoration. Janine also has a diploma in Arts Management and Cultural Work.
_____________________________________________
Artistry@Work is an online Seminar Series in the Anthropology of Artists & Artisans, running 2024–2026
Maison des Sciences de l’Homme–Université Clermont Auvergne, in collaboration with the Royal Anthropological Institute
Organisers: Dr Raphaël Blanchier & Professor Trevor Marchand
This seminar series in anthropology explores the situated practices of ‘artistry at work’ and, more broadly, the working lives and career trajectories of artists and artisans plying their trades in regions around the globe. The scope of the series also encompasses studies of occupations not conventionally categorised as “artistic” but that nevertheless foster creativity among (some) practitioners and even accommodate the development of “artist” identities.
Find all events in the series here: https://therai.org.uk/series/artistrywork/
