Beyond Imitation: Dialogue in Skills Learning of Artists in France and Japan

Abstract

One of the most challenging questions in philosophical and anthropological inquiries on skill learning is how skills can be shared and acquired among people, especially when they cannot be easily verbalized or written. This paper examines the process of skill learning among Western and Eastern artists of puppetry. They learn the skill generally by observation and imitation, typical of “informal” education. However, most of the highly developed contemporary arts have their own educational formats in which skills are shared and learnt systematically, albeit flexibly, through interactions between instructors and learners, comprising not only verbal instruction but also gestures and facial expressions. These interactions are considered a dialogue, which underpins and complements the learning by imitation. Going beyond the traditional pedagogical view, in which knowledge is assumed to be ready-made and translatable into words, this paper sheds light on how the instructor and the learner interact and influence each other and how the skill itself emerges afresh in the dialogue. The challenge also lies in rethinking education in the global age from the local and microscopic learning involved in dealing with the individual concrete body.