Sprawczość w fabryce porcelany
Self-agency in a porcelan factory

Summary/Abstract: Ethnography of a porcelain factory is one of the main components of a research project called “People from the porcelain factory”. The project is carried out in the porcelain factory in Ćmielów, Poland, owned by PolskieFabrykiPorcelany “Ćmielów” i “Chodzież” S.A. The project consists of anthropological research (design anthropology and workplace anthropology) and an artistic intervention in the field. The intervention entails manufacturing Human Trace tableware set and exhibiting it both in the factory and outside, to the audience interested in design. The fieldwork in the factory allowed the author to interact with various actors of manufacturing process – both in a more observational mode of ethnography and a more participatory one during the tableware production. Witnessing the process of material transformation of raw material into a porcelain vessel was also fascinating. The article points at the role of different modes of knowing and various skills necessary for porcelain ware production and focuses on evaluation of different ways of knowing, skills and cognition.

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