Towards an 'ethno-bio-physical' vision of wood: Illustrations from wood uses by instrument makers

International audienceWood, a material which has accompanied mankind all along its history, and that nowadays finds its place into current environmental challenges, still raises numerous questions regarding its complex physical behaviour and its biodiversity. While the scientific study of wood is still a fairly young (≤200years?) domain, the craftsmen who use wood have developed important empirical or hand-knowledge, due to the expertise that has been transmitted throughout the history of techniques, and/or acquired by individuals through practice and senses. The objective that we strive to pursue and promote, is to propose an integrated vision of the different conceptions of wood that are carried by wood scientists and by expert wood users/craftsmen. This led us to launch the concept of this WoodSciCraft Symposium in 2014 in Montpellier, France. In this talk to 2nd WoodSciCraft Symposium in Kyoto, I will present a possible methodology to bridge the craftsmanship uses and knowledge of wood, together with wood physics, with some approaches from humanities and social science, and with exploration of wood biodiversity and variability. The proposed methodology is organised in 5 steps that form a "loop" starting from, and ending towards, craftsmanship utilisation and perception of wood, through steps of wood physical and natural sciences: (1) Surveys with artisans to collect wood knowledge and encountered issues; (2) Identification of underlying physical-mechanical phenomena; (3) Exploration of the diversity and variability of wood species and properties; (4) Physical-mechanical consequences of processes and treatments used in craftsmanship; (5) Analysis of the sensory perception of wood variability and properties by its expert users. The different steps of this methodological approach will be illustrated by several works that we recently conducted on wood uses by musical instrument makers, with a focus on luthiers of string instruments, and occasionally of other organological families