Somatic diaries are unique hand-bound bookworks that were designed to collect reflections of my MA thesis research participants in the retreat. The diaries are somatic, based on the nature of the book design practice behind them and the embodied knowledges the designer attended to in their development. They hold traces of the designer's soma in every step of their becoming: ideation, prototyping, printing, cutting, folding, and binding. Moreover, the diaries served as tools for others to connect to tacit knowledge. Through the developped questions, one could reflect on their inner states and creative processes during the retreat.

Japanese binding with perforation allowed to time the experience of using the diaries during the retreat. Each practice had its assigned spread and was opened only after completing the exercise.
To research into the designer's embodied knowledge and soma, I documented different stages of the binding process and wrote reflections along the way.