Interlocking processes

Inspirational Processes

A visual dictionary of interlocking processes

CIVIC CERAMICS (Mayo, N. (2017) The Ceramics Reader) The correlation between ceramics and society provides perhaps one of the field’s most integral and authentic debates. In fact, once an investigation of ceramics’ connection to a community is undertaken, any previous sense of their separation can become extremely difficult to maintain; from hair dressers’ straighteners to spark plug insulators, from catalysts to sensors, ceramics can be found almost everywhere you look and sometimes where you can’t. This connectivity persists in all manifestations of studio ceramics to a greater or lesser degree, offering potential dialogue to expand or deepen any imposition we might make upon its form.

respected practices engaging with dialogue that reconnects ceramics with the community that shaped it.

It is not surprising therefore, that many high profile, international ‘gallery’ artist's such as Claire Twomey, Stephen Dixon and David Cushway are developing

This intervening space is also inhabited by Stockwell in ‘Bad Teeth’ exploring replicated processes in conservation and dentistry. Stockwell creates video of

Let us examine dynamic examples provided by Keith Harrison and AJ Stockwell, both of whom engage with dialogue created by the overlap between studio and society. In ‘Michael Hamilton’, Harrison courts the absurdity that can be found in the life/art juxtaposition, appropriating domestic electrical systems and portable appliances to conduct live firings of Egyptian paste in a living room!

porcelain paste being used to conserve a porcelain cup and runs it concurrently with the dialogue of a patient undergoing a procedure in a dentist chair.

The significance of these examples for contemporary ceramics debate is two fold: 1) the artists necessarily establish a thorough appreciation of the nature of both contexts in order to succeed in their assimilation of them, 2) the perimeters of ceramics vocabulary was necessarily stretched through its engagement with another field. For example, Stockwell’s recognition of the connectivity between use of porcelain paste in conservation and dentistry enabled a far wider exploration, as well as consolidation of her ‘expertise’ in ceramics process. The same is true of Harrison’s exploration of the sensory experience of firing when set in relation to the domestic sphere.

These artists are a new breed of ceramicists, with a plurality of skill base that extends far beyond their own studio in order to facilitate movement between personal and wider social concerns. Such artists are in fact offering living examples of a generative approach to ceramics practice, with projects necessarily responding to context and need as well as retaining concern with contemporary ceramics debate. The benefits for the ceramicist are multifold, extending their engagement with their social and physical environment and mapping previously unchartered areas of knowledge.

Recommended Reading:

Jorunn Veiteberg Objects in Transition: The Ceramic A rt of Kjell Rylander Ceramics: Art and Perception No. 61 2 005.

Andrew Jackson, 'Against the Autonomy of the Craft O bject', in O bscure Objects of Desire: Reviewing the Crafts in the Twentieth Century, ed.

Tanya Harrod, London, Crafts Council, 1997, pp.284–291, p.285.

Inspirational Processes

This mini-­‐project acts as a provocation to prompt identification of processes and techniques core to ceramics and consideration of their transferability to the community that surrounds them. The following pages offer example of these often humorous equivalents.

With each hand building exercise – usually taught by Natasha Mayo and Matthew Thompson – there will be reference to examples of ‘interlocking processes’ to inspire idea generation or simply to encourage open experimentation.

The task is for YOU to find equivalents between the core processes you are taught and connections to the community that surrounds us.

There is a blog set up in Moodle where you can upload your contributions.

Use the following criteria after TITLE YOUR POST: Civic Ceramics CERAMIC PROCESS -­‐ describe the core process you are exploring EQUIVALENT – describe the connection you have found to other processes found in the community (take the term ‘community’ a broadly as needed!

EVIDENCE – provide photo/video/publication

Feldspathic Veneers are created by Ceramicists using a wet brush and jar of porcelain powder to paint layers onto a model, bake it in a porcelain oven and since each application of porcelain is very thin and shrinks when heated, the process is repeated many times to obtain the proper contour.

Pressed Ceramic Veneers are fabricated by waxing a tooth to the desired contour, investing it, and melting out the wax. They are then injected with a lucite-­‐based molten porcelain and given constant hydraulic pressure to press in additional material as the porcelain cools and shrinks Dentistry: we are not scraping away decay we are probing for soft spots. A soft spot on a substance that is supposed to be the hardest thing in your body is likely a sign of a cavity.

Cavities can lead to loss of teeth and infection if not caught early enough, and some complications can be life threatening.

Incising Clay: The way clay cuts depends on both the state of the material and the cutting tool. As a general rule when using knives and scalpels, the stiffer the clay, the more easily controlled the cut, and the softer the clay, the more resistance there will be to the cutting tool. Clay tends to cause the knife blade to drag by sticking to its surface.

Cake mixing serves to physically break apart proteins into smaller pieces and expose the moisture-­‐loving portions, so the two blend together more effectively. The more air bubbles in the mix the lighter the resultant mix.

Cake decoration can involve pouring melted chocolate onto a marble slab (or other cool, smooth even surface) and using a metal spatula to spread the chocolate to 2-­‐3mm thickness It can be left until set but not completely hard and scraped off creating a fine layer to decorate with.

The slow movement and the slow food movement in particular seeks to preserve our physical environment by supporting and promoting sustainable systems of agriculture such as organic and biodynamic, and the use of traditional seeds and agricultural practices.

Tinplate was used in the manufacture of toys beginning in the mid-­‐19th century.

The toys were made from thin sheets of steel plated with tin, hence the name tinplate. They were a cheap and durable substitute for wooden toys. The toys were originally assembled and painted by hand.

The figure is primarily a three-­‐dimensional object that has volume and occupies space. It’s important to think of the human figure in terms of fundamental forms, since it’s these forms that create the major masses that affect both the inside gesture and the outside shape of things. The smaller pieces are important but should be subordinated to the larger ones. When you break the fundamental units into increasingly smaller ones, those units also become essential forms from which you can develop and refine more specific forms.

Forces and Counter Forces: how to make a hollow building that can support its own weight and that of its contents and occupants; this comes down to understanding where the forces are in a building and how they are transmitted from one part to another—or, in other words, how gravity is channeled through the various parts of the structure.

For the Pill Box bricks essentially formed a mould into which concrete was poured, the bricks being left in place. Otherwise, the pillbox was formed using shuttering of wood (usually planks, but sometimes plywood) and/or corrugated iron. Wood shuttering was removed, whereas corrugated iron was sometimes left in place. Construction often took advantage of whatever materials were available locally for example, at the coast, beach sand and pebbles would be used and this expedient use of local materials had the added advantage of aiding camouflage. Several instances are known where scrap metal had been used such as parts of an old bed or park railings.

Sledging Plaster: A Great Plaster Mold Making Technique Sledging, or profiling, is a modeling technique with huge potential. Sledging describes the act of dragging a profile through wet plaster and is, essentially, extruding with plaster.

Lost-­‐wax casting is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture is cast from an original .... The lost-­‐wax process can be used with any material that can burn, melt, or evaporate to leave a mould cavity

Styles of ikebana changed in the late 15th century and transformed into an art form with fixed instructions. Books were written about it, "Sedensho" being the oldest one, covering the years 1443 to 1536. ikebana became a major part of traditional festivals, and exhibitions were occasionally held.

noun, plural haiku 2.1.a major form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and employing highly evocative allusions and comparisons, often on the subject of nature or one of the seasons.

In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increases or decreases in their activity. Since memories are postulated to be represented by vastly interconnected networks of synapses in the brain, synaptic plasticity is one of the important neurochemical foundations of learning and memory.

Knowledge is not a fixed thing 'out there' waiting to be grasped, but is an emergent property of our interactions within the world. This physically, spatially and temporally-­‐based encounter is also a journey of cognitive understanding.

The possibilities for the kinds of knowledge that can emerge during this journey can be expanded by changing how we move Butoh loosely translated means earth dance. Hijikata believed that by distorting the body, and by moving slowly on bent legs he could get away from the traditional idea of the beautiful body, and return to a more organic natural beauty. Socially acceptable movements and gestures could be stripped away and hidden movements that lie buried beneath years of conditioned behavior found and embraced. ‘We bent the legs to view the world from a lower level, as might be considered by plants, animals and children’.

Psychologist Francis Rauscher, whose research on music and the brain inadvertently prompted the whole “play classical music to your unborn child” craze, still asserts that the right connection between music and the brain can improve certain cognitive skills (like spatial intelligence) for a short time period (about 10 minutes).