Jerwood Visual Arts

Geoffrey Mann (2009) and Drummond Masterton (2008) are two contemporary makers who exemplify the idea of post-disciplinary practice and over the past two years have been winners of the Jerwood Visual Arts awards.

Both Drummond and Geoffrey were commissioned in 2007 to work with Dr Louise Valentine as part of her Mindful Inquiry research. The results of which will be disseminated in Spring / Summer 2010.

The Jerwood Visual Arts website is home to The Jerwood "In Conversation" series 2008 - one-hour public conversations between two artist /makers /designers/ choreographers /architects as a means of increasing awareness of the shared practice of materials concerns, conceptual rigor and application processes undertaken by artist, makers and designers.

The "in conversation" series explored the connections between practice and the shared values held by the practitioners in these conversations. For example,

Monday 16th June - 6pm till 7.15pm - Cornelia Parker and Ron Arad

Listen now

material ecology

Neri Oxman is an architect and researcher whose work attempts to establish news forms of experimental design and novel processes of material practice at the interface of design, computer science, material engineering and ecology. (taken from her website - www.materialecology.com).

She is currently based at MIT where she is a Presidential Fellow working towards her PhD. Named as one of the 100 most creative people in business by 'Fast Company' (June 2009) she argues that "on the fringes [...] is where disruptive innovation begins".

Handcrafting Computational Media

The work of Maggie Orth and her Electronic Textiles or textile computing devices are worth getting to know a bit better...an MIT PhD graduate, Maggie's work is concerned with active and programmable materials in textile design.

The enjoyment and quality of her craft for me, lies not simply in the experimental manner that she approaches interactive technology, smart materials and the weaver’s loom but the way she considers people and their emotional and sensorial engagement in the experience of electronic textiles. Her work retains a respect for the tradition of textiles while demonstrating responsibility for the future of the discipline, nurturing a dialogue with other knowledge domains while critically prodding alternative technological methods and material cultures.

To listen to Maggie talk about the her PhD work in terms of concept, material and technology visit utube.

Making A Slow Revolution - Helen Carnac

This blog aims to provide a forum for open discussion around the contribution of contemporary craft to the philosophies presented within the slow movement. [Carnac & Craftspace] feel that these philosophies reflect many of the current concerns and interests that makers are exploring within their practices and the evolving identity of craft. It is an opportunity to connect some of the emergent discussions within craft and its recent movements to the slow debate.

The blog form[s] the thread which runs through a research project exploring ideas of slowness within craft. [Their] aim is that this project can be a reflexive process that informs our curation of a major national touring exhibition for Craftspace and which will launch at the end of 2009. A blog provides the opportunity to encourage open discussion, a value that is characteristic of the slow movement. Your contributions enable you to inform the research and exhibition and ensure that the ideas we present resonate within the experiences and interest of those working within the craft arena.

Everyday Creativity: creativity and cognition conference 09

CONFERENCE THEMES

Authors should submit papers related to the main conference theme 'Everyday Creativity' and the suggested topics given below. The conference organizers hope that these threads will both inspire and shape submitter's presentations:

* Collective creativity and creative communities

* Shared languages and participatory creativity

* Incubating creativity and supporting Innovation

* DIY and folk creativity

* Democratising creativity

* New materials for creativity

* Enriching the collaborative experience

The creative experience broadly includes sensations, embodiment, emotions, perceptions, and behaviours. This is especially true in interacting with representations, materials and technologies that support and underpin individual and collaborative creativity. We welcome papers that consider both the nature of the materials and the experiential vision of creativity support tools as a medium for emotions, sociability and pleasure, as well as ethnographic field work, and first-hand accounts or investigations.

PRIZES

Two prizes are awarded for papers. One to the greatest technical/ scientific contribution and one to the most creative contribution. Prizes are generously provided by the Creativity and Cognition Studios.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

April 24, 2009

Please note that the submission site will close on April 24 and we will not accept any submissions after that date.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Papers must be submitted via the electronic submission system.
Papers must be anonymous and should be a maximum of 10 pages in ACM SIGCHI two-column conference format.

Hella Jongerius :: a continuing inspiration

Designer Hella Jongerius (1963) has become known for the special way she fuses industry and craft, high and low tech, tradition and the contemporary.

After graduating Eindhoven Design Academy in 1993 she started her own design company, Jongeriuslab, through which she produces her own projects and projects for clients such as Maharam (New York), Royal Tichelaar Makkum (The Netherlands), Vitra (Basel) and IKEA (Sweden).

Her work has been shown at museums and galleries such as the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum (New York), MoMA (New York), the Design Museum (London), Galerie KREO (Paris) and Moss gallery (New York).

NEW MSc Craft & Creative Business Degree Launched!

A new postgraduate degree at the University of Dundee - MSc Craft and Creative Business - will take its first students in September 2009.

This exciting new course is the only generic, multidisciplinary postgraduate crafts programme in the UK dedicated to developing and integrating contemporary craft practice and crafts business. It answers the sector’s need for craftspeople to hold specific business knowledge that enables them to become internationally established. This course addresses entrepreneurialism and business strategy for crafts practitioners.

It is a one-year full time programme taught by leading experts at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. Duncan of Jordanstone is one of the few art & design Colleges in the UK that is part of a world-class university “where researchers routinely push back the boundaries of knowledge and teachers inspire their charges”. (Sunday Times, 2008)

For more information, visit the course webpage.

V&A and Duncan of Jordanstone College student success

3rd Year textile design student, Kirsty Fenton has won the 'Hidden Histories, Untold Stories' quilt project organised by the major AHRC funded 'Past, Present and Future Craft Practice' research project and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The prize is an exciting and rare opportunity to make her quilt for inclusion within the V&A 2010 exhibition, in the thematic display 'Making a Living' where she will be exhibiting alongside international artists such as Grayson Perry, Viktor & Rolf and Tracey Emin. As lead judge and curator of the V&A 2010 exhibition, Sue Prichard said, 'Kirsty's work combines an uncomfortable truth regarding child labour but does so in a way which is thoughtful, evocative and also beautifully constructed and made'.

Principle design lecturer for the textile project, Josie Steed offered her congratulations to all the students taking part in the competition who responded to the brief with enthusiasm and intelligence.

'Quilts'
20 March - 4 July, 2010
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

For further information please visit: http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs/Quilts/index.html

Little Stories

Interactive Jeweller, Sarah Kettley has been attached to the AHRC 'Past, Present and Future Craft Practice' project since January 2009 through the pilot Scottish Arts Council Crafts Development Bursary scheme. On Wednesday 1st April at Duncan of Jordanstone College in Dundee, she will reflect on her time in the Masters of Design studio with reference to the original aims of the residency, outlining the ‘Little Stories’, or strands of research, that she has been pursuing. Funding was awarded to support “a practice led investigation of craft through engagement with the emerging needs of critical and functional interaction design”, and the subsequent demonstration of craft as a discipline to other fields of creative practice.


The Little Stories that have emerged include Early Moves, the design of attachments for body worn sensor networks for pre school children in a project investigating rich motor control development, and Migration, starting points for a lo-tech formal design method for working with state change materials. In addition, the residency has provided a valuable space for reflection on the development of a new area of practice, and Sarah will take the opportunity here to pull out some of the commonalities in her work in fashion and textiles, jewellery and interaction design, to create new directions for research and creative outputs, and to create a positive narrative of an interdisciplinary and experimental practice.