Week Eleven

Week Eleven

This week I read an article called "Technopotters and Webs of Clay: Digital Possibilities for Teaching Ceramics", by Courtney Lee Weida.  In this article Weida explores new methods of teaching and learning ceramics. "The digital possibilities for ceramics included here primarily address documenting ceramic education processes, building and engaging communities and extending studio activities into the web space." (Weida, 2007, p. 1, para. 3)  She mentions that teachers are able to use the internet to plan lessons for students. The Paul Getty Museum has actual lesson plans available for teachers.  As I have discovered myself, the opportunities for students to learn online are many.  I have used Youtube extensively as a resource.  It has a great many demonstrations detailing many aspects of ceramics.

Weida states that forums are a good source of information.  "My informal internet polls yielded many references to glaze software, personal artist's galleries, and blogs, as well as philosophical debates on art, craft and technology." (Weida. 2007, p. 1, para. 10) In my own circles, I belong to an online Facebook page called Help for Australian Potters, and it is a helpful and very responsive community for any problems associated in producing ceramics.  In this day of reduced institutional ceramics education, it is very important to nurture online communities.  Weida mentions the site Clay Art Archives as a good resource for searchable information (http://archives.clayartarchives.com/), but I personally find Ceramic Arts Daily to be a wonderful resource too. (http://ceramicartsdaily.org/)

In her article Weida refers to artist Dr Katie Bunnell.  She is a U.K. ceramic designer who completed her PHD Project in 1998:Re: Presenting Making, The Integration of New Technologies into Ceramic Designer-Maker Practice. This project would have been insightful and ground-breaking for its day.  I wondered what Dr Bunnell was doing now, ten years later, when the digital world is much more integral with our lives.  It appears she has remained involved and fascinated with the interface between traditional and digital art, having written several papers on the subject.  She has also addressed international conferences including the Annual Ceramics Conference in Dublin in 2014, as the invited speaker.  In 2013 her conference presentation was titled The Creative Use of Digital Technologies in Designer-Maker Practice, for UK Crafts Council Hothouse Maker-Development Event, University of Plymouth.  In 2012 she was awarded a two year research grant from SuperSTEAM, to develop a computer controlled ceramic slip trailing machine.

Another artist who works with ceramic 3D printing is Jonathan Keep.  He is a U.K. based potter who produces ceramic ware in the traditional sense but also uses a 3D printing machine, trailing slip, to produce works.  "My work on computer originally stimulated by the INSITE project has become an important conceptual and design tool... Having for many years used computer software as a tool to explore form, I am now developing techniques to print pots directly from computer code."Keep (n.d.)

                             Keep, J. (2016, December 15). Ant Hills [Image].  Retrieved from

                             http://www.keep-art.co.uk/journal_1.html

Jonathan Keep contributed to the First Central China International Ceramic Biennale, from December, 2016, to March 2017.  He submitted three series including the computer generated Ant Hills.  "Like in an ant colony an underlying organisation has evolved that holds the community together and results in the building of anthills with no conscious grand plan.  My forms are coded with this same element of chance and cooperation in both the form and surface colouring." Keep (2016)

I do find these concepts of interest and have seen 3D printers at work.  However, for me, the joy of creating in ceramics is with my own hands.    Of course, I do use computers for the gathering of information, inspiration, dissemination and documentation.  Computers do play a significant role in my practice, but I have not as yet looked on them as a conceptual tool.

Weida, C. L. (2007). Technopotters and Webs of Clay: Digital Possibilities for Teaching Ceramics. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15411790701409606?src=recsys&

The Paul Getty Museum. (n.d.).  Retrieve from http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/vessel_history/vessel_history_lesson01.html

Keep, J. (n.d.) Jonathan Keep Resume.  Retrieved from http://www.keep-art.co.uk/resume_intro.htm

Keep, J. (2016, December 15).  Cont{r}act Earth - Henan Museum, Jhengzhou City, China [Blog Post].  Retrieved from http://www.keep-art.co.uk/journal_1.html