Alison Rees
Turning the Page: a New Dimension to the Language of Clay
Summary
The research establishes a connection between clay and an external archetype: the paper page. It takes an existing material, porcelain paper-clay, and uses it to make simple page-based forms which are aligned to established paper sizes, such as A5 and the A6 postcard. These forms are used in repetition, like pages from a book, to tell a story.
Tim Ingold states that 'making is a correspondence between maker and material’ (Making 2013). The research draws upon the idea of correspondence, of a flow between two things, as a methodology to establish the key elements of the new language (see additional info below). The notion of the paper page, and of working on paper, also sets up a correspondence with storytelling. Correspondence and storytelling are a way of conveying narrative and information; a way of accessing less visible layers.
The key correspondences of the new dimension to the language of clay include: paper and the page; the use of grids, lines, borders and framing; material characteristics such as flatness and thinness, levels, layers and cut-outs; small material variations; an ethos of simplicity, minimality and abstraction; a strong use of colour and spatial organisation; the use of repeats and multiples, series and progressions with re-ordering and re-animation to express storytelling.
When taken together, these key elements form a new haptic and visual language in clay. In examining these key correspondences, the research draws upon disciplines such as poetry, painting, sculpture, economic theory, philosophy, archaeology, anthropology, wayfaring and wayfinding.
The new repeatable clay form, based on the paper-page, stands outside of the traditional clay-based archetypes such as the vessel or container, the figurine or body-based metaphor and the functional or decorative tile. The research establishes a new repeatable archetype beyond its traditional material manipulations and establishes a new dimension to the language of clay.
Additional info
Practice-based investigations: methodology – wayfaring
Wayfaring is the embodied experience of walking/moving along paths in our research landscapes paying attention – where attend means to wait and be open to what may unfold. We can prepare for the activity of walking/research with a backpack of tentative interests and ideas, with a commitment to the craft or art of inquiry rather than to a fixed position, control or prediction.
Anne L Cunliffe, M@n@gement 2018, vol.21(4): 1429-1439
I take Tim Ingold’s theory of wayfaring (Lines, 2007) as the methodology for the practice-based investigations. I am an active traveller within my research landscape, with a set of research strategies and questions in my backpack. I engage with the research terrain using my senses and my understanding of materials. I adjust my orientation and pace according to what I notice and discover. This is travel without a map. I am my own continuous movement, laying down a trail which I document as I go along.
Methods: observation and notation; drawing/diagrams; photography; experimentation with materials and processes; play; 3D making; reflection-in-action; exhibitions and peer feedback.
After documenting the trail, I return to my research desk to analyse my findings.
Analysis of practice-based investigations: methodology – correspondence
Tim Ingold's theory of correspondence is used to analyse the findings from the practice-based investigations. Ingold uses the term correspondence to describe the flow that takes place between a maker and their materials.
By analysing that flow, the key correspondences of the new dimension to the language of clay are identified and are described in the summary above. The correspondences exist in a meshwork meaning that they intersect with one another. It is at the intersection of the correspondences that the new dimension to the language of clay is formed.
Methods: organisational and analytical matrices; mind-mapping; creative writing.
