Art and Design past events 2019/20
Our Arts and Creative Industries Research Seminars afford researchers with a discursive platform to present work in progress, test out ideas and seek peer input.
Undercurrents of Ethical Marketing in the United States in the Nineteenth Century: The case of the Ceramic Trade
Wednesday 24 June 2020
Dr Neil Ewins
Senior Lecturer in Design History
The intention of this presentation is to identify early examples of ethical marketing, which has often been perceived as rather sporadic, or simply, a more recent phenomenon. At this stage, this paper deals with a range of speculative ideas, to be further developed for conference papers and publication. Having won the Best Paper Award at the Conference of Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing (Ottawa, May 2019), Neil Ewins' confidence has grown and he continues to explore the issue of culture and identity. It appears that the backgrounds of early 19th-century ceramic importers and dealers impacted on their marketing strategy. This research paper develops this theme by exploring the impact of religion on the activities of sellers. It is argued that ethical and moralistic marketing existed that had implications on issues of race and equality. However, this was not always immediately obvious from the wording of advertising, but from where the advertisements were placed, and researching the wider context of the sellers.
Constitutional ware, detail, Staffordshire, c. 1838
Graphic Swim: 2D and 3D printing in Glass Casting
Wednesday 11 March 2020
Dr Jeffrey Sarmiento
Associate Professor in Glass
This presentation focuses on processes to encourage flow of screenprinted imagery in kilnformed glass. It follows the latest development of the Encyclopaedia series, a body of work that utilizes glass printing, cutting and fusing processes to combine the printed image within the glass object. New visual qualities were exposed through a mishap, which was turned into an aesthetic choice. This presentation will link 2D print approaches to 3D printing and an innovative integration in cast glass.
At the heart of this presentation is the dilemma that glass artists face as they seek to master a difficult medium – an insistence on control may improve quality, but also serve as a barrier to experimentation and progress. The artist hopes to take the audience through the elements 2D and 3D printing used in his work, in which high levels of precision can be attained in the digital and mechanical reproduction processes.
Jeffrey Sarmiento, Encyclopaedia series, 2019
In Vulcan’s Forge
Dr Cate Watkinson
Senior Lecturer in Architectural Glass
Colin Rennie
Senior Lecturer in Glass
The aim of a new collaboration with Cate Watkinson, Colin Rennie and volcanologists at Durham University, Fabian Wadsworth and Ed Llewellin is to explore the dynamic similarities between glass art practice and processes active in volcanoes, utilizing the observation that both hot glass and magma have similar behaviours.
Surmounting traditional disciplinary boundaries, this project aims to create new ways of seeing art-science collaborations culminating in the creation of exhibition pieces and publishable scientific investigations. The artworks will be created using natural basalt as a starting material, collected from the Krafla volcano in Iceland. The intention is to build a body of evidence developing new glass artworks from materials and techniques inspired by volcanoes and examining new and un-studied aspects of volcanology.
It is the intention to develop pedagogic tools for helping researchers from both disciplines to contribute their understanding to each other’s field and to build physical intuition about viscous materials.
Melting basalt in the field, Krafla, Iceland
Cate Watkinson and Colin Rennie, 'In Vulcan's Forge'