Exhibition review in The Journal of Modern Craft

Review of extensive exhibition of contemporary French ceramic art entitled “Circuit Céramique aux Arts Décoratifs: La Scène Française Contemporaine” held at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, in 2010, on the occasion of the 44th assembly of the International Academy of Ceramics

Real-ationships an educational philosophy advocating for an increased effort towards authentic teacher-student relationships

The impact an educator has on a student\u27s life far exceeds the academic content being learned. The development of positive relationships between the teacher and student fosters the student\u27s feelings of connectedness to their education. A strengthened connection leads to an increase in motivation, effort, and achievement. Unfortunately, positive teacher-student relationships are not the primary focus of today\u27s educational systems. An educational philosophy advocating for real-ationships emphasizes the need for positive teacher-student relationships. The real-ationship\u27s characteristics and implementation are described in detail, while real-life examples depict the positive experiences I have had as an educator within real-tionships. It is a philosophy that can be adopted by any teacher, any grade, at any type of school: it offers a \u27way of being\u27 that cultivates healthy, positive encounters, interactions, and connections with one\u27s students

Standing and Running

This exhibition at Marsden Woo Gallery, London (2012) consisted of 12 hand-built ceramic works presented on three large plinths. Emphasis was on the application of colour through pouring slip, and then glaze, across the pots’ surfaces. This exploitation of superimposed fluid shapes/trails led to greater compositional risk and improvisation. Extending Britton’s concern with aspects of the ‘container’ and its representation through the broad history and culture of ceramics, this group of works explored the idea of flow and liquidity through form and surface. The new pots were larger than previous works; Float was Britton’s largest horizontal form made to date. Initially, a number of red clay bodies were tested for their fit with slips and glazes within the normal firings of Britton’s buff clay pieces. A series of vertical jars were constructed, some in buff clay and some in red. Britton’s return to red clay followed a residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan (2010). These upright forms were rectangular or oval in cross-section, or a combination of both, and the pieces were animated by cylindrical ‘pipes’ that alluded to conduits, ornaments, limbs, spouts, handles. The second series were plate-like forms on flared bases, likewise in both buff and red clay. The red and buff versions echoed each other in quasi 'pairs', though each was a discrete object. The individual title of each pot made reference to water, as did the exhibition title. A critical essay by Brigit Connolly was available in the gallery. The exhibition was previewed in Crafts Magazine and reviewed in Ceramic Review and the Australian magazine Ceramics Art and Perception. The pot Watershed was later shown in the exhibition ‘The Perfect Place to Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art’ (London, 2012-13); Outpour is now in the ceramic collection of the V&A Museum

Stochastic epidemic models: a survey

This paper is a survey paper on stochastic epidemic models. A simple stochastic epidemic model is defined and exact and asymptotic model properties (relying on a large community) are presented. The purpose of modelling is illustrated by studying effects of vaccination and also in terms of inference procedures for important parameters, such as the basic reproduction number and the critical vaccination coverage. Several generalizations towards realism, e.g. multitype and household epidemic models, are also presented, as is a model for endemic diseases.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure

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In diversity cases, only one plaintiff or class member must satisfy the amount in controversy requirement

Seeing Things: Collected Writing on Art, Craft and Design

This book gathers together a selection of Britton’s writings, including new, previously unpublished pieces, in an investigation of what the crafts have meant through the last three decades. Britton has mainly published in the ephemeral forms of exhibition catalogues and magazines. Her intention with Seeing Things was to assemble not simply an essay anthology, but rather an historical narrative of the development and the new conceptions of craft, as revealed in the threads of one person’s commissioned output throughout the period of Postmodernism. The particular slant of insider/outsider writing was key to the project for Britton as practitioner and critic. Despite her roots in ceramic practice, much of her writing has been about other disciplines. Britton’s close relationship with two leading galleries in London (Contemporary Applied Arts, 1984–95, and Barrett Marsden/Marsden Woo Gallery, 1998–present), led to her contributing short introductions to new work by a wide range of exhibitors. Britton argues that craft is not a discrete category with its own rules, but an ingredient across the spectrum of art and design, making it more dynamic, exciting and complex than is often assumed. The overlaps and ambivalent borderlines, especially in the rapid evolution of the 1980s, broke with the past and brought new ideas to light. Her situation as a maker, teacher and curator, and the complexity of changing cultural definitions in the past 30 years have been a continuous stimulus to writing and making. The innovation of the book comes from combining initial response and retrospective reflection. Using the material written when the work was just made, and evaluating the perceptions of that time through new writing that introduces, and comments on, the text selections made, Britton aims for a particular combination of immediacy and distance, the coal-face and the bird’s eye view