Elongated Intimacy: The intimate experience of owning / commissioning a craft object

‘How will you (craftspeople) make things that others will value, give a place in their intimate space and include in the rituals of their daily life?’ (Unger 2007) Little has been written in either social science or material culture research about the way contemporary craft objects are encountered and consumed and the meanings and values that they subsequently inherit. In my research as a silversmith and jeweller the made object embodies a set of intentions with symbolic significance and narrative agendas. Until now only anecdotal data existed to support whether the reception was equal to the intentions. This paper reports on the findings of primary empirical data gathered through intimate in-depth interviews. The respondents (unlike many studies) were invited to participate because they had purchased, commissioned or acquired an object created by the author. The complex results elicited knowledge about the life of the objects and the values and meanings they hold for those who own them. The findings are presented in the context of current critical debate in contemporary craft and describe how they inform creative practice.</p

Beneath the Skin: Revealing the research that underpins the object

Beneath the Skin brought together eight academic researchers working within the field of contemporary metalwork and jewellery in order to reveal the research that underpins the object. When it is the Object which embodies the research, the two fundamental questions are. How do we elicit this information? How do we record and make accessible? The aim of the exhibition was to visualise and articulate the complex, multi-faceted and often non-linear creative journey that individual researchers make to get to the final object. It built upon and extended the enquiry started during the KeyPiece exhibition and research event in 2009 where the exhibited objects devoid of any textural explanation provided the basis for intensive critical discourse between participants in order to reveal the embedded knowledge. By presenting a range of tangible textual and non-textual material, Beneath the Skin aimed to elicit and reveal the knowledge embodied by the object and proposed that there are intangible aspects within creative research that are not possible to quantify. The curator of this exhibition is Maria Hanson, Reader in Metalwork and Jewellery at the ADRC (Art and Design Research Centre), Sheffield Hallam University. She presents the work of leading academics, showcasing their practice-led research; combining philosophical, esoteric, material and process based projects

KeyPiece: Creating a critical dialogue in contemporary craft.

This paper reports on an experimental pilot project, 'KeyPiece'; a combined research seminar/workshop and public exhibition that brought together 10 leading researchers in metalwork and jewellery. Results from this event indicate possible new methodologies for critical discourse/s in the crafts and was the foundation to develop further initiatives. Starting from the ‘object’, the question of how a ‘key-piece’ can be identified and defined provided the basis for debate between the makers. The works displayed functioned as both a physical reference and a catalyst in the development of the discourse about the nature of research in the field. To enable engagement with the public, whilst still maintaining the seminar situation the exhibits provided a divide of the gallery space; one half public space, the other workshop setting; with paper covering walls and floor for participants to write and draw. After the workshop finished the whole gallery became accessible to the public providing greater insight into the exhibited objects. The event was observed and documented by a writer/curator and a multimedia designer/researcher and the record used to create an online interactive multimedia resource for distribution within and beyond the professional community. This provides an engaging, accessible and durable documentation of the event, which will be of interest to practitioners, educators, researchers and critics within the applied arts field and other creative practices. In this paper we describe both the event and its immediate outcomes. It was not set up to create pre-anticipated results; it was speculative and open-ended, generating relevant insights into creative research. We reflect on the wider implications of the event as a means of eliciting knowledge embodied in such objects and as a way of creating a critical dialogue that moves the discourse away from the sole domain of the Craft Critic and into the realm of the Practitioner.</p

Create & Connect : wearable stories

As we navigate through our lives we often collect and keep mementoes, souvenirs and found objects that remind us of significant moments, times, places and experiences. However for the vast majority of people, making and material knowledge is limited and a sense of agency with our ‘stuff’ is missing. In his book ‘The case for working with your hands’ Matthew Crawford (2009) suggests that in order to be responsible for the world and our sense of being within it we need to feel that it is intelligible and the provenance of our things need to be brought closer to home. In this workshop we explored how different material objects can be used as cultural probes in order to articulate cultural identities and values. It used contemporary studio jewellery as a device to engage participants in a dialogue about the everyday and explored how sensory experiences with the material world define who we are. Design thinking and craft knowledge were combined in a practical co-creative workshop to interrogate the emotional connections between people, materials and body adornment. It used life experiences, storytelling and narrative structures to inform the making of a wearable jewel. It focused on the following two questions: How can the intrinsic preciousness of ‘things’ often discarded (but kept) be re-appropriated through creative making? How can objects, fragments and materials be beautified and re-contextualised through design thinking and processes of craft (reclaiming, reworking, transforming and relocating)

Making Links Together: Valuing people and creativity

The eighth United Nations sustainable development goal promotes inclusive and economic growth, employment and decent work for all (UN 2015) with a number of set targets to be reached by 2030. Creativity and innovation form part of the third target and are seen as key drivers in the strategy to develop and increase SME’s in specific overseas development contexts (ODC’s) by connecting communities and promoting local culture and craft. For this to be effective, understanding the identity and cultural relevance of crafted products, are fundamental in the design development of new products that will be meaningful to others. This presentation explores how the economic livelihoods of a defined group of craft producers in Indonesia can be improved by expanding upon already established linkages and collaborations. By using Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods, (Swantz: 2008) involving co-creative workshops that are situated within the terrain of Design Anthropology, this research aims to empower through activities that enhance design and making practices. The project ‘Making Links: craft value chain’ was funded through Research England’s, Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF 2018-19). It builds upon an earlier AHRC funded, ‘Create-Connect-Sustain (Indonesia) project which had already established initial craft networks in the UK, Java and Bali. Craft makers within ODC’s are often seen as inferior to ‘designers.’ Making Links sought to empower craft makers by teaching design thinking through making in a shared studio/workshop environment underpinned by the principles of fair trade. The aim was to work within a specific context where potential had been identified by members of the in-country project team for the development of unique craft items for an international market. Project collaborators consist of a UK academic researcher; a UK fair-trade social entrepreneur; both trained and practiced within the field of jewellery and an Indonesian design academic with expertise in collaborative learning in the Indonesian rural craft industry. A Javanese design graduate with knowledge of sustainable craft cooperatives and a Balinese craft facilitator with European export market experience completed the team. Fieldwork was situated within Jombang, a rural area of East Java, with established artisanal skills in recycled glass bead making. Two thirds of the community work in this craft industry which has been in decline since 2000. Therefore, design innovation and new markets are pertinent to the long-term sustainability of the community (Zulaikha & Brereton 2011). The UK partners devised cumulative design activities, that engaged 18 artisans in an intensive 3-day co-creative workshop, resulting in four prototype collections of new jewellery products in glass and metal suitable for exhibiting and with export potential. Collaborative activities are continuing in order to achieve a long-term sustainable route to market. References Research England (2018) Global Challenge Research Fund. https://re.ukri.org/research/global-challenges-research-fund/ SWANTZ, M. L. (2008). Participatory Action Research as Practice. In REASON, P. & BRADBURY, H. (ed.), The SAGE Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice (Second ed., pp. 31- 48). London: SAGE Publications. United Nations. (2015) Sustainable development Goals. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ Zulaikha. E and Brereton. M (2011) “Innovation strategies for developing the traditional souvenir craft industry,” presented at the First International Postgraduate Conference on Engineering, Designing and Developing the Built Environment for Sustainable Wellbeing, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, 2011, pp. 53–5

Knowledge recombination for emerging technological innovations: The case of green shipping

The paper explores knowledge recombination by analysing how knowledge networks in established technological fields influenced the formation of the emerging field of green shipping in the period 2007–2018. Previous research has demonstrated that embeddedness, proximity, and status are important mechanisms for the evolution of single technological fields. We investigate if these mechanisms also apply across technological fields. By employing dynamic social network analysis models, we find that actors transferred knowledge across technological fields through (re)combination mechanisms, which affected the emergence of the new technological field, but in different ways. While embeddedness and proximity played an important role, status was less important.publishedVersio

JUNK: rubbish to gold

JUNK: rubbish to gold is a playful exploration of community economies (exchange, giving, bartering, gathering, earning, harvesting); putting on display the process of creating the ‘work of art’. Co-created and co-curated by Jivan Astfalck, Laura Bradshaw-Heap and Rachel Darbourne and partnered with charities, who supplied JUNK jewellery. During a public performance 31 jewellers ‘gifted’ their skills, (re)constructing pieces selected from a mountain of JUNK creating reimagined artworks for the exhibition and auction. Maria Hanson was invited to participate in this performance and exhibition(s) and (re)created 7 pieces of jewellery during the event. The performance was live-streamed on screens in the mac Birmingham and the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and across the world. Reusing is often perceived as the up-cycling of one object to another, from unwanted to desired, consumer leftovers turned into new desirable luxury consumables to buy. This reuse is the cornerstone of jewellery as a discipline, with materials shifting form to adapt to the newest fashion and trend. Yet the reimagining of one object into another is infinitely more complex than it is often portrayed. By putting on display the entire process of creating the ‘work-of-art’ within this project; from material purchase and collection, through selection and (re)construction during the performance, then exhibition and auction, ideas of exchange, bartering, gathering, earning and giving were playfully explored. This shifted the focus from finished object to the processes and social interactions that create the 'work-of-art'. JUNK: rubbish to gold aims to foster and develop multilayered networks, challenging and extending jewellery as a discipline, expanding the art jewellery audience and deepening our understanding of the impact of the arts. The JUNK: rubbish to gold Edition No. 1 performance and installation was held at the School of Jewellery, Birmingham during their 125th anniversary celebrations between the 9th-13th November 2015. JUNK: rubbish to gold Edition No. 2 was showcased during Munich Jewellery Week at Studio Gabi Green between the 25th-28th of February 2016

Effect of moisture on leaf litter decomposition and its contribution to soil respiration in a temperate forest

The degree to which increased soil respiration rates following wetting is caused by plant (autotrophic) versus microbial (heterotrophic) processes, is still largely uninvestigated. Incubation studies suggest microbial processes play a role but it remains unclear whether there is a stimulation of the microbial population as a whole or an increase in the importance of specific substrates that become available with wetting of the soil. We took advantage of an ongoing manipulation of leaf litter &lt;sup&gt;14&lt;/sup&gt;C contents at the Oak Ridge Reservation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to (1) determine the degree to which an increase in soil respiration rates that accompanied wetting of litter and soil, following a short period of drought, could be explained by heterotrophic contributions; and (2) investigate the potential causes of increased heterotrophic respiration in incubated litter and 0–5 cm mineral soil. The contribution of leaf litter decomposition increased from 6 ± 3 mg C m&lt;sup&gt;−2&lt;/sup&gt; hr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt; during a transient drought, to 63 ± 18 mg C m&lt;sup&gt;−2&lt;/sup&gt; hr&lt;sup&gt;−1&lt;/sup&gt; immediately after water addition, corresponding to an increase in the contribution to soil respiration from 5 ± 2% to 37 ± 8%. The increased relative contribution was sufficient to explain all of the observed increase in soil respiration for this one wetting event in the late growing season. Temperature (13°C versus 25°C) and moisture (dry versus field capacity) conditions did not change the relative contributions of different decomposition substrates in incubations, suggesting that more slowly cycling C has at least the same sensitivity to decomposition as faster cycling organic C at the temperature and moisture conditions studied

Space|Time|Place : enabling participation in design research for higher education staff

This paper explores the value of design research to better inform design pedagogy in Higher Education. It describes a programme of initiatives aimed at giving staff involved in delivering undergraduate and postgraduate design courses the space, time and place to fully engage with practice-based design research and describes the results of that research. These initiatives aimed to address a perennial problem in design education in the UK. Although being actively involved in research is recognized at the highest levels as beneficial to better staff morale and resulting in better informed teaching, the daily pressures of working in Higher Education combine to restrict the very people who wish to engage with research from doing so. To retain the initial momentum Space/Time/Place provided, the staff established a Community of Practice (COP) ((Lave and Wenger)). The goal of a COP is to bring the peripheral members of the community into full participation within the community guided by more experienced peers who form the core group of the COP. The Space/Time/Place COP met to develop the initial discussions into bids to secure funding for further practice based research. The Community of Practice meetings were supplemented by the use of social media platforms. The strength of support the Space/Time/Place event and Community of Practice have engendered in the staff is undeniable. The outcomes of Space/Time/Place will be exhibited in a group exhibition and used by the authors to model and broker the impact of this approach to other lecturers across the department, faculty and University

Exploring social media and admissions decision-making – friends or foes?

Background: Despite the ever-increasing use of social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) little is known about its use in medical school admissions. This qualitative study explores whether and how social media (SM) is used in undergraduate admissions in Canada, and the attitudes of admissions personnel towards such use.Methods: Phone interviews were conducted with admissions deans and nominated admissions personnel. A qualitative descriptive analysis was performed using iterative coding and comparing, and grouping data into themes.Results: Personnel from 15 of 17 Canadian medical schools participated. A sizeable proportion had, at some point, examined social media (SM) profiles to acquire information on applicants. Participants did not report using it explicitly to screen all applicants (primary use); however, several did admit to looking at SM to follow up on preliminary indications of misbehaviour (secondary use). Participants articulated concerns, such as validity and equity, about using SM in admissions. Despite no schools having existing policy, participants expressed openness to future use.   Conclusions: While some of the 15 schools had used SM to acquire information on applicants, criteria for formulating judgments were obscure, and participants expressed significant apprehension, based on concerns for fairness and validity. Findings suggest participant ambivalence and ongoing risks associated with “hidden” selection practices