Poetic design: a theory of everyday practice

This study aims to define design poetics as a category of design practice set apart from commercial, industrial or market-led design that generates a collection of experimental artefacts which investigate the everyday life of contemporary culture. It is argued that in creating an active interplay between users (human agents) and objects, poetic design involves a different kind of production (which is not about improving the functionality of a product) and alternative forms of "consumption" (which is not about a „using up‟ of objects), by developing new practices of living with things. As such it is suggested that design poetics depends on the production developed by consumers as a creative users (postproducers), within unconventional experiential and social scenarios of living. In changing the bilateral relationship object-user poetic design develops objects from the point of view of the user – its activities and models of operation and this aspect is related to an emotional and experiential evaluation. Thus the study proposes a re-evaluation of objects and users through experiential, narrative and performative criteria in order to understand their various roles and functions. In proposing these particular points of evaluation, poetic objects are distinguished as a particular category of objects together with the practices they engender or support; and within a network of relationships and contexts, as specific sites of interaction.1 In this light, it is shown that poetic design proposes a class of objects that respond to needs beyond the objects‟ instrumental (functional, practical) power; but to their contribution to life experience, embodying a variety of processes and manifestations. They translate immaterial interactions and make these interrelations visible

Fibre additions in clay: an alternative medium for studio ceramics

The objective of this research is to develop a hybrid material by integrating natural and artificial fibres into clay with the intention of changing its nature, structure and versatility. The project explores the properties of clay reinforced with natural fibres (cellulose) as a structural model and examines in parallel the possibility of introducing artificial fibres (refractory) into clay with the aim of maintaining its fired strength. Testing and experimenting has taken into account reviewed documented experience, technical information, expertise and knowledge of various artists. In addition, it made extensive use of Electron Microscopy, Thermal and Mechanical Analysis, thus generating a few fibre-clay composite solutions and deriving hypothesis on their fired and unfired structural viability. The practical results obtained in the present study became a base for the analysis of the influences produced by different fibres (cellulose, aramid, Nomex, Kevlar, Polyacrylonitril, Viscose, Ceramic and Saffil fibres) on the strength, plasticity, shrinkage and workability of clay. The research also reveals that a combination of materials developed and modified throughout the experimental process becomes a means in developing new media.</p