Ritual and setting

My research has for many years been concerned with ceremonial objects, the spaces they occupy and other associated elements (music, ritual, contemplation). Ritual and Setting allowed me to enter a wider debate, on the perception of ceramics as an art form. My aim was to examine the emotive relationship between an object and its location; also to acknowledge my own cultural heritage and to investigate how my Far Eastern approach to ceramics might sit alongside a Western architectural tradition. Ritual and Setting explores the reflective and sacramental notions of large-scale porcelain and their effect on celebrants and visitors. On a technical level the project advanced the development of surface treatments on large-scale ceramic forms in a manner not seen in contemporary ceramics in the setting of a sacred space. This placement of individual pieces around the Cathedral in a more speculative distribution departs from the more conventional approaches of ceramic artists such as de Staebler and Mongrain to insert single works in a site with prayerful intentions (e.g. the Altar) or to produce a whole body of furniture, or, as in the Matisse chapel at Vence, an entire decorative scheme. Winchester, like many cathedrals, has a long tradition of exhibiting art, but has never systematically presented contemporary craft. Ritual and Setting tested new ground for the cathedral. The event led to the hosting of a touring exhibition of ceramics by Julian Stair (2013). I intend Ritual and Setting to provide forthcoming generations with the idea that craft makers can initiate and complete exhibitions and projects outside the established arenas of galleries and shops. Traditional attitudes have hampered the opening up of ceramics as an art form. By recontextualising this work from 'historical pottery' to a public architectural setting, the project serves to re-present ceramics in a new light

Altered states: focus - Ashley Howard investigates the complex language of the thrown and altered vessel

Article published in Ceramic Review 205 January/February 2004 p. 38-41. This article is an edited version of the artist's MA thesis completed at the Royal College of Art, 2003

Dead ends and possibilities: potters - the work of Martin Lungley and Ashley Howard prompts Alison Britton to reconsider the role of the wheel in contemporary studio pottery

Article published in Ceramic Review 210 November/December 2004 p. 24-25 This article is an edited extract from the fully illustrated catalogue 'Full Circle' which was produced to accompany the touring exhibition of the same name during 2005

Exploring the Vessel

Exploring the Vessel was an exhibition of new ceramics by Ashley Howard and paintings by William Scott (1913 to 1989). It was organised by J&J Rawlin, fine art dealers and agents to Ashley Howard. The exhibition took place in September 2017 at the private residence of the Marchioness of Duferrin and Ava (the Guinness family) in Holland Park. The exhibition program included an In Conservation With...event. Ashley Howard, Robert Scott (William’s son) and Dr Bonnie Kemske discussed aspects surrounding the role of the vessel in Howard and Scott’s work. Publication of Kemske’s latest book The Tea Bowl East and West coincided with the exhibition and featured Howard’s work. For all involved the exhibition was a great success

Meditations

This exhibition presents an assessment of the notable influences experienced in Japan on the work of Ashley Howard. Howard's theme of interpretation over replication explores the notion of influence and dialogue between the Far Eastern and his own cultural background; in this case, through citing his work in a western architectural setting

Lettuce Entertain You: Floral Agency in Ralph Knevet's Rhodon and Iris

This essay investigates the performativity of plants in Ralph Knevet’s Rhodon and Iris, a play that was written and performed for a feast held by the Norwich Society of Florists in 1631. The play explores at least two forms of performativity: the first is the act of staging plants for a theatrical performance, where vegetables present their virtues through floral allegories that are enacted by human players. The second form is the way plants affect and are affected by their environments, particularly as theorized by Michael Marder and Mel Y. Chen. In Rhodon and Iris, these two dimensions work together to produce a form of floral agency that decenters the human. The essay explores how floral agency collaborates with literary narratives when beings perform for plants (within a history of floral celebrations), as plants (embodying plants as allegorical figures), and with plants (floral characters using plants as ingredients in cosmetics, poisons, and antidotes). Knevet uses literature to articulate a unique plant philosophy that challenges divisions between art and nature and among literature, philosophy, and science. Rhodon and Iris thus illustrates the many ways that theatrical performances and printed playbooks, and even printed herbals and herbaria, responded to and shaped the performativity of plants

Clay stories

From 6 July-3 September 2018, local art collective 318 Ceramics presented Clay Stories, an exhibition of pottery inspired by Leith Hill Place and its history. Leith Hill Place is intimately tied to a plethora of creative names: composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, naturalist Charles Darwin, and ceramicist Josiah Wedgwood III. 318 Ceramics, a collective of artisanal artists from Farnham in Surrey, drew from this rich history to create brand new artworks in clay. As a former home of the Wedgwood family, who brought pottery to the masses in the eighteenth century, the quiet domesticity of Leith Hill Place makes a fitting setting for a ceramics exhibition. 318 Ceramics will showcase the house in a new light, bringing back to life the spirit of its previous owners through a range of pieces scattered throughout the rooms

Improved Autonomic Function as a Physiological Mechanism Underlying the Reported Effects of Ashtanga Yoga: Feasibility and Initial Effectiveness Study

The recent widespread appeal of yoga highlights the importance of empirically assessing the ways in which it can improve psychophysiological health. A major limitation in the growing body of yoga research is the wide variability in what is considered “yoga.” This interferes with the interpretation of results and with the identification of yoga’s mechanisms of action. Ashtanga yoga addresses this limitation by being a set system of poses, making the practice a stable independent variable, ideal for empirical investigation. Ashtanga also is the only style of yoga that is practiced under the tristana, a method that integrates exercise, controlled breathing, and gaze, which induces the first stage of meditation. Additionally, Ashtanga yoga’s unique aerobic/resistance properties are known to affect the autonomic nervous system by increasing parasympathetic activity. The aim of the present study was to explore the potential relation between the autonomic nervous system and the previously reported beneficial effects of Ashtanga yoga on psychological well-being using a pre-/post-study design. Twenty-four healthy participants completed 6-weeks of twice weekly Ashtanga yoga. The results confirmed Ashtanga yoga’s effectiveness for improving psychological well-being and demonstrated that these improvements are associated with improvements in autonomic function. Findings are consistent with proposed theories of the physiological mechanisms of change in the practice of yoga, and they provide the first empirically supported evidence for the association between autonomic function and the psychological benefits of Ashtanga. The next step is to conduct randomized controlled trials to replicate these results and establish causality

Designing FRET Assays to Study Electrostatic Interactions Pertaining to the Binding of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Fibroblast growth factor receptor plays a major role in several biological processes. Without FGFR, a human cannot live. FGFR is involved in cell differentiation and wound healing. Of course, if FGFR signaling becomes unregulated, it causes severe distress in the body. Several cancers are contributed to high signaling levels, as well as developmental conditions like rickets and Kallmann’s syndrome. FGFR is thought to undergo an auto-inhibition (or self-regulatory) process in order to try to facilitate regulation. The exact method of this inhibition is currently unknown, but is proposed to involve the unstructured acid box region of FGFR. We developed a simple model system in order to further investigate current models of inhibition that FGFR may undergo. By using our model system, which contains two 15-mer homopolypeptides of polyE and polyK that mimic the acid box region and its binding site respectively, we were able to use a combination of ITC, CD, NMR, and FRET to show that one model from the literature contains flaws. We are able to characterize the binding of our polypeptide system under varying ionic conditions and pH. This model system also provides a platform to better understand general principles of charge-charge interactions in proteins, which are often characterized by FRET. One of the important findings from this study is that 15-mers of polyE and polyK bind in a parallel arrangement. One of the hurdles in applying FRET to such systems is determining the role that the attached FRET dyes play in the charge-charge interactions. Our model system allowed us to use the preference of the charged polypeptides to bind in a parallel arrangement to determine the size, charge and structural effects of the attached FRET dyes on how peptides bind under electrostatic interaction conditions and to quantify how the attached fluorescent dyes are quenched by both the charged amino acids as well as by the FRET acceptor

Then the burning began: Omaha, riots, and the growth of black radicalism, 1966-1969

Throughout the 1960s, America witnessed one metropolis after another suffer from major civil disturbances. The first of these incidents occurred in Selma, Alabama, but it was not until Watts, California exploded that the nation began to take notice. As America was throttling towards a major race war, nobody anticipated the Midwestern town of \u27Omaha, Nebraska to experience the same disturbances larger cities had. Although the life of average Omaha blacks was better than that of many of their urban counterparts, black Omahans still faced frequent job discrimination, lack of adequate educational facilities, and general disenchantment with Northern ghetto life. Between July 1966 and August 1969, these feelings were manifested physically in the streets. In this three-year period, three riots occurred, increasing in violence each time, further alienating both white and black communities. By the final riot in 1969, the motives of Omaha\u27s disturbances had become completely rage-driven and no longer grievance-oriented. The city\u27s reaction to these riots was fairly typical. After the first occurrence, Mayor A.V. Sorensen\u27s administration created numerous programs to help re-establish the black community and to directly address the. rioters\u27 complaints. After the final disturbance, local white merchants were leaving the area en masse, and the municipal government was reticent to coax anyone back into the neighborhood. Ultimately, any blighted community improvement plans were laid aside. Although the Omaha riots in the late 1960s destroyed the once vibrant Near North Side community, the disturbances served as an important expression of black grievances and rage. As demonstrated in the 1966 disturbance, the riots were an effective tactic to accomplish change in the community, but once injustices were no longer articulated, the efficacy of this tactic diminished. To many young black Americans, rioting allowed them to temporarily take back power, thus asserting themselves