Last week we had a very long crit where for the first time this year everyone from our course was showing their work. It was good to see how different we all are. Being on a multidisciplinary course is great because you get such a diverse feedback, lots of ideas and experiences of people with completely different ways of life. We spent hours discussing each others works, sharing artists to look at. This years crits are much more dynamic than last years, everyone participated in the discussion.

not from the crit. a set of various cups accumulated by the years and used in a single tea party.

I noticed that there was something else different: while talking about someone’s work we would use our smart-phones (and an ipad) to get the references instantly on the web. It is a very interesting change. You don’t only write down the name to look at, but you can see the work here and now during the discussion. Everyone can be included. We found the forgotten names of authors, artists, artworks etc. I hope that this practice will help overseas students to catch up with faster speakers as well.

Regarding my own practice, I found that there were two parts of comments: firstly students would say that all my various test pieces and parts of my interim installation felt like they were all done by a different person. They looked different, felt different, had different purposes. But closer to an end of the discussion, as soon as a put everything together in one big pile, people thought that they fit each other quite well. I had this feedback before as well.

I talked about the library show ideas. I wanted to make a sculptural piece to test my ideas about the binding of several ceramics pieces together. This represents the idea of the connection between the people while having a drink collectively. In terms of the materials I decided to concentrate on porcelain. I have done a number of glaze tests (which now have gone missing!!), and object test. I love the look of it after it has been glazed and I want this look to work for me. In terms of binding material I am considering cotton of a bright colour or sterling silver jewellery wire, depending on the time frame and the success of this idea, I would make more or less of it.

In responce to me talking about the collection of cups, all same but different,  Jack mentioned about having a favourite cup, which was great.That is the point I am looking at and it fit my project perfectly. Also, Maiko mentioned that at home she has got various cups for coffee, tea and other drinks and that you can’t get this in one set. That is the most valuable comment I received, because it identified the problem that I could not render for so long.

My main themes so far:

the connection of people that links to…

a set of cups for different characters to chose that links to…

favourite cup (a study of properties of cups like size, thickness of the walls, shape) which goes hand in hand with…

the purpose of the cup, type of tea, coffee, chocolate. Does a set has to posses the same visual language all the way through every piece? I don’t believe so. E.g. tea looks nice in a white vessel, but milk looks great is a black matt jug.