Material Making – Bath Spa University

Material Making – Bath Spa University
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Material:Making
What is making? What is the role of the maker and who does the making now? What can making be?
Image credit:
Yu Sheng Ho
What we do
The Material:Making research group provides a space, both physical and virtual, for makers to get together; a space that is both supportive and questioning. We investigate making, developing new ways of conceiving and presenting this fundamental activity and exploring how we might contribute to a celebratory philosophy of making and the maker.
To this end, we are interested in digging into making. Listening for the various voices, both human and non-human that might emerge from engagement between bodies, tools, materials and spaces. We also investigate what role material plays in facilitating this – does it have a say and what form might this take? This enquiry cuts across both material and immaterial formats.
Image credit:
Jim Holden
While we have a broad conception of what making is, we are interested in exploring some specific aspects:
Craft as a verb rather than a noun; plural as well as singular.
The role of the maker; who does the making now?
Who has the skills and where is craft found now?
Crafting through repeated processes within trades (such as plumbing, tiling, bus driving and car making).
How we acknowledge those others that make work happen, both historical and contemporary.
How we might challenge skill hierarchies and celebrate the value of skills in different contexts.
Social Knowledge Exchange with emphasis on finding the exchange and creating the social.
Image credit:
Karen Richmond
Vision
The group will actively contribute to the research environment in the
School of Art, Film and Media
through sharing research projects, generating cross-disciplinary events and working with students. We will realise the potential of collective activity within the School and recognise the value of collaboration.
We think of making as an ongoing, fluid concept, determined by the group and its social context. We think of making as a particularly intimate engagement between bodies, material and spaces.
We consider the making process as a work and presentation as a form of making. How do we bring attention to the experience of the audience when we share making research? How do we both acknowledge and let go of authorship and enable the audience/public to own the data?
The group co-organises the
doing together
Practice Research Symposium and has launched Static FM Campus Art Radio.
Events and exhibitions:
workshop-word-work
(Summer 2018)
BathSPAdata
On Edge: Materials and Bodies Sympoiesis
(
Symposium
)
Social Experiments
(2017-18)
BathSPAdata
Public Acts
(2016-19)
BathSPAdata
doing together
(Spring 2023)
BathSPAdata
Play the Street
(
doing together
2023)
BathSPAdata
word-process-object
(Summer 2023)
BathSPAdata
doing together
(Spring 2024)
BathSPAdata
Static FM – Campus Art Radio
(launching in 2025)
BathSPAdata
doing together
(Spring 2025)
Group members
Jerome
Harrington
Associate Lecturer for Integrated Foundation in Art and Design
Aimee
Lax
Lecturer in Ceramics
Karen
Richmond
Associate Lecturer for Product and Furniture Design, and Senior Lecturer for Foundation in Art and Design
Keith
Harrison
Research Professor
Roger
Clarke
Senior Lecturer in Fine Art
Abigail
Branagan
Course Leader for Creative Arts Practice
Conor
Wilson
Director of the Art Research Centre and Research Lead for Art
Camilla
Wilson
Senior Lecturer in Fine Art
Get in touch
If you are interested in getting involved with Material:Making please get in touch with
Professor Keith Harrison
or
Dr Conor Wilson
.
Professor Keith Harrison:
k.harrison@bathspa.ac.uk
Dr Conor Wilson:
c.wilson3@bathspa.ac.uk
Image credit:
Conor Wilson
You might also be interested in...
Art Research Centre
Postgraduate Research Art
Space Place Practice Network
Material : Art : Science : Environment : Research