14.03.08 - The Wedgwoodn’t [continued]

After teaching in Carlisle on Monday I caught the evening train down to London. I had to be at the RSA for the Design Directions Ceramic Futures competition at 10 am the following morning so couldn’t catch my usual train.
The interview, at the smart RSA building just off the Strand, went well. The panel of judges, which included Martin Hunt were genuinely enthusiastic about the project, but at this stage I don’t know the results. We were told that we would receive notification before Easter, so I have up to a week or so to wait. I really don’t know how I have faired; I think the Wedgwoodn’t project fits into the RSA criteria very well, it’s about innovation after all, I’ll just have to wait and see.

After returning to College I continued with the practical work, throwing, casting, turning and firing the kiln a couple of times.

On Thursday I went up to Wedgwood with Martin Smith and Tavs Jorgensen. They were going up to discuss the re-establishment of links between the company and the RCA. We had a good look around the factory where Wedgwood is committed to continuing the production of their prestige ranges. Apparently the Japanese, who are a major market won’t buy the work unless it’s made in England.
After lunch, we returned to the Design Studio to discuss my project. I met Angela Hull, the prestige manager, who along with the rest of the team seems like someone that will be enjoyable to work with. I have some work to do before designing gets underway; they need a costing for the Wedgwoodn’t piece to enable them to work out feasibility and numbers.
I have spent some time thinking about the pieces that I would like to re-interpret, there’s the First Day Vase and an Acorn Vase that I would like to have a go at.












Co-incidentally I was looking at the MoMA on-line exhibition of the Design and the Elastic Mind show and found the work of Neri Oxman, an MIT researcher with a background in architecture and interests in ecology and computer modelling. She has used algorithmic generative modelling software to produce some architectural models. I spent some time trying to find out more about the technology, and have emailed her. I expect there are students at College who know something about it or students across at Imperial College. One way or another I’ll find out more.
If anyone reading this can point me in the right direction I'd be really grateful.