Unmaking Things
Field Voices
The Lobster Clasp by Jigna Chauhan
Jigna Chauhan is currently a second year student on the MA Critical Writing in Art and Design Course at the Royal College of Art. Her work explores various aspects of three-dimensional design, such as, the relationship between consumers, objects and brands and the close analysis of our behaviour with objects in daily life.
This piece was initially written in response to a brief titled ‘Attention!’ and with my designing and making skills in metal work, I intended to write a piece that called for a greater appreciation of forgotten metal mechanisms.
The format was devised to allow the reader to experience the same frustration that one might encounter when trying to use a lobster clasp. It asks for patience and persistence. The use of unconventional footnotes provides a platform for thoughts, ideas, facts and information to unfold.
Following submission in October 2011, it came to my attention that the Science Museum was hosting, ‘Hidden Heroes – The Genius of Everyday Things’. It is the essence of this exhibition that my piece hopes to address.
Interview with Karen Roux from Thermo Lignum
Some examples of the kinds of objects and buildings that Thermo Lignum treat © Thermo Lignum ®
Q. Could you outline what your company does and what your role within the company is?
Our company, Thermo Lignum, uses a German invented technology to apply heat treatment to works of art and antiques of mainly organic matter against insects and pests. The main types of pests we encounter are wood worm, carpet beetle, moth and whatever you come across in a museums context, as well as domestic set ups, that can destroy valuable objects.
The technique and the technology that we employ is unique in the sense that nobody else can use it because our company developed it in the first instance and had a patent. This patent still applies in some countries and means that Thermo Lignum has, therefore, a technological head start over other people who have entered the field of heat treatment.
What makes this treatment unique is that when we started nobody was using heat treatment, only chemicals, freezing and anoxic atmospheres were being used. Now, however, it is one of the three recognised methods of pest conservation that are being applied in the museum sector. So we are one of three things in the tool box that a conservator has to make sure that their exhibits can be made free of pests and remain pest free.
This technology is not a product it is a procedure which is carried out in a hermetically sealed chamber which is about the size of a small garage into which we put the objects. We then put it through a slow heating process and bring it to a temperature at which we know that at the core of the object all insects are killed at all points in their life cycle stages. The process is then reversed to bring the chamber back to the ambient temperature. The key to the whole thing, is that we control the humidity throughout the whole process and because we are able to keep the relative humidity constant throughout, regardless of what the actual temperature is in the chamber, there is no damage to any of the materials.
This process is something that we have pioneered and which we apply either in a static chamber, which we have in various locations here in the UK and in other places in Europe, or in the form of a mobile system. This is the same system and principle that we have pushed further to enable the treatment to be done on objects that are too large to be moved so we take the machinery there. We also have the ability to treat entire buildings or sections of buildings.
Corinna Gardner, Curator at the Barbican Art Gallery
OMA exhibition, Barbican Centre © Helen Kearney 2012
Corinna Gardner is a curator at the Barbican Art Gallery, and has worked on the current exhibition OMA/Progress, which features the architectural firm OMA, headed up by Rem Koolhaas. Corinna was a student on the V&A/RCA MA course in the History of Design.
What was your route onto the RCA/ V&A course?
Well, it was a slightly circuitous route–I first started university training to be a designer, on a joint honours course at UCL, in Italian and design, and it did not go quite as I had hoped, so in the end I only completed two years of a four year course. I went on to do art history at undergrad and then still not knowing quite where my natural home was, the V&A/ RCA course offered me an opportunity to apply the academic approach to a subject in which I had a long standing interest. The course confirmed that I didn’t want to be on the making side, that I wanted to be on the interpretive side.
Can you reflect on the course now, with some distance?
The course was phenomenally useful in a number of ways, it gave one a theoretical grounding in the field, and in a new academic field, but also direct experience in a museum institution. The friends, the networks I made whilst on the course have been fundamental to moving forward in a career in this field, and I continue to maintain contact and friendships with those whom I studied alongside. I enjoyed it very much. (more…)
Interview with Dr Kofi Sam, Founder of the Appropriate Technology Centre
Dr Kofi Sam at the Appropriate Technology Centre in Ghana © Radio Open Source 2010
Dr Kofi Sam, a self-styled misfit in the Ghanaian elite is the founder of the Appropriate Technology Centre in Cape Coast, Ghana – an organisation working to develop Ghana’s indigenous technologies and productive practices. An engineer with Ghanaian and English training, and a former classmate of Kofi Annan, Dr Sam is a man who has witnessed the post-independence evolution of his West-African homeland from a variety of angles – professor, industrialist, politician, and citizen – and has distilled this cumulative experience into a compelling perspective on where Africa is going wrong and how it can right itself.
Interview with Postmodernism Curator at the V&A, Glenn Adamson
A neon sign from the Postmodernism Exhibition currently on display at the V&A © Victoria and Albert Museum 2011
As the second part of the Interviews with Jane Pavitt and Glenn Adamson, this post will focus on Glenn Adamson’s fascinating take on what the Postmodernism exhibition means for Postmodernism and as a result of some fascinating questions put forward by students on the History of Design Masters programme at the RCA and V&A, he engages with the complex issue of coding and double coding.
Interview with Postmodernism Curator at the V&A, Jane Pavitt
A neon sign from the Postmodernism Exhibition currently on display at the V&A © V&A 2011
I thought that this column would be a great opportunity to invite the students from the MA in the History of Design at the V&A/RCA to put forward any questions that they wanted to ask both Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt, the curators of the Postmodernism exhibition currently at the Victoria and Albert Museum and two of the main tutors on our course. Some of the students came up with fantastic questions ranging from how a major exhibition such as Postmodernism is designed and curated to interest in the future of our masters programme. This post will present Jane Pavitt’s responses with the next post focusing on Glenn Adamson’s responses. This set up is due to the fantastic answers that both Jane and Glen gave to the questions and which, therefore, seemed to warrant their own post each.
Simon King, Imagination
Interview with Simon King, Operations Director for Europe at Imagination
Imagination Offices. Photo © Katherine Elliott 2011
Imagination is a company with clear aims and objectives they transform businesses through creative solutions and try to provide all their clients with an independent view. They provide brand experiences with the intention that eventually the paid media will become earned media, such that, the customers spread the companies message for them. What this means is that if the design of an advertisement, for example, is clever enough, it will lead to a lot of conversation on the internet and then you find yourself discussing this brand or the advert among friends, this is when paid media is transformed into earned media. Having the amazing opportunity of speaking to Simon King I hope has brought a completely different perspective on the importance of design in the corporate and commercial world.
Helen Smith, Christie’s South Kensington
Interview With Helen Smith, Administrator for the Sales Department At Christie’s South Kensington.
Christie's Auction House South Kensington. Photo © Katherine Elliott 2011
Being based in a Museum such as the Victoria and Albert Museum it can be very easy to forget that the beautiful, fascinating and sometimes strange objects that we see individualised and displayed, were originally created to be sold. It, therefore, seemed important to talk to someone who works in an industry that still sells these wonderful and often historic objects. I think that the most interesting thing to note is that much of what is done to prepare for a sale at Christie’s is the same as what is done to prepare for an exhibition in a museum. The design of displays in both institutions are created to draw people to them, the only difference is that Christie’s then needs to sell these objects as well.
Mark Elliott, of Distinction Contract
One of the pieces designed by Mark Elliott for Distinction Contract. © Katherine Elliott
Interview With Mark Elliott, Managing Director of Distinction Contract
// Much of what we do as History of Design students is analyze, theorize and speculate about the design and function of objects from both the past and present. As founder and Managing Director of Distinction Contract, a furniture and interiors Design company dealing with large hotel contracts and high-end private clients, Mark Elliott can provide an insight into what it is actually like to work and make a successful business from design and designing. It, therefore, seemed essential to get his perspective on what design means to him in a very practical sense. Having worked in the retail and commercial furniture and interiors industry for twenty eight years he has acquired expertise and knowledge about what makes designs successful and practically what will also sell. In this way I hope that this interview will provide a counter point for us as History of Design students to highlight the way in which we always have to consider and think of design as more than just a concept but also as a business, in which to be successful you need to have more than just design skills
Q. Could you outline what your company does?
A. We, at Distinction Contract, design and manufacture furnishing and interiors for the hotel contract market and high-end private client home market.
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Example of an English Oak Enclosed Armchair, V&A, W.39-1920. © Victoria and Albert Museum 2011
As a subject History of Design is an area that incorporates and is influenced by virtually all other disciplines – from philosophy and geography to economics and politics. For this reason, I believe it is valuable to assemble a wide range of perspectives from people who deal with design history and the design industry, as well as those that actually work in the design industry, with the aim of promoting fruitful discussion about why design is important and how we can further develop studies in this area.
As this is the first post for this column and as I am a student currently working through a Masters in Design History it seemed like a good idea to start with my own perspective on these issues – why I was drawn to studying History of Design and what the benefits may be for me in the future.
On the most basic level I wanted to study History of Design because it allows you to study both physical artifacts and the theoretical frameworks and notions that underlie most historical studies. As a subject History of Design puts you into direct contact with objects from the past which themselves have had direct contact with the people of the past, and as a result, objects can often open up different ways of understanding history.
