Glaze Epochs: Understanding Lifelong Material Relationships within Ceramics Studios
View/ Open
Date
2022-02-22Author
Moradi, Hedieh
Nguyen, Long N
Nguyen, Quyen Anh Valentina
Torres, Cesar
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The “material turn” in HCI has placed a renewed focus on informing
design from the relationships found in material-based interactions.
While several ethnographic works provide insight into how practitioners converse with materials, it is less understood how these
conversations transform into a skilled practitioner’s relationship
with a material. We examine the material practice of glazing that
gives ceramics its decorative and functional characteristics and involves fusing mixtures of silica, alumina, and flux onto a clay body
through kiln firing. This practice evolves over decades developing
from multiple trajectories including theoretical foundations, systematic experimentation, and happy accidents. This work describes
virtual site visits with six expert ceramicists and documents how
material knowledge is externalized in practice, teaching, and the
studio environment. We synthesize our findings into a framework