Art and Industry: The Innovative Tableware Project
Development of a range of ceramic tableware prototypes has led Susan Ostling and Lyndal Moore into the complexities of the arts/industry interface.
Ostling and Moore, both lecturers at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University (QCA), were granted $15,000 for The Innovative Tableware Project in late 1992.1 The project aimed to develop an interdisciplinary collaboration between ceramic technology and artistic practice, and specifically to develop clay and glaze types for contemporary Australian tableware, and to design new and appropriate forms. Fundamental to the project's research was a serious consideration of the cultural differences and interactions which shape contemporary Australian cuisine and cultural life. The project's prototypes respond to these broader cultural/conceptual investigations. A former QCA post-graduate student, Mary Horton, worked intensively on the project last year, as research assistant and mould maker, and prototypes were produced using the semi industrial, jigger-jolly machine.
Lyndal Moore says the project offered the chance to consider the possibilities for students and graduates to design and to produce viable ceramic wares. "While we haven't done all our sums ... we do wonder whether it's possible to compete with Asia," says Moore. "The positive aspect is that we've had this machine three years, we've got one highly skilled student, we've got a number of other students who are interested, we've got a range-we're working quite quickly."
Research into manufacturing and retailing was not part of the brief, although Ostling and Moore recognise that these concerns are common stumbling blocks for arts/industry initiatives. Bringing together manufacturing quality, artistic integrity and price competitiveness has historically been considered the critical trinity for such ventures. For now, Ostling and Moore are concentrating on seeking feedback from key market... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Colour testing for The Innovative Tableware Project.
