Autonomatic news

Isabel and Tavs from Autonomatic were both invited to present at the ‘Centre for Fine Print Research’ (CFPR) at the ‘University of the West of England’ (UWE) in Bristol on the 25^th of June.

Partly funded by Hewell Packard, CFPR has an impressive track record of pure and applied research within the subject of two-dimensional printing and now the centre has also expanded it’s research into the area of three-dimensions.

Dr Peter Walters and Dr Paul Thirkell are heading up at 5 year founded project investigating various aspect of research into the use of digital tools in three-dimensional applications.

Other presenters on the day included Steven Bottomly from Edinburgh College of Art, Andrew Folan from Ireland, Bruce Gernard from Central from Saint Martins, Michael Eden from the Royal College of Art, Dave Huson, Peter Walters, Paul Thirkell and research centre leader Steve Hoskins - all from CPFR.

Peter is also acting as external supervisor to Isabel’s PhD and Autonomatic and CFPR are working on establishing much closer links and currently exploring the possibility of doing a joint project in the near future…
CFPR’s web site here: http://amd.uwe.ac.uk/cfpr/

Overall a great day, but whether “I am forever changed, I will never be the same again” - I’m not sure -maybe not, or then again - perhaps I am.  

Drummond’s exhibits include 7 dish forms from his Star Tessellation series and a whisky cup with integrated terrain inside.

The exhibition has been curated by a panel of experts which included the ceramist, writer and curator Edmund de Waal, joined by Swedish craft and design critic Love Jönsson and Amanda Game.

Edmund de Waal comments:  ‘As this is the first in a series of Jerwood Contemporary Makers exhibitions we have had the wonderful and challenging opportunity to conceive of it in an entirely new way. Rather than bringing makers together by discipline this exhibition brings seven artists from a diverse range of disciplines into dialogue with each other in the Jerwood Space. All of them are passionate about extending their practice and all of them are advocates for discovering innovative ways in which their art is seen and understood. It is a particularly exciting time for this exhibition to be happening: the applied arts are a thriving area of the visual arts and this is a great opportunity to see beautiful, lyrical, challenging work.’

Jerwood Contemporary Makers forms part of the Jerwood Visual Arts series.  Launched in 2006, Jerwood Visual Arts is a series of awards and prizes that celebrate a range of disciplines across the visual arts, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and digital moving image. 

Jerwood Contemporary Makers is on show at the Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, London SE1, from 5 June – 20 July 2008

Here is an opportunity to purchase some of the results of the research undertaken at Autonomatic.
The annual Aldeburgh Festival is now underway (until to the 29th of June) and Tavs from Autonomatic is contributing by showing glass bowls at the  ‘Abstract’ show at the Strand Gallery. Pop by and have a look, or pop by and buy!

The gallery, which are showing some Europe’s best glass artists (such as Tobias Møhl and Massimo Micheluzzi) is open from 9.30 - 1pm and 4.30 - 7pm during summer months and the rest of the year: Tuesday – Saturday 10 - 1pm and 2 - 5pm (or by appointment)
More info here http://www.strandgallery.co.uk

Alternative if you find yourself in the West Country you can always find examples of Katie, Tavs and Drummond’s work for sale at the Wills Lane Gallery in St Ives: http://www.willslanegallery.co.uk/

A small delegation (read one!) from Autonomatic was some of the visitors to Distance Lab’s third open day in the somewhat remote Forres in Northern Scotland.

Distance Lab bills itself as an “independent research institution” with the focus of: “melding technology, design and the arts to transform communication, creativity and connectedness over a distance…”
The outfit is a very recent creation (from Jan 2007) but with a very formidable team with a broad range of skills.

This open day was successful in attracting an impressive gathering of researches from Microsoft, BT, and MIT as well as a good range of UK academic institutions.

The formal programme of the open day themed as: “Machined Craft and Haute Tech” featured talks by Peter Schmitt, PhD candidate from the MIT Media Lab and the fashion artist Di Mainstone. Introduction and summery was delivered by  Distance Lab’s director Stefan Agamanolis, also ex MIT.
The event also featured tours of the studios and workshops and an opportunity to test Distance Lab’s own invention the ‘Remote Impact’ which is an ‘interactive-beat-each-other-up-over-a-distance-exercising-apparatus’ – great fun but also really very exhausting. Check out the image below where Stefan is in the process of beating up some of his open day visitors.

The day following the official programme, the work of Autonomatic was presented by Tavs to an informal audience consisting of the Distances Lab’s staff and other visitors.  We really hope that the link up will lead to further interaction between Distance Lab and Autonomatic.

The book/catalogue from ‘Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders”  exhibition at City Lab in Lancaster in 2006 is now (at last) available from the Lulu website: http://stores.lulu.com/fastuk

The publication is $18.95 but is also available to download for free at:
http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_63/2498000/2498538/5/print/Fastuk_PBB_isbn.pdf

Both Justin Marshall and Tavs Jorgensen from Autonomatic were selected to exhibit at the PBB show and also invited to present in the associated symposium at University of Lancaster in September 2006.

The exhibition was a collaborative event involving Fast UK and Folly - part of the f.city festival of digital culture. An online archive of the exhibition is available on: http://perimeters.weebly.com/index.html

The exhibition was largely the result of the efforts of John Marshall who is now Assistant Professor at University of Michigan  - check out his blog on: http://designedobjects.blogspot.com/ 
 

Tavs Jorgensen is showing work at the newly opened ‘Object Factory - the Art of industrial Ceramics’ exhibition at the Gardener Museum in Toronto Canada. The exhibition is curated by the ever-present dynamo of ceramic design Marek Cecula, and it is featuring work by over fifty artist and designers including Ettore Sottsass and Masahiro Mori, Hella Jongerius,

If you are in Toronto pop in and have a look at this very sleek looking show – the exhibition runs until September 7

More info on Marek Cecula’s website: www.modusdesign.com and the Gardener Museum: www.gardinermuseum.on.ca

Glass pieces created by Autonomatic research fellow Tavs Jorgensen was on show in SuperStudio Piu at the recent Milan Furniture Fair.

A series of three ‘One Liner’ glass bowls was short listed for the Bombay Sapphire Glass Award which was on show in ‘MyOwnGallery’ in the Via Tortona Area in Central Milan. The show of 30 sort listed entries is now planned to tour for the next year. The complete list of venues is yet to be announce but ‘Miami art Bassel’ in the USA has been confirmed as one of the locations. Learn more about the competition at  http://Glass pieces created by Autonomatic research fellow Tavs Jorgensen was on show in SuperStudio Piu at the recent Milan Furniture Fair.

A series of three ‘One Liner’ glass bowls was short listed for the Bombay Sapphire Glass Award which was on show in ‘MyOwnGallery’ in the Via Tortona Area in Central Milan. The show of 30 sort listed entries is now planned to tour for the next year. The complete list of venues is yet to be announce but ‘Miami art Bassel’ in the USA has been confirmed as one of the locations. Learn more about the competition at  http://www.bombaysapphireprize.com

Tavs Jorgensen from Autonomatic was invited to present at the recent Material Knowledge Transfer Network’s Annual General Meeting at the Church House Conference Centre in Westminster. The theme of the meeting was advanced materials for use in space and the use of space age materials in consumer product. The event featured interesting keynote talks from the leading figures in the European Space agency.

Material KTN is umbrella organisation as an “overarching network of networks in Materials, set up to bring together the views of all in business, design, research and technology organizations, trade associations, the financial market, academia and others in the value network across the materials community”. MADE, the Material and Design Exchange is one of the subsidiaries under KTN. It was MADE along with the Crafts Council that organised the opening event of the London Design week last year with a discussion forum at the Festival Hall in London. At this event Autonomatic’s research fellow Tavs Jorgensen was again one of the invited speakers, more on the discussion on the craft councils website http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/whats-on/view/craft-creativity-and-the-computer-controlled/detail

To get more information on Materials KTN go to: www.materialsktn.net or check out the MADE web site at: http://www.iom3.org/MADE/index.htm

The current issue of the interior design magazine ‘MIX’ contains a feature about latest approach of using new technology in innovative design processes.

We were very pleased to be included in this feature. Go to http://www.globalcolor.co.uk/ to obtain your own copy of this inspiring read. 

GKS Bornholm - the leading glass and ceramic School in Scandinavia, was last week on a research tour to Autonomatic. The tour also included other UK institutions such at the RCA and the Craft Study Centre in Farnham. The purpose of the trip was to gather information before the school on the island of Bornholm (Denmark) formally merges with the Danish Design School in Copenhagen.

More info on the school at: www.glasogkeramikskolen.dk/Default.asp?m=128