Firing

Firing
20-26 October 2019

Weaving Scripting Writing
17-23 March 2019

The first ceramics items were created 16500 years ago in Japan to store and cook food. With no tradition of pottery to draw from, the Jomon people created and decorated their pots in the woven forms of the vessels they already created – baskets. It was in Japan that the world’s first pottery was born, and with it, possibly the world’s first stew. The realization that certain types of earth dug from the ground and baked in a fire created a hard, resistant and watertight material did not spread from Japan but was individually discovered by groups of people across the globe, each beginning their own specific ceramic and culinary tradition.

Working with the Laufen factory in Laufen, Switzerland and with the help and guidance of the Granby Workshop team from Liverpool, we will continue our journey through the history and production of our man-made world by looking at how clay is transformed from a soft and malleable material into objects of desire, display, protection, precision-engineering and everyday use. Working between the factory floor and our own garden at the eth where we will create a kiln, we will spend the week forming and firing our own pieces, reading, cooking and eating together.

“Along with cave paintings, threads were one of the first transmitters of meaning”

Anni Albers

20–26 October 2019

Price Range B, includes visits, materials and transport

12 students max

It can be argued that along with cave paintings, textiles are the first expressive artform. It is no coincidence that societies with no tradition of written language, have produced some of the finnest and most sophisticated textiles in history. Oral myths, as well as cosmological and religious believes were all recorded with threads; stories woven from yarn into cloth. According to Seth Siegelaub, textiles provide key information into the society in which they were produced–from its territory to its social specrum. To weave is therefore to write. Thus the act of weaving is essential to the culture in which it is formed, materialising the collective mindset of a society.

This new series of seminar weeks explores our physical and emotional connection with the world around us. Focusing on different materials and actions we will investigate the process by which things are made at both the scale of the factory and the craftsman. Literature, film, and technology will guide and frame the way we look at these processes of making and we will use our own hands and bodies to delve into each theme.

Weaving, scripting and writing share similar structural methodologies; threads, codes and words carefully entwine to become something much greater than the sum of their parts. They manifest a desire to grasp and describe our understanding of the world.

Based in Zürich, we will make day trips to visit weavers, scriptures and writers. Along the week, we will investigate the art of the loom from the smallest to the largest of its incarnations, familiarise ourselves with the secrets of coding, as well as craft our own piece of individual writing. Readings and discussions will take place every evening over drinks and dinner in Zürich.

Image: 5 chore, jaquard wall hanging, 1928 bauhaus, Gunta Stolzl

17–22 March 2019

Price Range B, includes visits and transport

15 students max

This new series of seminar weeks explores our physical and emotional connection with the world around us. Focusing on different materials and actions we will investigate the process by which things are made at both the scale of the factory and the craftsman. Literature, film, and technology will guide and frame the way we look at these processes of making and we will use our own hands and bodies to exlpore each theme. Weaving, Firing, Casting, Carving, Moving, Forging, Preserving.

We will work in small groups of 12 students and each seminar week will be acompanied by a specific reading which we will discuss over the course of the week. By keeping travelling to a minimum, each seminar week will be affordably priced below 500CHF.

This series of seminar weeks explores our physical and emotional connection with the world around us. Focusing on different materials and actions we will investigate the process by which things are made at both the scale of the factory and the craftsman. Literature, film, and technology will guide and frame the way we look at these processes of making and we will use our own hands and bodies to explore each theme. Weaving, Firing, Casting, Carving, Moving, Forging, Preserving.

We will work in small groups of 12 students and each seminar week will be accompanied by a specific reading which we will discuss over the course of the week. By keeping travelling to a minimum, each seminar week will be affordably priced below 500CHF.