Making Change Conference Part 1, 22 January 2024: Sustainability & Ceramic Practice
Making Change Conference: Sustainability & Ceramic Practice / Part One: Sustainability Context & the Leach Pottery’s Journey
Monday 22 January 2024
Explores sustainability as context with focus on the Leach Pottery’s current sustainability considerations.
Symposium Welcome
Foreword from Leach Pottery Director Libby Buckley.
Guest Convenor: Sarah Rothwell, Senior Curator, Modern & Contemporary Design, National Museums Scotland.
Sarah Rothwell is the Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design in the Department of Global Arts, Cultures and Design at National Museums Scotland. She has collection responsibility for the British, European and other 'Western' glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery and industrial design circa 1945-present collections.
Presentation 1 - Professor Michael Grubb: Setting the scene for the sustainability context
Climate Change, Energy and COP28: ‘top-down from the bottom up’?
This talk gives a brief outline of developments in climate change and summarises observations about the international process, through the outcome of the recent COP28 conference in Dubai. The talk then turns to look at the ‘bottom-up’ progress in clean energy and the challenges and opportunities arising for local low carbon energy developments.
Michael Grubb is Professor of Energy and Climate Change at University College London (Institute of Sustainable Resources & Energy Institute), and Deputy Director for ISR. From 2011-2016, alongside academic roles, Michael worked part-time at the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (the energy regulator, Ofgem) as Senior Advisor, initially on Sustainable Energy Policy, and subsequently Improving Regulation; from Autumn 2016 he moved to Chair the UK government’s Panel of Technical Experts on Electricity Market Reform. In 2018 he was appointed as Convening Lead Author for Chapter 1 of the IPCC Sixth Assessment (Mitigation Report), and as leader for the Sustainability hub of the UK Research Council's programme on Rebuilding Macroeconomics.
Presentation 2 - Dr Matthew Tyas & Roelof Uys: Leach Pottery - Sustainability: Historical Narratives & the Studio
Dr Matthew Tyas and Roelof Uys will explore sustainability from the perspective of creative practice where making meets sustainability narratives, considering the creative life as realised through Bernard Leach’s narratives, the Studio today, and how these frameworks have personal and cultural value.
Dr Matthew Tyas is Curator (2019) and Deputy Director (2021) at the Leach Pottery. He specialises in exhibitions, writing, and research relating to the history and narratives of the Leach Pottery - a world-renowned living heritage site, its potters, and Bernard Leach.
Roelof Uys is Lead Potter at the Leach Pottery where he supervises the training of apprentices and visiting interns, while overseeing the design and production of Leach Standard Ware.
Presentation 3 - Dr Giorgio Salani & Dr Jordan Ward-Williams: Making it 'Right': A Life Cycle and Materials Analysis of the Leach Pottery Mug.
The talk presents findings and reflections on sustainability research recently conducted at the Leach Pottery. Dr Salani will discuss his Life-Cycle Analysis of the Leach Pottery Standard Ware that he has been undertaking with Prof Xiaoyu Yan of the University of Exeter on behalf of the Pottery. The presentation will conclude with Dr Ward-Williams – a recent Researcher in Residence at the Leach Pottery, approaching glaze and materials sustainability as an industrial chemist working at the University of Cambridge. Dr Ward-Williams will examine how material innovation can contribute to the mitigation of environmental pollution associated with gas kilns, enabling potters to achieve aesthetically pleasing new and traditional glazes in electric kilns.
Dr Giorgio Salani, Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, is a researcher in art-science, craft ceramics and sustainability.
Dr Jordan Ward-Williams, is a Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Churchill College Cambridge – a research chemist who’s been making pottery for several years. He is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and a By-Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.
Chapters
00:00 Libby Buckley, Leach Pottery Director: Welcome
04:47 Sarah Rothwell: Guest Convenor
12:09 Prof. Michael Grubb: Climate Change, Energy and COP28: ‘top-down from the bottom up’?
49:05 Sarah Rothwell: Guest Convenor
49:50 Dr Matthew Tyas: Leach Pottery – Sustainability & Narratives
1:03:38 Roelof Uys: Leach Pottery – Sustainability & the Studio
1:15:50 Sarah Rothwell: Guest Convenor
1:16:40 Dr Giorgio Salani: Making it 'Right': A Life Cycle and Materials Analysis of the Leach Pottery Mug
1:37:13 Dr Jordan Ward-Williams: Making it 'Right': A Life Cycle and Materials Analysis of the Leach Pottery Mug
1:52:14 Discussion & Audience Questions