John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

The number of critical reviews of the ‘PBB’ exhibition was disappointing. The
fact the exhibition was in a creative industries centre in Lancaster most likely
played a role in this. However, the researcher views the fact that Tavs
Jørgensen’s ‘Motion in Form’ glass bowl forms were featured on Rhizome.org
(an online platform for the global new media art community) as one of the
major accomplishments of the exhibition. The nature of these objects is so
rooted in traditional craft practice the fact they would be of interest to this
community was surprising. This stands as an indication that innovative
production methods can provide alternate standards to established discourses.
In terms of key achievements the new partnership with folly was one of the most
successful aspects of this programme of events. Issues that arose were resolved
to Fast-uk’s satisfaction in a timely manner. For example, during the period just
before the show was due to open communication between Fast-uk and folly ran
into some difficulties and the researcher had to remind folly that as the primary
source of funding for ‘PBB’ Fast-uk wished to be credited as per the consultant’s
agreement for project management. This issue had arisen due to the rapid
expansion in folly personnel after the project had already begun (compounded
by the roles of ‘partner’ and ‘consultant’ being blurred). In general however, the
proactive attitude, enthusiasm and professionalism of folly’s staff were a major
contributing factor to the success of the exhibition, symposium and workshop.
The researcher had also attempted to create links between the project and
Lancaster University. To this end the researcher prepared a grant application to
the AHRC Case for Support fund for the ‘PBB’ symposium and a catalogue
(Marshall, 2008) for the exhibition. However, there was no institutional
support for this application from Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts
(LICA) and it was abandoned. We considered it a loss to the project and a
missed opportunity that Lancaster University was not involved.
5.5.1 Symposium
The ‘Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders’ symposium (see Appendix I for
transcript) brought together artists, designers, architects, craft makers,
academics, students and others to talk about the ‘PBB’ exhibition and discuss
how computer-based design and fabrication tools have impacted on creative
practice and production methods. Those in attendance heard about changes
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