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

about the make up of the cloth that you need to know before you can know how
it will behave. I think you need to be taught that but then you need the freedom
then as you progress to maybe go and work in a different department the
freedom to move from that but I think you are missing out of a huge amount if
you jump straight to computer based design. Digital printing is actually
prevalent at the moment in textiles - they take a photograph, they mirror repeat
it and they print it out and there is something really soulless and there is
something really missing in that process.
Justin Marshall: I think what Julian was asking about the future I find it
quite difficult to measure the time none of these things are quick – I’m maybe
just a bit slow but it takes me a long time to learn things. Especially, there is a
lot of computer stuff that it has taken me a long time to get to not a superb level
but a level in which I feel I can use certain things usefully to do interesting
projects maybe. But also it takes a long time to use clay and what can you fit
into a BA or even a BA and MA. There is a limited amount of time and actually
it is very difficult to imagine how you can get to - I mean, Tavs I know has had a
particular education based on some very definite grounding in traditional skills
and then some art school and English training – it takes a ridiculous amount of
time to get to a point where it becomes useful. So I don’t know how you
construct courses to fit it all in, basically. I don’t know. As for the future of
courses, you could pretend that you could do a BA in ceramics and digital
technology but actually what skill level people would get to?
From the floor: Maybe we should have an apprenticeship system or
something like that – intensive training in craft skills alongside the digital?
Justin Marshall: I think there is an element of how much you can pack into a
traditional degree structure so I don't know the answer.
From the floor: I think there is also a concern that there are less students
interested in the crafts – certainly in ceramics there are a lot less students going
in to it. If you need that underpinning how is it going to effect people that come
in, students that go to art school and just embrace technology from the word go?
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