dr jo dahn

I review and interpret contemporary ceramics and have established strong links with practitioners.  Articles in Ceramic Review magazine reflect my particular interest in innovatory modes of practice; my contribution to the forthcoming ‘Extra/Ordinary; craft culture and contemporary art’ (edited by Maria Buszek for Duke University Press) will be a chapter on ‘contemporary conceptual ceramics’.

I am a founder member of ICRC - Interpreting Ceramics Research Collaboration - a group of individuals from four HE institutions: BSU, UWE, UWA and UWIC.  The journal Interpreting Ceramics, (www.interpretingceramics.com ISSN 1471-146X) for which I am submissions editor, was our first outcome.  It is the first international, refereed journal devoted to ceramics and was the first electronic journal to be listed on the Design Index.  All our editions are archived online and freely accessed by readers worldwide.  ICRC has initiated a number of research projects; ‘Speak for Yourself’, which I led, focused on makers writing about their own practice.  We held a day seminar at BSAD (16/9/05) followed by an international writing competition. Entries were received from all over the world and the results were published in Interpreting Ceramics, issue 6.  The BSAD Ceramics research cluster is planning a follow-up to ‘Speak for Yourself’, with ‘Idea and Act; a symposium on research and practice in ceramics’, to be held in September 2007.

Intertwined with my ceramics specific research, I have a strong interest in relationships between people and their possessions, particularly in the context of the domestic interior.  My understanding of present day behaviour is informed by historical research (the central focus of my PhD) into material culture and the construction of taste, especially in the transition period from the C18 to the C19.

I also operate as a curator.  ‘Bodywork’, my most recent exhibition, showed a selection of contemporary figurative ceramics.  (Ceramics gallery UWA, June – September 2005; Shipley gallery, Gateshead March - June 2006).  It was well received; a reviewer commented that ‘as well as seeing the body in many guises, we also ‘see’ the mind.’ (Ceramic Review 220 July/August 2006).   I now manage the BSAD school gallery and intend to expand its present function to include a series of installations by invited artists, whose activities will be filmed and archived to form a significant primary research resource.

Recent Publications:

• 2005 - Bodywork; contemporary ceramics with a Cardiff connection. Ceramics gallery, UWA and Catalogue ISBN 1 899095 23 3
• 2004 - Think about it Ceramic Review Issue 206 March/April
• 2004 - Material culture, abolitionism and dissenting discourse (1791-1830) The simplicity of a Quaker but not their languag’. ‘Women and Material Culture 1660-1830’ University of Southampton and Chawton House Library
• 2003 - Active , Social and Temperate; the female consumer 1790-1828 . Design History Society conference, Norwich School of Art and Design, September
• 2002 - PuebloPotteryDotCom. Interpreting Ceramics