History of Design Students Delve into Making at the RCA Foundry
History of Design students at the Royal College of Art have been working with the College’s foundry as part of a practical module to support their learning of the making process, and to bring new perspectives to their design history research.
The ‘Thinking through
Practice’ module, a collaboration between the V&A/RCA History of Design
MA and the RCA Foundry, was set up in 2012 by V&A Head of History of
Design, Dr Marta Ajmar, who leads the programme’s Renaissance specialism. The idea was to get students to engage
differently with making skills, techniques and materials – key themes of
the programme.
The first edition of
the module included research workshops with scholar Professor Pamela Smith from
Columbia University, whose seminal research into early modern bronze casting
and artisanal knowledge inspired a more sustained collaboration. Supported by Foundry Manager, Irene Gunston, and RCA
Sculpture Graduate, Becky Whitmore, ‘Thinking through Practice’ is now a
fully fledged taught module around themes such as 'Votives and Amulets'. Students learn how to
model wax, prepare moulds, pour bronze and work metal over a period of four
weeks.
This year six students have been
working on objects including an eighteenth-century shoe, a Chinese Dragon, a
duck, an Edwardian chair, a green man and an articulated fish, all of which go
on show at the RCA this week. According to Whitmore, students demonstrated
‘impressive’ making skills, defying assumptions about their academic humanities
background.
She said: ‘On the first day, they
are given a lump of wax and make a model. They got to work straight away. They
had to consider and manage things like the thin or thickness of the wax, which
are crucial to the objects turning out well.’
According to History of Design tutor, Spike
Sweeting, understanding the technical and
material contexts for production is bringing new and exciting perspectives to
students’ design history research.
‘The module is hugely successful
with the students, not just because they have the opportunity to actually make
something, but because it opens up a whole new approach to research. In
some ways we’re doing what experimental archaeologists have been doing for
a while – although the project coincides with recent moves in design
history, where there has been a push to re-describe processes of
production to challenge conventional narratives. It’s about getting
insights into methods, thinking about who gives them voice and how, and
re-examining that practice/theory divide,’ Sweeting said.
The History of Design programme
usually takes on a number of students who have been working in design-related
industries and have practical skills as well as more academic students. The
‘Thinking Through Practice’ module aims to bridge the gap between both ends of the skills spectrum, according to Sweeting.
‘The module tries to bridge that
gap by fostering collaboration and finding spaces where skills can be shared. Using
commonplace design techniques to shape research has been
especially eye-opening for us – like a recent project that used 3D printing to
recreate objects that no longer exist, to investigate questions of functionality
and survival,’ he added.
History of Design has a number of other collaborative projects running this term, including one with Visual Communication students exploring the RCA’s Poster Archive, and a ‘Subversive Inscriptions’ project with Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork & Jewellery.Â