Beep Studio at the Gladstone Pottery Museum

Our paper sculpture based on Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain' arrives at the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke-on-Trent this week, as part of the British Ceramics Biennial. We will also be presenting the project and explaining its background and genesis at a special day held by the RIBA on Friday 20 October.

Read and see more about our proposal here, and about the other exhibitors here.

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Celebrating Coincidence

1817    Armitage Shanks
1917    Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain
2017   Fountain 17

Celebrating the anniversaries of Armitage Shanks and Duchamp’s century-defining artwork, 'Fountain 17' marks a partnership between Hull, UK City of Culture 2017, Armitage Shanks, and the Hull School of Art and Design and a selection of artists and designers. 
The show first launched at Studio Eleven Gallery in the Cultural Quarter of Hull in spring 2017.

Wednesday 6 September - Saturday 28 October 2017
Gladstone Pottery Museum, Uttoxeter Rd, Stoke-on-Trent ST3 1PQ
Admission:     Tuesdays – Saturdays, 10am - 5pm

http://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/content/fountain-17

V&A Design Technology Symposium

In September 2017, secondary schools across the UK start teaching a new GCSE in Design & Technology. As part of its ongoing work in education, The V&A Museum organised a special one day symposium DT Teachers to support them in the teaching of the new GCSE.

We were thrilled to hear that the new system actively encourages students to take risks:
Top marks are only available to students who stretch and improve their skills, abilities and knowledge of materials, processes, technology and making.

Teachers at one of the two workshops led by Beep Studio

Beep Studio was invited along to run two creative sessions on Briefing and Ideation.
Attendees shared their thoughts about the new GCSE, how it relates to the way they teach now, and how they explain the design process to students unused to such open ended exercises.

Working in groups, the teachers produced evolving maps of the briefing process by loosely recording their conversations, jotting points on post-it notes, arranging the information, and finding patterns. These finally came together as powerful, insightful, and revealing diagrams.

The conversations that developed were rich and deep, and the teachers enjoyed the role reversal of becoming students and tackling a design task with an undetermined outcome.

Visual Minutes

Attendees heard talks from educationalists, exam boards, designers, and new V&A Director Tristram Hunt. At this point our work was done, so we sat back, opened our sketchbooks, and drew a set of visual minutes. Here are our highlights.

Talks began with an introduction from schools programme manager Cara Williams and Director Tristram Hunt, who gave an overview of the museum's history, from its beginnings in the Great Exhibition of 1851, through to the newly opened Exhibition Road entrance.

Sarah Campbell, Head of Education at the V&A, interviewing Louise Attwood, who wrote the new GCSE syllabus for education charity AQA.

Andy Mitchell of the Design & Technology Association spoke about encouraging high ambitions, hard work, and learning through failure as part of the new syllabus.

One teacher spoke of the struggle they have keeping up with ever-changing software.
However, this may be a misplaced worry, since the role of the teacher is changing, moving from that of a 'keeper of the knowledge' who has all the answers, to that of a 'facilitator', encouraging students to research and pick up skills through online resources.

V&A Curator Johanna Agerman-Ross spoke about designs including the Eames work with plywood and a chair modelled on a paper cup. The Eames leg splint reminded me again of my grandfather, who as a design exercise had to carve leg splints from pine, holding them up to the light to check their wafer-thinness was consistent.

V&A Engineering Resident Julian Melchiorri speaking on his work to create a synthetic leaf from materials including silk, spinach, and etched metal.

The Streatham Sketchbook

Beep Studio's Street Artwork installations feature in the newly released Streatham Sketchbook.

Authour Mireille Galinou visited the Studio to interview Peter and Ed about the context for their work in Streatham, and how the artworks and lighting project came together. You can read more on that story here:

We were delighted to visit the launch, which  took place in the largest house in the UK designed by the Arts & Crafts architect CFA Voysey. The owners (architects!) very generously showed us around the house, which offers a masterclass in comfortable proportions, generous living spaces, and subtle quality.

Read more about the Streatham Sketchbook below, or order your copy here.

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The Streatham Sketchbook

Did you know the Tate Gallery started in Streatham?
Did you know the largest theatre outside the West End is in Streatham?
Did you know one of this country’s best loved architects built his largest house in Streatham?
And that one of London’s most dedicated painters lives and works in Streatham right now?
Answers to these questions and many more in The Streatham Sketchbook.

The painter Jiro Osuga exhibits mostly in London and New York, but the book places him firmly in his living/working context: Streatham. Jiro has a keen eye for everyday surreality. Born in Tokyo, he grew up in Japan and the UK. He studied fine arts at St Martins, Chelsea and the Royal College of Art. Osuga has lived in Streatham for nearly 15 years, and draws inspiration from this neighbourhood on a daily basis. 

Author Mireille Galinou, a Bordeaux University graduate, holds a BA Hons in Art History from Birkbeck College, London and worked for over 20 years with the Museum of London collection of Paintings, Prints and Drawings which she curated between 1992 and 2000. She is the founder of 'Your London Publishing', an organisation producing a new type of London guide book. Each volume focuses on the capital’s residential neighbourhoods, rather than the well-trodden territory of Central London. The books offer an intriguing blend of art, local and urban history and journalism, and the creativity of residential London is analysed, measured and celebrated. 

Clerkenwell Design Week

Clerkenwell Design Week rolls around so fast! This year we found ourselves shuttling between Clerkenwell and Kensington,  launching urinals and marshalling bloodthirsty teenagers and drink fuelled designers.

Tuesday saw the London launch of 'Fountain '17', an exhibition of artworks based on Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain', which has its centenary this year. As probably the most influential artwork of the 20th Century, this is a very difficult subject to tackle. It has been discussed and dissected ad nauseam by critics, and is still capable of stoking the question '...but is it Art?'

One way around the problem is to make a joke of it - but to do so the joke has to be a damn good one. We particularly liked the monument to the detritus often found blocking urinal outlets: a gigantic piece of chewing gum by Desmond Brett. Also worthy of note was Assemble's experiment with slip-marbling a WC pan.

For our part, we un-asked the question by looking at the object in an abstracted, geometric way. Read and see more here: 

Fountain '17 launch event at Ideal Standard showroom, Clerkenwell.

Wednesday saw us back in Clerkenwell, where we joined forces with the exuberant Trevor Flynn of Drawing at Work and brilliant designer Anahi Copponex. Anahi runs fascinating courses on 'Pattern Cutting for Architects', and during the evening she ran a session on body adornment using long loops of synthetic whalebone - the stuff used to make modern corsets and hoop skirts. Whilst life drawing continued upstairs, we tutored a group in experimental folding techniques. As always when designers cut loose, things got wild, culminating in a fashion parade.

Work in Progress

Drawing at Work at Desso for Clerkenwell Design Week

We rounded off the week with a return visit to the Design Museum, where we'd been invited to work with an extremely sparky bunch of young people at the Museum's monthly Sunday Workshop. After a quick collaborative warm up exercise, we guided attendees (ages 12-16) through our approach to drawing systems, stories, and processes. They responded with an array of insightful, well considered, beautiful - and in one case, surprisingly gory - pictures.

See more on our work with the Design Museum here.
 

Design Ventura

We had a fantastic studio outing to the Design Museum last week, running a design masterclass for some extremely sparky students from across the UK. Sneak peek below, and full story here!

Photo ©Miles Willis/Design Museum