Surface Tensions: Surface, Finish and the Meanings of Objects

The physical surfaces of objects are the result of complex and subtle finishing processes, they require assiduous maintenance, and function as a register of duration and experience.

How might the investigation of surface and finish provoke innovative thinking, in history, theory and practice, across the creative arts and material culture?

The Surface Tensions research network is holding an agenda-setting round-table symposium. Speakers from material culture, design history, textiles, conservation, and creative practice will open up a range of themes in the study of surface and finish.



Speakers

Professor Lesley Millar
University for the Creative Arts, Epsom
Let your fingers do the reading: the relationship between touching and knowing in textile practice

Victor Buchli
University College London
Surface and Sociality: considering architectural surfaces, dynamics and materiality, and their social effects

Victoria Kelley
University for the Creative Arts, Rochester
Surface Anxiety, Surface Delight, and a case study of class, taste and gender in the material maintenance of surfaces in the home

Dinah Eastop
Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton
Surfaces in conservation as material culture

Manuel Charpy
University of Lyons
Patina and the Bourgeoisie: the appearance of the past in the Parisian bourgeoisie of the nineteenth century

Simon Bliss
University for the Creative Arts, Rochester
The reflective surfaces of silver: Erik Magnussen's 1927 coffee set "The Lights and Shadows of Manhattan"

Steve Brown
Victoria and Albert Museum/ Royal College of Art
The Physicality of Print: the dialogue between two-dimensional printmaking and the physical/formal concerns of working with ceramics and glass

Chair
Dr Glenn Adamson, Victoria and Albert Museum

To register, please contact Victoria Kelley vkelleyucreative.ac.uk

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