GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast

By: Glass Education Exchange (GEEX)
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  • Summary

  • What material histories are critical to a craft education specifically in glass? How are pre-1962 histories and alternative American Studio Glass histories relevant to contemporary glass practices? With the support of the Center for Craft, GEEX (the Glass Education Exchange) is proud to launch the first season of our GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast: “Expanded Glass Histories.” Episodes feature conversations between glass artists and researchers.
    2022
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Art
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Episodes
  • Kimberly and Britt: Seeing and Listening Beyond Dystopia

    Kimberly and Britt: Seeing and Listening Beyond Dystopia
    Apr 29 2024
    Are dystopian readings of your work fair or are they missing something more complex? What is the role of grossness in your work? And what do you consider to be the difference between seeing and listening? Artists Kimberly Thomas and Britt Ransom join in a discussion on invention, speculative (non-)fiction, intuition, and thought walks. “As a human experiencing the world as it changes, the idea of attachment and the changing world is implied because everything changes. To move forward, things have to change. Do you feel like at some point your idea about keeping things or being attached to things would change for you too? Is it necessary? This tree was a root and it grew into this, but the future may be more wonderful than what is now.” — Transcript available on the GEEX website. Thanks to Wet Dog Glass and His Glassworks for sponsoring this episode! — Featured Speakers: • Kimberly Thomas (@iroczii): Interdisciplinary sculptor and flameworker, currently in residence at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. Visit Kimberly's website. • Britt Ransom (@brittransom_studio): Artist and educator based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Visit Britt’s website. — • Support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast! https://geex.glass/support/donate/ • ...And subscribe to the GEEX Talks lecture series! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/ • GEEX Graduation Bundles: Available for a limited time on the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/ • Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. — Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music in this episode by Otis McDonald. — Selected questions from the audience: • INTRO: Can you talk about your general impressions of each other’s practices? What did you learn from listening to each other’s lectures? • INVENTION, FABRICATION, & PUSHING MATERIALS TO THEIR LIMITS: ◦ FOR BRITT: Britt mentioned that 3D-modeling doesn't necessarily “want” to scan or copy something as fragile and complex as the work you produce. Why is pushing the limit of 3D-printing and other computer-aided tools an important part of your practice? ◦ FOR KIM: Kim discussed how she mixes her own colors and you frequently push the boundaries of what glass can do — whether that’s incorporating mixed materials like metal or making sculptures with moving parts — while making the fantastical inventions featured in your work. What is the importance of invention and fabrication in your practice, and how do they relate to each other? • SCI-FI, SPECULATIVE FICTION, & CYBORGS: Thinking of a line from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower: "The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren't any other kind, and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees." Is science fiction or speculative fiction an important resource for you and your work? What authors or books have been important to you? Do you feel that dystopian readings of your work are accurate or are they missing something more complex? • SCALE SHIFT (MICRO, MINIATURE, & HUMAN-SCALE): Britt shifts the microscopic to human-scale, and Kim does the inverse by replicating human-scale objects in miniature. Can you talk about the significance of scale in your work? • THOUGHT WALKS (RESEARCH, INTUITION, AND OBSERVATION): You both mentioned going on “thought walks,” which made me think about how your practices balance research, intuition, and observation. What do you learn from thought walks? How does what happens “outside of the studio” influence your studio practice? • SEEING VS DEEP LISTENING: What do you consider to be the difference between seeing and listening? How does that relate to the genesis and making of your work? • CURRENT/NEW DIRECTIONS: How have storytelling and autobiography entered into your recent work? Can you talk about new and current directions in your studio practice? — Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.
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    1 hr and 30 mins
  • Victoria and Dyani: Beads, (Re)writing, and Relations

    Victoria and Dyani: Beads, (Re)writing, and Relations
    Dec 18 2023
    What is the significance of adornment relative to your work? How do the many functions of jewelry — as a collection, as a resource, or as an aspect of cultural participation — resonate with the kinds of work you create? Artists Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez and Dyani White Hawk join in a discussion on untold histories, their artistic process, and the presence of glass in their work. “Oftentimes, when the work is of large scale, it's because I want people to feel immersed in that space and the care of that repetitive motion. One stroke at a time or one bead at a time: it’s an example of care and the accumulation of care. In thinking about the intimacy of exchange in a single bead: that tiny item is impregnated with so much meaning and intentionality. Sometimes that intimate exchange can feel just as profound — sometimes even more profound — than a big, huge, giant exchange.” — Transcript available on the GEEX website. Thanks to Bullseye Glass Company and Vetro Vero for sponsoring this episode! — Featured Speakers: Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez (@internet___angel): Visual artist based in Philadelphia and director of the Bead Project at UrbanGlass. Visit Victoria’s website. Dyani White Hawk (@dwhitehawk): Multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. Visit Dyani’s website. — Support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast! https://geex.glass/support/donate/ ... And subscribe to GEEX Talks! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/ Want merch? Check out the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/ Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. — Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music in this episode by Otis McDonald. — Selected questions from the audience: PROCESS (VICTORIA): How do you balance the writing process with your sculptural work? Does your perspective shift during the transition from writing to a physical medium? ADORNMENT: Thinking about beads and jewelry: what is the significance of adornment relative to your work? How do the many functions of jewelry — as a collection, as a resource, or as an aspect of cultural participation — resonate with the kinds of work you create? MATERIAL & MEANING: Do you ascribe particular meanings to repeated motifs/materials in your work? Are these fixed meanings or more fluid? FOR DYANI: It seems that doors/windows have been recurring imagery in your work since “Seeing,” which you shared was completed during your MFA while growing more familiar with Western art history. How has learning about Western art history impacted your relationship with the audience and your perceptions of how they may interpret your work? COLLABORATION: Connections and collaboration with other community members and artists are a major component of some of your pieces. Can you talk more about why that is, how you form these collaborative relationships, and why you feel they are important in your work? MATERIAL & MEDIUM: Thinking about the significance of how we understand and categorize our artistic practice. Dyani, your understanding of your practice — concerning glass — has shifted the scale and spaces your work occupies while remaining true to practices you began as a teenager. Victoria, you have worked with molten glass for a long time but also simultaneously work in poetry. How does your understanding of your chosen “forms” or “mediums” impact how you consider or contextualize your work? TRANSPARENCY AND OPACITY: Considering the distinct difference between the parts of Victoria’s talk: formally discussing the Bead Project versus reading poetry and prose during the slides of your work. This reminds me of the questions Dyani shared during the Carry series slides: “When Native artists bring with us the artistic traditions and knowledge of our people into museum and gallery spaces: how does the function of the work change? What do we intentionally carry with us into these spaces? What do we leave out?” How do you balance transparency and opacity in your artistic practice? How do you determine what to share and what to protect or “hold dear”? SCALE AND IMPACT: Both of you work and/or teach with the impossibly small unit of beads, and yet you both have a grand impact on your communities concerning power. Could you speak to this dynamic? Do you see a connection between the aggregate nature of beads as a material and the messages or impact of your work? — Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Reframing Antiquity: Ways of Knowing and Being

    Reframing Antiquity: Ways of Knowing and Being
    May 22 2023
    What is the significance of reinvestigating and recreating historic processes? Artist Raghvi Bhatia and historian of science Dr. Marvin Bolt discuss alternative histories of the telescope, the concept of loanwords and “loancraft” objects, and the critical value of embodied knowledge. “The context is always there. It's always in the roots. And — in a lot of different schools of thought — we've kind of been trained to ignore those contexts especially when the context relates to U.S. or Eurocentric modes of power. If I work with a kind of glass that's produced industrially in North America, and it was developed for the Studio Glass Movement: no one asks me about the context of the material I'm using.” — Transcript available on the GEEX website. Made possible by the Center for Craft. Thanks to Bullseye Glass Company and His Glassworks for sponsoring this episode! — Featured Speakers: Raghvi Bhatia (@raghvib): Visual artist. Visit Raghvi’s website. Dr. Marvin Bolt: Historian of science and curator emeritus of science and technology at the Corning Museum of Glass. Visit Dr. Bolt’s ResearchGate profile. Additional Links: "Dioptrice: Examining and Cataloguing the World's Oldest Surviving Telescopes" (JSTOR) "Undersea Adventures: The Marine Invertebrate Glass Models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka" Giannis Antetokoumpo: "There Is No Failure in Sports" Arnold Schoenberg: "String Quartet No.2, Op.10" — Support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast! https://geex.glass/support/donate/ ... And subscribe to GEEX Talks! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/ Want merch? Check out the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/ Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. — Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music in this episode by Otis McDonald. — Selected questions from the audience: SUCCESS/FAILURE: How do you define success and failure (artistically, scientifically, or historically)? Thinking of glass, do you define success by controlling the will of the material or working with it? ‘NEW’ OLD GLASS: Thinking about how both of you are reinvestigating and recreating old processes (i.e. Tschirnhaus' double lens burning apparatus, Zellige tiling, etc.) What is the impetus or impact of repurposing these methods? What do you hope to learn? SHADOWS: How is mimicry related to the idea of a subjective truth of reality? How is this variation connected to the dichotomy of reflecting/absorbing? PRACTICE: I have noticed that people in STEM are intimidated or discouraged because of a belief in art as an innate talent versus something that is actively developed. What would you suggest to change this mindset? ARTISTIC GROWTH: Have you ever conceptualized your practice as other than a religious sect? What did that look/feel like and how did that thought process evolve over time? ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES: Can you speak to alternative histories of the telescope outside of Europe and the U.S.? What was the impact of the telescope's introduction to other cultures and communities? LOOKING AT, LOOKING THROUGH, LOOKING INTO: How do you distinguish the ideas of looking at, looking through, and looking into? How does it impact or change the way you see and learn? Thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for sharing questions! — Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.
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    1 hr and 27 mins

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