Things that go ‘round: A rhythmanalysis of the relationship between a ceramics practice and domesticity using the form of the vessel

Things that go ‘round: A rhythmanalysis of the relationship between a ceramics practice and domesticity using the form of the vessel This research starts from a hypothesis that a ceramics practice undertaken within the home is interwoven with other, everyday domestic obligations. The practitioner must also function as a person, this means some of their time must be allocated to domestic tasks such as washing, cleaning, caring, eating etc. When a ceramics practice happens in the same space as these demands, there is inevitably some overlap in the temporal experience of undertaking tasks. Lefebvre’s concept of Rhythmanalysis provides a platform from which to explore the rhythms of this experience.The research is practice-based with an existing ceramics practice as the primary method. The methodology of the research is autoethnographic, meaning the researcher is also the subject. The ethnographic position is an increasingly significant culture of working from home. Alongside the ceramics practice is an experimental writing technique called the ‘Blovel’, a portmanteau of blog and novel. The Blovel is a series of independent texts (or posts) that function alternately as reflection, a diary, and data capture. Together the 67 posts also tell the ‘story’ of the researcher’s experience of completing a practice-based PhD, albeit in a fragmented manner. Additionally the Blovel writing is embedded within the thesis providing a text with two distinct voices: the academic and the personal. This positions the Blovel simultaneously as method and creative outcome, providing rich and thick descriptions within the thesis. Further outcomes from the research are a performance called Smalls that synthesises practice-based and theoretic findings to consider the temporal (or rhythmic) relationship between domestic tasks and ceramics production, and the Covid Clay Diary, a series of 90 ceramic vessels made, one per day, during 90 days of the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.Throughout the research the vessel takes centre stage, sometimes resembling a coffee cup or other domestic ware, although often in a more abstract guise. The vessel is 8conceptualised throughout as the universally understood object that bridges the public/private divide. Imagine a coffee cup that is equally at home on the kitchen counter or in the boardroom, or even on the train in between. Ultimately the research comes together in a non-hierarchical cohesive whole. All outcomes – The performance of Smalls, the Blovel, the thesis and the COVID Clay diary - contribute to understanding and together draw on Lefebvre’s theory to form Rhythmanalyses of their own and collectively. There are several original contributions to knowledge:• A body of ceramics practice that sits at the confluence of a novel combination of theoretical and autobiographical understandings of the relationship between the domestic and creative practice – via the idea of the vessel• A new way of conducting and expressing a rhythmanalysis – via the ceramic outputs, the alternative format of the thesis and the writing in the Blovel• An exploration and proposal of the vessel as an object that spans the public/private divide • The Blovel, providing a new autoethnographic model that ties together method, outcome, overall narrative of the process and contribution to the thesis in a manner that wraps around the whole research process and permits the complexities of life to be brought together as a whole• An accessible model of practice that promotes holistic and egalitarian outcomes• An original response to the COVID-19 Pandemic by way of an object-based diary

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral (Level 8)

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Tait, AD

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1326441

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1326441