In the video the Shaping the Future sub-project coordinator Priska Falin and Tuuli Saarelainen, a student from Aalto University, speak about their thought on the future of 3D printing in clay. Saarelainen is also a Shaping the Future workshop and exhibition participant. The footage on the video is partly filmed in the workshop at the Kahla Porcelain factory in Germany in April 2016 and partly in the premises of the ceramics studio at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland.  The video tells about the sub-project on the web page of the Finnish National Agency for Education that is partly funding the Ceramics and its Dimensions: Shaping the Future sub-project. The video is in Finnish.

The video can be found on the website of Finnish National Agency for Education:
www.cimo.fi/ohjelmat/luovaeurooppa/hankkeet_kertovat

The video has been produced as a student assignment in the Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland.
Directing and editing: Silja Ylitalo
Filming: Eini Nyman, Kolja Vennewald and Silja Ylitalo
Copyright: Opetushallitus 2017 – Luova Eurooppa, Kulttuurin alaohjelma/Finnish National Agency for Education 2017 – Creative Europe, Culture sub-programme
For more information: http://www.luovaeurooppa.eu/

The Ceramics and its Dimensions: Shaping the Future exhibition opening was held on January 19th 2017 in Porzellanikon Staatliches Museum für Porzellan, Hohenberg a. d. Eger / Selb in Selb, Germany. Porzellanikon is the second venue for the Shaping the Future exhibition which will after the exhibition in Selb continue its tour still to five cities in Europe.

At the same time with the Shaping the Future opening also another future oriented exhibition called Spielraum 125 was opened in Porzellanikon and both of the openings started with a shared Round Table discussion in the auditorium of Porzellanikon. The meeting was a panel discussion between the representatives of the two exhibitions and the discussion concentrated on the future of ceramics and on the different perspectives the two exhibitions have to offer. The Shaping the Future exhibition was represented by curator Riikka Latva-Somppi and professor Barbara Schmidt and the Spielraum 125 exhibition was represented by the CEO of Eschenbach Porzellan GROUP Rolf H. Frowein, Eschenbach designer Claudia Bischoff and Porzellanikon curator, designer and free docent Claudia Zachow. The discussion was moderated by Wilhelm Siemen, the leader of the Ceramics and its Dimensions project and the head of Porzellanikon. Also the audience had a change to participate in the discussion.

The venue of the Shaping the Future exhibition is a space which has two large old kilns in the middle. The kilns were previously used for the firing of porcelain as the Porzellanikon museum building is a former Rosenthal porcelain factory that was closed in 1969. Porzellanikon in Selb consists of a number of different houses that exhibit different permanent and special exhibitions. Shaping the Future exhibition is located in a house that is next to a permanent exhibition telling about the history of porcelain making. Selb has a 200 years old traditions in porcelain making and factories, and this history is present around the whole region.

On Sunday January 29th 2017 at 14:30 an exhibition discussion is going to be held in the Shaping the Future exhibition. The discussion will be interactive and concentrate on the experimental way that the exhibition approaches the future of ceramics. The discussion is open for audience.

In November 2016 the Future Lights Competition presentations were held in Fiskars, Finland together with the first opening of the Shaping the Future exhibition. Now the 2017 Future Lights Competition is open for applications.

Future Lights is an annual competition for people in the early stages of a career in ceramics. In 2017, the Future Lights judges want to discover early career professionals who are expressing, exploring or researching questions of diversity in their work and encourage application from a wide range of practitioners. The deadline is 31st March 2017.

See for more info:

Future Lights website

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On Saturday November 26th the Ceramics and its Dimensions: Shaping the Future exhibition was filled with people who came to see the exhibition and to participate in the workshop about 3D printing in clay. The workshop was hosted by the 3D printing specialists from ADDlab from Aalto University. Here are some pictures of the workshop.

 

As part of the events related to the Ceramics and its Dimensions: Shaping the Future exhibition a Round Table meeting was organized in Laundry Cafe Bar in Fiskars, Finland in November 2016. The exhibition tours around Europe between 2016 and 2018, thus offering a possibility to discuss the value and future of ceramics in diverse local contexts.

The first meeting brought together different stakeholders including local ceramists, designers, students, teachers and professors that all have connection to ceramics. The main agenda of the discussion was the conception of the future of ceramics in the perspective of the now as well as in the perspective of the time each of the discussion participants started their careers. From these starting points the discussion grew into larger dimensions.

The main themes that arose from the discussion were materiality and change, that were reflected from the point of view of the future and of personal careers. Some of the outcomes of the discussion were around the topics of education and industry. During the discussion, it was pointed out that the relationship with the material has changed in the teaching of ceramics significantly during the last years, moving the responsibility of getting a deeper understanding of the material more to the students. The current changes in the industry, teaching and technical development were seen as a positive opportunity for a fresh start, but at the same time the notion that something might be lost, was in the air. In the end, there was a consensus that a basic human need for the making with hands remains also in the future.