Minor: Materials & Systems

Clay as a Storyteller:
Systems, Fragility, and Material Dialogue

Ceramics embody a striking paradox: they are fragile, breaking at the lightest touch, yet their fragments endure for centuries. This project explores ceramics not as silent objects, but as storytellers that reveal meaning through making, breaking, firing, and repair. Cracks, accidents, and traces of touch are not treated as flaws, but as the material’s own voice.

The research asks how ceramics can reveal a dialogue between maker and material. It looks at fragility and permanence as interconnected, not opposed, and investigates repair as a way of creating new narratives.

For academic research, the project contributes a method of seeing materials as active participants within systems of making. For society, it highlights how imperfection and repair can shape new ways of valuing objects. On a personal level, it reflects a fascination with clay’s honesty. And its ability to record every gesture, accident, and transformation.

Main Research Question:
How can ceramics reveal the dialogue between maker and material?

Sub-questions:

1. How does breaking and firing reveal the limits and endurance of clay?
2. How does clay “respond” during shaping, glazing, and firing?
3. How can deliberate repair create new meaning?
4. What insights emerge from documenting the material’s transformations, and how can these contribute new knowledge?

The phases of ceramics:

1. Forming
In the forming stage, the maker works directly with clay. This is where human gestures and skills are most visible, yet the clay itself resists, sags, or collapses depending on its moisture and structure. Already, a dialogue emerges between control and response.

2. Drying
During drying, the physical system takes the lead. As water evaporates, the clay shrinks and may crack. The maker can slow or speed the process, but cannot fully prevent the material from asserting its own logic.

3. Firing
The firing phase transforms the object completely. The kiln, as a technical system, hardens clay into ceramic, shifting it from fragility to permanence. Here, the maker relinquishes control to fire and temperature, accepting both precision and unpredictability.

4. Glazing
With glazing, meaning is layered onto the surface. Colors, textures, and transparencies carry conceptual choices, while the material system introduces its own interventions through chemical reactions, glaze runs, or unexpected finishes.

5. Repair
The repair reopens the dialogue. Physically, it restores function or stability. Conceptually, it creates new narratives by making visible the history of breakage and transformation. Socially, it reshapes how value is assigned to damaged or imperfect objects.