Heart of Glass

A design research project by ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne

Index03

04 Introduction

08 Presentation

14 Method

18 8 Axioms for Creative Research

20 9 Axioms for Research Communication

24 Directory of Pieces

34 Hot Tools

38 Plan B

42 Meisenthal

46 Mould Machine

Introduction04

Introduction

“Could we classify the luxuriant growth of objects as we do a flora or fauna, complete with tropical and glacial species, sudden mutations, and varieties threatened by ex- tinction? Our urban civilization is witness to an ever-accelerating procession of genera-tions of products, appliances and gadgets by comparison with which mankind appears to be a remarkably stable species.”

— Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects, 1968, tr. James Benedict, 1996, 2005

Heart of Glass is a research project led by ECAL’s Master Product Design depart- ment between 2012 and 2014. This project was set out over four workshops IM001, all of which followed distinct objectives, yet which all aimed to question the potential of glass in contemporary art and design. Their pragmatic approach and simple pro- posals enabled the participants to produce extraordinary results. This project also pro-vided an opportunity to set up a brand new model in the field of creative research with students at the heart of the process. Alexis Georgacopoulos, ECAL director, stresses that:

“The starting point for this research was to involve the students wherever possible as they are the ones which give the school its dynamism and identity! The specificity of this research project is that the process is as important as the out come. Heart of Glass is an exploration in tended for, and carried out by, the Master students, which opens up new, sometimes unre strain ed, perspectives on the world of glass.”

All of the pieces in the exhibition and this publication are accessible on the Heart of Glass website; www.heartofglass.ch. The entire archive can be browsed or indi-vidual pieces can be found using the search feature. Here you can see a 360° view of the piece, access all details about the piece, and view a gallery of images related to the production and process.

Introduction05

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Search by piece number

Heart of Glass

Heart of Glass

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Info

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www.heartofglass.ch

Presentation08

Presentation

IM001 The cover image is a collage made with pieces of each workshop

IM002 Finished artefacts

IM003 Series of procedures

IM004 Unfinished artefacts

Presentation09

A COLLECTION OF EXPERIMENTS

All the artefacts produced – around three hundred pieces – are presented regardless of their level of completion IM002-004. The aim was to reveal the wealth of experiences and the challenges that punctuated the project. For Augustin Scott de Martinville, ECAL professor and designer, “the issue was to build a common frame-work for all the experiences and processes that took place in different contexts”. The results are presented via an exhibition, a catalogue and a website organised according to a system of taxonomic classification.

“Could we classify the luxuriant growth of objects as we do a flora or fauna?”, wondered Jean Baudrillard in his pioneering reflec- tions on the place of objects in everyday life. It is not always necessary, however, to return to such fundamental questions, because there were also practical purposes to consider when setting up a classification system.

“From the beginning, we created codes. We were speaking about ‘The mould E1’. If the test worked, we continued with the mould E1.1 which was the same mould brought one step further IM010. Also, one of the difficult tasks was to classify all the steps of these projects to make them accessible for everybody.”— Eleonora Castellarin, ECAL assistant for the Master Product Design

In this spirit, the main aim of this collection of test pieces is to reveal the various processes inherent in a creative research project. All set out on the same plan, each object relates its own history and lets us examine it in the light of its imperfections. Between transparency and reflection, Heart of Glass immerses us in the heart of design and this project should be seen as a provisional catalogue of creations to come.

GLASS AS A HEURISTIC TOOL

Techniques for working with glass to create useful objects have been around for mil- lennia. It is possible to trace the work of the earliest artisans back to 2500 B.C. and their use has expanded constantly since that

time. From the very outset there has been extensive documentation of the various tech-niques developed around the world — a huge pool of resources to draw on when tracing the way our technology and knowledge around this material have evolved. The invention of glass blowing, around 2000 years ago, was a significant turning point in bringing glass into widespread use for creating everyday objects.

Since then, glass has always been a crucial element in technical evolution and the development and affirmation of cultural her- itage around the world. Glass can be mass- produced or handmade, on a monumental or microscopic scale, decorative or functional, ancient or high-tech; it is certainly one of the most indispensable materials in our lives. It is associated with a vast number of opera-tional processes, such as moulding, blowing, shaping, recycling etc. Thus, the first premise when approaching such a huge subject for an applied research project is grounded in the impossibility of drawing up a definitive survey of the art.

“The process of working on specific com-missions is one in which we are learning something new every day. As a result, it is not that easy to pass on and to take own- ership of this type of expertise. Through these experiences, however, the students were nonetheless able to create pieces, de-velop moulds, be imaginative... so ultimately everyone ended up learning something.”— Matteo Gonet, glassblower

Through the four workshops it was possible to check or dismiss a certain number of hypotheses, some of which were more intu-itive while others were bolder. Nonetheless, they were not following set purposes, in the utilitarian sense of the term. The aim was not to create new products, but rather to gain and to document new knowledge.

“For the last few years, students had the opportunity to conduct their research via In-ternet and have access, within a few minutes, to a tsunami of interesting and intelligent facts concerning the project they have been working on. On a global level, I find this ab-solutely terrifying. Indeed, to be able to have

Presentation10

immediate access to the best solutions to one common problem leaves very little space for imagination and wandering thoughts.” — Ronan Bouroullec, ECAL professor and designer

Thus, in view of the current situation, it was more about engaging in dialogue, produc ing sample pieces, documenting ways of doing things, communicating experiences… IM011-014 in short, about putting together a certain number of methodological tools through which we can gain a clear view of projects to come. Luc Bergeron, head of ECAL Research and Development, says “It is more about being an intermediary whose role is to create coherence”, a translator capable of putting situations into intelligible language.

As such, this project should be seen as the first stage in a more extended investigation into the role and impact of materials on product design. This relates to a certain idea of what the role of the designer entails. He or she should not be understood as a “special-ist”, in the scholarly sense. “I am against the idea of establishing a pre-determined organi-sation system or set of rules”, maintains Ronan Bouroullec.

“I am much more inclined to study a mix of topics to do with mass produced items, as well as small-scale productions based on com plex techniques. In this way, you avoid be coming a specialist or knowing too much about one particular subject. In my opinion, research is more productive when you main-tain a certain amount of ingenuity. We are very far from having a well-prepared, system-atic or scientific approach. Nonetheless, we do not work purely on an intuitive basis. The idea is to avoid narrowing down to such an extent that you do not allow for the unex-pected. This is extremely important, as far as I am concerned. This process is articulated throughout the four workshops.”

WORKSHOPS

Hot Tools: carried out under the direction of Ronan Bouroullec and in collaboration with Matteo Gonet, Hot Tools emphasises devel-oping and experimenting with original tools

in the field of glassblowing. A large part of the research rests on the collective dynamic established and on the opportunity to create artefacts in situ.

“During the course of studies, it is essential to experience workshop situations, as they come with very different work paces. We know that we have very little time and that, in itself, is highly challenging. A designer needs to remain humble, since it is especially hard to completely master each and every topic. What is required is a good insight, to be able to analyse, understand and use a situation to one’s own advantage. The Hot Tools workshop was a great example of this, because we had to quickly come up with something intelligent that could also be created within the short time frame.” — Ronan Bouroullec

Plan B: forward-looking work on technolog-ical applications in glass. The workshop was carried out by various Master Product De-sign students under the direction of Camille Blin, ECAL professor and designer. At the end of their work, five prototypes had been produced, each of which demonstrated the potential applications of a specific technology. Data sheets were produced for each project.

“Within the context of a school collaboration with Baccarat, a certain number of projects that had great potential but which did not exactly fit into industrial and commercial con-straints were produced. This was what gave us the idea of taking advantage of this situation by setting up an extension to the research so that the project could evolve beyond the re-quirements of production. Generally speaking, it was a very good example of the kind of situ-ation a designer often encounters. In fact, you have to be able to rapidly evaluate the results of your research so that you can quickly bounce back into new directions.” — Augustin Scott de Martinville

Meisenthal: designing products in glass within the setting of CIAV Meisenthal, a small art glass centre in the north of France: work shop designed by assistants from the Bachelor and Master of Industrial and Product Design and led by Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard, head

Presentation11

IM005 Examples of sketches of moulds provided to the glass casting technician

IM006–009 Assorted moulds produced from the sketches (IM005)

Presentation12

of the ECAL Bachelor Industrial Design and designer. At the end of their work, six pro totypes suitable for commercial pro- duction had been created, as well as sheets detailing the actions carried out in pro- duction, the aim being to document and pass on the manufacturing process.

“Worksheets establish the manipulations that are specific to the production of a particular set project, similarly to a cooking recipe, in other words, stage by stage. A glassblower with experience could in theory reproduce the manipulations necessary to create a certain object. However, this set of instructions is pretty basic. For instance, it does not explain in a detailed fashion the various stages of preparation and finishing the object goes through.” — Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard

Mould Machine: this workshop, in several stages, was designed with first year prod- uct design MA students, under the direction of Augustin Scott de Martinville and in part-nership with Matteo Gonet. The objective was to explore complex techniques for shap-ing new refractory materials with which to design moulds. At the end of the workshop, sample pieces representing the most promis-ing procedures had been created, along with sheets bringing together the properties of each material tested.

“The idea was to question the lost wax tech-nique. Our aim was to minimise the interme-diate steps required to produce a negative of the object to be produced by using modern technologies such as recent refractory materi-als, a 3D printer, a digital milling machine etc. All these made it possible to work directly on the mould without going through the tradi-tional moulding process. It is a very ambitious project.” — Matteo Gonet

IM010

IM011

IM012

Presentation13

IM013

IM014 “Worksheets establish the manipulations that are specific to the production of a particular set project, similarly to a cooking recipe, in other words, stage by stage. A glassblower with experience could in theory reproduce the manipulations necessary to create a certain object. However, this set of instructions is pretty basic. For instance, it does not explain in a detailed fashion the various stages of preparation and finishing the object goes through.” — Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard

Method14

Method

IM015 Example of a wooden mould

IM016 A torsional wooden mould burns after being opened

IM017 Use of custom-made mashing pliers to form the slit of the Money Box during the Meisenthal workshop

IM018 A collection of prototypes made during the Mould Machine workshop

Method15

ORGANISING A TOOL BOX

There is something rather unorthodox about putting on an exhibition entirely composed of prototypes, because these are generally used during the preparatory phases of a project.

“It is the first time that a design is made up and enables you to check that it will work, and to test its materials, properties, manufac-turing methods etc., generally with the aim of producing it on a larger scale”.— Augustin Scott de Martinville

In this way, one of the roles of the prototype could be to test the public response.By presenting various ways of using, devel-oping, manufacturing and exhibiting a product, Heart of Glass also helps to reveal the room allocated to prototypes and samples in the research process. Yet, unlike the demonstrations used in the technol- ogy sectors, this is not about putting forward definitive proposals. By creating a range of instruments IM017, samples and proofs of concept, each workshop gave rise to a particular way of seeing the prototype’s role. Heart of Glass provides a toolbox which opens up new avenues in art glass. These ar tefacts should not be understood as def - initive answers, but rather as sample pieces through which we can ask questions.

A PRAGMATIC APPROACH

“Most of the participants in the project, students, researchers and professors alike, had never previously experimented with this material. This assumed ‘naivety’ enabled creative re-readings, because it forced us to take a pragmatic stance on habitual ques-tions and processes. The characteristic use of certain tools, the immediacy of the pro-duction methods, the intense heat and ‘quasi magical’ effects of molten glass, and being immersed in this unfamiliar environ- ment made it possible to avoid certain ‘routines’ in this field.

The first characteristic of such an approach is found in the privileged relationships estab-lished with specialists in the field, particularly internationally renowned artisan glassmakers.

Visitors who are thoroughly at home in this field were an integral part of each workshop and were able to transfer their knowledge to the students.” — Luc Bergeron

A fruitful dialogue emerged between the project partners IM020-021. There is no doubt that originality is the principal asset of this kind of collaboration; a balance between the technical skill of the glass craftspeople and the spontaneity of the non-experts thus nat urally emerged. While such open formats can sometimes seem unsettling, they are particularly effective motors for creating in fluential experiences. Whether they were concerned with developing novel moulding tools IM016, inventorying basic motions or re-specting industrial constraints etc., all these workshops had one goal in common: to pro duce a range of sample pieces in glass, the diversity and originality of which would crystallise our contemporary aesthetic preoc-cupations. To varying degrees, these were all stages in a larger project which aims at set-ting up original models for creative research.

Consequently, we must reflect on the contingencies and specific characteristics of research in the field of applied arts, and do so while giving a privileged position to specific pedagogical and heuristic formats. As a result, one of the major difficulties with the exercise was in setting up programmes that were systematic enough to record the questions, results and other kinds of ob-servation, while remaining supple enough to unleash a profusion of creativity. We can pinpoint three important moments in the course of Heart of Glass. Firstly, there was the matter of fixing objectives and antici-pating the forms that could be created in an institutional setting. Secondly, there was the job of experimenting with these premises in the context of very specific constraints. Thirdly, everything produced had to be sub-jected to evaluation procedures based both on formal methodological criteria and on feasibility. Finally, each step led to a reflection on the most appropriate means with which to communicate these experiences. In this type of creative research, “cultivating the question is just as important as cultivating the result, if not more so”, affirms Luc Bergeron.

Method16

RESEARCH, CREATIONAND COMMUNICATION

It is generally difficult to get a clear idea of what research means in the field of design, and this is especially true of product design. A project always begins out of the necessity to answer a question, to resolve a problem or to tackle a subject. Creative research enables us to construct an artificial situation to shape a problem. Any design process will include indexing information IM019, specifying ways of doing things, collecting collaborative partners, making prototypes, carrying out tests etc., even if they do not always follow systematic procedures. For designers, it is often difficult to distinguish between their everyday prac-tice and an applied “research” process. At the same time, “all designers tend to feel that they are doing research while working on a project”, says Augustin Scott de Martinville. A common misunderstanding of basic research is to see it as a kind of process whose results are solely due to serendipity or, if we take a more ro-mantic view, to creative genius. While chance is inextricably linked with any creative process, it is not the only aspect, and the success of a project is generally related to an ability to de-fine one’s intentions and a clear methodology.

Thus, the difficulty lies in this ability to anticipate which hypotheses to formulate, which tools to develop, which operating models to use and which other resources will be necessary to optimise and communi-cate the various stages of a research project. When it comes to applied research into a material such as glass, our primary interest is in experimenting with a certain number of new avenues which can be used in various forms as a starting point for future projects; the latter can, moreover, move into per-spectives beyond the boundaries of design.

“Ultimately, what is research? It is, above all, a question of pushing the students to be even more curious than they would already be in a professional context. We need to question ourselves more, to get out of our comfort zones, to be able to face the experts and to be convincing. In short, it is an opportunity to elicit unusual experiences, at the same time as suggesting projects that could be exploited later.” — Alexis Georgacopoulos

IM019 All of the pieces in the exhibition and this publication are accessible on the Heart of Glass website: www.heartofglass.ch

Info

Hot Tools Plan B Mould Machine

Heart of Glass

Meisenthal

B003A003

B004A004

B002A002

B001A001 C001 D001

C002 D002

C003 D003

C004 D004

Method17

IM020 Glassblowers blowing molten glass into a parison (CIAV, Meisenthal)

IM021 Ronan Bouroullec and Matteo Gonet in discussion with the students (Glassworks, Basel)

8 Axioms for Creative Research18

8 Axioms for Creative Research

01 DEVELOPING HEURISTIC PROCEDURES

Design can be seen as setting up creative solutions with the aim of resolving spe- cific problems. One of the basic method-ological axioms is that of preserving the traces of each stage in the process so as to deepen our knowledge of a particular field.

02 UNDERSTANDING PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTS

The various terms on which we approach an industrial enterprise aiming to create an application for a material, or design an object intended for mass production in a small artisanal workshop. To be able to give specific information, we would need to understand such concrete situations.

03 DIALOGUE WITH SPECIALISTS

We need to collect enough basic technical information to be able to communicate our ideas for a project to engineers, crafts-people, or technicians. This dialogue is built up and refined during research.

04 EXPRESSING INTENTIONS CLEARLY

Drawings, 3D files, models, previews, texts, process templates, texts etc.: we must make use of all the resources at our disposal to communicate our vision and enable others to see it. The issue is often one of un-derstanding which aspects should be priori-tised and which are secondary.

05 MAKING SAMPLES AND PROTOTYPES

Creating models or prototypes, some working and others not, is still the most effective way of testing any given stage and demonstrating a project’s potential. It is therefore a matter of

contributing to the state of the art, as it were, in the form of a sampling programme.

06 PREPARING INFORMATION

The various workshops generated a very large amount of technical data which needed organising. The issue was one of selecting the most relevant information, finding communication systems and creat- ing suitable models for making it more readily comprehensible. This took the form of fact sheets for Plan B, “recipes” for Meisenthal and diagrams for Mould Machine.

07 COMMUNICATING RESULTS

This was about, on one hand, giving access to as much of the collected information as possible and, on the other hand, freeing up the potential and the depth which must be taken into account in this type of project. The aim is clearly to allow other practitioners, largely in the field of design, to take hold of them.

08 LOOKING AHEAD TO FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

The results should be the object of critical analysis from which it is possible to work out a longer-term vision for the potential de-velopments and changes in design research.

9 Axioms for Research Communication20

9 Axioms for Research Communication

01 DRAWING UP AN INVENTORY

Communicating a creative research project to peers is in itself a full research project. One of the requirements was therefore to give val-ue to the work by similarly valuing the various skills involved, whether in terms of graphic design, exhibition design or storytelling, which are also among ECAL’s strengths. This is the spirit in which this publication was conceived. It sets out a kind of vade-mecum of inten-tions, procedures, experiences and other “things” that mark out a research process. The artefacts produced are therefore classi-fied according to criteria that could be used to spark a debate around research in design.

02 COMPREHENSIVE NATURE

The first important decision was to show all the pieces that came out of the workshops, even if they were not completely finished. Some pieces might even be broken, because it was important to preserve the trail of the attempts, reorientations, improvements and setbacks that also form part of the heuristic potential of a project of this kind.

03 COHERENT VISUAL SYSTEM

When it comes to communicational language, an advantage of glass is that it forms a complete “optical” system:

“Visually, the pieces of glass speak for them-selves. When you see them together, you understand what this project is about, be-cause you see that each piece has a differ-ent characteristic, but they’re all glass. And these characteristics are defined by what the students decided to do. So if they decided to mould in a particular way, the glass looks completely different. If they decided to use a different treatment or finishing, it looks com-

pletely different. You can almost only under-stand this by seeing the pieces together and comparing them. This kind of library allowed us to have a minimal amount of information, with emphasis on the images of the pieces.” — Luke Archer, graphic designer

04 A 360° VISION

This homogeneity provokes a certain kind of acuity, because it invites people to play with subtle effects of transparency and to de fine their own criteria for comprehension and evaluation. In the same spirit, the chance to get a 360° view of the objects on the website enables us to understand how their transparency and brilliance varies with our viewpoint. This helps raise awareness of the extent to which the very contours of glass differ according to how the object is positi-oned in a space and how it is lit.

05 AN INDEFINITE SPACE

The original impulse behind the exhibition design was to create a kind of indefinite space, a place which blurs the kinds of ways in which we can interact with these objects: in the same way, as Camille Blin explains:

“This was not to look like a gallery, or a library or somewhere to display materials. We wanted to create an intermediary space in which nobody would be too sure of how to interact with what they found. In a museum, you know in advance that you don’t touch the objects, while in a library, you can touch them or bor-row them. It was interesting to play with the space that the visitor had in relation to these codes. This exposes the hybrid nature of these objects, because it would have been a shame to put them on pedestals, without creating even a minimum of interaction.”

9 Axioms for Research Communication23

06 CULTURAL ARTEFACTS

Some pieces are intelligible in themselves while others need to be put in context. The aim was not to suggest an overly rigid or definitive layout around this collection of hybrid objects. Aesthetically speaking, some of them may be more attractive or more relevant than others, but the aim was to set up communication mechanisms that would give the visitors “prompts” that would give enough points of view for them all to be able to tell their own story. For Matteo Gonet, “each piece is a work with plenty to say to people with the same kind of sensibility. Each piece has its own history and they come to symbolise a certain period at ECAL”.

07 STORYTELLING

This collection thus aims to arouse curiosity, to spark histories, the triggers which urge users to put their finger on certain questions at the heart of applied research. Starting from these various taxonomic levels, we can create a range of associations, based on formal, methodological or functional criteria. By flowing from one object to the next, we can thus distinguish for ourselves the effects of certain treatments, ways of creating textures or colour. There are many ways of interacting with these objects and there is no need to be a designer to appreciate this experience. The project is intended to allow anybody at all to gain a basic idea of the manufacturing processes or the terminology used in the field of glass. An object’s aes- thetic qualities can thus help us distinguish between ancient craftsmanship and more recent techniques. This didactic process aims to put forward an organised system of benchmarks that trigger free associations.

08 KINDS OF ATTENTION

It is more a question of playing on the kinds of attention that usually guide our rela- tionship with common objects. We can, on one hand, focus directly on particular references depending on the name of the author, the attractiveness of the object, the technique used or any other characteristic

that we could list, following a standardised model of regulation. On the other hand, it is equally possible to drift from one object to another, gathering information and impres-sions yet not in pursuit of any specific goal. In this case, knowledge is not an end in itself; rather, it is connections that predominate:

“What you initially have is visual information; the image of a piece, so you don’t have to understand what moulding or blowing glass is. However, the categories provide an under-standing. If a person sees the picture of an object with a certain label describing the technique, she/he would be able to see all the other pieces using the same methods. So they can observe that a certain kind of treatment gives a certain kind of characteristic to the glass.” — Luke Archer

The average user’s curiosity is grabbed by the fragile, almost personalised character, of this profuse collection. The aim is not to dis-tinguish between projects with great potential and unsuccessful ones. Their importance is more determined by the specific place they acquire in this extraordinary collection.

09 TOWARDS A SYSTEM OF QUASI-OBJECTS

In the introduction to his work The System of Objects, Jean Baudrillard mused on the possibility of classifying the huge prolif-eration of objects as we would do with plant species or animal families. He consid- ered that this task would be all the more important in an era – the 1960s – when societal ways of life were undergoing the first waves of acceleration. Identifying and inven-torying everyday objects in a “more or less coherent system” would allow us to reveal the effects of modernisation. At the same time, the term quasi-object is used to define things, serving as intermediaries, which trace the relationships between individuals. The quasi-objects are thus described as operators through which we can make projec- tions relating to the organisation of more complex ensembles. A census of hybrids serving indeterminate ends, Heart of Glass is in some way a system of quasi-objects. It is this indefinite character that adds value.

Pieces24

Directory of Pieces

A001– A018Hot Tools

B001– B019 Plan B

C001– C119Meisenthal

D001– D110Mould Machine

Pieces25

A007 A008 A009 A010

A011 A012 A013 A014 A015

A016 B001 B002

B003

A017 A018

B007B004 B005 B006

B008 B009 B010 B011 B012

B013 B014 B015

C002C001

B016

C003

B017

B018 B019

A003 A004 A005

A006

A002A001

Pieces25

C012 C013

C014 C015 C016 C017 C018

C019 C020 C021 C022 C023

C024 C025 C026 C027 C028

C029 C030 C031 C032

C037

C033

C038C034

C039

C035

C040

C036

C041 C043C042

C004 C005 C006 C008

C009 C010 C011

C007

Pieces26

C047 C048

C049 C050 C051

C044 C045 C046

C052 C053

C054 C055 C056 C057 C058

C059 C060 C061 C062 C063

C064 C065 C066 C067

C072

C068

C073C069

C074

C070

C075

C071

C076

C082 C083

C078

C079 C080 C081

C077

Pieces27

C092 C093

C094 C095 C096 C097 C098

C099 C100 C101 C102

C107

C103

C108C104

C109

C105

C110

C106

C111

C117 C118

C119 D001 D002

C113

C114 C115 C116

C112

C084 C085 C086 C087 C088

C089 C090 C091

D003 D004

Pieces28

D005 D006 D007 D008 D009

D010 D011 D012 D013 D014

D015 D016 D017 D018 D019

D020

D025

D021

D026

D022

D027

D023

D028

D024

D029

D035 D036 D037 D038 D039

D040 D041 D042 D043 D044

D031 D032 D033 D034D030

Pieces29

D055

D060

D056

D061

D057

D062

D058

D063

D059

D064

D070 D071 D072 D073 D074

D075 D076 D077 D078 D079

D080 D081 D082 D083 D084

D066 D067 D068 D069D065

D045 D046 D047 D048 D049

D050 D051 D052 D053 D054

Pieces30

D085 D086 D087 D088 D089

D090 D091 D092 D093 D094

D110 D111

D095 D096 D097 D098 D099

D105 D106 D107 D108 D109

D101 D102 D103 D104D100

Pieces31

Hot Tools34

Hot Tools

The objective of Hot Tools was to experiment with original methods of glassblowing, through creating innovative procedures and modelling tools. The workshop began with a visit, supervised by Ronan Bouroullec, to glass-blower Matteo Gonet’s studio (Basel). Starting from their observations and com-ments, the students were given five days to develop tools and scenarios to be tested

in the studio. The objects created blend naivety with pragmatism and ingenuity, uncovering new perspectives on glass- blowing. A selection of the most successful work was presented in Milan as part of the 2012 design week. Hot Tools made up the initial stage which served as a framework for the later phases of Heart of Glass.

IM022 A glob of molten glass is blown into a DIY mould made from bricks

Hot Tools35

CRAFTSMANSHIPThe aim was to develop a dialogue by working closely with glass craftsman Matteo Gonet. He had previously trained as a designer and worked at CIRVA (Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plas-tiques). He regularly works with artists and designers and was thus extremely responsive to the students’ unusual suggestions. He explained that this experi- ence had particularly helped him to contrast these two worlds: “On the one hand there is a world of artisans and technicians who have gained their expertise from years of practice. On the other, there are young stu-dents whose approach to the material is one of com-plete naivety. This opposi-tion is a huge benefit when it comes to generating real artistic emulation and I greatly value this kind of project”. — Matteo Gonet

SPONTANEITYThe students had two days in which to imagine and con-struct original tools, followed by two days in the studio to create their objects direct-ly. The project therefore largely rested on their sponta-neous ideas being immediate-ly put into practice IM022.

ONE-OFFAs a general rule, designing an object requires relatively long waiting periods between the stages. This is the major difference with glassblowing, where you can get imme-diate results. This involves a very interesting state of mind because you must be

able to anticipate moments of flux. Paradoxically, de-spite – or thanks to – this lack of constraints, most of the pieces produced during the workshop seem finished. “It is especially hard to completely master each and every topic. What is required is a good insight, to be able to analyse, understand and use a situa-tion to one’s own advantage. The workshop was a great example of how to come across a technique this way, because we had to quickly come up with something intelligent that could also be created within the short time frame. I forgot to men-tion that one of the main assets of this workshop is that physical objects also had to be produced in a few days work. A real challenge: it wasn’t just a project, but it also had to lead to a physical result; an object”. — Ronan Bouroullec

TYPES OF GLASSThere was a sort of crescendo of difficulties in ways to evaluate and communicate the results. Considering that they were prototypes, the heuristic value of these arte-facts is principally to be found in the singular processes that played a part in creating them. This was particularly the case for the various ways in which the moulds could change and alter the pâte-de-verre so as to solidify it into arte-facts with unique forms and textures IM023.

PÂTE-DE-VERREA material produced by grinding glass into a fine pow-der and then adding a binder to create a paste, a fluxing medium to facilitate melting,

and a colouring agent such as powdered glass or metallic oxides. The paste is brushed or pressed into a mould, dried, and fused by heating. After annealing, the object is removed from the mould and finished. Taken from the mould, pâte-de-verre has a matte surface that can be polished smooth. It can also be carved to refine the form1.

FUSIONThe system that runs through a workshop is in itself a key factor for success. The har-mony between the partici-pants, the stimulation provid-ed by the objectives and so on all come together to create a distinctive context: “There really was a very special at-mosphere, something extraor-dinary happened during that week. Perhaps this system was due to finding ourselves in a glassblowing studio, to seeing the pieces come into existence so quickly; it all added a touch of magic to the project”. — Camille Blin

TOOLSThe problems to be solved did not really have any bearing on the usability or formal qualities of the objects themselves. Whether the final artefact was a vase or a “thing”, it had been initially envisaged as a pretext, a kind of by-product. A tool is defined as “some-thing (as an instrument or apparatus) used in performing an operation or necessary in the practice of a vocation or a profession”. The original

1 C. Hess and K. Wight, Looking at Glass: A Guide to Terms, Styles and Tech-niques, V&A Publications, 2005, p 66.

Hot Tools36

idea for Hot Tools was thus to produce novel instruments with which to make objects in glass. This stance involved paying more sustained atten-tion to the creative process rather than stopping at fin-ished objects. All the pieces created are different and unique, but they were never intended to be integrated into optimised mass production. This love for inventing tools and cobbling them together is a recurrent theme through all the stages of Heart of Glass.

OBJECTIVITYTransferring knowledge through practical experiences is central to this type of project and it is impossible to only present its positive aspects. To correctly evaluate the efficacy of the systems in place, and thus to gain from the workshop’s heuristic value, we must focus par-ticularly on the elements that did not work. This creative research model requires as much objectivity as possible when it comes to communica-tion. In this way, each object

reveals the traces of the process and becomes a kind of tool with which to evaluate the feasibility of an idea.

EXHIBITION PIECE BYBRYNJAR SIGURÐARSONThe film made by Brynjar Sigurðarson, ECAL professor and designer, went a long way towards making the pro- ject intelligible, notably by focusing on the spectacular and extremely physical nature of what goes on in a glassblowing studio IM026.

“The initial idea was very basic, to document the stu-dents’ projects during Hot Tools with Matteo Gonet. Being at the workshop you start to notice all these weird, almost mystical scenes: a bucket on the floor, full of boiling water, tools that could rather belong to a butchers and materials that look like leftovers from a construction site. It’s a very different world from my everyday environ-ment, where in the centre of the scene the glass blower swings a metal pipe with 10kg

of molten glass at 800°C on the end of the pipe.  The students did the rest, and my only role was to be sincerely curious about what they were doing and then to convey that curiosity in the form of a video”. IM026

— Brynjar Sigurðarson

TUTORRonan Bouroullec

ASSISTANTSCamille BlinBrynjar Sigurðarson

PARTNERMatteo Gonet

DATEJanuary — April 2012

PARTICIPANTSRita BotelhoDiane du ChaxelSarha DuquesnePhilipp GrundhöferFelix KlingmüllerCharles MathisGiulio PariniJung-Cheng Su

IM023 The movable steel pegs allow a range of configurations

Hot Tools37

IM025 A glass piece entering the furnace

IM024 A hot piece of glass is rolled in metal washers on the marver

IM026

Plan B38

Plan B

Plan B was initiated as a follow-up to a collab-oration with crystal manufac turer Baccarat. The students were to put forward rereadings that were to be both original and potentially suitable for mass production. There was thus a need to take account of the inherent severe constraints, in terms of production and com-munication, to be found in such a prestigious company. Parallel to this “classical” mandate, with the aim of coming up with products that

could be launched on the market, some of the students worked on projects that used the properties of glass on a broader scale. The techniques and results sum- moned up were thus reassigned in a more experimental and longer-term context. Etching, moulding, engraving, this project explored a broad range of techniques in crystal, while expressing the importance of feasibility studies in any creative process.

IM027

Plan B39

CRYSTALCrystal is a heavier and more resistant variety of glass which calls on specific exper- tise in everything from etching to engraving. From a creative perspective, the project therefore concen-trated on this material’s reflective qualities and the almost magical way it gives off light.

INDUSTRIAL CONSTRAINTSPlan B reflects the extent to which a research project can take on a completely dif ferent direction as a result of contextual imperatives. This workshop consti- tutes a variation or rather a post-evaluation prolongation of pathways opened up in the course of working with a commercial partner. On the business side, these collab-orations are interesting because they give an oppor-tunity to question their line with respect to innovative, or even radical, propositions outside their normal commer-cial lines. As for the students, these are also opportunities to test their creative potential even while submitting to precise industrial criteria.

SECOND PHASEAfter evaluating the results of the first workshop, a cer- tain number of projects had huge potential but did not fit with the brand imperatives. It was decided to set up a second phase which was not subject to industrial and com-mercial constraints. As a result of this experience, Camille Blin noted “that it would be beneficial to conduct a second session every time,

in which we could continue working on the projects with a little distance. In this way, there would be a first ‘basic research’ step, and then a second part where we could have enough distance to see the projects’ real potential applications. These two mo-ments are distinct yet com-plementary”.

FEASIBILITYThis two-step approach proved particularly effective and it offered a window on future directions to take in creative research. Par- ticularly when a feasibility study undertaken during an initial phase makes it pos-sible for the research to evolve in other directions.

PROOF OF CONCEPTThe aim of Plan B was more to validate intentions than to produce functional objects. The artefacts act more as proof of concept which, after basic tests, give a concrete indication of the relevance of an idea. This stage general-ly comes after a prototype has been created. In this, the procedure adopted is close to the methods used in en-gineering where samples are created and used with the principal aim of demon-strating the feasibility of a hypothesis.

EVALUATIONThe available proofs of con-cept are the basis on which the project raises a whole new series of questions. There was a need to define the condi-tions in which this second stage could be run. Could it take place within the confines of the school, or would it

be more judicious to invite outside figures? Would it be necessary to take the pro- jects in new directions or simply to perfect the existing “recipes”? The idea of as-sociating iridescent tech-niques with photographs, for example, or playing on the reverberant capacities of laser-guided portrait engrav-ing, or making water filters entirely of glass. The partic-ipants approached partners themselves and, generally speaking, gained a positive reception.

IRISATIONRefers to the property by which certain bodies disperse light into rainbow-coloured rays. Daniel Wehrli, work- ing with the photographer Cyril Porchet, exploited this principle to produce a framing system which played on the effects of colours and transparencies produced by certain kinds of iridised glass used in architecture. A layer of coated glass creat-ed colour variations to make a framed black and white image.

LASEREleonora Castellarin exam- ined the potential of laser en-grav ing systems used to make portraits in souvenir shops: “The aim of the project was to exploit the precision of a cheap, computer controlled technique to create etched details inside crystal blocks with a func tional purpose. The result is a series of lamps composed by crystal blocks sitting on the light source with an engraved lampshade that both filters and reflects the light” IM027.

Plan B40

REFLECTIONIdea for a lamp based on a light source housed in the base and a transparent cylinder, the surfaces of which offer angles of reflection, and which acts as a light dif-fuser IM030.

SINTERINGThe process of heating a mix-ture of materials to the point that the materials combine (their surfaces melt together) and become a coherent mass, but not to the point that they completely fuse. Sintering is used to produce a frit and is sometimes called fritting2. For instance to create a water fil-ter by using particles of fritted glass IM029.

2 C. Hess and K. Wight, Looking at Glass: A Guide to Terms, Styles and Tech-niques, V&A Publications, 2005, p 66.

EXHIBITION PIECE BYCYRIL PORCHET“Photography is, by definition, a technique which enables us to create images through the action of light. As a re- sult, a photographic image does not necessarily have to be created with a camera. A photogram, for example, is a photographic image obtained by placing objects directly on a light-sensitive surface exposed to light. Taking inspiration from this technique, I sought to ex-plore the impact that glass can have on light by creating photograms with the help of plaques of coloured glass. The distinctive feature of the glass used was its irides-cence. In effect, it had been treated so as to present a vitreous surface that reflected a broad spectrum of colours.

I arranged these plaques at random on a photosensitive surface before lighting them by various means so as to play on their colour schemes and transparencies. This resulted in abstract coloured images, which are also materialisations of light through glass.” IM031

— Cyril Porchet

TUTORCamille Blin

DATEJanuary — June 2013

PARTICIPANTSEleonora CastellarinLevi DethierTobias NietscheVincent TarisienFredrik WærnesDaniel Wehrli

IM028 “A 3D engraving laser permits the creation of measurement tools that combine technical and graphical precision.” — Eleonora Castellarin

IM029

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Plan B41

IM031

Meisenthal42

Meisenthal

Meisenthal is the fruit of collaboration be-tween the Bachelor and Master of Industrial and Product Design at ECAL and the CIAV (Centre International d’Art Verrier) in Meisenthal. The objective was to create a collection of simple objects, which would require as few manufacturing steps as possible and be suitable for production in the facility. The workshop took place in two

parts and the selected prototypes were intended for small scale serial production. In the first place, an introductory week enabled us to define the extent of our ideas, methods and basic gestures. During a second week, the objects were finalised. All the various procedures were documen- ted through concise specification sheets

IM032 The workshop Meisenthal was focused on the observation and the documentation of “initial gestures”

Meisenthal43

CONTEXTEach workshop dealt with a problem of its own and we must look at their nuances, similarities and differences. Taking this contextual dimen-sion into consideration is at the heart of the problem to be solved in the Meisenthal workshop. The questions re-lated to ways of documenting a cultural heritage and passing on traditional skills.

CIAVMeisenthal is a historic loca-tion in the glass world – the oldest factory on the site dates back to 1704. The mission of the CIAV is to pre-serve this technical memory and to ensure that this heritage endures, notably by bringing it into contemporary contexts. “It thus unites the traditionally separate worlds of artisanal production and industry, contemporary creativity and traditional skills, with the aim of inspiring new cultural, economic and touristic dynamics around professional glass-making”3.

INITIAL GESTURESObservations made during experimentation were used to develop further approach-es, worked out around this series of “initial gestures” IM032. The idea was thus to create objects that were simple and cheap enough to be compat-ible with the line of objects created by this artisanal factory which, despite rela-tively limited resources, has access to a wider network yet remains fiercely independent.

3 http://ciav-meisenthal.fr/rubrique/ apropos

CREATING TUTORIALSThe initial stage consisted of observing the craftspeople in action, so as to define a series of simple movements. The job was to document these gestures in such a way that they could be repro-duced in another context. This involved drawing up data sheets IM033 that were more like tutorials or culinary reci-pes, so that the reader could repeat a sequence of simple movements. The exercise was all the more interesting because these operations had never been properly docu-mented during a traditional design process.

PROTOTYPESAs they related to very simple operations, it was highly likely that the objects would work at the first attempt. The pieces produced in this workshop are functional and help us to give precise information on the manufac-turing process, as well as the shape, appearance and, eventually, the commerciali-sation process. These designs are the closest to proto- types in the classical sense. That is: “a first or early exam-ple that is used as a model for what comes later”. They work as original models which can be referred to when producing artefacts later.

MOULDA receptacle used for shaping and/or decorating molten glass IM034. Some moulds impart pattern to the parison when it is inflated inside the mould. After the parison is withdrawn from the mould, it can be further inflated and tooled to the

desired shape and size. Other moulds are used to give a glass object its final form, with or without decoration.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFERBy producing documents we express a desire to reflect on the production of didac- tic tools that can be used to transfer knowledge and repeat experiences.

MASS PRODUCTIONUltimately, the objective was to select certain projects, developed in the course of the workshop, so that they could be incorporated into the company catalogue IM035.

MONEY BOXThe idea behind this object was to minimize to the fullest the steps needed to hand make a money box, in order for it to remain inexpensive. The money box is blown in a mould, then pinched and set directly in the lehr where it will slowly cool down until the next day. Once it is taken out, it does not require any other manipulation and can go straight onto the shop shelves.

SIGNATURESThe workshop offered an op- portunity for the assistants to create a project in their own names and some projects, par- ticularly the Money Box, by Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard, went into larger-scale production.

EXHIBITION PIECE BYMATHIEU RIVIER &PAULINE SAGLIO “One of the objectives of Plan B was to find a simple movement that would be easy to reproduce so that

Meisenthal44

arti sans working in glass could easily create objects without knowledge of the project. This installation intends to pay homage to this principle. The spectator comes into contact with one of the reali-sations through a simple and intuitive movement: slip-ping a coin into a money box. The installation aims to ex-tract this idea of a simple ges-ture and reposition it at the heart of a collective creation. Although its transparency means that glass is a material often used for practical and visual purposes, its acoustic qualities are neglected. When we insert a coin into the mon-ey box, we immediately hear the glass vibrating. As if it were a machine that we have recharged, the other money boxes that have been installed emit a reverberating sound, via solenoids concealed in the shelving. These repeated sounds immerse the spectator in an acoustic landscape pro-duced by vibrating glass.” IM036

— Mathieu Rivier & Pauline Saglio, media and interaction designers

TUTORStéphane Halmaï-Voisard

PARTNERCentre International d’Art Verrier, Meisenthal, France

DATEJanuary — July 2013

PARTICIPANTSManon BriodChristophe GuberanLucien GumyStéphane Halmaï-VoisardFiona KrügerPhilippe-Albert LefebvreAna Varela

IM033 The specification sheets work as tutorials, or “culinary recipes”, of operations that could be easily repeated

IM034

IM035 Coat hangers packaged for the CIAV shop

Meisenthal45

IM036

Mould Machine46

Mould Machine

The project Mould Machine was developed in close collaboration with Matteo Gonet. The aim was to explore the potential benefits of fire-resistant or refractory materials when producing moulds for glass objects. The stu-dents were thus invited to imagine prototypes for moulds and to express their intentions

very clearly. The research process was largely based on a series of iterations and evaluation procedures, before and after being fired. Each stage in the project was clearly defined so as to optimise the tests carried out during the preparatory process.

IM037 Molten glass being poured into a salt mould

Mould Machine47

MODELSThe requirements and rela-tionships of Mould Machine are similar to those developed in the world of engineering, especially designs of ex-periments, defined as the organised series of experi-ments around which research is organised in the fields of science or industry.

REFRACTORY MATERIALSAfter the workshop on tradi-tional techniques carried out as part of Hot Tools, Matteo Gonet suggested transposing this reflection on creating moulding tools into the field of engineering. The idea was to explore the potential ap-plications of fire-resistant or refractory materials generally used in tunnel building, and to test these materials to build moulds for glass casting IM037.

DRAWING UP PROTOCOLSIt was then a matter of testing the properties of these mate-rials, which are resistant to temperatures of up to 1600°C, by literally subjecting them to a trial by fire IM039. Given its experimental and formal nature, there is no doubt that this workshop was the closest to taking a scientific approach in the strict sense.

TEST AND TRIALWith their observations as a starting point, nine groups worked on setting up proto-cols for a selection of mate-rials produced by the Kapy-fract company. The idea was test these materials to build moulds for glass casting.

SYSTEMATIC PROCEDUREMost of the refractory ma-terials involved had never

previously been used, let alone tested, in the context of creative research. Given that it was impossible to anticipate the results, each step was initially envisaged as a way of specifying the questions and avenues for the next stage. Hypotheses, experiments, validation or invalidation: each of the various avenues thus evolved as a result of system-atic procedures for evaluating the results.

DIRECT CASTINGThe idea was largely about questioning traditional moulding techniques, which generally use wax and involve complex processes. The ben-efit of refractory materials is that they are very easy to han-dle, so it is possible to sculpt them, weave them, stick or screw them IM040.

SAMPLESWith Mould Machine, it was not really about producing prototypes because there were too many uncertainties as to applying these refractory materials. Consequently, it was more a question of work-ing on samples which, through a succession of iterations, could be used to evaluate potential areas of applications. In a process of this kind, the sample is felt to be represent-ative enough to express more general principles.

DEFERREDThe results of each stage had to be delayed for some time because it was necessary to send the samples by post for testing. This required a special effort in terms of organisation as well as in preparing the material, as there was always

a need to define precisely the data to be collected.

TRIAL AND ERRORMould Machine forced us to understand the very nature of the materials and involved exploring proposals and avenues that were not in fact necessarily achievable. Some of the more challenging tasks included machining certain materials, particularly fibre-board. We learned a lot by processing the materials within the school facility.

FAILUREGiven the untried nature of these materials, it was fre-quently the case that the tests yielded nothing conclusive. In this case, there was an equal need to demonstrate a certain discernment in understanding the reasons for this failure and, following analysis, in being able to remedy it the next time. In this sense we can truly speak of a basic research project, because there was no need to yield a result. Augustin Scott de Martinville explains that, “There is some-thing a little frustrating when 9/10 attempts do not work; even if that is a common ratio in a scientific trial, it is not the case in design. A lot of patience is required and there is no doubt that we had to learn to deal with the frustra-tions thrown up by this feeling of ‘failure’. In concrete terms, we confronted failure because we kept all traces of stuff which didn’t work. It’s a bit like looking at the embryonic forms of extinct species”.

Mould Machine48

EXHIBITION PIECE BYBAKER WARDLAW“I was asked to create a piece using a technique devel-oped in the Mould Machine workshop. I chose to expand on the technique created by the students of the masters design programme. The Mould Machine workshop was basically a series of ex-periments to find new, quick, cheap, and innovative ways to mould glass. I first created a 3D model of my pieces, then Kapyfract AG was responsible for cutting and milling the form into stacks of their fire-proof panels. Once the mould was complete, Matteo Gonet of Glassworks poured molten glass into the moulds and fin-ished the pieces. Glass, of all common structural elements (like wood, metal or textile)

is exceptional because of the diverse forms and functions it takes in our lives: windows and windshields, electronic screens, glasses for water. It is a sort of ultimate inter-face.” IM041-042

— Baker Wardlaw, artist

TUTORAugustin Scott de Martinville

ASSISTANTEleonora Castellarin

PARTNERMatteo Gonet

DATESeptember 2013 —January 2014

PARTICIPANTS Julie BernardMaría Dolores Buades BalleThomas BurnsLeila ChouikhStanislaw CzarnockiJames DartLucas FrankAnthony GuexKatarzyna KempaRebecca María Loaíza AlvearEléa NouraudRoosa RyhänenTakeru Sato Hansel SchlouptThomas SchmitzDong-In SeolAeneas StankowskiPatrick TarkhounianCaroline Thurner

IM038 Fireproof fibres

IM039 Refractory materials can resist to temperatures of up to 1600°C IM040 Molten glass poured onto sheets of metal

Mould Machine49

IM041

IM042

Colophon50

Heart of GlassA design research project by ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne

ECAL director Alexis Georgacopoulos

Project leader Augustin Scott de Martinville

Exhibition design Camille Blin

Texts and interviews Joël Vacheron

Art direction & graphic design Luke Archer Assisted by Leonardo Azzolini

Transcripts Letizia Monti

Translation EnergyTranslations

Typeface Terrazzo

Image Credits Axel Crettenand — Pages 02, 06, 19,

21, 22, 32, 51, Images IM027 – 030

Philippe Fragnière — Images IM031, IM036, IM041, IM042

Luke Archer & Leonardo Azzolini —

Cover, directory of pieces Nicolas Genta — Images IM016,

IM021 – 025, IM035 Jeremy Ayer — Images IM032, IM034

ISBN 978-2-9700962-3-8

Website www.heartofglass.ch

Exhibition at the Gallery l’elac Renens, Switzerland22 January — 20 February 2015

This publication is part of the research project Heart of Glass funded by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO)www.hes-so.ch

ECALUniversity of Art and Design Lausanne5, avenue du Temple 1020 Renens, Switzerlandwww.ecal.ch