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The Makings of Objects in Translation

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The time has come … with much regret, Nina and I are posting our last contribution to Unmaking Things as editors of the column Objects in Translation. For this final article, perhaps a bit of background information is necessary. Following the end of our masters, we both returned to our homeland – Switzerland and France respectively. And so, as well as marking our final post, this is also in its own way the final chapter of our last two years in London. We have therefore tried to bring together our highlights from the column – but also objects and landmarks that are tied to UnMaking Things and our final year in London.

An object I will miss: The Albert Bridge - my evening runs always gravitated towards it in some strange way. © Nina Prongracz

 

 

 

Soersha: It seemed fairly organic for Nina and myself to work together on the column – and it seemed fairly obvious what our column would be considering the similarities in our background. We are both bilingual, from a cross-cultural background, and living in the UK as, one might say, ‘continentals’. To create a column together on cross-cultural objects was obvious. Plus, we knew each other very well by then, and working with a friend is always an added bonus!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nina: In the first year, it seems our attention was drawn in by objects that served multiple purposes, which were some form of hybrid or that stood at the meeting point of different cultures. I don’t think I will ever forget the monstrous sixteenth century ceramic stove, which now stands in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This large, yet extremely detailed object stood at the heart of a women’s convent in southern Germany, but its structural design also bore parallels with pulpits in Italian churches. During her study of the very English porringer, Soersha found that this container, used for various purposes, could also be found in France and Italy. Soersha would come to admit that “it is tempting to see, in the evolving shape of the porringer, an assimilation of continental cultural practices”. I feel like it is such quite intuitive impulses that led us to want to find a place where we could further explore some ideas which were perhaps not so well established yet. Having always followed my gut-instinct, this seemed the natural order of things for me when we came up with our column.

 

My own missed landmark - Battersea Power Station © Soersha Dyon, 2012

 

Soersha: In some odd way, I think I enjoyed the editing process a bit more than writing my own articles. Perhaps because our last year in the MA was so heavily focused on writing – because of our dissertations – it seemed almost luxurious to be able to put our owns pens (keyboards?) down and truly think about writing. Marilyn has already underlined in her great article on the craft of writing how important the process was to our work, and I think being involved in Unmaking Things made me very much aware of it. Having the time to look over our own articles, trying to find the perfect sentence and seeking to make it as precise as possible – that was a process I really enjoyed, far more than expected.

Nina: What I truly loved about our column is that it attracted such a wide variety of topics. Always interested in the colourful variety of our world, it was a real treat to read both about late nineteenth century Indian jewellery and arabesque ornament in sixteenth century Italian calligraphy books under the same header. Looking back, I am now much more aware that this really both illustrates and encourages what I think anyone interested in the history of design is driven by: an open mind. By this I mean that the same theory or method of analysis was applied to objects seemingly completely unrelated, but through this common approach became cousins. I hope that the array of different posts have given readers the opportunity to see the objects and topics in discussion as part of a network, much like I have learned to see objects as part of a web of cultural moments, languages, places and people. Here I think it is also important to thank our contributors for making Objects in Translation the lively and hybrid place we wanted it to be.

 

The table carpet symbolic of this column, my own research - and probably one of my favorite objects in the V&A's collection © Victoria and Albert Museum, 2012

An object that has haunted me since I first began to study it in the first year of our MA. The south German tile stove by Hans Kraut from 1577 was my first intensive study of an object history-of-design-style. Coming from an area in Europe where such stoves can still be found in many houses, it still haunts me today. Even the company I now work for has a library, where a stove from the same period and of a similar style still stands, perfectly preserved © Victoria and Albert Museum, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soersha: As mentioned earlier, I’m safely back in France, having survived the perils of Albion! I’m involved in the creation of Fig.9, a collective composed of some of the members of UnMaking Things while also concentrating on my own research and applying for PhD’s.

 

 

 

Nina: And I´m back in the land of cheese and chocolate, enjoying the working life. I am currently doing a six-month internship in corporate communications with a global industrial company and have just been offered an extension. I am planning to go to a PR agency next and see how that goes. With little experience in this field up until now I am constantly learning and am invigorated by the contrast to five years of studying. However, I am still to see which industry I will end up in, which is another field to explore. Finally, to my great joy, I have found the energy and inspiration to write creative pieces again, something that was slightly numbed during my time as a student. I hope to continue writing as a free-thinking soul that has the great privilege of being able to draw on the memory of the people, ideas, places and objects that she came across during her time with Unmaking Things.

 

Unfortunately I dont have a picture of the balcony of the art bar at the RCA, which is the place that reminds me of Unmaking Things. Whenever I think about it, I think about our meetings and evenings with crisps and beer and about how it all began. It is where we were all together for the first and last time as a team and where our face-to-face exchange took place. Here´s a picture of how I used to get there (biking home after the meetings is also something I will never forget) © Nina Pongracz, 2012

 

This article was written by two pairs of hands roughly 500 km apart – a fitting final image for this column and what we sought to achieve throughout the year!

 

All rights reserved © Soersha Dyon & Nina Pongracz, 2012


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