Congratulations Professor
22-May-2009
“The School of Jewellery is delighted to announce that our esteemed friend and colleague Jivan Astfalck, has today been granted a Professorship by Birmingham City University. This justly deserved accolade is a reflection of Jivan’s contribution to learning and teaching within the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design (BIAD), in addition to her outstanding research profile and standing in the field, nationally and internationally.” - Professor Jack Cunningham PhD, Head of School.
Jivan completed her PhD in 2007 at the University of the Arts, London. Her practice based research examined “ Narrative structures in body related crafts objects "
Please read her abstract below
NARRATIVE STRUCTURES IN BODY-RELATED CRAFTS OBJECTS
In a largely under-theorised subject area as the crafts, this practice-based research contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the body related crafts object at PhD level. It conceptualises the narrative methodology necessary to make the creative work and theoretically examines its intention. Because the theoretical work on narrative structures has been largely done outside the crafts/art context, the research adopts and adapts existing procedures and concepts from hermeneutic philosophy and literary theory to expand on the understanding of the body related crafts object in this new context. The dialogical and dynamic relationship between the surveying of relevant literature and the creative development of the practical work enabled the development of the narrative context of the work itself and the advancement of a studio methodology that emphasizes reflexivity and is conscious of its own need for understanding.
Drawing on historical and autobiographical material, fiction and fairy tales, a series of body-related crafts objects have been produced that tell hybrid, fantastical stories. These objects are enigmatic, yet suggestive of the wounds of history and of the trauma and healing processes that are part of our relationships with others. The work is understood as a mnemonic device created to evoke the complexities and webs of relationships, which exist between the various levels of interpretative investments that would otherwise be un-containable.
The exploration of the notion of metaphor within a semantic context is here adapted to facilitate new understanding of the metaphorical qualities found in creative and narrative craft objects. Metaphoricity can be regarded as a way of cross-mapping the conceptual system of one area of experience and terminology with another, suggesting a coherent system created for understanding knowledge in terms of critical reflection, and being conducive to new creative articulation and representation. In the work theory emerges as a dynamic encounter, a continuous re-figuration within a tradition of commentary and interpretation.
Professor Jivan Astfalck
For further info please visit Jivan Astfalck
Images above are copyright of Jivan Astfalck, Love Zoo - Transitional Objects 1-30