Dr Jesse Adams Stein

Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow at the School of Design, Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building, UTS, Australia.

21 September in S02_6.37 | 5:00pm - 6:00 pm

Makers, Manufacturers & Designers: Connecting Histories is an ARC DECRA project that brings together human stories related to Australian manufacturing, Australian design, creative practice and technical education. It demonstrates how makers – of all kinds – are central to Australia’s employment, productivity, innovation and its education systems. Up to this point, the generative connections between these sectors have not been well understood. Through archival and oral history research, this project traces relations between design, creative practice, manufacturing and industrial craft, particularly in the context of economic restructuring and technological change from the 1980s to the present. 

The oral history process enables the research to trace individuals’ life pathways – as people move from one job to another, and from one skillset to the next. Interviewees include participants with experience in ship-building, screen-printing, stone-masonry, surfboard making, moulding and casting, engineering draughting, stop-motion animation, assemblage art, furniture-making, fashion design, textiles patternmaking, hand-weaving, ticket-writing, and industrial model-making (among others). While this may seem a broad and motley crew, curious connections can be drawn across industries, educational institutions and creative endeavours. Consistent throughout the interviews is a dedication to skilled technical practice: to knowing your materials and how to use them. Materials literacies and technical capacities also enable easier transitions across and between sectors, when industries change. 

Additionally, this presentation will discuss some of the strategic decisions made in writing this ARC DECRA application, including the project description, cross-disciplinary research and particular challenges for art and design ARC applications.