10.00-12.00
Anatomy Theatre Museum, 6th Floor, King’s Building, Strand, London WC2R 2LS
Making, breaking and repair are powerful metaphors for talking about lived experience and
the natural world. We can deepen our understanding of these ways of thinking and speaking
through a focus on material processes - both contemporary and historical. Despite the recent
turn to materiality in literary and historical studies there have been few attempts within these
disciplines to engage with material practices – to learn to think with things as well as with
language. This session will bring together different perspectives on material and materiality.
A panel of speakers from a wide range of backgrounds will present their practices of making
and repair, and their approaches to things that are broken, damaged or incomplete.
All welcome.
Session Outline:
'Historic clock-making practices', Matthew Read (West Dean College)
'Repair revolution - the story of Sugru', Jane ni Dhulchaointigh (Inventor of Sugru)
'Alchemy and incompleteness: practically making the philosophers' stone', Jennifer Rampling
(University of Cambridge)
Closing Remarks – Florence Grant (History, KCL) and Chloe Porter (English, KCL)
Open discussion and tea.
For further information please email florence.grant@kcl.ac.uk or chloe.porter@kcl.ac.uk.
This event is part of the Festival of Materials and Making, hosted by the Institute of Making,
King’s College London. http://www.instituteofmaking.org.uk/
