Post Info
Kim Norton
As Milan12 is well underway, we catch up with Central Saint Martins graduate and ceramic pathway designer Kim Norton, who is exhibiting her Experiential Spaces project at Designersblock as part of MOST in the Museum of Science and Technology for Milan 2012.
ARTS THREAD: Tell us about the work you’re exhibiting in Milan:
Kim Norton: This two year research project has been an exploration on pushing the impact of ceramics through scale. The final outcome a five metre seating space designed for Lady Margaret Hall’s garden within Oxford University. Pause enables the user to experience differing perceptions of the space depending on where you choose to sit. The object allows a solitary moment to be captured it’s possible to reside and to be partially visible or secluded from others sharing the space. There is a sensation through subtle nuances of being slightly encased or enveloped by the form.
This project was kindly sponsored by Ibstock brick in Bristol where the design was hand built and hand carved entirely from brick clay.
AT: What were the inspirations behind it?
KN: An interest in the physicality and the presence of clay. My practise is also driven by the phenomenology of architectural spaces how we react and embody those spaces and how to create a sensory or emotional response through design.
Ideas of seclusion retreat and quietness have driven the final design as well as a strong consideration for the site.
Kim Norton
AT: What excites you the most about being in Milan?
KN: Taking the project out of the UK and presenting the project to a European audience. Visiting other shows as it’s always important to see what is going on outside of your own practise.
AT: What do you hope to gain from exhibiting with Designersblock?
KN: I hope to gain an understanding of European shows. To open my practise to a wider audience. This body of work is not for sell I’m exhibiting in Milan to show my working methodology. In the hope of making contacts and possible commissions.
Designersblock is at MOST April 17-22 at Museum of Science and Technology, Leonardo da Vinci, Via Olona 6B, 20123 Milano
