Papers by Frances Robertson
Arguably the most important technological development to affect the lives of women in the last 60... more Arguably the most important technological development to affect the lives of women in the last 60 or so years has been diagnostic obstetric ultrasound. For a few short years in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Glasgow led the world in its development. A unique collaboration between clinical obstetrics, engineering, electronics and industrial design expertise created the very first prototypes and production models of ultrasound scanners for use in routine obstetrics scanning - anywhere in the world - for use in Glasgow hospitals. A seminal 1958 Lancet paper by Donald, MacVicar and Brown first alerted the medical profession to the possibilities of the use of pulsed ultrasound in obstetrics. Initially adapted from an industrial application for checking pressure vessels, the development of ultrasound devices for obstetrics purposes faced many challenges, e.g., how to adapt the existing technology for its new purpose, how to match the apparatus to the perceptual faculties of the human use...
Studies in Material Thinking, Aug 1, 2017
I start within the public culture of ‘industrial enlightenment’ around 1800 described by Jacob (1... more I start within the public culture of ‘industrial enlightenment’ around 1800 described by Jacob (1997) or Mokyr (2002; 2009), in which representations alongside exhibitions and lectures created a ‘meaning for machines’ that merged the ‘mechanical and the philosophical’ within a ‘broad agenda of improvement’ (Stewart 1998: 291). But, this was not a jolly consensus; engineers were trying to build professional status as investigators in the rational mechanical science of construction and manufacture, aiming to fend off, variously, natural philosophers, other technical professions, and, increasingly, lower aspiring ranks within their own field. From the late eighteenth century through to around 1830 engineers, draughtsmen, and other groups entered into a competitive frenzy to invent mechanical drawing aids. These instruments were displayed in useful arts publications, both as objects described in words and pictures, but also through the traces of their use. ‘Machine drawing’ created dist...
From the beginning of the nineteenth century many people experimented with new kinds of printing ... more From the beginning of the nineteenth century many people experimented with new kinds of printing that were often radically different from the established craft methods of letterpress, copper plate engravings, or woodcuts. These experimenters were not associated with the traditional print trades but were instead a varied group of amateurs and entrepreneurs who wanted to apply technological and scientific innovation to production and manufacture. Photography and lithography are just two of the new printing methods that came out of these often haphazard attempts to explore the chemistry, physics and mechanics of nature, and hopefully, to turn some profit from them. This constant reverberation of invention forms a background rumble to the development of printing and copying techniques, such as blueprinting, that were an adjunct to technical drawing, serving factory production, construction, and the growth of mechanical engineering. Notions of industrialization, printing, and exact repli...
The production of technical representations (in print, exhibitions and the factory) by jobbing de... more The production of technical representations (in print, exhibitions and the factory) by jobbing designers and factory draughtsmen in nineteenth century Britain is an under-researched area hard to place in any academic category. Draughtsmen have become invisible because their status was disputed and problematic, squeezed by issues about creative control and autonomy in the workplace. As ‘visual technicians’ both elite engineers and factory draughtsmen trained themselves to draw for the mechanical arts through copying from a wide range of artistic, artisanal and architectural precedents and were thus constantly negotiating how different kinds of visual display related to professional status. Within engineering, draughtsmen were an intermediate sub-group whose role was even more compromised and ambiguous. My paper will consider first, the ways in which drawings produced for the elite shipbuilding company of Robert Napier and Sons, Glasgow orchestrated different visual languages from art...
This paper examines ‘mechanical drawing’ in relation to the public culture of ‘industrial enlight... more This paper examines ‘mechanical drawing’ in relation to the public culture of ‘industrial enlightenment’ around 1800 in which printed representations alongside exhibitions and lectures created a ‘meaning for machines’ that aimed to unite science, technical know-how and commerce. Technical illustrations often used drawing machine technology in a self-reflexive way and many mechanical engineers concerned themselves with technologies of representation on paper, using and inventing drawing machines to manage the literature of professional presentation. Through considering the interaction between procedures for making and using drawing equipment, I argue that these toy-like devices contributed just as much as bridges or gargantuan steam powered machines did to the self-fashioning of engineers and engineering at this date.
School of Art and Design, Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies, AUT University, Aug 1, 2017
This special issue of Studies in Material Thinking focuses on the plurality of tacit, sensory and... more This special issue of Studies in Material Thinking focuses on the plurality of tacit, sensory and affective modalities circulating around the objects, practices, and meanings of art and design in that most mysterious of locations, the art school. How can we begin—and theorising—heterogeneous material practices and elusive, embodied forms of knowledge that seem to exceed verbal formulation? The articles in this volume, composed by practitioners and art and design theorists, offer critical insights into the complex, hidden and iterative studio practices of student artists, designers and researchers. They help us think how new works arise from complex constellations of materials, bodies and minds in action. This issue brings to light innovative ways of mapping out somatic knowledge and embodied memory in the context of the art school
For the 'Practicing Landscape' exhibition in the Lighthouse I propose a single A0 charcoa... more For the 'Practicing Landscape' exhibition in the Lighthouse I propose a single A0 charcoal drawing as an addition to the extended series of works I have been working on since 2005. These are long-duration observational drawings of tree bodies—specifically, detailed close-up views of the stocky load-bearing trunk section. My aim is to develop both an immersive contemplative practice of being in the environment, while acknowledging the structural and intellectual knowledge fostered in Western traditions of drawing such as in the life room. I aim to be faithful both to the surface of the exterior skin of these living bodies, while also showing the enduring interior structures and tensions involved in staying upright, in catching light and water, and in getting along with one’s peers. Every species, every individual, twists and shifts in a different way. The slow cautious process of drawing and adding new leaves to my series is in part an attempt to get in tune with the xylo-time scale, but it’s also an admission that time often passes too quickly for the contemplative life. The image here, example of a previous work, is a larch tree—a native species. For the exhibition I intend to draw in a foreign introduction brought here by Victorian imperial plant hunters, the monkey-puzzling araucaria, indeed a particular specimen standing over the ancient Egyptian-style tomb of one of Glasgow’s more successful merchants. My landscape observations are also carried out in words—in parallel investigations of the interactions between landscape representation, notions of national and regional identity and the cultural politics of design and landscape shaping in Scotland
The artificial wilderness of the Scottish Highlands—bleak moorland alternating with stretches of ... more The artificial wilderness of the Scottish Highlands—bleak moorland alternating with stretches of conifer forest—is a familiar image of ‘the North’. This vision of North Britain has been adjusted through landscape interventions to serve various groups over time, from that of the Forestry Commission founded in 1919 in response to wartime timber shortage, through to the more recent ‘native species’ campaigns to restore the lost Caledonian forest. This presentation, however, will examine earlier piecemeal and hybrid efforts of 19th-century landowners, plant hunters, and imperial forest science to introduce individual species and plants to the Scottish environment. The science and profession of forestry developed in British dominions overseas in the efforts of imperial civil servants such as John Croumbie Brown, the pastor and former Government Botanist at the Cape of Good Hope and Professor of Botany in the South African College, Capetown, and author of Forests and moisture (1877) or Finland: its forests and management (1883). At home, trees such as sitka spruce, sequoia, noble fir, and Douglas fir were planted over two hundred years ago by landowners and municipal authorities for amenity and profit; many survive and are now achieving towering stature in parks, arboretums and forests. Trees live for a long time and stay in one place, adjusting their gathering bulk to the exact footing and weathers of the spot where they are planted, and marking the shifts of environment around them. That long enduring experience is inscribed in the twists and scars of their trunks and branches. They stand as witnesses and sometime allies of former schemes and values. As an artist I have been working for the past decade on long-duration observational drawings of tree bodies—specifically, detailed close-up views of the stocky load-bearing trunk section. My aim is to develop both an immersive contemplative practice of being in the environment, while acknowledging the structural and intellectual knowledge fostered in Western traditions of drawing such as in the life room. I aim to be faithful both to the surface of the exterior skin of these living bodies, while also showing the enduring interior structures and tensions involved in staying upright, in catching light and water, and in getting along with one’s peers. For the exhibition accompanying this symposium I have prepared a new work, a charcoal drawing of a foreign introduction brought here by Victorian imperial plant hunters, the monkey-puzzling araucaria, indeed a particular specimen standing over the ancient Egyptian-style tomb of one of Glasgow’s more successful merchants. The living subject is located in one of Glasgow’s gloomier Victorian graveyards—a sublime and unintended evergreen arboretum of laurel, cypress, and other rare conifers. My landscape researches have also been carried out in words—in textual, written, academic investigations of the interactions between landscape representation, notions of national and regional identity and the cultural politics of design and landscape shaping in Scotland. I have also been closely involved in the GSA public seminar series (2015-2018) Through a Northern Lens, that has examined the pitfalls and contradictions within familiar and romantic images of ‘the North’. This presentation is intended to mark a new direction in my practice, where I will aim to carry out interdisciplinary investigations in parallel, through writing, research and drawing
Common Craft was a reciprocal mail-art research and teaching project run in 2018 between staff an... more Common Craft was a reciprocal mail-art research and teaching project run in 2018 between staff and students of the Art and Craft Department, Oslo National Academy of Arts and Illustration specialism, Glasgow School of Art. The aim was to examine local and disciplinary practices of drawing and print in separate locations—and how they might usefully collide within the work of students reviewing their practice as they began their professional lives as practitioners. Over the course of the year parcels were sent via air mail between the institutions initiating a call and response series of artworks. In addition to staff exchange between the institutions we also ran a joint intense workshop in Glasgow mid-way through, when the students met each other for the first time, collaborated in drawing outputs and in curating a work-in-progress show. From simple starting conditions, this project generated exceptionally complex and thought-provoking debates and outcomes for both staff and students...
Everyday objects are now well within the sights of cultural historians. Overlooked items are aske... more Everyday objects are now well within the sights of cultural historians. Overlooked items are asked to bear witness to large questions of social and cultural change, despite their equal presence in theory as solid, obdurate and silent ‘things’. Drawings, by contrast, are seen as slight objects, almost virtual in their materiality and their conceptual functions, and notoriously challenging as sources for historians. Even within art and design disciplines, drawings are seen as deliberately irresolute in meaning. To designers, for example, drawings might have the function of ‘boundary objects’ (Henderson 1999) that allow members of different groups to hook in to a common endeavour of production. In the developing visual economies of industrialised production in the nineteenth century, drawings and objects were closely linked, when the shaping, symbolism, and marketing of an increasing number of everyday mass-produced artefacts relied increasingly on the input of designers and draughtsme...
This paper considers the writing practices of William Johnson (1823-1864), editor of the Practica... more This paper considers the writing practices of William Johnson (1823-1864), editor of the Practical mechanics’ journal, and the translator, editor and author of the Practical draughtsman’s book of industrial design (1853). Johnson also acted as Secretary to the Glasgow Committee for the Great Exhibition (PICE 1866: 528), and a further publication. The Imperial cyclopaedia of machinery (Johnson nd [1852-6]), presents a large, brash and lavishly illustrated celebration of that event. I have chosen Johnson’s professional practice as a writer as one example of how status could be negotiated in public life by building an audience for the particular expertise of engineers in the period to 1850. Engineers were embroiled with other groups competing for cultural status, for example the BAAS or the ‘design reformers’, and in his work Johnson defended his own specialism whilst making large, reasoned claims about the function of technical and mechanical drawing skills in wider intellectual life....
Little has been written about the specific and complex environments of the studio and the art sch... more Little has been written about the specific and complex environments of the studio and the art school. A ‘material culture’ approach to art and design can throw light on the multi-materiality of works of art and design, and on the affective resonances of artefacts. We complied this special issue of the journal 'Studies in material thinking' with particular focus the multisensorial and affective materialities in relation to the objects, meanings and practices of art and design and art education. While many writers have noted that the multi-sensual aspect of material culture is also that which resists attempts of narration or rationalisation, we discuss how this raises particular concerns within some of the less well theorised or observed fields of art and design, where practitioners may themselves believe that ‘theory’ is not part of practice. We examine the formation of identity also, as art school students can be thought of as self-fashioning professionals, young adults enga...
Art and Science in Word and Image, 2019
‘Practising Landscape 2 - Loch Ossian’ was a practice-led, action-research project undertaken by ... more ‘Practising Landscape 2 - Loch Ossian’ was a practice-led, action-research project undertaken by members of the Reading Landscape Research Group in March 2018 as a continuation of the group's first "practicing landscape" trip which took the group to the Cairngorms, Aberdeen, Helmsdale and Orkney. This second fieldwork component was organised and facilitated by Lesley Punton to enable the group to further engage with planning and developing the groups aims, to further conversation and dialogue around future projects, and to provide a supportive peer network to discuss research areas of interest. The fieldwork methodology incorporated production of visual materials/new work, photography, documentation and further work on conference and exhibition planning. Related to the Research Group’s pre-set key themes, members continued the conversation informally addressing research questions: Q1 How do contemporary art practices engage with (and expand) the theme of Landscape and embodiment? Q2 How can such practices work within the contested terms ‘identity and remoteness’ in relation to specific locations? Q3 What is the role of contemporary art in relation to Ecology and sustainability within the Northern Hemisphere? Q4 Which practical and creative frameworks are needed to develop and sustain interdisciplinary relationships between artists and other experts? Q5 What cross-disciplinary practice-led methodologies might emerge in response to Landscape and physical layering of history? The project’s Primary Objectives on the field trip to Loch Ossian were to: 1) develop and plan the strategy for the group's forthcoming exhibition and conference 2) generate material for further research outputs (where relevant) 3) continue to provide a supportive peer network to share and discuss landscape based practices
This public event and study afternoon was the second in an annual series, which began with 'T... more This public event and study afternoon was the second in an annual series, which began with 'Through a Northern Lens: Women, Picture, Place' (2016). The series 'Northern Lens', devised by Nicky Bird and Dr Frances Robertson, shares ideas, histories, aesthetics and questions that are attached to the 'North'. 'Through a Northern Lens: Place Image, Archaeology and Heritage' (2017) did this through close discussion of particular places that – from an urban view – would appear to lie in Scotland’s 'peripheral places.' The event developed conversations and research links around themes including layered sites of history; individual and community memory; communication of memory; tangible and intangible forms of heritage; archaeology and destruction; folklore and knowledge; transportation; utilitarian bridges and their impact; fragility; cultural memory; material culture; art researcher practices and pedagogies. The opening speakers were: Nicky Bird (Re...
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, 2019
Frances Robertson and Edwin Pickstone: Common Craft. Lecture Time: 14:30–15:00 Venue: Main Audito... more Frances Robertson and Edwin Pickstone: Common Craft. Lecture Time: 14:30–15:00 Venue: Main Auditorium Philippa Lyon, Duncan Bullen and Jane Fox: Touching the World Lightly Lecture Time: 15:00–15:30 Venue: Main Auditoriu
Panel dicussion moderated by Ellen Aslaksen. Time: Wednesday 23 January 2019. Venue: Main auditor... more Panel dicussion moderated by Ellen Aslaksen. Time: Wednesday 23 January 2019. Venue: Main auditorium, KHiO
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Papers by Frances Robertson