My name is Stephen Knott and I am a collaborative AHRC funded PhD student in the History of Design and Goldsmithing Silversmithing Metalwork & Jewellery departments of the Royal College of Art in London.
My research is by thesis and concerns amateur practice in modernity. I develop theoretical terminology to examine the historical roots of mass amateurism from the early nineteenth century, its broader impact on conditions of artistic production and aesthetic reception, and contemporary relevance of this understudied phenomenon, where the consumer in capitalist societies becomes maker. I’m interested in disrupting divisions between ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ and study the implication of possible convergences.
This blog follows my experiences as an unskilled maker in the Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewelry department of the RCA during the Autumn term of 2009. I will chart processes of acquiring skills through manuals, purchasing materials and experiences of instruction, as well as observing the bases of practice among other students housed in the department.
My intention is to present the various ways in which ‘tacit’ or craft knowledge develops, with attention paid to issues of skill, tooling, education, critical examination and display.
stephen.knott@network.rca.ac.uk
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January 29, 2010 at 1:47 pm
qona rankin
I think the word ‘amateur’ is something to do with ‘doing it for the love of’. Although I have practiced jewellery as a profession I got bored and tired by aspects of professional practice. It was only when I stopped my professional practice and went back to jewellery being my hobby rather than my source of income that I once more got infatuated by the feel of the metal, excited by the freedom of making stuff and transported back to that place where time doesn’t really exist. If you really love doing something my advice would be to stick as an amateur and became a professional ‘something else.’