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Technically Speaking 2022 Keynote Speaker: Madeline Adams
12 Plays1 year ago
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"Technically Speaking" is an annual technical theatre & stage management conference presented by The Lincoln School of Creative Arts, hosted by Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. This recording is the keynote address by environmental designer Madeline Adams. Technically Speaking was presented to a live audience.
Find out more about Madeline: @mva.adams
As always, ArtsPod is an @thelincolncompany production.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Event & Speaker
00:00:46
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Lincoln Company Arts Pod. What you're about to hear is a recording of an event that ran in the later stages of 2022 called Technically Speaking at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. This is the first of two parts. In this part we'll hear from our keynote speaker Madeline Adams, an environmental designer.
00:01:07
Speaker
talking sustainability, interdisciplinary practice, cycles of materials, questions around materiality, setting up business and improving employability. Good morning.
Madeline's Educational Background
00:01:23
Speaker
My name is Madeline Adams. I am primarily an environmental designer. That's what I trained in. That's what I think I pushed for in all of my research. I primarily work in the field of design.
00:01:37
Speaker
I studied, I've mainly studied here, so I studied an undergraduate degree in product design here. I went on to do a master's in environmental design, but it's technically titled just MA design. I now,
Business Setup and Technical Skills
00:01:52
Speaker
currently, after setting up my business, I'm now doing a second master's degree in architecture, because I just love design so much. I have a very strong interest in design in all facets.
00:02:05
Speaker
I think I kind of can't keep myself out of it in all ways. But my business, I applied for a grant in between my last MA and this one right before the pandemic. And I got, again, the grant and I established a business called The Fundamentalist where I primarily work as a cabinet maker and furniture maker and do homewares and other such things. So I
Focus on Material Sourcing and Sustainability
00:02:30
Speaker
have a lot of technical skills, so I do ceramics.
00:02:34
Speaker
mainly construction though. But yeah, primarily through my work, I work through and focus on material sourcing. So, but today what we're going to talk about is I'm going to go through, yeah, me, what I do, how I work, looking at materials, the whole cycle of materials, how it is important, but also the broader questions around materiality
00:03:01
Speaker
and not just recycling. Then working on how I set up my business, what that does, how that informs my work. Then we'll tailor it right back to you and production and building and also the question of having to compromise and the reality of being sustainable in the job. And then how this all makes you employable, if it makes you employable, what that means.
00:03:26
Speaker
So when we, my business mainly works hand in hand with my research. So during my masters, I explored the importance of life cycles and not just life cycles. There's a wonderful book called Creditor Cradle. If none of you have read it, I would say it's quite a fundamental basic in production, but it also has its own flaws. So the idea of Creditor Cradle is that everything is a circular,
00:03:53
Speaker
economy so whatever you make you then recycle and you use it and use it but it completely ignores a lot of wider questions so all of my research focuses on to put it in a nice simple digestible way a hundred years before and a hundred years afterwards so
00:04:09
Speaker
just as a simple way of explaining it. 100 years before, where are you sourcing the materials? Where are you getting it from? If it's timber, what forest is being affected? Is it being collected sustainably? How is it affecting the local communities? Is anyone suffering from it? And also, when even the transportation of this material, what's being left behind? Is there oil being left behind? Are there tires? Is there litter? And that's the 100 years before. And then looking at the 100 years after,
00:04:38
Speaker
So how will it break down? What will happen in the soil? There's this wonderful understanding, and I think a very keystone of sustainability, which is either it's got to be temporary, it's got to be able to go in the ground, or I've got to make it last forever. And those two things, while you can slave over them and it'd be really important, the minute you make this wonderful, I don't know, bio-set material, maybe out of mycelium or any kind of a gaga,
00:05:09
Speaker
almost like gelatin, just because it's compostable, just because it's biodegradable, doesn't mean it won't just go into a bin and be landfilled and everything good you've researched into it, nothing will happen to it. It will just remain in a landfill site. So I then look at, yeah, if I've got this thing that I've produced, what happens to it afterwards? What happens to the soil? Does anything leach into it? Does it affect it?
00:05:35
Speaker
does, you know, if it's a permanent thing that I believe would last hundreds of years, what's the system in place to look after it? Who's looking after it? Why are you putting the burden on someone else to look after it as we're having to now deal with the burden that was put on before us? We're
Transition to Sustainable Design Practices
00:05:51
Speaker
now dealing with construction set, props, all of these things that, yes, may be hundreds and hundreds of years old, but now there are entire groups and collectors of people that have to look after those, preserve those,
00:06:03
Speaker
And how long will they have to look after to preserve them? And I'm going to go on a rant. Even looking at, if you look at something as simple as something as brass, there are quite nasty chemicals and nasty processes to keep those things shiny. And those, even though you're preserving something before, they still have long-term effects to the environment. So it's all a bigger cycle than what it first appears. So that's mainly where I work.
00:06:30
Speaker
So when I set up my business, I concluded my first masters and was quite, I entered product design and industrial design as an injection folded, injection molded furniture designer. I was completely plastic mad. I loved it. I thought that was what I was going to do forever. I had jobs down in London. I was very content. I was like, yes, this is what I will do forever. But what I found when I started my masters was
00:06:58
Speaker
that key question of why plastic? Why do you like plastic? I want you to understand every facet of what this is and then convince me why it's perfect and that just opened up an entire can of worms of hellscape that you don't want to know about. It's far more common now. I know a lot of people know a lot more about plastics now but when I was doing it it wasn't enormously discussed in my field. So once I concluded at MA I
00:07:27
Speaker
Yeah, like I said, I set up a business. I got a grant from Sparkhouse. If anyone's a Sparkhouse and wants to talk about it afterwards, I'd love to. It's a really wonderful resource that helps you set up businesses. But I, yeah, gained a grant. I then used that grant to purchase machinery and tools to make furniture and homewares and other such things. I felt like
00:07:53
Speaker
When I went deeply into industrial design, I then managed to find my way into craft, and craft and heritage and conservation use what you'd consider old techniques, but some of them are quite modern, and you find quite heritage techniques that are very modern and relevant, that are more ignored, because there's an upfront cost of learning that knowledge, whereas now you don't have to, a lot more materials now are accessible, easy to use.
00:08:22
Speaker
Once you begin that horrendous road of researching, it's quite difficult to turn back. So I then primarily work with contacts, trying to get hold of people in universities, old cabinet makers, just people with these knowledge sources that you wouldn't necessarily go to directly. And you end up in the world that I am in of sustainability and understanding the long-term effects of the environment.
00:08:53
Speaker
So why does this have anything to do with you? When we look at set pieces or set design or construction, you are all primarily working with temporary structures. I know that's an arguable thing. I'm sure you have a lot of permanent structures. There are things that need to be maintained. Floor is a complete prime example of that needs to be maintained and you can't necessarily use
00:09:17
Speaker
completely environmental standards. But where the compromise before, which I had a lovely conversation in the dressing room about it prior, sustainability isn't about minimalism. It isn't about doing the small, oh, I'm just going to do a tiny triangle on the corner and that will represent everything and I've taken back all the materials. It's not about that. It's about looking at
Creating Sustainable Systems in Design
00:09:39
Speaker
creative and intelligent ways of analyzing what you have.
00:09:45
Speaker
you begin by asking questions. So, you know, can the furniture be loaned? I know these are all very obvious questions, you probably already know them, but can the furniture be loaned? But also, the secondary question is, who are you learning it from? How are they being supported? How are they being paid? And the other way is, can you support?
00:10:03
Speaker
local makers, local designers, local artists, who will, a lot of the time, have things for loan. They are happy to give you things as publicity, anything like that. But also, you begin to understand with stuff like this, you can construct everything from scratch, you can start with that blank piece of white paper, and you go, I'm a designer, I want to set it out, I've got this idea, I've made my mini set of what I want this to be. But you'll quickly realize that
00:10:31
Speaker
It's far more enriching that intense problem solving of, oh, where could I get it? Where could I get this from? Who could I benefit? How can I help these people? If you look outside of the very traditional way of, oh, I'll use wood and I'll recycle it afterwards. It's a very small direction to take it in. So if I explain that in more of an example. So say you go away and you find a wood supplier and you're like, excellent.
00:11:01
Speaker
They're local. I've managed to get them. They don't import from, oh, there's a good one. They don't import from Korea. There's no carbon footprint with the delivery. I've seen it all. Maybe I've got in contact with a woodworker. They know how to season it if it's green. They know how to, you know, I'm so happy with this material I found and it's perfect. And then you cover it in a toxic, permanent weatherproofing
00:11:27
Speaker
Pain. All that work you've done, just completely redundant. Or the other way, you just stick it in a recycling bin afterwards, say it's snapped, and you're like, oh, I can't do anything with that. The prop houses won't take it. No one will store it for me. It's redundant. All that work you've done. And
Navigating Unsustainable Jobs
00:11:44
Speaker
it then feels like, oh, yeah, what was the point of that? So a lot of what I have realized over the years is it's about systems, and it's about accepting that there will be systems.
00:11:55
Speaker
If you have this wood that you haven't painted and you've made this wonderful set, can you then contact other people about it? Can you set up communities where maybe you have other theater production groups, maybe you have art galleries, anything that helps your network of community where you can go, oh, we've got this amount of wood. Would you like it? They might then go, yes, God, we're trying to build walls. Yeah, we would. Even if it's horrendous, we'll come look at it. And then you can use them in the future. And that's sustainable because you're not
00:12:25
Speaker
looking at it as a one-dimensional thing. What else? And supply chains are also a similar issue. So then when we talk about employability, and we talk about how this actually makes you employable, because it's all well and good being sustainable, it's all wonderful, you know, really caring about the environment, researching all of this, but if you can't get a job at the end, what's the point, really? I've been in many situations where I have had to
00:12:55
Speaker
do unsustainable jobs as a sustainable designer. It just happens. It's, you know, if it's between you and paying the bills, you have to do it sometimes. It's just the reality of it. But having those discussions and having these conversations are what makes it important. And also unsustainable jobs kind of, if you're really invested, propel you forward more. Desperately want to do it more because you're so frustrated by it. So in order from an employability standpoint, say you
00:13:24
Speaker
work for, what's a good thing, what's a good way to explain it? Say you work for an employer that won't use sustainable material. So you've come from university and you're like, excellent, I know everything about this material, I know everything about this. And you get to an employer, they go, oh, we don't care, we use CLS pine from Wigs.
00:13:45
Speaker
Get on with it. I don't give monkeys. I'm not paying you to research. I'm not paying you to understand this. Just make it. We've got two week turnaround. Do it. So with that, what you have to kind of accept is that they have supply chains. They have systems. They have things in place that you have to work with. And it's up to you, obviously, if you want to work in those environments.
00:14:06
Speaker
But the thing that I have always found is, yeah, you have to bend, you have to negotiate. So which ironically brings me on to my next point, which I think I believe I've already talked into a little bit. So when we talk about remaining environmental and what makes you understand
00:14:29
Speaker
about being environmental is if you're on the left and you're ethical, sustainable, you understand all of this and you are in a place where, I mean, jobs are hard at the moment. I don't know if anyone's trying to go for jobs at the moment. It's bloody hard to get them even with research, even with degrees. It's really, really difficult. And a lot of the time you have to choose between your ethics and feeding yourself and keeping a flat and all these things. And that's fine. No one's going to put you on a stake for doing that.
00:15:00
Speaker
You're allowed to be unsustainable sometimes if the people who are in a position of power are unsustainable. But you have to, or how I've approached it, compromise, understand, have the conversations. Being in the field as a sustainable person is what makes you employable. Even if I've been in a job where it was the most unsustainable job I could ever discuss.
00:15:25
Speaker
I was a drone designer for a military-grade company. Could that be any more unsustainable? I worked with carbon fibre, I worked with plastics, regularly, all the time. Their waste and their processes was absolutely appalling. But there were points where they had
00:15:41
Speaker
other companies, other businesses going oh well we will only work with you if you are sustainable and then I was utilised and then I was used and don't get me wrong companies don't want to hear you go yeah everything you're doing is wrong but being there talking about it you're suddenly recognised in this industry taking up space is so important which...
00:16:06
Speaker
Last thing, which I'm realizing that I am bleeding over each one. I'm just so passionate about it. I can't help it. So, yeah, I'm not going to sugarcoat it in any way. It's very hard to find sustainable jobs. If you type into LinkedIn, Google anything, and type in sustainable set design and sustainable design, they're not there. Or if they are, they want people with whopping amounts of old experience who have now become sustainable. It's very difficult for anyone in our age to grammar graphic to do this.
00:16:36
Speaker
That's not to say you shouldn't because people 5-10 years ago who were sustained are being utilised now. I'm not saying it's going to take 5-10 years, please. It won't. It might take 5-10 years. But they're being utilised now. And one of the amazing parts of this is that you become a specialist.
00:16:56
Speaker
While you'll be working in areas and working in fields where you might not be considered a specialist, you suddenly are a specialist. You are sustainable. You understand these processes. You are researching and developing constantly, which demonstrates your level of attention to detail. It understands that you go, yeah, it's not just about how do I set up a team to strip this set?
00:17:21
Speaker
and make sure everything's in its right compartments, and I've made sure that that recycling facility near me has accepted that, or I've gotten contact with this person. It's understanding that they are really large systems. I mean, if any of you have had to do any kind of, oh, who will take this prop? Just one, even if it's an expensive prop, who will take this? That's an enormous amount of time and research in itself. These are very big systems where people need to be paid, need to be respected,
00:17:51
Speaker
And with all of your ethics and interests, it's very hard as a designer or as designers to sit there and go, but I've got an idea for this beautiful set. I don't want to have to do all the admin. I don't have to do all the thinking around it. But it is what makes you, yeah, specialist, give a high level attention to detail. And being vocal and having these discussions shows your determination, shows your interest in it.
00:18:20
Speaker
It's quite hard when you have to be in situations where it's not necessarily makes you employable because I've taken jobs where I've been. So primarily, I'm a sustainable designer. I've worked in London. I've worked for
00:18:37
Speaker
Lots of companies actually, and I think about it. But I've also been taken in, I've had periods of no jobs, and then been recruited as a consultant, a design consultant, where I just sit there and tell them why they do everything wrong. And they don't like it. No company hires you, really, to hear that everything you do is wrong. They hire you to go, oh yeah, we've got this consultant that says,
00:18:57
Speaker
We're great. We've done. We've got excellent. They don't want the list. They don't want information. So you're met with a lot
Specialized Skills & Career Development in Sustainability
00:19:03
Speaker
of confrontation, but it's so much better now. I really can't stress it enough. Some people are really willing to go. Yep, we messed up. We don't know what to do. We're in a place where we're in a bottomless pit and we don't know where to go. But that's what.
00:19:17
Speaker
makes it interesting. So what else can I talk about? I've reached the end of my slide, however, I do feel like I've missed a point about asking if I was using your timber. No, I think that in terms of researching, developing and becoming a specialist, there's also that level of when you come to university, I'm sure you all
00:19:44
Speaker
have an idea of what you wanted to do before you came here and some of you might not have gotten it. That definitely happened to me. I joined product design and industrial design to become a furniture maker. I did not learn furniture design here. That's a really horrendous thing. It's to do with
00:20:00
Speaker
A plethora of issues to do with the industry, not higher up, not lower down, but it happens. And so there are so many, I don't want to say resources, because I remember people saying that to me when I was in university, but there are so many other avenues. So when I left my MA, I still didn't make furniture for that.
00:20:22
Speaker
course I made it a compostable bicycle because I was looking at life cycles and a bicycle frame was a very easy way to do it and I used yeah fungal infected ash I used egg tempera which is just egg whites as a glue and it was all about how do I reduce and reduce the time frame that timber takes to rot and it takes a long time this idea of the wood is a sustainable material
00:20:47
Speaker
And also when it goes into landfill, it takes 700 to 800 years to rot. It just does. And when you think of that, you're like, well, that's not sustainable at all. So my entire project was about how do we make this more sustainable? How do I rot it faster? How do I decay these materials faster? But my specialists in my field,
00:21:08
Speaker
of my degree were not furniture's eyes weren't cabinet makers and in the time frame that I had it wasn't, I couldn't do it. I couldn't make a piece of furniture from a very limited knowledge background or furniture. So what I ended up doing was I halfway through that then joined Newark College as part of the Lincoln College scheme and I took cabinet making the evening, which by the way if you're under 24 it's free.
00:21:32
Speaker
So you can take courses for free there. It's really, really good. And they teach you really practical skills, but I only bring that up because you are
00:21:42
Speaker
When you begin sustainable practices and you understand this, you begin looking into joinery. You begin looking into heritage skills craft. That's what I mentioned earlier. And some universities and some institutions, some courses, I don't know about this course, no one impaled me for it. But you're not taught that. And they don't have the skills, facilities, capability, time to do that for you.
00:22:04
Speaker
but it's so worth it because it improves everything that you do and how you look at things and how you research things, which I believe is why I went into architecture.
00:22:14
Speaker
because I suddenly went, oh, I want to know more about construction and learn more about how things are made. And ironically, they have their own entire issues and they don't really know anything about material either. So I'm coming into a kind of different element. But in terms of employability, the research, the learning, being a specialist, that really is valuable and it feels like an enormous upfront cost
00:22:36
Speaker
And you're going, I'm giving all this time and energy. And then you go into a, even if it's just a sustainable business or a sustainable company, they might not be sustainable. They just might not be. But you're still a specialist in that field. And that's still as important. So that's everything I have to say.