About the Journal

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Interpreting Ceramics. Members of the editorial team have provided articles for this first issue, which consequently reflects our own particular interests. We are keen to encourage a broad range of submissions however, and hope that the next issue will reflect a multi-disciplinary approach. We refer intending authors to the information about the journal given below and to the submission guidelines which you can find listed on the contents page.

The journal is being launched with a symposium at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, on 22nd September 2000. Material from the symposium will be added to this first issue as it becomes available, and will include reports of the event, texts of papers presented, and responses. We hope that the debate begun at the symposium will continue over the following weeks and we welcome comments from readers.

Interpreting Ceramics is an initiative of a group of academic staff in the UK who have come together under the title of Interpreting Ceramics: Research Collaboration (ICRC). Our collaboration has come about through shared research interests in recording, interrogating, interpreting and communicating the practice and history of ceramics.

The members of ICRC are committed to exploring ways in which collaborative effort, on both a national and international level, can lead to broader and more interdisciplinary research into all those categories of human activity which are indicated by the term 'ceramics'. ICRC has an interest in any practice or mode of inquiry which brings a social and cultural awareness to bear on the manufacture and consumption of objects from ceramic materials. The fields covered would therefore include studio, industrial, architectural, traditional, sculptural and figurative ceramics as well as the relevant branches of anthropology, archaeology, material culture studies, museum studies, archiving etc.

Editorial responsibility for Interpreting Ceramics lies with the ICRC committee, which currently consists of the members of the editorial team who are listed above.

The editorial advisory board consists of thirty individuals, drawn from different disciplines, who together provide a wide range of expertise on ceramics in all its guises. A list of members of the board is provided on the web site.

The journal Interpreting Ceramics is the first outcome of the collaborative work of ICRC. It is the first refereed, electronic journal for ceramics and in publishing on the Internet the journal allows contributors to exploit the possibilities of new digital media as well as offering more traditional text based approaches. The journal is freely accessible, without charge. We aim to establish and maintain the highest scholarly standards for the content of the articles published. Three institutions have joint proprietorship of the journal and they are the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and the University of the West of England, Bristol.

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