In Concert with Molten Glass: Social and material actors in glassblowing practice
Hulkkonen, S., Mäkelä, M., & Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, P. (2025). In Concert with Molten Glass: Social and material actors in glassblowing practice. In A. Morrison, A. Culén & L. Habib (Eds.), Nordes 2025: Relational Design, 6–8 August, Oslo, Norway.
Abstract
The practice-led case study presented in this paper explores entanglements of social and material actors in a glassblowing practice. To understand the relationality of these actors, this study discusses how the models of reflection and diffraction can help in analysing a collective process of doing. In this study, video documentation was used as a method to accumulate information on the glassblowing process under scrutiny. The result, a multiscreen video, was analysed to identify social and material actors affecting the process, and to understand the sociomaterial doings of the practice. This study suggests that appreciating the sociomaterial constituents of glassblowing practice can help in sustaining the art of glassblowing, a craft to be safeguarded. This paper contributes to practice-led research by showing how PLR can be utilised when the unit of analysis consists of multiple simultaneously active social and material actors.