Welcome to this ‘conference issue’ of Interpreting Ceramics in which we are pleased to publish papers from ‘The Michael Cardew Centenary Symposium’. The symposium, held at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth at the end of June 2001, celebrated the centenary of one of the foremost potters of the twentieth century. This two-day event was an international gathering of Cardew scholars and people who had worked with Cardew during his long career. The papers published here reflect the wide influence of Cardew’s life and work and the continuing insights which scholarship is revealing.

All the papers published here have undergone the minimum amount of editing needed for the purposes of publishing. They have not been peer-reviewed, but are published as a body of work that reflects the proceedings of the symposium. The editorial committee of Interpreting Ceramics would be pleased to consider publishing the papers from other conferences in any country.

A further, standard issue of Interpreting Ceramics will appear during 2002 containing peer-reviewed articles. We are keen to encourage a broad range of submissions to the journal and we refer intending authors to the submission guidelines, which you can find listed on the contents page.

Issue no.1 of the journal containing peer-reviewed articles and Issue no.2 containing papers from the ‘Diversity in the Making: Studio Ceramics Today’ conference can be accessed through the Archive/Links/Resources button on the contents page. All issues of the journal will be archived in due course so that the Interpreting Ceramics website will be cumulative in nature. It is our intention that everything published will remain available and the website will build into a valuable resource for the ceramics community.

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 made 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. The journal was founded by academic staff from the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and the University of the West of England, Bristol. Bath Spa University has now joined ICRC as a full participating member and the four universities have joint proprietorship of the journal.

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