Welcome to Issue 4 of Interpreting Ceramics, which contains three articles that indicate the breadth of interests that are encompassed by the term ‘ceramics’. Jo Dahn’s article ‘PuebloPotteryDotCom’ is an account of her journey through both the real and the virtual worlds of Native American pottery. Richard Carlton’s article on Littlethorpe Potteries in North Yorkshire, is based on extensive fieldwork at a country pottery that has survived intact to the present time but is facing an uncertain future. Contemporary ceramics from the minority Armenian community in Jerusalem is the subject of the third article by Nurith Kenaan-Kedar of Tel-Aviv University.

We are pleased to announce two initiatives that we hope will be of benefit to the wider ceramics community. The first of these is the Researching Ceramics Online Database. This is in development as a cumulative, interactive database available as a free resource for researchers, practitioners and anyone else with an interest in ceramics. The database will develop around a series of projects. The first of these, on the studio potter Michael Cardew, provides a template for the initial testing of the database and its delivery over the Internet.

The second initiative has been made possible by collaboration with Staffordshire University, who are enabling us to host a series of live debates. Clicking on the live debate button on the contents page will bring you information about the dates of the debates and how you might make your contribution.

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. Four institutions have joint proprietorship of the journal and they are the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, the University of the West of England, Bristol and Bath Spa University College.

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