{"id":17809,"date":"2024-01-07T21:55:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T21:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/?p=17809"},"modified":"2025-06-25T14:35:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:35:51","slug":"phaistos-talks-nicoletta-corbett-february-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/phaistos-talks-nicoletta-corbett-february-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Phaistos Talks
Nicoletta Corbett\u2014February 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nicoletta Corbett studies Graphic Design at Falmouth University in Cornwall, England. Corbett works across various mediums including photography, printmaking, and bookbinding. Her current work focuses on delving into the intricacies of the human relationship with intimacy through working with clay. She is also interested in exploring the correlation between design and nature by using waste as medium, reimagining it as a valuable resource.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

“I think the physical world and physical touch will still remain quite important. Because as good as the rising technology is, it does also feel isolating.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> Of the forty-five visuals you created, which is your favorite? Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBBETT <\/span>No\u2014I don\u2019t think I have a favorite. Can I say that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> Sure you can\u2014why do you have no favorites?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT <\/span>It’s all so personal and individual to everyone who I asked to do the symbols, that picking your favorite almost feels unfair. I prefer the way some of them look, but I feel like that’s the least important part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> Can you tell us which ones you find more interesting visually?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT <\/span>Maybe number twenty-two\u2014India. He was looking forward to going back to a normal time. I think it’s just quite a subtle image. Like the light has caught it really well. And the individual fingerprint marks\u2014there’s so much of India in that print, so I quite like that one.<\/p>\n\n\n

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India, Going back to a normal time<\/em> [22 of 45]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> What was your initial response looking at the Phaistos Disc?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT <\/span>[It was] just pretty crazy to see\u2014how long we’ve been recording stuff for\u2014all the different ways of looking at language and looking at symbols. And I guess that\u2019s it really? Symbols are of no time and are often barrier free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> Why do you think an artifact from the past could be relevant to you and your creative practice? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT <\/span>I think looking at what’s happened can give context to new ideas. Everything is just kind of circling on from the next thing. Most people’s work comes from stuff that’s happened before. Like how you will read or see something and you\u2019ll think \u201cOh, I\u2019m really interested in that\u201d and then that kind of trickles down and keeps merging with your own art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> Holding On\u2019s <\/em>forty-five symbols represent fingerprints made by people grasping onto clay when they were thinking about \u201cwhat kept them going\u201d during the pandemic. Contact is a large part of your piece. When translating the textured, pressed-on clay pieces into flat, streamlined symbols, how did you ensure you didn\u2019t lose the element of contact in your images?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT <\/span>It might not make sense if you saw just one, individually, but when you see them all together you can kind of work out\u2014or I hope you can kind of work out\u2014the fingerprints. Especially on the pieces that have more detailed bits where you can see a fingernail or fingerprint. It makes it more recognizable and that puts it [the project] in the context of fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The original clay imprints Holding On<\/em>‘s symbols were patterned after.
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TPP45S<\/span> This project began as a mind map where you jotted down your initial thoughts on The Phaistos Project. Did Holding On\u2019s <\/em>concept change from when you first wrote down your ideas? Why or why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT<\/span> I was coming at the project more personally at first. I thought about if I were to document myself\u2014what would that look like? Also, I was just looking at other things that you might want to encapsulate in time. And, I think I was looking at it with a bit more of humor at first. I thought about documenting people\u2019s pet peeves at one point. But then I started thinking about what is actually important, or really specific about the time. And I did the project during COVID, so it felt so prominent, especially as we weren’t allowed to touch each other then. So I decided I  wanted to go in a direction of not just looking at myself but looking at everyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Corbett’s mind map for The Phaistos Project.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> In the project, people revealed they were holding onto everything from a really nice pint to looking forward to the good times. During the pandemic, what were you holding onto?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT<\/span> Looking back, it was definitely the idea of being reconnected with people. And the idea of just having a good time, and not worrying about, you know, who you can hang out with and wanting things to be easy again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> Although the world is increasingly becoming more digitized, Holding On<\/em> focuses on how physical contact is essential for humans to connect with their surroundings. Do you think touch and contact will continue to be important parts of design in the future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT<\/span> I think the physical world and physical touch will still remain quite important. Because as good as the rising technology is, it does also feel isolating. If you go out in public you\u2019ll see a good group of friends and they\u2019re all on their phone. Technology is a thing that’s meant for connection, but it’s actually disconnecting us, and I think we’re going to realize that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> What do you believe are the biggest challenges of this upcoming generation of visual artists\/designers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT<\/span> AI art is something that is challenging at the moment, but I think again, that is probably why it’s more important [than ever] to make physical work because that can’t really be done by AI\u2013yet. And it\u2019s important to keep those [physical art] traditions\u2014like clay\u2014alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPP45S<\/span> The humans who created the Phaistos Disc\u2014if it\u2019s not a hoax\u2014will never be able to tell us what its forty-five symbols mean. But you are here with us today, to talk about your own set of forty-five symbols. What is it that you hope people take away from your project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NICOLETTA CORBETT<\/span> The different little things that people were looking forward to and valued\u2014what they valued most at that time. And it\u2019s like a little snippet of each person’s personality as well\u2014whether they saw it in a humorous way and had more of a positive outlook or if their outlook was more negative. It’s just a nice little [time] capsule of a group of people in a small town in a small part of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nicoletta Corbett
<\/strong>Nicoletta Corbett studies Graphic Design at Falmouth University in Cornwall, England. Corbett works across various mediums including photography, printmaking, and bookbinding. Her current work focuses on delving into the intricacies of the human relationship with intimacy through working with clay. She is also interested in exploring the correlation between design and nature by using waste as medium, reimagining it as a valuable resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding On<\/a>
Special Mention Open Call 22\/23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicoletta’s Portfolio (Instagram)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I think the physical world and physical touch will still remain quite important. Because as good as the rising technology is, it does also feel isolating.” TPP45S Of the forty-five visuals you created, which is your favorite? Why? NICOLETTA CORBBETT No\u2014I don\u2019t think I have a favorite. Can I say that? TPP45S Sure you can\u2014why […]<\/p>\nRead more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[109,96],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17809"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17809"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18820,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17809\/revisions\/18820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.45symbols.com\/symbols\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}