Journal
Smeaton300 Themes
Image: Visitors to Moon Palace ©Lucille-Moore.
It’s easy to get lost in a subject area as vast as engineering, after all, this is a global discipline that dates back millennia and directly impacts our lives every day – engineering really is everywhere. As well as exploring ancient engineering practices our research also took in the historical context of John Smeaton’s life in the 1700’s and the rapid unfolding of the Industrial Revolution. After a few detours we landed in the present day and found ourselves on a cliff edge looking at the future. You can see how we found ourselves lost down a few rabbit holes along the way and why we needed to find a way of connecting the dots (or in our case the rabbit holes) that make up the Smeaton300 programme
We decided on four themes to help develop ideas between artists, engineers, academics, scientists, historians and anyone who wants to get involved in the project. These themes can be taken as statements or questions. They are here to provide a leaping off point to explore new ideas, challenge perspectives and connect the programme together.
For The Public Good
The term Civil Engineering was coined by John Smeaton to create works for the public good. He was an ethical employer who treated his lighthouse workers fairly, providing sick pay and medical costs for anyone injured at work. He resisted patenting his designs and had no interest in personal profit or excessive wealth. Instead, John Smeaton was driven to apply his engineering skills for the public good. Despite those best intentions his work fuelled the progress of the Industrial Revolution inadvertently impacting the world around us. There are modern day parallels here with the creation of the World Wide Web and the present threats posed by artificial intelligence. This theme can also prompt us to consider ‘for who’s good’ and explore how the historical inequalities of engineering design are being addressed today.
Inspired By Nature
The world famous Eddystone Lighthouse was inspired by the sweeping curve of the oak tree and throughout his career John Smeaton looked to harness the power of the elements, working with water, wind and air. He was awarded the Copley Medal for his work on windmills and waterwheels, the original renewable off-grid technology. If John Smeaton were alive today we wonder how would he be applying his talents to addressing climate change?
The Art of Engineering
Lifelong collaborations with fellow scientists, craftspeople, writers, artists and draughtsmen were key to the development of Smeaton’s work. The Art of Engineering theme is a way of exploring the partnerships between engineers, artists, scientists and designers that are all around us. Think of the hidden engineering skills that go into the design of theatre sets, large scale carnival costumes and 3D sculptures. Or the way that engineering has become an integral part of placemaking with landmarks like bridges, aqueducts, lighthouses and canals.
Find Our Way Home
Smeaton made our world infinitely more navigable with his work on bridges, waterways and lighthouses as well as making scientific instruments for navigation and astronomy. This strand is a prompt to explore the significance of civil engineering in navigation, mapping, globalisation and migration and how it has changed our perception of home. It can also help us consider how we navigate the history of engineering, whose achievements have been celebrated or excluded and who is telling those stories now.