collab ceramics
SYGNAL AFTER MYTH: Collaborative ceramics
Parham Ghalamdar & Sophie Mak-Schram
Sygnal After Myth imagines an alternative history of broadcast technology. Inspired by mythologised devices such as the Baghdad Battery, the project tunes into signals from Iran, Hong Kong and the wider Global South, challenging Western narratives about where technological innovation originates. Parham Ghalamdar and Sophie Mak‑Schram use clay, sound and text to propose a speculative archaeology of decolonial communication. Their work suggests that ceramic artefacts (long dismissed as curiosities) could have formed an overlooked network of transmitters carrying messages across time and space.
Supported by a bursary from a‑n The Artists Information Company, Ghalamdar and Mak‑Schram have developed a suite of “tools” that blur poetry and practicality. The collaboration marries Ghalamdar’s interest in glazed ceramic figures with Mak‑Schram’s research into how tools can shift reality, resulting in sculptures, writing, sound and performance that invite viewers to listen for fractured transmissions and imagine different technological futures.
These ceramic objects are part of the ongoing Sygnal After Myth, a cross-media project that also deploys live performance and sound.
GLAZED Ceramics
Ai-generated studies
Before making the ceramics, Ghalamdar and Mak-Schram used generative AI to conjure decaying radio telescopes and desert‑embedded dishes. The ghostly towers and eroded antennas served as digital sketches, helping them to explore forms and textures before translating them into clay. By working with AI in this way, the project treats code as another medium in its speculative archaeology
