The Permeable Threshold: Russell Moreton, Bachelard, and the Anarchive as Generative Engine
Abstract
This paper examines the contemporary ceramic and spatial practice of artist-researcher Russell Moreton through a dual theoretical framework that bridges process philosophy and spatial phenomenology. Moving away from the traditional view of the archive as a static repository for historical documentation, this study explores how Moreton operationalises studio residues—what this paper defines as "material outliers"—into a dynamic, forward-looking creative engine. By synthesizing Erin Manning’s concept of the anarchive with Gaston Bachelard’s phenomenology of interiority and elemental fire, we map a hybrid studio-led methodology. This process moves non-linearly from an anarchival pool of fragments into speculative multimedia collages, before undergoing physical "material troubling" in the clay studio. The resulting ceramic works—white-painted, perforated "Permeable Chambers"—defy the traditional inside/outside binary, preserving a surface Ecology of Asperities fixed by the kiln fire. Ultimately, this paper argues that Moreton’s spatial practice offers a vital model for contemporary art research, demonstrating how embracing material errors and systematic variations keeps a creative practice radically open to future potential.
Keywords: Russell Moreton, The Anarchive, Gaston Bachelard, New Materialism, Phronesis, Permeable Chambers, Ceramic Research.
Introduction: The Anarchival Threshold of Clay
In contemporary ceramic research, the vessel is often trapped between two dominant frameworks: the utilitarian craft object or the static sculptural monument. This paper examines the spatial practice of artist-researcher Russell Moreton, whose work challenges both paradigms by positioning the ceramic body as an actively troubling, "Permeable Chamber" (Moreton 2026). Rather than treating clay as a passive surface onto which an artist projects a predetermined image, Moreton's methodology operates as a non-linear, processual ecology. Here, the final object is generated from the unresolved tensions of past material failures, architectural notes, and conceptual anomalies—what this paper terms "material outliers."
To unpack this highly unique practice, we combine two distinct theoretical frameworks: Erin Manning’s process philosophy of the "anarchive" (Manning 2016) and Gaston Bachelard’s phenomenology of spatial interiority (Bachelard 2014). By linking these concepts, we show how Moreton uses studio residues not as historical waste, but as live, generative forces. This paper traces how these outliers move from a chaotic "anarchive pool" into multimedia collages, undergo physical "material troubling" in the studio, and are finally transformed by fire into porous vessels. Ultimately, we argue that Moreton’s spatial practice offers a new model for contemporary art research, demonstrating how embracing material errors and anomalies can prevent a creative practice from freezing into predictable habits, keeping it radically open to new possibilities.
Methodological Framework: Processual Mapping and the Anarchive Loop
Moreton’s hybrid studio-led methodology requires an unconventional research framework. Traditional artistic research often relies on a linear sequence of reflection-on-action, where the artist looks backward to document past choices. In contrast, Moreton's practice uses a feed-forward loop that values emergence over documentation (Manning and Massumi 2014). The methodology is structured into four distinct, overlapping movements:
- Anarchival Gathering: The systematic collection of material and conceptual outliers—such as shards from cracked firings, stray architectural sketches, and unfinished texts. These items form a raw pool of potential energy.
- Provisional Collage: Bringing these different fragments together into loose, mixed-media collages. This stage acts as a diagrammatic score, offering a temporary, non-hierarchical space of "provisional hospitality" where visual and physical anomalies can sit side-by-side without needing to form a neat, final image.
- Material Troubling: Forcing the flat ideas of the collage into a direct, physical confrontation with the weight and resistance of clay. The maker relies on bodily intuition (phronesis) to respond in real-time to structural collapses, tears, and fissures.
- Permeable Synthesis: Subjecting the troubled clay to the unpredictable environment of the kiln fire. The final, white-painted, perforated chamber is displayed alongside its original collage elements, presenting the exhibition space as an open, ongoing research process rather than a static display of finished goods.
Section I: The Anarchive of the Outlier: Manning’s Feed-Forward Mechanics
To understand the generative role of the material anomaly in Russell Moreton’s ceramics, one must completely discard the traditional, linear archival paradigm. Within institutional and standard studio frameworks, the archive functions as a retrospective museum—a site of containment designed to document, classify, and ultimately freeze past production into a neat, chronological history.
In sharp contrast, Moreton’s studio operations deploy what cultural theorist Erin Manning defines as the anarchive. The anarchive is not a collection of passive, historical artifacts; it is an active "repertory of traces of events" and a "feed-forward mechanism for lines of creative process" (Manning 2016: 28). For Manning, these traces are never inert. Instead, they function as dynamic vectors of potential energy, waiting to be reactivated to trigger a new event that continues the creative process in a state of constant variation (Manning 2013).
In Moreton’s practice, the "outliers"—unresolved ceramic experiments, structural shards, unclassifiable media collages, and erratic architectural notation—are the foundational seeds of this anarchival engine. Rather than being hidden away as failures or historical detritus, these outliers are treated as speculative spatial bodies. They possess what Manning and Massumi (2014: 87) term a "pull"—an intensive, non-linear demand that pushes the studio practice out of habitual, safe patterns.
By gathering these disparate, residual fragments into provisional collages, Moreton creates a space of hospitality. The collage stage does not seek to synthesize or resolve these anomalies into a singular, harmonious narrative. Instead, it lets them sit together in their full difference, functioning as open-ended, diagrammatic scores for future physical forms. When these anarchival traces are pushed forward into clay, they break the typical artist-subject relationship. The outlier stops being a passive object from the past; it becomes a feed-forward projectile that disrupts the standard making process, ensuring that the emergent ceramic forms remain open to new possibilities.
Section II: Material Troubling, Phronesis, and the Ecology of Asperities
The transition from the flat, hospitable space of the collage to the heavy, gravity-bound reality of clay marks a shift from speculative thought to intense physical confrontation. It is here that Moreton engages in "material troubling." In this phase, the flat, accommodating space of the collage is deliberately forced to confront the stubborn, unpredictable nature of wet earth.
This phase cannot be navigated using intellectual distance or rigid blueprints. Instead, it demands what Aristotelian philosophy terms phronesis—a form of practical, lived wisdom that cannot be taught in textbooks but must be experienced in real-time through the body. In Moreton’s studio, phronesis operates as a shared, physical dialogue between the maker’s hand and the shifting state of the clay. As slab walls are raised, pierced, scored, and pulled apart, the artist does not impose a top-down, authoritarian form onto the medium. Instead, the making process becomes a live negotiation with the clay's moisture, its structural memory, and the constant pull of gravity.
This negotiated dialogue directly manifests on the object's surface as an Ecology of Asperities (Moreton 2026). Moreton does not smooth over the tears, cracks, or asymmetrical warping that happen as the clay processes the complex demands of its past outlier fragments. Instead, these structural disruptions are welcomed as meaningful traces of the making event itself (Massumi 2011).
By treating these surface scars as vital elements rather than mistakes, Moreton aligns his practice with New Materialism (DeLanda 2006). The clay is recognized as an active partner in the creative process, possessing its own internal forces, tendencies, and material memory (Deleuze and Guattari 1987). The Ecology of Asperities ensures that the emerging ceramic body retains the raw, unresolved tension of the original outliers. The physical struggles of the material are preserved, setting the stage for the final, radical transformation that occurs when the vessel enters the kiln fire.
Section III: Bachelardian Topographies: Fire Analysis, Intimate Immensity, and the Permeable Chamber
Once the anarchival intensities of the outliers are physically forced into the clay, Moreton’s work moves into a deeply phenomenological realm. The final, white-painted, perforated vessels function as Permeable Chambers—tangible, architectural manifestations of what Gaston Bachelard explores in The Poetics of Space. Bachelard asserts that "inhabited space transcends geometrical space" (Bachelard 2014: 67), arguing that our domestic shelters and intimate corners are psychological realms that house human memory, reverie, and the soul. Moreton’s chambers are precisely this: non-functional, experienced architectures that prompt an immediate psychological response from the viewer.
To understand how these chambers achieve their unique interiority, one must look to Bachelard’s broader elemental imaginary, particularly his analysis of fire. In Bachelard’s philosophy, fire is the ultimate dialectical element—it is both a destructive force and a material paradise that purifies and creates (Bachelard 1964: 7). The kiln fire acts as the definitive threshold of transformation in Moreton's practice. The fire takes the scarred surfaces of the clay—the Ecology of Asperities—and permanentizes them. The cracks, score marks, and punctured voids are not treated as structural flaws; through the fire, they become the vital windows that allow the interior of the vessel to breathe.
This process directly addresses the classic Bachelardian dialectic of inside and outside. The geometric division of inside and outside usually blinds us, turning space into a rigid binary of positive and negative, open and closed (Bachelard 2014: 228). Moreton’s Permeable Chambers completely deconstruct this binary. By coating the heavily textured exteriors in matte white paint and perforating the walls, the pieces refuse to keep their interior spaces completely hidden or separate. Light, shadow, and air pass continuously through the clay boundaries. The chamber becomes a site of intimate immensity—a miniature structure that holds a vast, silent, and contemplative interior world (Bachelard 2014: 192). It offers the viewer a safe space for psychological refuge and deep daydreaming, while remaining fundamentally independent, mysterious, and closed off from easy consumption.
Conclusion: The Open Threshold
Russell Moreton’s spatial practice offers a profound reimagining of how material history, studio labor, and physical objects interact within contemporary art research. By refusing to discard the residues, cracked experiments, and erratic notations of his past work, Moreton demonstrates that the material outlier is not a sign of failure or waste, but rather the most critical asset a generative system possesses. The anarchive workflow successfully moves the studio archive out of its traditional role as a passive graveyard of documentation, turning it instead into a vital, forward-pushing engine for new work.
Through the distinct phases of provisional collage, material troubling, and the transformative threshold of the kiln fire, these anarchival fragments are systematically processed without ever being forced into a neat, uniform resolution. The final Permeable Chambers stand as physical proof of this negotiated dialogue. Marked by an Ecology of Asperities and shifting between interior darkness and external light, these porous vessels dismantle the classic Bachelardian binary of inside and outside. They achieve an intimate immensity—inviting the viewer into a space of quiet contemplation while remaining completely autonomous, mysterious, and independent.
Ultimately, Moreton’s methodology offers a valuable blueprint for the broader field of artistic research. It proves that when an artist surrenders absolute control and enters into a reciprocal, bodily dialogue (phronesis) with a resistant medium, the resulting objects escape the trap of being easily consumed or used up. By weaving the anomalies of the past into the physical forms of the present, the creative process remains a vital, living threshold—radically alive, continuously breathing, and forever open to the future.
Bibliography
- Bachelard, G. (1964) The Psychoanalysis of Fire. Translated by A. C. M. Ross. Boston: Beacon Press.
- Bachelard, G. (2014) The Poetics of Space. Translated by M. Jolas. New York: Penguin Books.
- DeLanda, M. (2006) A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity. London: Continuum.
- Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by B. Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Manning, E. (2013) Always More Than One: Individuation’s Dance. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Manning, E. (2016) The Minor Gesture. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Manning, E. and Massumi, B. (2014) Thought in the Act: Passages in the Ecology of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Massumi, B. (2002) Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Massumi, B. (2011) Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Moreton, R. (2026) 'The Ceramic Body is an actively Attentively~Troubling Permeable Chamber', Russell Moreton Research Journal, 16 September [Online]. Available at: russellmoreton.com (Accessed: 21 September 2026).
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