Standard Practice is concerned with the values and impacts of standardisation. Through an exploration of the methods and discourse of various standards, the research constructs and disseminates alternative standards and reconfigured standards, in order to generate debate about regulation.

Standard Practice is concerned with the values and impacts of standardisation. Through an exploration of the methods and discourses of various industrial and professional standards, this research constructs and disseminates alternative and reconfigured standards in order to generate debate about regulation.

The first part of project created a visual ethnographic study of ‘scale practices’; a curated collection of everyday objects used to demonstrate and compare scale. This collection inspired a series of public lectures examining how scale practices move from the commercial into the cultural arena. The project was then developed into a brief for Masters students; asking them to critically examine the formative and disciplinary standards that delineated their practices, looking for opportunities to creative redirect their practice through shifts in the standards that help form their previous work. Engaging MA Design Expanded Practice students as active, co-researchers allowed the further development and dissemination of the work.

The research was initially framed in relation to a ten- week postgraduate brief led by Corinne Quin and Ruby Hoette, and with the participation of members of the British Standards Institute (BSI) in the spring term of 2018. The preparation, delivery and outcomes of the brief generated a range of prototypical alternative standards which were exhibited at a BSI conference, with a display of prototypes and textual material coming out Quin and Hoette’s brief (December 2018).
An educational case study (Standards and design at Goldsmiths University) was produced and published by the BSI to disseminate the learning from the project. Quin won an BSI Education about Standardization award for the project in 2019.

Subsequently the project was developed by Quin as Sizegiver, an edited collection of photographs capturing ubiquitous demonstrations of scale (2020), and Sizegivers, a visual vernacular of popular artefacts printed true-to-scale by photogram (2020). The publication and photogram are published online, through the researcher’s Instagram and GRO.

The enquiry was supported by a review of standards, including the BSI and International Standards Organisation database whose elements are licensed to a range of professional and industrial bodies, along with diverse historical standards including DIN 476 which led to the dimensions of A4 paper. The researchers recognize that while standards are essential for replicability and quality, the application and effects of standards are also political, as evidenced by the Nazi-era architecture of Ernst Neufert, who extended DIN 476 into the dimensions of social housing. Standards are therefore taken as paths for mediation and speculation, to provide contexts for design interventions that support alternative forms of calibration, expose issues, or counter blind spots.

The project has been disseminated through a range of public outputs aimed towards different audiences, including; Quin, C. (2020) Sizegiver, Aldgate Press [artist’s book] - A visual catalogue of found photographs capturing ubiquitous demonstrations of scale; Quin, C (2020) Sizegiver [art object] and ‘Sizegiver; visual languages of measurement in digital space’ [conference] at the BSI Standards Conference; A Podcast on the Standards Show [podcast]; ‘As Big as A…” [Article], Disegno #36 , The Quarterly Journal of Design, September 2023.

• Quin, Corinne. 2020. Sizegiver. [Artist's Book]
• Quin, Corinne. 2020. Sizegivers. [Art Object]
• Quin, Corinne and Chiles, Matthew. 2023. Sizegiver - how to measure the world. [Audio]
• Quin, Corinne. 2020. 'BSI Standards e-Conference: Sizegiver - visual languages of measurement in digital space'. In: BSI Standards e-conference 2020. London, United Kingdom 23 April 2020. [Conference or Workshop Item]
• Quin, Corinne and Chiles, Matthew. 2020. Standards and design at Goldsmiths University. Project Report. British Standards Institute (BSI), London. [Report]
• Quin, Corinne. 2020. Sizegiver Daily Archive. [Digital]

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/29050