Segnalo il seguente call for papers, che mi pare offra un consistente elenco di temi, di interesse per molti di noi, e forse in particolare per quanti fanno parte del gruppo di museologia.
Writing Design; Object, Process, Discourse, Translation
The Design History Society Annual Conference
call for papers
de Havilland Campus, University of Hertfordshire, 3-5 September, 2009.
Co-convenors: Dr Grace Lees-Maffei and Jessica Kelly
How do we find out about design, as both practice and object, including the processes of designing, crafting and manufacture, marketing and consumption? A variety of methods and sources ranging from observation, participation, interview and oral history, to object analysis and documentary and visual interpretation is used in order to understand the processes and products of design and material culture. In both researching design and preparing resultant outcomes, designers, design historians, practitioners of design studies, material culture studies, popular culture studies and literary studies use words, whether written or spoken, to describe visual and material processes and objects. Understanding design involves the use and translation of sources, both pictorial/material and written/verbal. As is fitting in the wake of the Design History Society’s 30th Anniversary and the 20th Anniversary of the Journal of Design History, this conference encourages participants to reflect on their sources, historiography and methodology, research, dissemination and teaching processes to examine the issues mobilised by articulating design and material culture with language and the ways in which writing about objects has conditioned our understanding of design. This conference is inclusive in its interests. Indicative themes and questions are as follows (the list is in no particular order and is not intended to be prescriptive, exclusive or exhaustive):
– Translating Design: What is at stake in the translation of objects into words, whether written or spoken, for the purposes of research, communication and understanding?
– Writing as Object: How does the design of words and writing impact upon their interpretation, both within studies of typography and book design and more broadly?
– Writing the Haptic? How can the haptic and tacit knowledge be discussed and written about?
– Design Writing: What has been the value of designers’ writings? What conclusions can we draw about writing on design, from popular and specialist design journalism and trade journals to academic studies of design? How have design and designers been represented or used as motifs in literature and other narratives?
– Writing Personae: How have designers attempted to shape their personae/biographies?
– Design and the Public: How has design been represented in the mass media, including magazine and television?
– Design Advice: How have discourses of lifestyle expertise shaped taste and consumption?
– Design Historiography: How do we, as students and scholars of design, write ourselves and our work into an evolving history of design history?
– Designing the Archive: How have archival holdings, documentary sources and curatorial practices shaped our understanding of design?
– Designing the Visitor Experience: How have curators in design exhibitions, museums and galleries used selection and synthesis, labels and catalogues, objects, words and images to tell stories and histories about design?
– Design before Design? How do we understand design practice in a period when documentary and object analysis are the sole sources through which we know design, using probate records, diaries, broadsheets, designer’s archives etc.
– Writing Nation: What impact has an existing design historical bias towards Western industrialised nations had on the understanding of design?
– Talking Design: How have interview and oral history practices functioned to enlarge understanding of design?
– Teaching Design: What pedagogical issues are raised by learning about designed objects through lectures, seminars and written assignments?
– Degrees of Design: What is the role and value of the written assignment in design education?
12 January 2009
Deadline for receipt of proposals
Per informazioni:
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/tvad/event030909.html