Javier
Gimeno-Martínez is Assistant Professor at the VU
University Amsterdam.
He holds a MA-degree in Industrial Design from the Universidad Cardenal
Herrera, Valencia (Spain) and an MA-degree on Art History from the Universidad
de Valencia. He got his PhD in 2006 from the KULeuven with the dissertation “The
Role of the Creative Industries in the Construction of Regional/European
Identities (1975-2002): Design and Fashion in Belgium and Spain.” He was a
visiting scholar in the department of Design History at the Royal College of
Art (London, UK) for the year 2009-2010. Dr Gimeno-Martínez’s research
interests encompass design and fashion as related with consumption, gender and
national identity. He has been conducting research on the shifting cultural
status of industrial design and craft from the 1950s up to today with Belgium
as case study, funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders from 2007 to 2010. The
culmination of the first three years of this research project was the seventh
ICDHS conference “Design and Craft: A History of
Convergences and Divergences”,
organized in collaboration with Dr. Fredie Floré, which provided the
opportunity for an international discussion on regional specificities as well
as the impact of global processes of industrialisation. If, until now, design
history has been largely dominated by the Western narratives of
industrialization, then moving the focus towards non- industrial design
practice might bring non-Western scholars to the forefront. Moreover,
previously marginalized design histories in industrialized countries can
finally get a voice. Dr Gimeno-Martínez was an Editor of the Journal
of Design History
from 2008-2013 and he is currently co-editing a special issue on Dutch design
for that journal.
MON 24TH NOVEMBER 2014 F390 Wright Building
10 am to 12 pm – Session with PG, MA and research students, led by Dr Gimeno-Martínez on national
identity in design
12.45 to 3 pm – TVAD Talk ‘A graphic negotiation with the past, present and
future. Political devolution and the symbols of the Belgian regions (1970–1998)’
LUNCH PROVIDED
Political devolution results in administrative institutions that are
generally created anew. However, these new institutions try to conceal the
brevity of their existence by reusing communal symbols from the past, such as
flags or coats of arms. Even when these symbols might objectively carry certain
polemical connotations, the weight of tradition can become an opportune tool for legitimating
institutions, so that the past is somehow forced to conform to the present.
Properly analysing this instrumentalization of historical iconography can pose
quite a challenge for both historians and designers. Indeed, it is present-mindedness
rather than historical perspective that drives these legitimating processes.
This talk analyses the negotiation of signs by the
governmental bodies that resulted from Belgian federalization. Along with the
conflict between past and present, the Belgian case addressed the future, too.
Belgian political devolution evolved in parallel with the Maastricht Treaty
(signed in 1992), through which regions attained prominent roles in Europe. Did
the need to create competitive regions invalidate the suitability of ancient
symbols for legitimizing public institutions? It does not seem to be the case.
On the contrary, institutional emblems coupled the necessity for appearing
established with the urge to project European regions as competitive entities.
TUES 25TH NOVEMBER 2014 F302 Wright Building
11.30 am to 12.30 pm – Planning for next visit, all staff invited to input.
1.30 pm – 3 pm – Reading Group session with TVAD and School research staff
and PG students. Staff and research students are
invited to circulate a piece of their writing in progress in advance to Dr
Grace Lees-Maffei, g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk for discussion at
the reading group round table.
For more information, contact Dr Grace Lees-Maffei g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk
Blog http://tvad-uh.blogspot.co.uk/
