Prof Rebecca Houze, TVAD Visiting Researcher 2016-17, Returns!

This week is a busy one for TVAD as we welcome our Visiting Researcher 2016-17, Professor Rebecca Houze, back to the University for her second visit. Prof Houze will engage with staff and students at all levels during her visit, including experiencing MA students' work at ‘The Light Fantastic’, our Postgraduate Interdisciplinary project exhibition opening in the Art and Design Gallery on Tuesday 7th February 2017, and working with first year undergraduates on the Graphic Design and Illustration BA Hons programme as part of the Critical and Contextual Studies module. Rebecca will also talk about her research on US National Parks in a panel presenting heritage-focussed research from the Professional Doctorate in Heritage (DHeritage) students at the History Department annual conference at Cumberland Lodge. We look forward to another enriching visit and thank Prof House sincerely for taking the time out from her commitments at Northern Illinois University, USA to work with us in Hertfordshire. 

PROGRAMME
TUESDAY 7^th FEBRUARY 2017

6 pm – ‘The Light Fantastic’ PG Interdisciplinary project exhibition opening, Art and Design Gallery.

WEDNESDAY 8^th FEBRUARY 2017
10 am – 12.45 pm – Prof Rebecca Houze to join Level 4 Graphic Design and Illustration for a workshop about her monograph New Mythologies in Design and Culture: Reading Signs and Symbols in the Visual Landscape (Bloomsbury Academic 2016).
12.45 for 1 pm, lunch provided. TVAD Talks series. Femke de Vries, HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, (www.FemkeDeVries.com) ‘DICTIONARY DRESSINGS: Clothing definitions decoded and translated towards alternative fashion perspectives’. Respondent: Professor Rebecca Houze, Northern Illinois University.
Dictionary definitions are generally experienced as factual and rational and in the case of clothing show no connection to the mythical character of fashion. They describe the characteristics of the items, the modes of use and/or the relation to the body but fashion or style is not mentioned. For example: “Handschoen: bekleding van de hand” (Literally translated to English as Glove: covering of the hand). It becomes clear that a hand can be covered by putting it in a pocket, by bandaging it or by sitting on it, turning a pair of trousers into a glove for they cover the hand and therefore suffice to the definition.In this on-going project the nature of the dictionary definition as a ‘zero condition’ of a piece of clothing is used not to find a general truth of a piece of clothing, but to re-read clothes and explore an alternative fashion vocabulary. This vocabulary will take the shape of an image archive, theoretical and design-led approaches by experts and students brought together in a publication, website, workshops and catalogues of these workshops.

THURSDAY 9^th FEBRUARY 2017

10 am - Workshop with Eva Sopeoglou and the First-Year Interior Architecture BA Hons students.

3 pm to 4.45 pm, TVAD Reading Group. Session with TVAD and School research staff and PG students focussed on supportive peer review of work in progress. If you wish to participate, please send texts for circulation to the other participants to Dr Grace Lees-Maffei g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk

5 pm – Design Talk: Jim Heverin (Zaha Hadid Architects Director). Convened by Julian Lindley. A154 Lindop.

FRIDAY 10^th to SUNDAY 12^th FEBRUARY 2017

Department of History Annual Conference, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, convened by Dr Katrina Navickas, School of Humanities (k.navickas@herts.ac.uk). 

SATURDAY 11TH FEBRUARY 2017

4.30pm - 5.45pm - SESSION SEVEN - DHeritage workshop - presentations and discussion by the DHeritage students. 

Panel convened by Dr Grace Lees-Maffei, at which DHeritage students briefly present their work in 15-minute slots. Prof Houze to discuss ‘The Open Air Museum From Ethnographic Village to National Park’. 

8.30pm - SESSION NINE - Film showing, 'The Destruction of Memory', and discussion.

The film will be introduced by Sarah Buckingham. It includes interviews with the Director-General of UNESCO, the Prosecutor of the ICC, and international experts across various disciplines. http://destructionofmemoryfilm.com/

For more information, contact the TVAD Research Group Leader, Dr Grace Lees-Maffei g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk