New Approaches to Design History, volume 8 of Writing Visual Culture

The TVAD Research Group hosts an online open access double-blind peer reviewed journal, Writing Visual Culture (WVC). We are proud to launch volume 8 of the journal today, entitled 'New Approaches to Design History'. It celebrates 40 years of the Design History Society, and the 30th annual volume of the Journal of Design History, both anniversaries being celebrated in 2017. The articles are developed from papers presented in a special anniversary strand convened by WVC Series Editor Prof Grace Lees-Maffei at the Design History Society annual conference, 'Making and Unmaking the Environment', hosted by TVAD Visiting Researcher Prof Kjetil Fallan at the University of Oslo in September this year. Another TVAD Visiting Researcher, Dr Javier Gimeno Martínez, is one of the article co-authors. Read the new issue here: http://www.herts.ac.uk/research/centres-and-groups/tvad-theorising-visual-art-and-design/writing-visual-culture/volume-8

New Book Series: Cultural Histories of Design

Bloomsbury Publishing UK and Professors Grace Lees-Maffei and Kjetil Fallan are delighted to announce the launch of a new book series, Cultural Histories of Design. Cultural Histories of Design presents rigorous and original research on the role and significance of design in society and culture, past and present. From a vantage point at the heart of the humanities, the series explores design as the most significant manifestation of modern and contemporary culture. This series will offer an interdisciplinary approach to design, including, but not limited to, design history, cultural studies, history, art history, business history, history of technology, anthropology, material culture studies, archaeology, geography, sociology, media studies and visual culture studies. There is more information about the series on our webpage: https://www.bloomsbury.com/…/…/cultural-histories-of-design/

TVAD blog readers are warmly invited to join the editors and publisher at Bloomsbury’s offices at 50 Bedford Square, London on Thursday 25th January 2018 from 6pm until 7.30pm to celebrate the first two books in the series: Modern Asian Design, by Daniel Huppatz and Norman Bel Geddes: American Design Visionary, by Nicolas P Maffei. The series editors and authors will briefly introduce the series and launch titles and will be available for questions and discussions. Drinks will be served. Please RSVP by 15th December to claire.constable@bloomsbury.com 

New WVC issue: Between Texts and Cities

“Between Texts and Cities” was prompted by a suggestion by Grace Lees-Maffei that Michael Heilgemeir and I guest-edit an issue of Writing Visual Culture, the journal of the TVAD research group. The issue is part of our joint project Texts+Cities, an exploration of the relations between texts and urban spaces in contemporary societies. We both have a keen interest in contemporary cities and urban issues: Michael’s book The Nomadic Studio explores temporary artist-led spaces and their role within the redevelopment of cities, and my research is on urban regeneration, focusing on London Docklands and the Greenwich Peninsula.

Fig. 1: Michael Heilgemeir (2013): The Nomadic Studio.

Our first Texts+Cities activity was the seminar Texts/Cities: From the 1970s to the Present, which took place at the University of Hertfordshire in January 2014. In conceiving the seminar, Michael and I were guided by a number of questions:

·       How do urban spaces relate to artistic, political, or economic texts and ideologies, and vice-versa?

·       What transformations occur between the designing and imaging of urban spaces, and the building and eventual inhabiting of those spaces?

·       How do the technologies employed in designing and imaging architectural and urban spaces (computer modelling and simulation, CGI renderings of future buildings, etc.) contribute to the ‘idea’ or representations of a city?

·       In what ways can Big Data, New Media, and Imaging Technologies influence understanding of, and policies within cities?

Poster for seminar Texts/Cities: From the 1970s to the Present, University of Hertfordshire, 2014. Poster design: Michael Heilgemeir; photograph: Hong Kong 2003 © Daniel Marques Sampaio.

The exploratory nature of the seminar enabled us to identify the central issues on which to focus, and the present issue of Writing Visual Culture springs from that process. Our call for papers for the issue produced responses from scholars within an interdisciplinary range of humanities, social sciences, art, design, and media practices.

Between Texts and Cities (WVC # 6) cover. Design and photograph © Michael Heilgemeir.

The seven contributions in “Between Texts and Cities” were selected from abstracts received from the UK, the USA, Belgium, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Russia, and South Africa. Our imaginations were sparked by their themes: cityscapes of exclusion; liminal, interstitial spaces between city and country; places of refuge for sexual and racial minorities; modernist utopian designs ill-equipped to respond to the dynamics of contemporary Capitalism; imagined cities that amplified traits of existing ones to the point of entropy.

These all related to the concerns outlined in our call for papers. However, the variety of approaches and the specificities of some of their cultural and geographical settings required us to contextualise them very carefully in relation to our project. In this we benefited enormously from our conversations with Susan Parham, Head of Urbanism at the Centre for Sustainable Communities here at the University of Hertfordshire. Susan’s comments and advice were always given in a spirit of openness and generosity, and we enjoyed immensely working with her.

I invite readers (shameless plug alert!) to have a look at the Introduction to the issue, which sets out a context for the papers within the thematic scope of the Texts+Cities project. That context invokes the literal and metaphorical ruins of Modernism’s urban utopias, and the emergence of a new political and economic configuration in the wake of the structural crises of Capitalism of the 1970s. Naturally, such context, “narrative arc” even, is only one of many possible contexts, and we welcome debate on alternative ways of reading this issue.

A final note on the issue: there are two versions of “Between Texts and Cities” on the TVAD website. The first version follows the prevailing model of digital delivery in journal publishing, whereby journal articles within an issue can be accessed individually as pdfs. If you need to print an individual article, that’s the place to go (mind the trees!).

In addition to this, we have brought all the papers together in a single volume, soon to be uploaded on the WVC site. Michael designed and produced photographs for the volume, which is designed to be read/viewed/studied/devoured on screens/tablets. This second version aims to preserve the papers’ place in the wider context of the issue (that “narrative arc”), and emphasise the dialogue between the articles. We also intend it to explore a bit more the visual side we have always felt is a strong aspect of the Texts+Cities project, in an attractive publication that hopefully will help us communicate the project in future activities.

Daniel Marques Sampaio

Now published by Berg, Writing Design: Words and Objects, edited by Grace Lees-Maffei

http://www.bergpublishers.com/Default.aspx?TabId=15047

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1847889557

How do we learn about the objects that surround us? As well as gathering sensory information by viewing and using objects, we also learn about objects through the written and spoken word - from shop labels to friends' recommendations and from magazines to patents. But, even as design commentators have become increasingly preoccupied with issues of mediation, the intersection of design and language remains under-explored. Writing Design provides a unique examination of what is at stake when we convert the material properties of designed goods into verbal or textual description. Issues discussed include the role of text in informing design consumption, designing with and through language, and the challenges and opportunities raised by design without language. Bringing together a wide range of scholars and practitioners, Writing Design: Words and Objects reveals the difficulties, ethics and politics of writing about design.

TVAD is proud to announce the publication of this book as a product of our Research Group. The editor of Writing Design: Words and Objects is TVAD Coordinator Grace Lees-Maffei, and the book includes an chapter from TVAD's Barbara Brownie, and another by Prof Michael Biggs and Dr Daniela Büchler from the School of Creative Arts at UH. The book is developed from the conference 'Writing Design: Object, Process, Discourse, Translation', hosted by TVAD at UH in September 2009, as the Design History Society Annual Conference. Writing Design: Words and Objects was published with the assistance of the Design History Society's research award.

Contents

Acknowledgements

General Introduction, Grace Lees-Maffei


PART 1: RIGHTING DESIGN - ON THE REFORMING ROLE OF DESIGN CRITICISM
Introduction
1. 'Writing about Stuff': The Peril and Promise of Design History and Criticism, Jeffrey L. Meikle, University of Texas at Austin, USA
2. Design Criticism and Social Responsibility: The Flemish Design Critic K.-N. Elno (1920-1993), Fredie Floré, Ghent University, Belgium
3. The Metamorphosis of a Norwegian Design Magazine: Nye Bonytt, 1968-1971, Kjetil Fallan, University of Oslo, Norway
4. Writing Contemporary Design into History, Stephen Hayward, University of the Arts London, UK


PART 2: MEDIATIONS - BETWEEN DESIGN AND CONSUMPTION
Introduction
5. Thinking in Metaphor: Figurative Conceptualising in John Evelyn's Diary and John Ruskin's Stones of Venice, Anne Hultzsch, University College London, UK
6. Regulating the Body in Army Manuals and Trade Guides: The Design of the First World War Khaki Service Dress, Jane Tynan, University of the Arts London, UK
7. Vitaglass and the Discourse of Modern Culture, John Stanislav Sadar, Monash University, Australia
8. Lewis Mumford's Lever House: Writing a House of Glass, Ann Sobiech Munson, Iowa State University, USA


PART 3: DESIGNING WITH AND THROUGH LANGUAGE
Introduction
9. Judging a Book by its Cover: or Does Modernist Form Follow Function?, Polly Cantlon and Alice Lo, both University of Waikato, New Zealand
10. Reading Details: Caruso St John and the Poetic Intent of Construction Documents, Mhairi McVicar, Welsh School of Architecture, UK
11. Applying Oral Sources: Design Historian, Practitioner and Participant:, Chae Ho Lee, University of Hawai'i at Mânoa, USA
12. Fluid Typography: Construction, Metamorphosis and Revelation, Barbara Brownie, University of Hertfordshire, UK


PART 4: SHOWING AS TELLING - ON DESIGN BEYOND TEXT
Introduction
13. Showing Architecture Through Exhibitions: A Taxonomical Analysis Applied to the Case of the First Venice Architecture Biennale (1980), Léa-Catherine Szacka, University College London, UK
14. Design as Language without Words: AG Fronzoni, Gabriele Oropallo, University College London, UK
15. On the Legal Protection of Design: Things and Words about Them, Stina Teilmann-Lock, Danish Design School, Denmark
16. Text-led and Object-led Research Paradigms: Doing Without Words, Michael Biggs and Daniela Büchler, both University of Hertfordshire, UK


Contributors
List of Illustrations
Select Bibliography
Index.

Grace Lees-Maffei appointed Managing Editor of the Journal of Design History

Following interviews, The Design History Society and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Design History have appointed Grace Lees-Maffei to the post of Managing Editor of the Journal of Design History for a five year term. Grace will work alongside a newly appointed Chair of the Editorial Board, Prof Cheryl Buckley (Northumbria University).
http://jdh.oxfordjournals.org/
http://www.designhistorysociety.org/