The symposium is sponsored by the MA History of Design and Curatorial Studies program ([ Ссылка ]), offered jointly by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Parsons School of Design ([ Ссылка ]).
The Twenty-Sixth Annual Parsons/Cooper Hewitt
Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Design
The New School | [ Ссылка ]
The challenges faced by vast numbers of migrants and refugees worldwide—uprooted by war, persecution, or ecological crises or relocating in search of economic opportunity—are giving rise to innovative design solutions. Although often urgent, these crises are unfortunately rarely new.
Panelists:
- Carolyn Eletto, Parsons School of Design, History of Design and Curatorial Studies
- Siddhartha V. Shah, Columbia University, Art History and Archaeology
- Ignacio G. Galán, Princeton University, History and Theory of Architecture / Barnard and Columbia Colleges, Architecture
This symposium attempts to take a broader historical view of the relationship of design and decorative arts to the displacement and movement of people and populations since the Renaissance. Be it emigré Flemish tapestry weavers across Europe in the 16th and 17th century, enclaves of immigrant artisans in the faubourgs of 18th-century Paris, Huguenot metalsmiths in England fleeing religious persecution, artisans exiled from central Europe in the aftermath of the failed 1848 revolutions, the Bauhaus’ re-establishment after its dissolution by the fascists, or contemporary designers’ migrations all over the world, the movement of populations has spurred great changes in the decorative arts, design and the cultural landscape in general, including the creation of opportunities for new cross-cultural synthesis.
Migrations also inspire architectural solutions, such as temporary housing for displaced persons during wartime or following natural disasters, or more substantial interventions into the landscape, such as buildings erected to accommodate the exponential growth of cities like Lagos or Rio de Janeiro. Papers might consider historical or contemporary designers or whole populations. The symposium also seeks to address issues of national and transnational identity as well as the effects of anti-immigrant ethno-nationalism and resistance to it.
The symposium's Catherine Hoover Voorsanger Keynote speaker will be Jeremy Aynsley, professor of design history at the University of Brighton (UK) and chair of the Design History Society. Professor Aynsley’s research interests concern late-19th- and 20th-century design in Europe and the United States, with a particular focus on design in modern Germany, which he has explored in major exhibitions and academic publications including Nationalism and Internationalism in Design in the 20th Century (1994), Graphic Design in Germany 1890–1945 (2000), and Designing Modern Germany (2009). He is especially interested in the phenomenon of the migration of Modernism and is currently working on a project about German graphic designers in the United States on the eve of World War II.
Location: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
2 East. 91st Street New York, NY 10128
Saturday, April 8, 2017 at 10:30 am to 4:30 pm
