society conference

call for papers
deadline - 25th February 2005

design sites and histories research group convenes

Locating dEs1gn

the design history society annual conference

sir john cass department of art, media and design
london metropolitan university
london, e1, britain

Design: Sites and Histories Research Group at London Metropolitan
University invite submissions for the annual, international Design
History Society conference to be held 7-9 September 2005.

Locating dEs1gn is concerned with a consideration of design in/and place.
It is also seeks to maintain an interdisciplinary approach to thinking
about design and its place in cultural history. For, design and place are
both material and imagined and both design and place are co-constitutive.
The East End of London - where this conference is to be held - is
instructive of these ideas, demonstrating the immense investment of
design /material culture in the construction of place. Here in the East
End, the vestigial material culture of 17th century immigrant Huguenots
and 19th century East European Jews, or a forgotten furniture and rag
industry continue to haunt East London through the sites and sounds of
current day Bengali 'Banglatown', fused uneasily with recently relocated
design studios and the vogueish strut of Hoxton/Shoreditch style. This
East End site suggests that the confluence of 'design' and 'place' across
local and global networks is as historically resonant as it is
significant today.

We invite participants to think of design as contingent upon place and of
the networks and linkages between design in/and place as a complex that
is affiliative and layered. This lends further meaning to the 'social
life of things' as formulated by Arjun Appadurai. By design we ask that
participants consider both object and process. And, by place we do not
only mean 'landscape': we suggest that place in (post-colonial) global
societies - or rather a global sense of place - is a complex interaction
of the body, language/discourse, history and environment.

Locating dEs1gn will consider the place of design thinking at
interdisciplinary intersections. Thus, papers are invited from design and
architectural history, material culture studies, history, historical and
cultural geography, visual culture studies, cultural studies, cultural
history, art history, gender studies, film studies, philosophy or any
other area of study or practice that engages with the inter-connection of
design in/and place. Locating dEs1gn is particularly keen to invite
papers from professional visual arts practitioners, and from postgraduate
students.

Participants are asked to consider:

design as process and object, as material and as imagined in/and place as
material, as imagined, as discourse

Thus sub-themes might include design in/and: place as material: city,
home, museum, body, landscape;

place as imagined/space: urban, rural, suburban, national, local, global,
imperial, post-colonial;

place as language and as discourse: archive, image, language, history,
inter-/ disciplinary methodologies.

Papers that consider design in/and the East End of London are especially
welcomed.

Papers proposed may be single papers, or a whole panel of 3 papers.
Proposals must follow strictly, all the guidelines given below. All
proposals sent by email must be saved as a word document and by
proposer's name only.

Proposal types:
1. proposal for a 25 minute paper: title, suggested theme, no more than
350 word abstract clearly communicating structure and argument, 50-100
word biography of proposer with full professional/institutional
affiliation and contact email or address.

2. proposal for a full panel of 3 x 25 minute papers: include convener's
name, panel title, an abstract of no more than 150 words for the full
panel clearly outlining its thematic interrogation, titles and 350 word
abstracts for each paper clearly communicating structure and argument,
and 50-100 word biography of each speaker with full
professional/institutional affiliation and contact email or address.

Do not exceed given word counts for abstracts: longer abstracts will be
rejected. All session chairs will be arranged by conference conveners.
All proposals must be received by 25th February, 2005

Please send all proposals to dipti bhagat at d.bhagatlondonmet.ac.uk All
attachments must be saved as a Word.doc, by proposer's name and be
formatted in 12 point Times font. Or post to dipti bhagat, Academic
Convener, locating design, John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design,
London Metropolitan University, 41 Commercial Road London, E1 1LA.

--
dipti bhagat
senior lecturer: critical and historical studies
academic convener: LOCATING DESIGN, design history society conference,
2005

sir john cass department of art, media and design
london metropolitan university
41 commercial road
london e1 1la