DESIGN/HISTORY/REVOLUTION CONFERENCE
@PARSONS NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN AND NSSR
APRIL 27th and 28th, 2012

Kellen Auditorium, 66 5th Avenue
http://designhistoryrevolution.wordpress.com/

Whether by providing agitprop for revolutionary movements, an aesthetics of empire, or a language for numerous avant-gardes, design has changed the world. But how? Why? And under what conditions? We propose a consideration of design as an historical agent, a contested category, and a mode of historical analysis. This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore these questions and open up new possibilities for understanding the relationships among design, history and revolution. Casting a wide net, we define our terms broadly. Papers will examine the roles of design in generating, shaping, remembering or challenging moments of social, political, economic, aesthetic, intellectual, technological, religious, and other upheaval. We consider a range of historical periods (ancient, pre-modern, early modern, modern, post- and post-post-modern) and geographical locations (“West,” “East,” “North,” South,” and contact zones between these constructed categories). We examine not only designed objects (e.g., industrial design, decorative arts, graphic design, fashion) but also spaces (e.g., architecture, interiors, landscapes, urban settings) and systems (e.g., communications, services, governments). And we approach design from a diversity of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches.

Keynoted by Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, and Professor of Architectural History in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, this conference brings together scholars from the humanities, sciences, and social sciences with designers. We hope not only to present multiple methodological approaches but also to foster conversations across traditional spatial, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries.

All events are free and open to the public and held at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center/Kellen Auditorium
Location: 66 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street, New York

FRIDAY APRIL 27

PANEL I. FRIDAY 2-3:30 DESIGN AND PUBLIC SPACES.

1. Nina Harkrader, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, Building for “The Other”: Spatial Aspects of Architecture and Poverty in Victorian England

2. Joanna Merwood, School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design, “RED MOBS BATTLE POLICE”: Union Square Park as Revolutionary Landscape

3. Amanda Gluibizzi, Ohio State University, “Making New York Understandable”: Revolutionary Proposals for a City in Crisis

4. Jonah Westerman, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Hurry Up and Wait: Socialist Realism, Avant-Garde, and the Poetics of the Threshold in the Moscow Metro

5. Kathleen Hulser, Independent Scholar/The New School/New York University, The Right Look and the Right to Look: Billboard Advertising and Visual Rights

PANEL II. Friday 3:45 PM- 5:15 PM REVOLUTIONS IN/AND ARCHITECTURE.

1. Gregory Brown, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Department of History, Inside Looking Outside in Revolutionary Paris: Robert’s Caprices, Bélanger’s Gardens, and the Imagining of Urban Exterior Space at the Villa Beaumarchais

2. Kristin Romberg, The Phillips Collection Center for the Study of Modern Art, George Washington University, Paper Architecture: The Constructivist Journal’s Extensive Structure

3. Daniel Talesnik, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, Hannes Meyer and the Red Bauhaus Brigade: Subjects of the Post-revolution or Revolutionaries?

4. Andrea Merrett, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, Designing Against Discrimination: Feminism and Design in Architecture

5. Daniel Barber, Columbia University, Slow Violence and the Quiet Revolution in Environmental-Architectural Representation, 1957 -

FRIDAY 5:15-6:15.RECEPTION

FRIDAY 6:30 -7:30. KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

BARRY BERGDOLL, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, and Professor of Architectural History in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

SATURDAY APRIL 28

PANEL III. SATURDAY 10AM-11:30. DESIGNING NATIONS AND EMPIRES.

1. Diana Martinez, Architecture History and Theory & Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University, Design and Empire: Daniel Burnham’s Master Plan for Manila

2. Azra Dawood, History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art & Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, MIT, Egypt by Design: The Architecture of the New Egyptian Museum and Research Institute at Cairo (1926)

3. Luis Rodriguez, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Cuajimalpa, México, Design Theory and Processes Department, 1968 Olympics as a Symbol of Social and Student Protests throughout the World

4. David Ciarlo, University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of History, Designing German Colonial Power: Advertising and Empire in Germany Circa 1900

5. Heins, Matthew, Doctoral Program of Architecture, University of Michigan, The Quiet Revolution of the Shipping Container

PANEL IV. SATURDAY 11:45-1 PM. DESIGNING THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND SOVIET HISTORY.

1. Katerina Romanenko, City University of New York, Design and Celebration of the Revolution: Representation of the Celebratory Rituals in the Soviet Illustrated Press in the 1930s

2. Alla Vronskaya, History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture, Department of Architecture, MIT, Organization Science and the Politics of Design in Post-Revolutionary Russia

3. Olga Zaikina, Ekaterinburg Academy of Contemporary Art, Place, Politics, and Religion: Redesign of the Post-Soviet Urban Space

LUNCH BREAK 1-2

PANEL V. SATURDAY 2-3:30. DESIGN AND IDENTITIES.

1. Christopher Dingwall, University of Chicago, Designing Slavery: Cultural Commodity, National Rebirth, and The Souls of Black Folk

2. Barrett Kalter, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of English, Antiquarian Design and Queer Temporality

3. R. Ertug Altinay, Performance Studies, New York University, Designing for the Republic: The Girls’ Institutes and their Fashion Designs

4. Kasia Jezowska, History of Design, Royal College of Art, Design Exhibitions and Exhibition Designs: Representing Poland between 1945 and 1975

PANEL VI. 3:45-5:30.DESIGNING FOR THE BODY AND THE SENSES.

1. Roz Hammers, The University of Hong Kong, Art History, The Progress of a Rake: Designing and Imagining Agrarian Tools for Political Reform in 14th-Century China

2. Regina Blaszczyk, University of Pennsylvania, History and Sociology of Science, Sunshine Yellow and the Cold War Kitchen: Color Revolution or Replacement Revolution?

3. Bess Williamson, Columbia College Chicago, Design History, Accessible, Universal, Ugly: Designers Confront Disability 1970 – 2000

4. Timo De Rijk, VU University, Design Culture, A Radical Music Carrier

5. David Parisi, College of Charleston, Department of Communication, A Crisis of Perception: Haptic Interface Design as a Response to Ocularcentric Media

http://designhistoryrevolution.wordpress.com/