design and antiquarians – 4

This is a comment on the seminar series currently running between Stanford and Bard Graduate Center. [Link] [Link] This week – George Kubler’s extraordinary “Shape of time” from 1962, and the philosophy and archaeology of R.G.Collingwood [Link]. Both crossed (disciplinary) borders in looking at how we connect things and history. A key question (of pragmatography)…

design and antiquarians – 2

This is a comment on the seminar series currently running between Stanford and Bard Graduate Center. [Link] This week – the origins of the design museum in the nineteenth century. The history of design history.   The Victoria and Albert, South Kensington, London – original facade – established to improve British manufacturing

design and antiquarians – 1

This is a comment on the seminar series currently running between Stanford and Bard Graduate Center. [Link] Great discussion today about broad convergences between the world of the antiquarian collector and researcher of the seventeenth/eighteenth centuries and that of the designer of today. The notion of design involves questions of how we relate to objects,…

critical design – what if?

I am in Manhattan at Bard Graduate Center, celebrating its twentieth anniversary, its explorations of decorative arts, design history and material culture in research, pedagogy, exhibition and curatorial practice [Link]. Like any good celebration we’re looking forward as well as back. This morning was about imagining the future of museum and gallery exhibition. This afternoon was…