®60: Design history vs History of Design
Description
'Design history vs History of design, a Babylonian confusion of tongues'
On the methodological conflict that has plagued design history from its inception as an independent historical specialism and in fact continues to this day.
J.W. Drukker will try to set out the backgrounds of the 'Great Rift' and make a reasoned proposal for a synthesis. In doing so, he does tell something new, in design history terms. A first, then, for the enthusiasts.'
The argument was about who could claim design history as a discipline and, by extension, which explanatory model was appropriate when it came to answering the two central questions that design history tries to answer: why do products look the way they do and why does the appearance of products change over time. One camp, consisting of art historians, claimed the field under the name 'history of design', while the other camp, a mishmash of historically anchored economists, sociologists, anthropologists and other practitioners of the humanities, did exactly the same, but now under the name 'design history'.
Speaker(s)
J.W. Drukker (Professor of Design History, University of Twente)
Location
The Florin, Nobelstraat 2-4, 3512 EN Utrecht
Organiser
Industrial Design
Name and contact details for information
Bestuur vakafdeling IO