Society News
1 May
DHS Network Co-ordinator
The Design History Society is looking to enhance the activities of the Executive Committee with the appointment of Network Co-ordinator, to plan and develop new networks germane to the Design History Society and related subjects....More
1 May
Media Matters: Friedrich Kittler and Technoculture
Media Matters: Friedrich Kittler and Technoculture is a two day series of events bringing one of today's foremost philosophers of media to Tate Modern for an opportunity to examine the relationship between culture and technology with a range of leading thinkers and practitioners, on 27-28 June 2008....More
1 May
Commonplace Yet Extraordinary
The symposium “Commonplace Yet Extraordinary: Design Histories of Everyday Objects” will take place at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday 16 May, 2008....More
Previous Conferences
2007
Design/Body/Sense Kingston University London, UK.
This conference explored the histories of bodily and sensual experiences of design. It was convened by Dr Trevor Keeble, and co-convened by Juliette Kristensen.
2006
Design and Evolution Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
The conference explored the possibilities and limitations of the concept of evolution as an explanatory principle for changes in design. It was convened by Timo de Rijk.
2005
Locating Design London Metropolitan University, UK.
This conference explored the relationship between design and place and was convened by Dr Dipti Bhagat.
2004
The Politics of Design School of Art and Design at the University of Ulster at Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Convened by Dr Deborah Sugg Ryan, further details of the conference can be found through following this link.
2003
Sex Object: Desire & Design in a Gendered World Norwich School of Art and Design.
Paper themes deal with issues around gender, sexuality and eroticism and their relationship to the design and experience of the material world. Strands included: Gendering Modernity; Modernism and Decoration; Fashioning Identity; Trans-Cultural Meanings; The Female Consumer; Gendered Territories: Professional Terrains; Erotic Display: Consuming Technology; Gender at Home; Women Designers; and Magazines and Representation. The conference convenor was Dr. Nicholas Maffei.
2002
Situated Knowledges: Consumption, Production and Identity in a Global Context University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
This conference encouraged an interdisciplinary approach that addressed the interface between the industrial and developing worlds and encompass a long historical period. Material culture is an essential aspect of creating distinction and identity and has become an antidote to the homogenising effects of globalisation. How does this compare with times past?. Central to many of the papers are themes of cultural borrowing, global communication and considerations of material culture and design used strategically to create distinction and identity in the past and in the present. The conference was convened by Moira Vincentelli. To see a complete list of abstracts, please click here.
2001
Representing Design Royal College of Art & Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
This interdisciplinary conference was a forum for the investigation of the changing nature of the representation of design in different historical periods. The conference explored the significance of representation for our understanding of the concept of design in the cycle from origination, manufacture, dissemination to consumption.