Society News
The DHS is seeking nominations for the Teaching and Learning Officer position. More
To celebrate the opening of the V&A's new Dr. Susan Weber Gallery of Furniture, the V&A are holding a one-day symposium on the 17th of May to investigate furniture materials, making and design. More
Postmodern theory might have finally killed off the utopian ideal of history as an objective science, but it has arguably left a vacuum, with no comprehensive debate on the role of subjectivity and its potential challenges and benefits...
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Previous Conferences
2012
The Material Culture of Sport, University of Brighton, UK
The international 3-day conference coincided with the 2012 London Olympic Games and Cultural Olympiad but was not intended simply to celebrate the Olympics ideal or, indeed, to deal exclusively with the material culture of the Olympic Games. Rather, it provided a timely opportunity to embrace research in the material culture of sport in all its manifestations. Keynote speakers included Iain Sinclair and Dr Iain Macrury. The conference was convened by Dr Paul Jobling.
2011
Design Activism and Social Change, Barcelona, Spain
Convened by Guy Julier
2009
Writing Design: Object, Process, Discourse, Translation University of Hertfordshire
Convened by Dr Grace Lees-Maffei and Jessica Kelly, this conference encouraged participants to reflect on their sources, historiography and methodology, research, dissemination and teaching processes to examine the issues mobilised by articulating design and material culture with language and the ways in which writing about objects has conditioned our understanding of design. Keynote speakers were Prof. Jeffrey Meikle and Dr. Paul Jobling.
2008
Networks of Design University College Falmouth, Cornwall, UK.
This conference responded to recent academic interest in the fields of design history, technology and the social sciences in the 'networks' of interactions that inform knowledge formation and design. It was convened by Fiona Hackney, with keynote speakers Bruno Latour, Jeremy Myerson and Jan Konings.
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.