Dear Vanni, Many thanks for the invitation to contribute to this series of “letters.” As someone new to the field, I very much appreciate the opportunity to join this discussion with such an impressive group of scholars and teachers. Kjetil is absolutely correct that design historians should be responsible for deciding how designhistory is researched,…
Categoria: Lettere sulla storia del design
Balcioglu: On design history
Dear Vanni Many thanks for initiating this interesting debate. I will use your five questions to formulate my observations and ideas. 1 Loss of importance of History of Design in Design Schools As you rightly indicated, the situation in Eastern schools is radically different. Take Turkey for instance, where design history is developing steadily and…
Lees-Maffei: On design history
Dear Vanni Pasca Thank you for your message and for kindly forward the fascinating messages from colleagues about the purpose and practice of design history. As Kjetil Fallan pointed out, some of my take on this has recently been published in an article I co-wrote with DJ Huppatz: Lees-Maffei, G. and D. J. Huppatz. ‘Why…
Dilnot: On design history
Dear all, Just to try to take further this very interesting discussion. The problem of the “loss” of the history of design in studio design programs is also in part a result of the breakdown of the modern design project and the idea of the autonomous design discipline. To put this in perspective, before the…
Pasca: On design history, letters
Dear friends, in attachment you find some letters of Susan Yelavich, Victor Margolin, Kjetil Fallan, Anna Calvera and me. In November I met in New York Susan and we discussed about History of Design. After that encounter I wrote a letter to some friends. All their letters are here attached. Now I send that letters…
Gorman: On design history
I’ve enjoyed this conversation very much–thanks, Vanni, for including me. It wasn’t until this year, thanks to the phd-design list, that I realized that design history was in a period of retrenchment in Britain. I was surprised, because I have the strong impression from attending both NASAD* and CAA** that design history is being offered…
Calvera: On design history
Dear all How a nice conversation, and how lucky I am tohave been invited to participate! By now, there are many questions in the fore and so, I don’t know if it is best to answer through only one mail or rather use some more. Concerning the practical uses of Design History lectures, I enjoyed…
Fallan: On design history
Caro Vanni; dear Susan; dear colleagues, The place and role of design history in (design) education seems to be of concern to many these days. The European Academy of Design (EAD) Conference 2013, which will take place in Gothenburg in April, contains a track called “Design history as a tool for better design” (see the…
Yelavich: On design history
Dear Vanni and colleagues, I am delighted to be included in this discussion re: history. And I agree with Vanni when he writes: “Presently I think that the problem is the domination of an absolutized technical thinking, both under the engeneering and the managerial points of view. I think it’s a general problem in present…
Margolin: On design history
Dear colleagues; Thanks to Vanni, I believe, for starting this discussion. I agree with Kjetil that historians need to control the narrative of design history. It is not simply a service activity but on in its own right like art history, film history, and so forth. There is a design history research culture with its…
Pasca: Lettere sulla storia del design / On design history
Dear friends, some days ago I could luckily meet at Parsons in New York Susan Yelavich. We discussed about Design, History of design and so on. Afterwards she wrote to me a letter and I quote here one phrase: “… about teaching history. I feel there is a need for both chronological and modal/thematic approaches.…