Month: November 2007

senza parole

Call for papers, deadline: December 1st

“ANOTHER NAME FOR DESIGN: Words for Creation”

Sponsored by CSCD, the Center for the Study of Communication-Design, Osaka University

Key dates

July 1, 2007 Call for papers
December 1, 2007 Deadline for abstracts
January 1, 2008 Notification of acceptance
June 1, 2008 Full papers due
Guidelines for abstracts

We are asking proposals for papers for the content described in ‘Conference themes.’ The abstract should follow the following guidelines.

Length: Max. One page A4
Language: English
Style: Single-spaced, 12pt Times Regular or Times New Roman
Type of file: RTF (Rich Text Format) or DOC (Microsoft Word Format)

Each entry should include the following information:
– Author’s full name(s)
– Gender: (M/F)
– Title, Position, and Affiliation
– Address for correspondence
– Telephone (Home or Office)
– Mobile Telephone (if possible)
– E-mail
– Title of the paper
– Choice of two ‘Conference themes (indicate the first and second priority)
The files should be named according to the last name of the author(s), for instance:
richardson.doc or richardson.rtf (if there are many authors, put the last name of the one reading the paper during the conference)

Send your abstracts by December 1, 2007, to:
icdhsabstract (@) gmail.com

Conference Themes

Theme 1: “Etymology of Design”
Though now used all over the world, the word “design” was a denizen, loan word, at least for most Asian people. In Asia, however, there are some historical equivalents for “design” which could be, if properly compared with some other European equivalents such as “disegno,” “diseño,” “dessin,” or “gestaltung,” interesting ideas for most design historians of the world. Papers on each culture’s various words which were/are equivalent or comparable with “design” are most welcome.

Theme 2: “Design Museum: Another Art Museum or a New Museum”
Is design museum another fine art museum or a totally new kind of museum? How are design museums/collections different from art museums/collections? What are the major challenges of design museums today? This strand invites papers analyzing histories and present situations of design museums/collections of the world, particularly those of less-known collections in various parts of the world or nearly unknown aspects of established art and design museums.

Theme 3: “Permanent and Transient: Past, Present, and Future”
It deals with the history-writing of architecture and design and their separation in different categories, although we are dealing by and large with the designed, constructed man-made world where the built environment and artifacts form a totality, a seamless web. It also deals with various significances of the recent past and the near future in design history, in comparison with the history of art and architecture in traditional meanings and different time spans.

Theme 4: “Decolonizing Design History: Modern/Postmodern for the Periphery”
How have the Modern and Postmodern behaved in the ‘peripheria’ and peripheral design? It will include an insight of the practices, the cultural and social conditions, and also the changes in the historical discourse. Though an important theme, it has been given a very little attention.

Theme 5: “Natural and Manmade: Medical Design and some other Design Frontiers”
Are your eyeglasses a tool or a part of your body, or face? Is your laptop almost a part of your body or life? Are green mountains surrounding Japan’s historical towns natural or artificial? Borders between natural and manmade are sometimes vague. However, many designs have been made in these borders. This is a forum for studies investigating these areas. It could be a good opportunity to exchange related ideas among design specialists of the world in Japan, a country where robot-technology is highly developed.

Theme 6: “Narrative Strategies in Design History”
Since Pevsner’s Pioneers of Modern Design was published in 1936, the issue of narrative strategy has been significant in design history. This panel proposes to explore the question of narrativity in design history by inviting papers on subjects that range from historiography – studies of earlier design histories and their narrative strategies – to examples of histories that have departed from the earlier norms – histories that address issues of geographic inclusivity, gender, other genres such as craft, particular national identity, ecology, or additional themes that expand our understanding of how histories of design might be written.

A special theme proposed by the CSCD, the Center for the Study of Communication-Design, Osaka University (Papers are expected both from visual and verbal as well as any other new/old communication research fields).

Theme 7: “Communication Design in Education, Research, and Practice”
Design for communication, a major 20th-century design theme, is even more important in the 21st century when various novel tools, techniques, and systems are, on one hand, helping our rapid/ubiquitous/global communication and, on the other, not solving real difficulties, or even causing new problems. This strand invites papers dealing with both local and international issues of communication design.

Vinicio Vianello: il design del vetro
Verona, Museo di Castelvecchio, Sala Boggian
25 novembre 2007 – 30 marzo 2008
orario: 8.30-19.39, lun 13.30-19.30

Inaugurazione: sabato 24 novembre 2007 ore 11,30

Curata da Alberto Bassi, Paola Marini e Alba Di Lieto, la mostra Vinicio Vianello: il design del vetro è dedicata ad uno degli artisti più interessanti degli anni cinquanta e sessanta, protagonista della cultura del progetto in Italia. Esponente dello Spazialismo a fianco del maestro Lucio Fontana, Vianello ha operato a Venezia, ma il suo percorso è trasversale all’ufficialità e alle correnti artistiche in genere e si sottrae a etichette rigide. Nel solco della sperimentazione e dell’attento dialogo fra le arti, Vianello sin dal 1950 si cimenta in nuove configurazioni e tecniche esecutive nel settore del vetro e del disegno industriale, avvalendosi della collaborazione di vari maestri vetrai muranesi. Un interesse che lo accompagnerà per tutta la vita, e lo porterà ad occuparsi di ceramiche, vetri, apparecchi di illuminazione, oggetti di design, interventi nell’architettura.

HARRY BERTOIA 1915-1978
Designer e scultore
Pordenone, Museo Civico

Il 23 novembre 2007, a Pordenone (Sala Consigliare della Provincia)
Convegno su Harry Bertoia / Giornata di studi dedicata alla figura del celebre designer-artista Harry Bertoia.
Il convegno vuole tentare di descrivere, proprio analizzando tutti gli ambiti d’interesse di Harry Bertoia (disegno, incisione, gioielleria, design e scultura), l’ampiezza del lavoro di questo grande artista che è riuscito a coniugare all’interno della sua personale ricerca diverse esperienze; ma è anche uno sforzo nel cercare di sottolineare le sue origini e le sempre forti interconnessioni che Harry Bertoia nel corso della vita ha avuto con la sua terra d’origine, l’Italia e il Friuli.
Nel cercare di fornire un’esaustiva chiave interpretativa dei sue diversi campi d’indagine artistica e professionale al convegno parteciperanno: Gilberto Ganzer, direttore Musei Civici Pordenone, Carlo Forcolini, presidente Nazionale ADI, Associazione Design Industriale, Vanni Pasca, presidente del Corso di laurea magistrale in design dell’Università di Palermo, Alberto Bassi, docente Storia del design alla Facoltà di Design e Arti dello IUAV di Venezia, Ada Masoero, critica d’arte e giornalista, Luca Massimo Barbero, Curatore Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Luigi Molinis, professore presso l’Università di Udine, Angelo Bertani, Anna Lombardi, Elena Bertoia e Marco Minuz.
Il convegno che si inaugurerà alle ore 9.30 presso la sala consigliare della Provincia di Pordenone comprenderà la proiezione di un’anticipazione del documentario che verrà dedicato alla figura di Harry Bertoia, filmato realizzato dal regista Bruno Mercuri e con la consulenza di Gilberto Ganzer e Marco Minuz.

Informazioni: Museo Civico d’arte Pordenone, tel. 0434 392311 fax 0434 522507

GRAZIE a Valentina Croci per la segnalazione
Deadline for submission: February 25 2008

The theme Networks of Design responds to recent academic interest in the fields of design, technology and the social sciences in the ‘networks’ of interactions within processes of knowledge formation. The interest in networks emerges from actor-network theory (ANT) and the work of, among others, the social theorist Bruno Latour who, along with the international designer and Droog collaborator Jurgen Bey, is a keynote speaker at the conference.

Studying networks foregrounds infrastructure, negotiations, processes, strategies of interconnection, and the heterogeneous relationships between people and things. Within the wider context of post-modernism we are, it seems, experiencing a paradigm shift in design history and this conference offers an opportunity to address, explore and assess that shift, providing a platform for international debate and exchange.

Networks can include people, social groups, artefacts, devices, entities and ideas. Papers will be organised around five broad themes:

Networks of People including collectives and individuals
Networks of Texts including images, documents, databases
Networks of Technology including mechanical and virtual technologies
Networks of Things including material and technological artefacts
Networks of ideas including theories, disciplines and concepts (among them design history and ANT)

Proposals for papers are welcome from individuals and/or panels (of not more than three papers). Please visit the web site: www.networksofdesign.co.uk or email Fiona Hackney at [email protected] or [email protected].

Networks of Design 2008 Conference of the Design History Society
University College Falmouth
September 3rd – 6th 2008