FROM THE DIRECTOR Recently a colleague asked me if I could describe the ideal candidate for a Masters in Design Studies. The easy answer would be that there is no ideal student, no more than there is one true ideal of any stripe. But that’s far too facile. In fact, there are several ideal student… Read More
FROM THE DIRECTOR Of all the questions that you might bring to a new Masters Program in Design Studies, this might be the most urgent: What will this program prepare me to do? What kind of paths will it open up? I could argue, and have in the past, that correlating education with jobs is… Read More
Readers of the Design Studies blog might care to take note of the upcoming College Art Association Conference, which will be held in Los Angeles this coming February. Advance registration closes Friday, January 20. Be sure to attend Design Studies Forum: Design, Thing Theory, and the Lives of Objects. Details after the jump…
A series exploring ideas in the Design Studies curriculum. Why is design so difficult as a critical practice? Course: Design for This Century Prof. Clive Dilnot IMAGE flickr/underpuppy | license: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The talk in week 9 of the graduate lecture series “Design for this Century,” on just how critical practice can be established in design,… Read More
I just finished John Harwood’s book The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945-1976 (Minnesota, 2011). Harwood, who teaches at Oberlin College, does an excellent job of discussing IBM’s design program in an expansive way. Instead of limiting his discussion about what constitutes design, he contends “that the outward appearance of objects is… Read More
FROM THE DIRECTOR As promised, this is the second in a series of posts in which I answer hypothetical questions about Parsons’ M.A. in Design Studies. Of course, the first questions you might have (I know I would, especially if I were moving) might have more to do with what life will be like on… Read More
FROM THE DIRECTOR If you’re reading this, it’s probably safe to assume you’re curious about Parsons’ new Masters in Design Studies. This is the first in a series of posts in which I’ll describe what’s unique about the program and try to anticipate some questions, beginning with: WHAT (IS) ARE DESIGN STUDIES? Design studies (like… Read More
A series exploring ideas in the Design Studies curriculum. Design Fictions: Illuminating the Nature of Design Today, the students in Design Fictions dissected Orhan Pamuk’s Nobel Prize winning novel My Name is Red—a story narrated by people and objects that centers around the conflict caused by the introduction of Renaissance realism into manuscript illustrations in… Read More
A series exploring ideas in the Design Studies curriculum. Utilizing Design as a Method of Learning The scope of this week’s class was to synthesize the different stages of our work with Lower Manhattan Arts Academy (LoMA) students in the form of a diagram. Instead of approaching the subject of study (“Routes and Homes”) through traditional… Read More
A series exploring ideas in the Design Studies curriculum. Mapping Daily Itineraries “This mapping exercise revealed how these students felt so comfortable with one another but did not really know even simple things about how they live.” “I would say that if we were to do this activity again, it would be beneficial to work… Read More
A series exploring ideas in the Design Studies curriculum. Defending Luxury (Part II) Image Flickr/ricardodiaz11 | License CC BY 2.0 In our discussion about defending luxury, the class spends time looking at how the siting of cultural centers in Los Angeles reinforces the city’s bifurcation. The Getty Center, on the west side of the city,… Read More
With Denise Gonzales Crisp I co-curated the exhibition “Deep Surface: Contemporary Ornament and Pattern”, which opened September 23 and runs until January 2, 2012 at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. We selected an international roster of 42 designers, drawn from all disciplines of design, which we broke into six thematic sections.
A series exploring ideas in the Design Studies curriculum. Defending Luxury (Part I) Image Flickr/Detlef Schobert | License CC BY-ND 2.0 One of the most charged classes of the semester in Theorizing Luxury tackles questions about how the wealthy defend their luxurious lifestyles. Reading Mike Davis’s work about Los Angeles incites conversation about how design can create distinctions between… Read More
Alexandra Rosario of Interior design website The Editor at Large interviewed program director David Brody about the new Design Studies program. Following are a few highlights from the interview…
A series exploring ideas in the Design Studies curriculum. Backstage at the Four Seasons Course: Theorizing Luxury Prof. David Brody IMAGE flickr/Alain Poder | license: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The entrance above isn’t the one we used. Instead, my class walked into the service entrance of New York’s Four Seasons Hotel on 57th Street. This may have seemed like… Read More
As an authors of Open Design Now declare, there is a revolution going on in design.
IMAGE: Flickr/Hil LICENSE: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 I recently visited the TVAD Research Group, based in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, which researches relationships between text, narrative and image, and which also has a blog.
Image Flickr/the|G|â„¢ | License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Janelle Zara at ARTINFO says “Look Out, SVA!” Parsons Launches a Design Studies Masters Program of Its Own.” We’re glad word is getting out about the new program and are eagerly looking forward to welcoming our first year’s class of fifteen students — or, in Zara’s words, “design wonks” who… Read More
The Double Profile of Design Studies
FROM THE DIRECTOR In an earlier posting, I promised I’d speak to the question of who the Masters in Design Studies program has been designed for. But to do that I find myself asking: How is this program designed? Anticipating who will be attracted seems less the point than articulating what makes Design Studies attractive…. Read More