Letter from the Editors
In the last edition of Objective, we encouraged our community members to understand material culture and design objects as fragments of humanity. Our seventh issue continues this goal and is shaped by the understanding that design history and curatorial studies are most effective when they resist confinement and embrace their intrinsic hybridities and entanglements. In other words, design history is inherently political, reflecting the desires and social landscapes that impact both makers and audiences. As such, the following collection of writings seeks to represent how objects and the study of design are capable of refraction and subversion. We have invited our community to submit essays, in-progress theses, exhibition reviews, and interviews that challenge canonical scholarship, embrace curiosity, and welcome interdisciplinary approaches.
By elevating designers, objects, and practices that have been overlooked or deemed peripheral, we aim to expand our understanding of how the objects we use and the spaces we occupy are implicated in the ever-present hierarchies in our society. This assembly of work suggests that the strength of our discipline lies in its mutability and its capacity to destabilize and reimagine established narratives. We hope Objective, and by extension, our program, serves as a space for the independent thinking for which The New School was originally founded. To study and learn without censorship or control alongside our professors and classmates is an exceptional privilege. We hope our community, present and future, will continue to utilize this privilege and maintain its emphasis on scholarly intervention.
In Solidarity,
Chloe Buergenthal and Lauren Brown
Co-Editors in Chief, Objective
About the MA History of Design and Curatorial Studies Program and Objective, The Journal
The MA program in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies, part of Parsons’ School of Art and Design History and Theory, offers a unique approach to the study of European and American decorative arts and design history. The program, which is hosted jointly by Parsons School of Design and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, offers an object-focused, practice-based approach as students enjoy numerous opportunities to work directly with objects in the museum’s collection and alongside its curatorial staff.
The MA program’s curriculum incorporates practical and theoretical instruction in studying interior and design objects such as textiles, ceramics, furniture, metalwork, and more. Courses on curatorial studies and design history in social and cultural contexts reflect the program’s broadened scope and relevance.
Furthermore, Parsons’ School of Art and Design History and Theory (ADHT) programs reflect the faculty’s expertise in areas like design methodology, philosophy and criticism, material culture, sustainability and cultural anthropology, and provide students with opportunities to take related courses within ADHT, thereby opening up new areas of investigation in curatorial practice and historical research.
MA HDCS students take advantage of several opportunities to complement their academic studies with hands-on experience, participating in for-credit internships in outside museums, auction houses, and galleries, taking part in master’s fellowships within Cooper Hewitt’s various curatorial departments, as well as working in paid teaching assistantships at Parsons. Students also have the opportunity to pursue their degree at Parsons Paris, taking advantage of our partnership with Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
HDCS alumni go on to work in some of the world’s most prestigious nonprofit, commercial, cultural, and academic institutions. Graduates can be found across the country and world in specialist and management positions in auction houses, museums, and historic houses; and beyond to fields such as criticism and journalism, consulting and e-commerce, and teaching; and pursue advanced study.
Image Credits
Objective footer illustration, 2021. Design by Ivana Maldonado.