Monday 5 November 2012

TVAD Visiting Researcher 2012-13 Dr Kjetil Fallan



On Tuesday 13th November, TVAD welcomes our Visiting Researcher for 2012-13, Dr Kjetil Fallan. Dr Fallan is Associate Professor of Design History in the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo. He is the author of Design History: Understanding Theory and Method (Berg Publishers, 2010), editor of Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories (Berg Publishers, 2012), co-editor (with Grace Lees-Maffei) of Made in Italy: Reassessing a Century of Italian Design (Berg Publishers, 2013), and has articles in journals such as the Journal of Design History, Design Issues, Enterprise and Society and History and Technology. Dr. Fallan is an editor of the Journal of Design Historyhttp://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/people/aca/kjetifal/index.html

            TUESDAY 13TH NOVEMBER 2012
10 am, 2B05, FMM building: Staff Colloquium on current research
Open to all staff and research students, participants are invited to make short (c.15-20 minute) illustrated presentations about their own research and how it connects with the TVAD nominated theme of ‘Relationships between Text, Narrative and Image’, in order to foster links between researchers and potential collaboration.

12 to 1pm lunch with visiting speaker

1 to 2.30 pm, 2B05, FMM building: Art Talks Lecture: ‘Turning My Story into History: Making Memories Matter’
Our relationships to designed objects are as personal and subjective as are our relationships to fellow humans. How, then, can design historians relate histories of consumption and use, provided that history writing is to be relevant beyond the individual and the singular? Recognizing that the meaning of design is produced as much, if not more, in the context of consumption, ownership and use as in the context of design and production, design historians are faced with considerable challenges, ideological, methodological and theoretical. How to identify the counterpoint of objectivity and subjectivity? Where to draw the line between the personal and the private? What is the difference between memoirs and memories? In short: How does my story relate to his/her/their stories, turning it into History? In this lecture, these questions are explored through the notion of designed objects as ‘material memories’, in the form of a case study: the DBS Kombi bicycle on which the author learned to ride and now collects.

2.30 pm, AA191, Art & Design Building: Research Training Seminar led by KF for all PG, MA and research degree students and supervisors and others: ‘Up Close and Personal: Subjectivity in Design and Research’
The search for objective qualities long reigned supreme as an ideal for both design practice and academic research. And although postmodernism significantly critiqued and challenged that ideal, leading to a widespread acknowledgement that objectivity remains an elusive utopia—at least in the creative and liberal arts—fully embracing subjectivity is still often seen as suspect and problematic. This research training seminar provides a brief introduction to and examples of the topic, and invites discussion on the role of subjectivity in design and research.

            WEDNESDAY 14TH NOVEMBER 2012
10.30 am, LB216, meeting room in Com.Sc.with projector: Student Research Presentations
Each participating student to speak about their own research interests for c.10 minutes (briefing sheet supplied separately, copies on request from GLM)

2.30 pm, D118, off D corridor in main building: Staff Reading Group
Staff and research students to discuss tabled research writing in progress circulated via email by GLM in advance of the meeting. Please email texts to be tabled for the reading group to GLM in good time, and no later than two days in advance.  

            THURSDAY 15TH NOVEMBER 2012
10.30 am, AA191, Art & Design Building: Continuation Meeting
Time reserved for exploring issues TBC, thrown up by the proceedings on Monday and Tuesday and planning future visit(s) and collaboration.

For more information, contact TVAD Coordinator Dr Grace Lees-Maffei, g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk

Photograph by Sigurd Fandango for Dagens Næringsliv