Design Academy Eindhoven
Emmasingel 14, 3rd floor
5611 AZ Eindhoven
The Netherlands
In September 2014 Design Academy Eindhoven will start a new Master programme: Design Curating and Writing. This programme offers students the possibility to critically research various modes of reflecting and representing current developments in design. As design has gained considerable importance in the last decades, it is in need of curators and theorists who are familiar with cultural theory as well as design practice. For this reason the Master Design Curating and Writing is closely linked to the three Master design programmes: Information Design, Contextual Design, and Social Design.
The much heard rhetorical question ‘does the world need another chair’ can simply be answered with a ‘yes.’ Every era deserves its own chair designs as witnesses of their times. Chairs, as well as many other functional objects, are perfect ‘canvases’ for meanings that reach beyond their bare functionality. But the world needs more. Due to rapid cultural, social, political, economic and technological changes, designers feel the need to redefine their roles in a great variety of new domains. The traditional approaches no longer suffice. As a consequence the traditional formats for reflecting and (re)presenting design no longer suffice either. The design world is in need of critical reflection, of heated debate, well-informed discourse. And it is in need of new formats for presenting the efforts of designers, ranging from the everyday items to the tools, from research-based long-term projects to activist ad hoc strategies. Where designers experiment with new approaches and create new roles for themselves, future curators, design theorists and critics should get close to their brooding and experimenting. Only then interesting collaborations and crossbreeding can develop. In the Master Design Curating and Writing the students will work side by side with design students, as they will be partly embedded in the Master design programmes of Information Design, Contextual Design, and Social Design, creating long term alliances.
Students
The programme aims at professionals working within the domains of design, curatorial practices, design theory, critical studies, or related domains. Designers with an analytical writing talent gain more skills and knowledge, to be able to relate their design process to reflecting, curating and writing. Theorists with an academic background gain more insight into the practical, creative and hands-on aspects of the design process, to either deepen their analytical skills and/or to develop an expertise in designing curatorial plans.
Staff
Joost Grootens (designer, editor), Louise Schouwenberg (theorist, writer and critic), and Jan Boelen (curator, creative director Z33) are heads of the department. Apart from the regular lecturers, a group of leading curators, theorists and designers will participate as visiting critics and guest lecturers: Paola Antonelli (curator), Guus Beumer (curator), Frans Bevers (designer), Ilse Crawford (designer and curator), Anthony Dunne (designer), Justin McGuirk (writer, critic and curator), Joseph Grima (theorist and curator), Jane Pavitt (designer and dean), Rick Poynor (writer, critic and lecturer), Alice Rawsthorn (critic), Erik Rietveld (philosopher), Vera Sacchetti (design writer and critic), Tamar Shafrir (design theorist), Jana Scholze (curator), Catherine de Smet (critic), Alice Twemlow (chair of the Design Criticism Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York), John L. Walters (editor-in-chief of Eye Magazine). In due time other experts will be added to the list of visiting critics and guest lecturers.
In order to apply or more information:
www.designacademy.nl/study/master/applymastercourse
Contact
Judith Konz, Programme Manager Masters: [email protected]
