Call for applications: Master Design Curating & Writing 2017–19

Be part of the next Design Curating & Writing Master generation at Design Academy Eindhoven!

Design Academy Eindhoven is still accepting applications for its Master Design Curating & Writing, 2017–19. Applicants are required to have a Bachelor in Design, or any other Humanities degree.

This vibrant new programme is geared towards a rapidly shifting media landscape in which publishing, museums, and academia are redefining themselves. Students will be equipped with a range of interdisciplinary skills in order to conduct research, write, edit, broadcast and create exhibitions in both on- and offline spaces. Taught in English, the two-year, full-time programme provides the critical and practical skills necessary to interpret and reflect on design in its multiple manifestations. Drawing on theory, direct observation, research, and reporting, students develop a personal point of view and experiment with its articulation in the many formats of twenty-first century writing and curating.

The greatest advantage of our master students being embedded within a design school is that aspiring writers and curators work, study and research in an environment where design is constantly being generated. This proximity gives direct access to the thought processes and methods of designers, offering a deeper understanding of design. It is also an opportunity to develop collaborations and alliances with designers that may be formative to future practice. 

As well as inviting several renowned international guest lecturers per year to the Academy across a wide range of disciplines, the programme facilitates live collaborations with institutions and publications. Students make numerous visits to museums, design studios, and other design institutions, where they have first-hand access to leading curators, designers, critics, and commentators. The programme has close affiliation with the Design Museum in London and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.

First year curriculum
First year students are led through a series of theme-based seminars that introduce some of the key ideas shaping the way design is made, used, and understood today, as well as core skills necessary in the expanded toolset of today’s writer/thinker/curator. We look at different forms of writing, from articles and reviews to blogging and broadcasting, and at all types of exhibition-making as well as understanding how galleries and museums operate today. The aim is to understand the craft of each form and to develop a wide expressive range across different media outputs. 

Second year curriculum
The second year is largely dedicated to a personal research project that will result in the Master thesis. The DC&W thesis allows students to practice deep research and to explore a specific research territory connected to design, architecture, urbanism, or visual culture, which will sustain further investigation even beyond the MA. Most importantly the thesis should argue a position and should represent an original and significant contribution to knowledge. The DC&W thesis portfolio comprises a 10,000-word written text, a fully developed exhibition proposal, an oral presentation, and an applied thesis product.

Head: 
Alice Twemlow, writer, curator, former chair of SVA MA Design Research

Affiliation leads: 
Nick Aikens, curator of exhibitions, Van Abbemuseum
Justin McGuirk, writer, critic, and chief curator Design Museum London

Tutors:
Nick Axel, deputy editor, e-flux Architecture
Christiane Berndes, head of collection, Van Abbemuseum
Evelien Bracke, curator, Z33
Noortje van Eeekelen, critical designer
Charles Esche, director, Van Abbemuseum
Annie Fletcher, chief curator of exhibitions, Van Abbemuseum
Diane Franssen, curator and head of research, Van Abbemuseum
Agata Jaworska, freelance curator
Koen Kleijn, critic at De Groene Amsterdammer
Willem Jan Renders, curator, Russian art, Van Abbemuseum
Tamar Shafrir, Research & Development, Het Nieuwe Instituut
Noam Toran, artist and curator

Visiting lecturers and critics:
Tom Dyckhoff, architecture critic and broadcaster
Stephen Knott, craft historian and theorist
Matylda Krzykowski, curator, and co-founder, Depot Basel
Rick Poynor, design critic
Catherine Rossi, design historian
The Umbrella Network, social design collective
Richard Wentworth, artist
Will Wiles, novelist and architecture critic