Upcoming Events

Rick Poynor, “Curating ‘Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design’”

Event Information

When: 14 Sep 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

This illustrated lecture, focusing on the exhibition that Rick Poynor devised for the Moravian Gallery in Brno, will examine curating as an extension of writing and editing practices. What are the crucial similarities and differences between selection for the two-dimensional page and the space of the gallery? Poynor will consider Surrealism as choice of theme—why explore [...]

Interboro (Daniel D’Oca, Georgeen Theodore and Tobias Armborst), “Advocacy and Pluralism in Architecture”

Event Information

When: 28 Sep 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

In this talk Interboro will discuss its innovative, advocacy-based approach to architecture and urban planning by presenting projects old and new, including “LentSpace,” a 30,000 square foot sculpture space in lower Manhattan, “Community: The American Way of Living,” a submission to the American wing of the 2009 International Biennale Rotterdam (which Interboro co-curated), and “NORCS [...]

Steven Heller, “Born Modern: Alvin Lustig, Designer”

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When: 5 Oct 2010, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, New York, 2nd floor
Price: Free and open to the public

In this lecture Steven Heller reflects on Alvin Lustig’s prolific but tragically brief design career and the extent to which it epitomized the working processes, identity and preoccupations of the 20th century graphic designer. Through his genre-defining book jackets, magazines, interiors and textiles, Lustig brought the principles of modern art to bear on mid-20th century [...]

Felicity D. Scott, “Non-Communication: Bernard Rudofsky and the Empire of Signs.”

Event Information

When: 12 Oct 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

This lecture will revisit Austrian émigré architect Bernard Rudofsky’s reflections on questions of legibility in architectural form and graphic design during the 1950s, or more specifically his thoughts on how they might be pushed to the limits of their functionality. Emerging in the context of his encounter with modernity in Japan, Rudofsky imagined prospects for [...]

Christopher Hawthorne, “The Plume: Architecture Under a Cloud”

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When: 26 Oct 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

Christopher Hawthorne will discuss the prospects for architecture—and architecture criticism—in an era of economic uncertainty and ecological upheaval. How can architecture maintain its relevance in a culture drained of capital for new construction, and facing new environmental catastrophes on a depressingly regular basis? And how should architecture critics react to these new realities? Part of [...]

Bill Moggridge, The Role of Collecting, Curating and Education in the Context of a National Design Museum

Event Information

When: 2 Nov 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

The Fall 2010 Design Criticism MFA Lecture Series is open to the public. You are warmly invited to attend our lectures, to see our new department and to meet with speakers, faculty members and students over a drink. Space is limited; RSVP to dcrit@sva.edu.

D-Crit Open House, 2010

Event Information

When: 6 Nov 2010

Thinking about applying to the MFA in Design Criticism program? Wondering what it’s like to produce a podcast for Kurt Andersen and the “Studio 360” team, to walk the High Line with architecture critic Alexandra Lange or navigate the economics of online content with Gawker.com co-founder Elizabeth Spiers? Curious why the lights are often on [...]

Mark Lamster, “How to Write a Book”

Event Information

When: 9 Nov 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

The book. Rumors of its demise not withstanding, it remains the Holy Grail of every would-be writer. But how to do it? What’s a valid idea? How do you pitch it? What kind of superhuman discipline does it require? How do you solve “writer’s block”? Veteran author and editor Mark Lamster can walk you through [...]

Pilar Viladas, “Words and Pictures”

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When: 16 Nov 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

Pilar Viladas, Design Editor, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, will discuss her work as a magazine editor and writer, and how doing both involves constantly alternating between two different mindsets. She will show examples of stories she has done in her 13 years at the Times, and how they illustrate the orchestration of [...]

Lawrence Weschler, “Towards a Typology of Convergences”

Event Information

When: 30 Nov 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

For the past decade, in the National Book Critics Circle Award winning “Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences,” and in the ongoing contest that book spawned on the Mcsweeneys.net website, Lawrence Weschler has been exploring the way images (principally, but poems, musical themes, etc. as well) set a context for the reception of subsequent [...]