Previous Events

VIDEO Susannah Drake, “Resilient Urban Environments”

Event Information

When: 12 Feb 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Where: SVA Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21 Street, Second Floor
Price: Free

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the topics of sea level rise and storm surge have never been so relevant. Susannah Drake, the Principal of dlandstudio, will discuss how landscape architecture and good environmental design can create new infrastructure systems that will result in more resilient cities and improved biodiversity. Drake will also argue how data visualization [...]

VIDEO Markus Kayser, “Can There Be Union between Nature and Technology in Fabrication?”

Event Information

When: 5 Feb 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Where: MFA Design Criticism Department, School of Visual Arts, 136 West 21 Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free and open to the public; Registration required

Product designer Markus Kayser will talk about his recent works Solar Sinter and Sun Cutter—projects that harness the power of sunlight to make objects, and thus pose a provocation to current manufacturing methods, and blur the lines between science, art, and design. Kayser will discuss his views on contemporary design practice, considered in relation to invention, [...]

VIDEO Noah Rosenberg, “Slow. Down.”

Event Information

When: 29 Jan 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Where: SVA Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21 Street, Second Floor
Price: Free and open to the public; Registration required

As our screens are bombarded with the relentless 24/7 news cycle and endless social media streams, a new breed of media outlet is taking the opposite approach—producing thoughtful and original content, with an emphasis on quality rather than timeliness. But as the Web speeds by around them, how do such outlets stay relevant while producing [...]

VIDEO Nicholas de Monchaux, “Fashioning Apollo”

Event Information

When: 9 Jan 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Where: SVA MFA Design Criticism Department, 136 West 21 Street, Second Floor
Price: Free with registration

Wednesday, January 9, 6:30 p.m.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the lunar surface in July of 1969, they wore 21-layer, fabric-and-latex spacesuits crafted by seamstresses from the assembly line of Playtex, maker of bras and girdles. Nicholas de Monchaux will tell the story of the 21-layer spacesuit, and how it relates to, among [...]

VIDEO Murray Moss, “Apples to Oranges: Dialogues between Art and Design in Commerce and Culture”

Event Information

When: 4 Dec 2012, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Where: SVA MFA Design Criticism Department, 136 West 21 Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free and open to the public; Registration required

The ghettoization of Art and Design that permeates our cultural institutions, commercial galleries and auction houses, eliminates the possibility of a tertium quid (third thing) which might be greater than the sum of its individual parts. Through Moss and now through Moss Bureau, design retailer and gallerist Murray Moss has dedicated his career to blurring [...]

VIDEO Steve Almond, “How to Make the Reader See It: The Book as a Visual Artifact”

Event Information

When: 27 Nov 2012, 6:00 p.m.
Where: SVA MFA Design Criticism Department, 136 West 21 Street, Second Floor
Price: Free and open to the public; Registration required

Steve Almond will discuss the natural affinity between visual and literary artists, and specifically delve into his collaboration with the visual designer Brian Stauffer, with whom he has made three DIY books.
Steve Almond is the author of ten books of fiction and non-fiction, three of which he published himself. His memoir Candyfreak was a New [...]

VIDEO Emilie Baltz, “Why Foreplay Makes the Food (AKA: There’s more to a steak than beef)”

Event Information

When: 20 Nov 2012, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Where: SVA MFA Design Criticism Department, 136 West 21 Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free and open to the public; Registration required

Taking as tenant that food is our most fundamental form of consumption, Emilie Baltz will discuss the dimensions in which food design stimulates both the head and heart of consumers and creators alike. Using highlights from her two (diametrically opposed) books Junk Foodie : 51 Delicious Recipes for the Lowbrow Gourmand, and her forthcoming publication [...]

VIDEO SVA MFA Design Criticism 2012 Open House

Event Information

When: 17 Nov 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Where: SVA MFA Design Criticism Department, 136 West 21 Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free and open to the public; Registration required

On November 17, over strong coffee, mimosas, and donuts, we discussed the philosophical aims, curriculum, and applications of this exciting two-year graduate program, and engaged in debate over such issues as the priorities for emerging design critics today, the changing media landscape, and the relationship between design criticism and practice.
The world-renowned graphic designer, artist, and [...]

CANCELLED: Roman Mars, “Now You See It: Telling Stories about the Built World”

Event Information

When: 5 Nov 2012, CANCELLED
Where: SVA MFA Design Criticism Department, 136 West 21 Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free and open to the public; Registration required

THE D-CRIT LECTURE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5 WITH ROMAN MARS HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Because of Hurricane Sandy Roman was unable to make a flight to NYC.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
**
Awareness of design is at an all-time high. People are now encouraged to hold strong opinions about the font on a movie poster, or the feel of a [...]

VIDEO Karrie Jacobs, “The City Beautiful All Over Again”

Event Information

When: 23 Oct 2012, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Where: SVA MFA Design Criticism Department, 136 West 21 Street, 2nd Floor
Price: Free and open to the public; Registration required

The City Beautiful movement and disciples of the Ecole des Beaux Arts seeded our cities with examples of monumental splendor. Now, after a century-long hiatus, American cities are embracing beauty again though not through a monolithic, top-down strategy. Rather, cities are being made more beautiful incrementally, in exactly the unmethodical way that earlier generations would [...]