D-Crit » News

D-Crit Alum Amelia Black on GOOD blog

Emily Weiner — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:09:51 +0000

The bloggers of GOOD magazine posed the question “Is It Ethical to Scent-Brand Public Places?” Recent D-Crit graduate Amelia Black, whose ongoing research explores the role scent plays in the design experience, responded to their online query. Read her thoughts published here.

D-Crit Students write for Cooper-Hewitt Design Blog

Emily Weiner — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:38:31 +0000

Check out the Cooper-Hewitt Design blog over the next two weeks, as recent D-Crit grads—who took a course on the Triennial last semester taught by the exhibition’s curatorial team—publish their impressions of the current museum exhibition,”Why Design Now?“.

This Spring semester, second-year D-Crit students had the opportunity to work on the Cooper-Hewitt Museum exhibition National Design Triennial: Why Design Now, as part of a special class custom created for them. This year’s National Design Triennial explores the work of designers addressing human and environmental problems across many fields of the design practice, from architecture and products to fashion, graphics, new media, and landscapes. In the show, Cooper-Hewitt curators Ellen Lupton, Cara McCarty, Matilda McQuaid, and Cynthia Smith present the experimental projects and emerging ideas for the period between 2006 and 2009.

Website Launched: CCA Day Camp Led by Frederico Duarte and Becky Quintal, July 2010

Emily Weiner — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:47:05 +0000

This July, D-Crit alumnae Frederico Duarte and Becky Quintal founded and led a week-long day camp program at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, “Putting Architecture in Its Place” for sixteen burgeoning architecture buffs aged fifteen to seventeen. For five days, these participants explored arguments over architecture, focusing on selected architectural projects. With help from Becky, Fred and CCA they share the fruits of their labor online: http://www.cca.qc.ca/daycamp.

D-Crit 2010 Conference on Abitare

Emily Weiner — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:06:03 +0000

Barbara Eldredge reports for International design magazine Abitare’s Web site on “Crossing the Line: the 2010 D-Crit Conference.” View the piece here, which offers an illustrated breakdown of presentations by the event’s keynote speakers and graduating D-Crit students.

Glass House Fellows Emily Leibin and Molly Heintz Help Launch Online Forum

Emily Weiner — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:57:26 +0000

Today the Philip Johnson Glass House, a National Trust for Historic Preservation site, officially launches Glass House Conversations, a website designed in conjunction with the School of Visual Arts.

D-Crit alumni Emily Leibin and current second-year student Molly Heintz are this year’s Philip Johnson Glass House fellows, who have been working over the summer to launch the site. Read Molly’s article on Architizer from July 19 announcing Glass House Conversations and the online discussions it fosters.Log on this week and you’ll find Alice Rawsthorn, the design critic of the International Herald Tribune, leading a discussion about the future of design. And be sure to keep checking in at http://glasshouseconversations.org for the latest conversation.

Screenshot of the Glass House Conversations website with moderation by graphic designer Michael Beirut.

Busy Summer for D-Crit Students and Alumni

Emily Weiner — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:25:30 +0000

School’s out for summer, but SVA MFA Design Criticism students are not just sitting around watching the World Cup (well, maybe just a couple of games). Students in the Class of 2011 have embarked on summer internships and fellowships at respected magazines, museums and organizations. They are writing regular Web articles for Metropolis, interning with curators at The Museum of the City of New York and with the editor at Change Observer, developing public programming at The Philip Johnson Glass House, and researching for Judy Wert & Company. Additionally, D-Crit students are contributing to online publications such as Stylepark.com, Core77 and Fast Company, as well as to their own blogs and magazines, and participating in D Flux, a research collaborative in Detroit.

Meanwhile, recently graduated D-Crit alumni are exporting their expertise across the globe, working at The Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam; launching a new, independent design consultancy and studio in NYC, organizing and teaching a day camp program at the Canadian Center for Architecture; writing as contributing editor for international web forum Architizer; consulting as an art director for the redesign of O, the Oprah Magazine with creative team Priest+Grace; and presenting provocative research at events around town. Many graduates are also in the planning stages of publishing books based on their D-Crit theses.

Thesis Ideas Hatching

Emily Weiner — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:33:55 +0000

The D-Crit Class of 2011 will be researching and refining their thesis topics this summer. Students are honing in on around a variety of ideas, which so far include: sound’s affect on the experience of public space, how designers brand themselves (and why it matters), the pop star as designed object (think: Lady Gaga), urban regeneration in Detroit as envisioned by local residents, the black arts movement, playground environments and their creative effect on children, design improvisation and tinkering in India, the impermanence of things, the design of licensed children’s characters, and how form often follows emotion over function.

Through the Spring 10 Thesis Development course, led by Alice Twemlow, all students have chosen their thesis topics, which they will research and develop over their second year of study into an extended piece of critical journalism, exploring the social and political implications of the designed environment.

Ralph Caplan honored as Design Mind by 2010 National Design Awards, Cooper-Hewitt Museum

Emily Weiner — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:54:24 +0000

Ralph Caplan, esteemed D-Crit faculty member, was announced as this year’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards recipient in the Design Mind category. The award recognizes visionary individuals or firms that have affected a shift in design thinking or practice through writing, research and scholarship.

In previous years, other D-Crit faculty members have been awarded this honor: Michael Bierut in 2008 and Paola Antonelli in 2006. Several guest lecturers in the Design Criticism MFA department have been winners or finalists in various categories, including Antenna Design (winner for Product Design in 2008), Bruce Nussbaum (Design Mind finalist in 2008), Milton Glaser (2004 Lifetime Achievement award winner) and Ayse Birsel (2002 Product Design finalist) among them.

Student Sarah Cox and Raleigh Pop on Core 77

Emily Weiner — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:25:10 +0000

D-Crit student Sarah Cox and blogging partner Raleigh Pop (a fox terrier) present their third article in the Core 77 series, “Dogs on Design.” This week they consult SVA MFA Interaction Design chair Liz Danzico about how we find interaction design in all walks of life.
Read the full blog post here.

D-Crit Grad Laura Forde Presents at AIGA’s “Fresh Blood” Event, June 15

Emily Weiner — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:00:31 +0000

Laura Forde presents a sliver of her D-Crit thesis on Godard at AIGA’s Pecha-Kucha-style Member Series event, My Dog and Pony: Fresh Blood! on June 15th at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. The event rounds up select recent graduates from MICA, MIT Media Lab, NYU ITP, Parsons Design + Technology, Pratt Comm-D, RISD, SVA and Yale to talk about their thesis research and findings.