UPCOMING EVENTS
Reading Night at KGB
August 18, 2009, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
KGB Bar
85 East 4th Street (between Bowery and Second Avenue)
In this installment of the D-Crit reading night series, design critics and writers speak on the topic of biography (more details, including speakers featured, coming soon). All are warmly invited to attend. For more information, please contact the department at dcrit@sva.edu or 212.592.2228.
Save the Date: SVA Design Criticism Conference
April 2010
Visual Arts Theater
333 West 23rd Street (between Eighth and Ninth Avenues)
The D-Crit program culminates in an annual public conference, conceived and organized by graduating students, in which they present papers based on their theses, alongside professional design critics and thinkers.
PAST EVENTS
New York Screening: Gary Huswit's Objectified
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Visual Arts Theater
333 West 23rd Street (between Eighth and Ninth Avenues)
Along with SVA's MFA Designer as Author and MFA Interaction Design departments, D-Crit will be co-sponsoring a private screening of Gary Hustwit’s Objectified, a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and the people who design them. The screening will take place in the Visual Arts Theater (formerly the Chelsea West) which has recently undergone an extensive renovation conceived largely by celebrated designer Milton Glaser.
Spring 2009 Lecture Series
Tuesdays, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
136 West 21st St., New York, 2nd Floor
Open to the public.
The Spring 2009 Design Criticism MFA Spring Lecture Series was curated and hosted by the D-Crit class of 2010. Atendees stayed after the lectures to see the Design Criticism department and to meet with speakers, faculty members and students over drinks and snacks.
FEBRUARY 24: David Reinfurt
"The First Rule is Always Production, Never Documentation. The Second Rule is There Are No Rules"
David Reinfurt is an independent graphic designer, writer and critic. Founder of the flexible graphic design practice O-R-G inc., Reinfurt edits and designs the publication Dot Dot Dot with graphic designer Stuart Bailey. Together they run Dexter Sinister, a "just-in-time workshop and occasional bookstore" located in a basement on New York's Lower East Side, which also publishes and distributes other printed works on design, art and theory.
MARCH 17: Chandler Burr
"Invisible Design: The Structure of Scents"
Chandler Burr is The New York Times' perfume critic. He is the author of The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris & New York (2008) and The Emperor of Scent (2003). Burr has also written for Fortune, The New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and US News & World Report, where he was a Contributing Editor.
MARCH 24: Laura Kurgan
"Mapping Justice"
*Please note that this lecture starts at 6:30 p.m.
Laura Kurgan teaches architecture at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is Director of Visual Studies and the Director of the Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL). Her work blends academic architectural research with design, information, communication, advocacy and public work.
MARCH 31: Andrew Rumbach
"Only by the Grace of God: The Political Ecology of Urban Disasters"
Andrew Rumbach is a PhD candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. His talk focuses on the phenomenon of urban disasters, and what environmental disasters say about the values implicit in city planning and urban design. He draws from his research on slum formation in Kampala, Uganda, climate change vulnerability in Kolkata, India, and from his experience as a recovery planner in post-Katrina New Orleans.
APRIL 3: Natalie Jeremijenko
"Critical Engagment: Re-Imagining our Relationship to Natural Systems and Material Culture"
*Please note that this lecture takes place on a Friday
Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist and experimenter who uses contemporary scientific knowledge and technical resources to redesign socio-ecological systems. She is currently the New York Prize Fellow at Van Alen Institutes, and directs a network of Environmental Health Clinics. She is an associate professor in Visual Art at NYU, and affiliated faculty in Computer Science and Environmental Studies. Her work has been exhibited widely, from the Whitney and the Cooper-Hewitt to MASS MoCA.
APRIL 7: Michael Rock
"Superficiality: Dematerialization and Branded Surfaces"
Michael Rock is a partner in 2x4, Inc. in New York, director of the Graphic Architecture Project at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, and adjunct professor of Design at the Yale School of Art. Working from offices in New York and Beijing, 2x4 projects range from collaborations with architects, artists and writers to branding for cultural and commercial organizations from Harvard to Prada.
APRIL 14: Geoff Manaugh
"Designing the Post-Terrestrial"
Geoff Manaugh is the author of BLDGBLOG, a blog that speculates on architecture, urbanism and landscape, and senior editor of Dwell magazine. He has been called "the world's greatest living practitioner of 'architecture fiction'" by Bruce Sterling and one of the 50 "most influential architects, designers and thinkers" in the field today by Icon magazine. The BLDGBLOG Book is forthcoming in summer 2009 from Chronicle Books.
APRIL 28: Spyros Papapetros
"Figure and Frame in German Architecture and Film: From Mies to Murnau"
Spyros Papapetros is an assistant professor in the School of Architecture and member of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University where he teaches architectural history, theory, and criticism, as well as the relationship between architecture and the visual arts. He has published articles in Grey Room, The Oxford Art Journal and JSAH, among others.
MAY 5: Julie V. Iovine
"The Difference between Newsworthy and New: Reporting and Criticism in the Architectural Press"
Julie V. Iovine is executive editor of Architect's Newspaper, a fortnightly newspaper serving the architecture and design community. With over a decade of experience as an architecture and design reporter, editor and critic at The New York Times and New York Times Magazine, Iovine also writes for a wide range of publications including Architectural Digest (Germany), Art Review (UK), Art & Auction, Architectural Record, ID Magazine, Interior Design, Elle Decor and Town & Country.
Fall 2008 Lecture Series
OCTOBER 7: Jenni Sorkin
"The Pottery Seminar at Black Mountain College,1952"
Jenni Sorkin is a PhD candidate in the History of Art Department at Yale University, and is a Henry Luce Pre-Doctoral Fellow and a Visiting Critic at the Yale School of Art. She was the 2004 recipient of the Art Journal Award and a 2007 graduate research grant from the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design at the University of North Carolina, Hendersonville. Her writing has appeared in the New Art Examiner, Art Monthly, NU: The Nordic Art Review, Modern Painters, and Third Text. She writes regularly for Frieze magazine.
OCTOBER 28: Rob Giampietro
"On Design, Distribution, and Circulation"
Rob Giampietro is a designer, writer and teacher. He has written essays and design criticism for publications including BusinessWeek, Design Observer, Emigre and Dot Dot Dot. He teaches at Parsons The New School for Design in New York and has also taught in the graduate graphic design program at Rhode Island School of Design.
OCTOBER 31: Rick Poynor
"The Observer Self-Critiqued: Design Columns and Design Criticism"
Rick Poynor founded London's Eye magazine in 1990, which he edited for seven years. He has written about design, media and visual culture for Adbusters, Blueprint, Domus, The Financial Times, Frieze, The Guardian, Harvard Design Magazine, Icon, I.D., Metropolis and Print, among other publications. His books include Typographica (2001), and No More Rules (2003). His collected essays appear in Design Without Boundaries (1998) and Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World (2001).
NOVEMBER 4: Elyssa Dimant
"In Rogue: Crafting Fashion Criticism"
Elyssa Dimant is a fashion historian and writer, contributing to publications such as Vogue, Zink and CITY Magazine, for which she is a regular fashion columnist. She co-curated the exhibition "WILD: Fashion Untamed" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and co-authored the accompanying catalogue of the same name (Yale University Press, 2004).
NOVEMBER 11: James Sanders
"Begin with the Screen: Using Film to Explore Issues of Architecture and Design"
James Sanders is a New York-based architect, designer, and writer. His landmark study on architecture and film, Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies became the basis for a major multimedia exhibit in Grand Central Terminal in 2007. With Ric Burns, Sanders co-wrote the public television series, "New York: A Documentary Film." Sanders has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, and Architectural Record. His newest book is Scenes from the City: Filmmaking in New York (Rizzoli, 2006).
NOVEMBER 18: Eugenia Bell
"Design, Observed: Writing Design and Architecture"
A New York-based writer and critic, Eugenia Bell is the design editor of Frieze magazine, where she writes and commissions articles on design and architecture. Her experience in writing and publishing also includes work for the Princeton Architectural Press, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Walker Art Center and the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
NOVEMBER 25: Allan Chochinov
"Design and the Blog Space"
A frequent lecturer on the impact of design on contemporary culture, Allan Chochinov is a partner of Core77, a New York-based design network serving a global community of designers and design enthusiasts. He is editor-in-chief of Core77.com, a widely-read website focusing on product design; Coroflot.com, a job and portfolio site serving designers and employers across all design disciplines; and Designdirectory.com, an online database linking design firms with corporations seeking strategic design services. He is also a teacher in the MFA Design department at SVA.
DECEMBER 2: Pat Kirkham
"Writing Critical Monographs: Case Studies of Ray and Charles Eames & Elaine and Saul Bass"
Pat Kirkham is a professor of design history and cultural studies at the Bard Graduate Center in New York and has written widely on design, gender and film. Her publications include: The Gendered Object (1996); Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (1998) and Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference (2002). Her latest book is on the work of graphic designer and filmmaker Saul Bass that studies his short films made in collaboration with his wife Elaine.
DECEMBER 9: Chee Pearlman
"Designing the Live Content Experience"
Chee Pearlman is the director of editorial and curatorial design consultancy Chee Company. She has written for a number of publications, including Newsweek, Travel + Leisure, Popular Science and The New York Times and is the former editor-in-chief of I.D. Magazine. Her past projects have included serving as program director of the Art Center Design Conference in Los Angeles and founding the Chrysler Design Awards.
DECEMBER 16: Cathleen McGuigan
"The Role of Design Criticism in the National Press"
Cathleen McGuigan is a senior editor and writer at Newsweek, where she covers architecture, design and culture. She is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, and has been a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University School of Design. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar and ArtNews.
D-Crit Readings series
The SVA MFA Design Criticism department presents a series of reading nights at KGB Bar in New York's East Village. The nights are organized in anticipation of the program's launch in Fall 2008, and all are warmly invited to attend. To be added to our event mailing list, please contact eweiner1@sva.edu.
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street
[kgbbar.com]
Reading Nights
May 29, 2008: FOOD
March 27, 2008: EVIL
November 29, 2007: HOME
January 23, 2008: MUSIC
[Click here for transcripts of past readings]
Open House
October 25, 2008
136 West 21st St., New York, 2nd Floor
Prospective and current students gathered in the brand new department for an afternoon of presentations and informal discussion about the MFA in Design Criticism. Students were there to talk about their experiences so far, such as what it's like to produce a podcast for Kurt Andersen and the "Studio 360" team and why architecture critic Karrie Jacobs has them reading John Ruskin in preparation for a visit to Times Square. D-Crit Chair Alice Twemlow gave an overview of the program, its goals, structure and its philosophy. Faculty members Russell Flinchum, Steven Heller, Karrie Jacobs and Leital Molad spoke about what students can expect from their classes.
To request a catalog and other information distributed at this year's Open House, contact Emily Weiner at eweiner1@sva.edu or 212.592.2228.
[Read the Q & A transcript from last year's Open House, October 27, 2007].
D-CRIT BLOG
Click here to visit the Design Criticism MFA blog.
www.surfacemag.com
www.iany.org
www.metropolismag.com
www.edificial.com
www.stepinsidedesign.com
www.designtaxi.com
www.subtraction.com
www.core77.com
www.artnet.com
www.commarts.com
RECENT FACULTY ACCOLADES AND ARTICLES
Kurt Andersen named the second Visionary in Residence by Art Center in Pasadena, where he will be spending the winter semester: www.adweek.com
Michael Bierut winner of 2008 Cooper Hewitt National Design Mind Award: www.nationaldesignawards.org
Ralph Caplan opines in VOICE: AIGA Journal of Design: www.aiga.org
Russell Flinchum's new book American Design launches October 2008: www.amazon.com
Emily Gordon promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Print magazine: www.mediabistro.com/unbeige
Steven Heller discusses new book Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State on NPR's Studio 360: www.hellerbooks.com
Alexandra Lange curates "+Housing: 2008 AIA New York Designs for Living" at the Center for Architecture: www.aiany.org
Alexandra Lange reviews the new JetBlue Terminal 5 and TWA building in Architect's Newspaper: http://archpaper.com
Alice Twemlow contributes to The New York Times Magazine College Issue: www.nytimes.com/magazine
STUDENT WORK
Websites and Writing
Frederico Duarte: www.05031979.net,
www.fabricoproprio.net
John Cantwell, "Trump, The Logo" in Design Observer
Emily Leibin, "Future Advancement" in Surface
Alan Rapp: "Under Studied" in Dwell,
The Force is With Us,
Dial "C" for Chutzpah, and "Architecture Lives Here," in San Francisco Magazine
Angela Riechers: www.angelariechers.com; "Design You Can Bank On" and "Smoke Screens" in Voice: AIGA Journal of Design.
Radio and Podcasting Projects, Supervised by Studio 360's Host Kurt Andersen and Senior Producer Leital Molad
Frederico Duarte: Second Lives at The Museum of Arts and Design [Download mp3]
Sarah Froelich: NYC Supermarket Design [Download mp3], Cosmo Redux [Download mp3]
Emily Leibin: Green Fashion [Download mp3]
Alan Rapp: The Look of Metal Today [Download mp3]
Angela Riechers: Welcome to the Naming Convention [Download mp3]