Design Objects and the Museum

Design Objects and the Museum brings together leading design historians, curators, educators and archivists to consider the place of contemporary design objects within museums. Contributors draw on a wide range of 20th century and contemporary examples from international museums to consider how design objects have been curated and displayed within and beyond the museum. The book continues contemporary global debates on the ways in which museums of design engage and educate their public.

Chapters are grouped into three thematic sections addressing The Canon and Design in the Museum; Positioning Design within and Beyond the Museum; and Interpretation and the Challenge of Design, with chapters exploring museological practice and issues, the roles people play in creating meaning, and the challenges contemporary design presents to interpretation and learning within the museum.

Liz Farrelly writes and edits books and articles on design and visual culture, with stints on staff at Blueprint and Eye magazines and Booth-Clibborn Editions. She teaches at University of Brighton, UK and her current research about museums and design focuses on London's Design Museum.

Joanna Weddell has a background in architecture and is currently researching post-war design and museology at the Research Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the University of Brighton, UK; she also teaches History of Art.

Introduction: Liz Farrelly, University of Brighton, UK and Joanna Weddell, research and Development, University of Brighton and Research Department, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK

Section 1: The Canon and Design in the Museum
1. ‘The taste of everyday things’: Kenneth Clark’s agenda for design around the Second World War, Sue Breakell, University of Brighton,UK
2. The ethos of the V&A Circulation Department 1947-1960, Joanna Weddell, University of Brighton and the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK
3. Designs of the Year 1957, Ness Wood, University of Brighton, UK
4. Ideal Homes and Constance Spry at the Design Museum: ‘Good Design’, Gender and the Domestic, Deborah Sugg Ryan, University College Falmouth, UK

Section 2: Redefining the Museum
6. Gareth Williams, Royal College of Art, Contemporary Designers, Cultural Diplomacy and the Museum Without Walls
7. Damon Taylor, University of Brighton, Exhibiting Design Art: Telling Tales and Design High
8. Virginia Lucarelli, INDACO Department, Politecnico di Milano, Exhibiting the multifaceted nature of design: The Triennale Design Museum, Milan
9. Denise Hagströmer, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Integrated yet discrete: Design in Norway’s new National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
10. Gillian Russell, Royal College of Art, ReStaging: Speculative Design and the Curatorial

Section 3: Extending Interpretation
11. The Productive Eye: Conceptualising Learning in the Design Museum, Helen Charman, Design Museum, UK
12. Intangibles: When Objects Become Interface, Jana Scholze, Victoria and Albert Museum, UK
13. Design and Museum Interpretation: A Comparative Evaluation of Contemporary Tropes, Jason Cleverly, University College Falmouth, UK
14. Design Culture Salons: Design Activism and Engagement, Guy Julier and Leah Armstrong, University of Brighton and Victoria and Albert Museum, UK
15. Museums Online: Institutional Transparency and the Digital Presence, Liz Farrelly, University of Brighton and Design Museum, UK

4. Gender and non-Western Design
16. Introductory Essay: Unwritten Global Design Histories, Professor of Design History
17. Indian Design Culture, practitioner academics
18.Digital Design and Gender, curator of contemporary design

Resources recommended websites for further information
Acknowledgements
Picture credits
Index