Contemporary Design History
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Teasley2
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945
- Publisher
- Wiley
- ISBN
- 978-1-119-11118-4
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- March
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This body of research sought to identify, test, and develop tools and perspectives for research into contemporary design history and studies. Research was undertaken in 2013, funded by a British Academy International Mobility Partnership grant. Research methods included workshops and structured discussions with design historians, curators and research-led practitioners in the UK and Japan, and a literature review, along with a scoping study into the social, economic, cultural and political history of design practices in Japan in the 1990s. Key findings included insights into methods and challenges for compiling and presenting histories of contemporary design practice, as well as for design history’s potential as an interdisciplinary set of approaches, perspectives and techniques for histories of the recent past more generally. The author, a historian in the UK, was Principal Investigator on this study, with a Japan-based journalist as Co-investigator; given design’s global nature and that analysis of the recent past often sits between history and journalism, the binational, cross-disciplinary exchange of perspectives was integral to research design. A bilingual project website was authored collaboratively as part of the research process, with subsequent outputs produced separately in our respective fields.
This chapter, published in an edited volume on approaches to contemporary design, elaborates on key findings. A first section explores the temporality, scope, and subjects of contemporary design history. A second section discusses methods, perspectives, and challenges for undertaking contemporary design history effectively. A third section argues for the potential of contemporary design history, as an aggregation of approaches and perspectives, to contribute to history practice and public knowledge alike. The intention is to invite historians working with contemporary questions and material to engage with design historical approaches, and to articulate avenues, tools, and challenges for researchers and students in design history, research and practice.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
