Welcome to The Nordic Forum for Design History’s 40th Anniversary Symposium:
Past and Future: Nordic Design History Reassessed
26–27 October 2023 at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo!
This symposium presents new international research and current concepts of Nordic design histories. We look forward to meeting in person to discuss and debate an ever-changing field. You are cordially welcome to this event whether you are a layperson interested in design, an academic or a practitioner.
There will be three keynote lectures by guest speakers from the US, UK and Norway; all leading scholars within the field. The other speakers, from all the Nordic countries, will contribute with talks grouped according to the following themes: Material Approaches, 'Early Modern' Perspectives, Design and Mediation Processes, Fashion Histories and Modernism Inside Out. These presentations are the result of an earlier Open Call for Papers.
This symposium is organised by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in collaboration with the Nordic Forum for Design History. This year’s event marks the forum’s 40th Anniversary and is part of a series of symposia that have taken place in the Nordic countries since 1983.
Keynote Speakers
- Prof. Penny Sparke, Kingston University, London
- Dr Sarah A. Lichtman, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York
- Prof. Kjetil Fallan, University of Oslo
The English website is here and includes the programme etc:
Version på norsk:
For conference enquiries, please email: denise.hagstroemer@nasjonalmuseet.no
About the Nordic Forum for Design History
The Nordic Forum for Design History was founded in 1983 by Norwegian design historian Fredrik Wildhagen in collaboration with Dane Mirjam Gelfer-Jørgensen and Swede Lars Stackell. It is an open forum for scholars working within the field, a network which in recent years has expanded beyond the Nordic region. The Nordic countries take turns in hosting this event: the forum’s last conference in 2018 was hosted by the Museum of Design and Applied Art, Iceland.
Conference Conveners
Convener: Senior Curator, Dr Denise Hagströmer, Co-convener: Curator Education, Ole Gaudernack, the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
The Nordic Forum for Design History’s Working Group
The forum is informally organised with a board that is also the working group:
Prof. Anders V. Munch, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding; Head of Learning, Dr Leena Svinhufvud, Design Museum, Helsinki; Director Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir, Museum of Design and Applied Art, Reykjavik; Prof. Sara Kristoffersson, Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm; and Senior Curator, Dr Denise Hagströmer, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo.
The forum’s network base is at the University of Southern Denmark Kolding.
About the Keynote Speakers
PENNY SPARKE is a Professor of Design History at Kingston University and the Director of the Modern Interiors Research Centre. She received her PhD from Brighton Polytechnic in 1975 and taught the History of Design at Brighton Polytechnic (1975–1982) and the Royal College of Art (1982–1999). From 1999 to 2005 she was Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design & Music at Kingston University and from 2005 to 2014 she was Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise). She has represented the History of Design in many ways both nationally and inter- nationally over her career. Her most important publications includeAn Introduction to Design and Culture, 1900 to the present (1986, 2004, 2013); Italian Design from 1860 to the present(1989);As Long as It’s Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste(1995);Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration(2005);The Modern Interior(2008); andNature Inside: Plants and Flowers in the Modern Interior(2021).
KJETIL FALLAN is Professor of Design History at the University of Oslo. His research interests revolve around twentieth-century design cultures, environmental histories of design, and histories of ecological design. Recent books includeEcological by Design: A History from Scandinavia(MIT Press, 2022);Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960–1980: Revolt and Resilience, co-edited with Christina Zetterlund and Anders V. Munch (Routledge, 2022);The Culture of Nature in the History of Design(Routledge, 2019); andDesigning Modern Norway: A History of Design Discourse(Routledge, 2019). Fallan also serves as an editor of the Journal of Design History (Oxford University Press).
SARAH A. LICHTMAN, PhD, is the Dean of the School of Art, Design, History, and Theory at Parsons School of Design, The New School, and the former director of the MA program in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies, offered in affiliation with Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Her scholarship takes an inter- disciplinary, feminist approach and her articles and reviews have appeared in leading journals and collections. Sarah is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Design History, having served as book reviews editor (2016–2021) and is currently managing editor. Her work is broadly collaborative and in addition to her single authored publications, she is the co-editor of edited volumes, most recently the forthcomingDesign, Displacement, and Migration: Spatial and Material Histories(Routledge, 2023).
The Nordic Forum for Design History and the National Museum gratefully acknowledge support
from the Estrid Ericson Foundation.
https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/mdle/samarbejde/ nordisk-forum-for-designhistorie
To join forum’s email list, please contact: Pernille Dahl Kragh,pdk@sdu.dk
Invitation of proposals for presentations at Design Cultures in Italy and the Nordic Countries
Transnational seminar at the Danish Academy in Rome, May 15-16, 2023
Design Culture Studies at University of Southern Denmark would like to invite design scholars to discuss differences and similarities between design, design traditions and design institutions in Italy and the Nordic countries as a productive comparison. Both regions have a strong consciousness and organisation as ‘design nations’ and advanced design research environments. Design Culture Studies is a more recent field of research (Julier 2000; Julier et al. 2019), established at University of Southern Denmark since 2006, and the concept of Design Culture has found productive use in Italian research as well (Deserti & Rizzo 2014; Manzini 2016). We want to challenge the national and regional storytelling and its clichés through comparison of broader aspects of design cultures (Fallan & Lees-Maffei 2016; Fallan, Zetterlund & Munch 2023).
There are both contemporary and historical parallels between Italian and Nordic design cultures, as both regions experienced an international breakthrough in the consumer culture of the 1950s with a distinct modernistic, but also sophisticated aesthetic idiom. Most associations with Italian design were, however, quite differently coded, and expectations differed a lot between Scandinavian and Italian design (Lees-Maffei & Fallan 2013). Both design cultures have had and still have a strong representation of architects playing a defining role in product and interior design as well. And the manufacturing industries in both regions show cultures of production, where luxury goods have been through parallel transitions mixing craft and industrial production, which have defined design ideals and understandings of production. These ideals and understandings have a strong impact on consumer behavior and transition towards sustainable consumption.
This is an open call for proposals for presentations on design culture related to the two regions or any transnational relations between them at the seminar. The idea is to frame a discussion across the presentations and turn them into chapters of an anthology, published as special volume of Analecta Romana, the yearbook of the Danish Academy in Rome.
Please, send your proposal of max. 300 words and short bio with deadline 1st of March to Anders V. Munch,avm@sdu.dk. Answers will be send 15th of March, and the selected presenters will have to submit long abstracts of 2000 words for 1st of May to share with all participants. There is no fee for participation, but travel and accommodation are on your own expences.
Dr Sisse Tanderup and Prof. Anders V. Munch
Design Culture Studies / University of Southern Denmark
Nordisk Forum for Designhistorie 2018, Islands Designmuseum, Garðabær, blev gennemført som det første møde på Island. Nordisk Forum for Designhistorie har været afholdt hvert andet år siden 1982 på skift i de øvrige nordiske lande, så det var en vigtig begivenhed at få Island med som værtsland. Designmuseets direktør, Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir, var medarrangør og er blevet Islands repræsentant i Nordisk Forum for Designhistorie.
Arrangementet blev afholdt 23/11 med 12 oplæg, heraf to inviterede forelæsninger. Der var oplægsholdere fra Finland, Sverige, Danmark, Norge og Island. Dertil kom omkring 50 tilmeldte deltagere fra Island, og seminaret var dermed et af de mest velbesøgte i Nordisk Forums nyere historie. Det var samtidig en vigtig begivenhed for museet, idet der kun er ganske få designhistorikere på Island, men en god interesse for design. Islandsk design blev både repræsenteret gennem en inviteret forelæsning af professor Gudmundur Oddur, Islands Kunstakademi, og opvisninger af food design i pauserne. Oplægsholderne blev også inviteret på en eksklusiv omvisning i en villa i Garðabær, tegnet af Høgna Sigurðardóttir, og fremstår med den originale, gennemkomponerede indretning fra 1965 som et af de centrale værker i Islands arkitektur. Såvel designmuseet som byen Garðabær viste sig som perfekte rammer for Nordisk Forum 2018.
Temaet, Kopier, Klassikere & Traditioner, viste sig både som en god invitation, da vi fik en bred vifte af forslag fra alle de nordiske lande, fra både museer og universiteter, og som et stærkt fokus for diskussionerne dagen igennem. Det gav stof til at arbejde videre med emnet.
Arrangementet var oprindelig tænkt til at vare halvanden dag, men afbud fra to inviterede forelæsere fik os til at koncentrere oplæggene på samme dag. Det sikrede givetvis også større deltagelse og mere fokus i diskussionerne.
Temaet for de designhistoriske oplæg, Kopier, Klassikere & Traditioner, lagde op til en kritisk diskussion af den ofte forsimplede modstilling af original og kopi, som er dominerende i en modernistisk designdiskurs, herunder i designuddannelserne. Hvis vi ser bort fra ulovlig plagiering, der er et væsentligt økonomisk og juridisk problem, så er der et stort spillerum mellem original og kopi, hvor efterligning i forskellige grader udgør en vigtig kulturel og uddannelsesmæssig dynamik. Set i nordisk perspektiv bidrager temaet også til en kritisk behandling af låste forestillinger om centrum og periferi. Det gælder såvel opfattelser af, at Norden har ageret som en periferi, der efterlignede en centraleuropæisk modernisme, og at de yngre nordiske nationer, Finland, Norge og Island, lagde sig efter Sverige og Danmark som ledende designnationer. Der ligger en stor kreativitet og produktivitet i formmotiver og ideer, forfines og forskydes, og det har skabt den fællesnordiske designtradition.
Oplægsholdere fra:
Nasjonalmuseet (Oslo), Designmuseo (Helsinki), Stockholms Universitet, Laplands Universitet (Rovaniemi), Listaháskóli Íslands, Copenhagen Business School og Syddansk Universitet (Kolding).
Island er blevet fast repræsenteret i Nordisk Forum for Designhistorie ved Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir, direktør for Hönnunarsafn Íslands.
Desuden er Leena Svinhufvud, Designmuseo (Helsinki), indtrådt som ny repræsentant for Finland.
23–24 September 2016 . Nordic Forum for Design History Studies conference 2016, DESIGN EDUCATION IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES. Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture
7.-8. maj 2014, Nordisk Forum for Designhistorie 2014, Designmuseum Danmark, København