2021 DHS Annual Conference

Memory Full? Reimagining the Relations Between Design and History 2-4 September

PRECONFERENCE EVENTS (August 14-September 1)

All times in Basel time: CEST (UTC + 2)

forget-full?

Design History Society’s pre-conference events in response to the theme of the DHS 2021 Annual Conference Memory Full?

Organisers: DHS Student Forum

 

The Design History Society hosts three events led by students and early career researchers in response to the theme of the DHS 2021 Annual Conference, Memory Full? Reimagining the relations between design and history. A combination of community building and hands-on workshops will explore the playful, yet critical, motto forget-full? An invitation to reflect on practices that produce erasure, ostracism, forgetfulness.

 

The DHS Student Forum pre-conference events are free of charge and open to everyone (also for those not registered to the DHS annual conference) but interested participants must book in advance.

14 AUGUST, SAT

15:30 – 17:00

DHS Student Forum Event 1: Oral histories of researching. Community building workshop
Booking: Oral Histories of Researching

 

 

19:00 – 20:00

DHS Student Forum Event 2: Dear penpal… meet and greet. Community building session
Booking: Dear Penpal

21 AUGUST, SAT

15:30 – 17:00

DHS Student Forum Event 3: Recording and Inventing. Image-making workshop
Booking: Recording Inventing

25 AUGUST, WED

12:00

Digital conference platform opens

Participants can already browse content, watch virtual visits videos, visit the virtual bookshop and virtual showcase, customise their profiles, mark their favorites in the program, create their own visit cards and start networking with othr delegates.


Design History Society Annual Publishing Workshops

Organisers: DHS Teaching & Learning and Essay Prize Officers

The Design History Society hosts three virtual Publishing Workshops in conjunction with the 2021 annual DHS conference. All workshops are free and open to those not registered for the main conference, but to secure a place participants must book in advance. If you wish to participate in one, or all of these workshops, please register for a place on Eventbrite by using the links below before midnight CEST on 17 August 2021

27 AUGUST, FRI

14:30 – 17:30

DHS Publishing Workshop 1

Postgraduate students and Early Career Researchers (Maximum 20 participants)

Participating Editors: Priscila Farias, Daniel J Huppatz, Sarah Lichtman, Claire O’Mahony, John Potvin

Aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers in design history, design studies and related fields, this practical workshop will introduce attendees to how peer-review processes and writing abstracts fit into the wider contexts of academic publishing. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their skills and understanding, regarding how to write a good abstract. They will also receive advice from Editors of the Journal of Design History about how to prepare written work successfully for submission to peer-reviewed publications and what to expect from the editorial process. Early booking is recommended because numbers are strictly limited. English language will be used in this workshop. Speakers of all languages are welcome.

Booking: DHS Publishing Workshop 1

31 AUGUST, TUE

18:30 – 19:50

DHS Publishing Workshop 2

Roundtable Discussion: The Current and Future Landscape of Publishing Design History
(No limit on number of participants)

Aimed at experienced researchers, early career researchers and postgraduate students, this workshop will address the theme of the ‘Current and Future Landscape of Publishing Design History’. Editors will give 5–7 minute position papers and then join a 30-minute roundtable discussion, which will address pre-submitted questions posed by the virtual audience. English language will be used in this workshop. Speakers of all languages are welcome. 

Booking: DHS Publishing Workshop 2

 

 

20:15 – 21:30

DHS Publishing Workshop 3

Meet the Editors Drinks Evening (Maximum 20 participants)

This informal session will provide opportunities to interact with Editors and discuss publication ideas and processes. Each of the editors involved in Publishing Workshop 2 will host a series of breakout room discussions. Participants will have the opportunity to informally discuss an idea for a journal article, book, or other publication with one of these editors and receive their advice.

Booking: DHS Publishing Workshop 3


Closing of the pre-conference programme

Student curated Keynote: Ahmed Ansari

Decolonisation, the History of Design, and the Design of History. Ahmed Ansari in conversation with Tai Cossich and Sandra Bischler, DHS Student Forum representatives

1 SEPTEMBER, WED

18:30 – 20:00

DHS Chair & Basel Convenors
Closing the pre-programme, warming up for main programme

Introduction by Gabriele Oropallo

Student curated KEYNOTE: Ahmed Ansari

Decolonisation, the History of Design, and the Design of History
Ahmed Ansari (New York University) in conversation with Tai Cossich and Sandra Bischler, DHS Student Forum representatives
free of charge, but booking required.
Booking: Student Curated Keynote

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME: (2–4 September)
Parallel Sessions

All times in Basel time: CEST (UTC + 2)

2 SEPTEMBER, THU

FROM 9:00

Virtual Lobby, Meeting Rooms and Help Desk open

 


 

11:00 – 13:00 WORKSHOP

S17_GEOPOLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS
Chair: Johannes Bruder

 

S30_WORKSHOP A
OPEN: Memories, Stories and Recipes for Otherwise Design Histories
Lead: Livia Rezende, Sarah Cheang and Katie Irani

This workshop explores decolonial approaches to memory, storytelling and the ways we do design history. Fundamental to fostering decolonial praxis is revisiting and reimagining disciplinary methods—from archiving to history writing—in the light of social justice principles. Decolonial approaches call for thinking otherwise, and this cannot be achieved without researching and remembering otherwise. The workshop will unfold as a shared experience between convenors and participants. Rather than presenting papers on how design history can be done through a speaker/audience format, we will use group activities and shared experiences to address common issues around methodologies, narration and archives, collaboration and co-productivity. The session draws on the experiences of three members of OPEN, a research initiative based at the Royal College of Art since 2018. Our activities have included an evening with storyteller and activist Elif Shafak, a co-created lecture/collage response to decolonial aestheSis, and a workshop for London Design Week.

This workshop is limited to 15 participants, who have already registered to the DHS annual conference. Please, make sure you have payed your registration before applying to this workshop. Secure your place here.

 


 

12:00 – 12:20

Meet the editor: Nina Paim and Mayar El Bakry talk about Design Struggles, presented by Swiss Design Network

 

12:30 – 12:50

Meet the Author: Penny Sparke introduces Nature Inside: Plants and Flowers in the Modern Interior, presented by Yale University Press

 


13:00 – 14:00

S2_MEMORY AND MATTER
Chair: Dan Huppatz

 

S15_HISTORIES OF DECOLONISATION AND REPAIR
Chair: Michaela Young

 

S31_WORKSHOP B (part 1)
Design History as a Site-Specific Practice: Re-mapping the Margins of Institutions and Geographies
Lead: Christina Zetterlund and Sabrina Rahman

Current discourses of decolonising history have revealed the critical significance of not just bodies, but of sites as well. In this workshop, we will map design histories that are formulated in culturally and geopolitically marginalized places. Discussions will follow the traces of regional and rural design histories that alter nation states as an organising factor in understanding design and its history. In facilitating a collective engagement with these issues, the workshop will collate regional histories from different locations around the globe, focusing on practices from sites that have been defined as peripheries, in order to test our hypothesis of the importance of site in writing design history. The workshop will make use of creative-critical activities to examine design history as a site-specific practice, mapping marginalized positionalities and the writing of microhistories. These will include informal lightning talks, a mapping activity using Miro, and an accessible creative movement session with dance artist Gerry Turvey (Leeds, UK).

This workshop is limited to 12 participants, who have already registered to the DHS annual conference. Please, make sure you have payed your registration before applying to this workshop. Secure your place here.

 


 

14:00 – 15:00

S14_HISTORIES OF BODY CONTROL
Chair: Jane Tynan

 

S31_WORKSHOP B (part 1)
Design History as a Site-Specific Practice: Re-mapping the Margins of Institutions and Geographies
Lead: Christina Zetterlund and Sabrina Rahman

 


 

15:00 – 15:30

Break: Book Fair / Postcards from Switzerland / Networking on After Session Talks and Riverside Walks

 


 

15:30 – 16:30

S10_PLURIVERSAL CITIES
Chair: Priscila Farias

 

S12_CHALLENGING GENDERED MODERNITIES
Chair: Rebecca Houze

 

S24_DESIGNERLY WAYS OF DOING HISTORY I
Chair: Sarah Lichtman

 


 

16:30 – 17:30

S3_COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND URBAN SPACE
Chair: Rebecca Houze

 

S13_DISCLOSING DESIGN CAREERS
Chair: Penny Sparke

 

S21_DESIGNERLY WAYS OF DOING HISTORY II
Chair: John Potvin

 


 

17:30 – 18:00

Break: Book Fair / Postcards from Switzerland / Networking on After Session Talks and Riverside Walks

 


 

18:00 – 19:30

DHS Opening Greeting at Conference Launch, by DHS chair Claire O’Mahony
Welcoming words by Michael Renner, FHNW Academy of Art and Design
Introduction to the Conference by Convenors Meret Ernst and Monica Gaspar

Introduction to the keynote by Meret Ernst
Keynote 2: Alexandra Midal
Shadows: The Dark Sides of Design History.

 


 

20:00

Helpdesk closed

3 SEPTEMBER, FRI

FROM 9:00

Virtual Lobby, Meeting Rooms and Help Desk open

 


 

11:00 – 11:20

Meet the authors: Robert Lzicar, Davide Fornari, Sarah Klein, Sandra Bischler and Sara Zeller talk about Swiss Graphic Design Histories and its underlying research project.

 


11:45 – 12:00

Convenors’ Review of Day 1

 


 

12:00 – 13:00

S5_FORENSIC APPROACHES
Chair: Gabriele Oropallo

 

S19_TRANSMODERN SPACES
Chair: Claire O’Mahony

 

S11_ALTERNATIVE GENEALOGIES
Chair: Sarah Cheang

 


 

13:00 – 14:00

Break: Book Fair / Postcards from Switzerland / Networking on After Session Talks and Riverside Walks

 

13.30 – 13.50

Meet the author: Sara De Bondt talks about her forthcoming book Off the Grid: Belgian Graphic Design History, presented by Occasional Papers

 


 

14:00 – 15:00

S26_DIGITALISATION: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS
Chair: Gabriele Oropallo

 

S18_CONTESTED BORDERS OF MODERNITY
Chair: Robert Lzicar

 

S16_CRITICAL HERITAGE AND NATIONAL IDENTITIES
Chair: Marta Filipová

 


 

15:00 – 16:00

S25_STORIES OF STORING
Chair: Fedja Vukic

 

S20_CHALLENGING NATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHIES
Chairs: Davide Fornari, Robert Lzicar, and Sara Zeller

 

S29_DESIGN HISTORY AS DESIGN FICTION
Chair: Sarah Lichtman

 


 

16:00 – 17:00

Break: Book Fair / Postcards from Switzerland / Networking on After Session Talks and Riverside Walks

 

16.30 – 16.50

Decolonising Graphic Design: Historical Perspectives from the Arab World

Meet the author: Zeina Maasri talks about her Book Cosmopolitan Radicalism: The Visual Politics of Beirut’s Global Sixties, Cambridge University Press, 2020

 


 

17:00 – 18:00

S27_DANCING ABOUT DESIGN
Chair: Catherine Rossi

 

S22_DESIGNER AS HISTORIAN, HISTORIAN AS DESIGNER
Chair: Artun Ozguner

 

S31_WORKSHOP B (part 2)
Design History as a Site-Specific Practice: Re-mapping the Margins of Institutions and Geographies
Lead: Christina Zetterlund, Sabrina Rahman

 


 

18:00 – 19:30

Introduction by Claudia Mareis
Keynote 3: Jussi Parikka
A Natural History of Logistics and Other Problem Spaces

 


 

19:30 – 21:00

DHS Joint AGM (Chair and Trustees), including Essay Prize Giving Ceremony

 


 

21:00

Helpdesk closed

4 SEPTEMBER, SAT

FROM 9:00

Virtual Lobby, Meeting Rooms and Help Desk open

 


 

FROM 11:00 – 11:20

11.00 – 11.20

Meet the author: Claude Lichtenstein talks about The Gravity of Ideas / Die Schwerkraft von Ideen, presented by Birkhäuser Bauwelt Fundamente (in German)

 


 

11:45 – 12:00

Convenors’ Review of Day 2

 


 

12:00 – 13:00

S1_MATERIAL AGENCY AND NEW DESIGN HISTORIES
Chair: Claudia Mareis

 

S7_DIGITAL LEGACIES
Chair: Michael Renner

 

S31_SUMMARY WORKSHOP B (part 1 and 2)

 


 

13:00 – 14:00

Break: Book Fair / Postcards from Switzerland / Networking on After Session Talks and Riverside Walks

 


 

14:00 – 15:00

S4_RELOADING THE ARCHIVE
Chair: Zara Arshad

 

S28_PEDAGOGIES OF UNLEARNING
Chair: Maya Ober

 


 

15:00 – 16:00

S29_CURATING THE ARCHIVE
Chair: Harriet McKay

 

S8_COLLECTIVE ANTIDOTES TO AMNESIA
Chair: Fiona Anderson

 

S23_CRITICAL HISTORIOGRAPHIES
Chair: Aggie Toppins

 


 

16:00 – 17:00

Break: Book Fair / Postcards from Switzerland / Networking on After Session Talks and Riverside Walks

 

16.30 – 16.50

Meet the authors: Monika Dommann and Jonas Voegeli talk about Data Centers: Edges of a Wired Nation, presented by Lars Müller Publishers

 


 

17:00 – 18:30

Introduction by Monica Gaspar
Keynote 4: Alfredo Gutierrez Borrero
Dessobons and Archaeodesign

 


 

18:30 – 19:00

Closing remarks by Convenors Meret Ernst and Monica Gaspar

Big Reveal: DHS 2022 conference theme and convenors announcement, moderated by Marta Filipová, Conference Liaison Trustee

DHS closing words by Claire O’Mahony, DHS Chair

Farewell by Michael Renner, FHNW Academy of Art and Design

 


 

20:00

Helpdesk closed