This year, the V&A/RCA History of Design course celebrates 25 years of postgraduate education in design and material culture. Graduating MA students will present their final year SHOW at the RCA and hold a symposium at the V&A Lecture Theatre.
Graduating students from the joint V&A/RCA MA course in the History of Design will hold a symposium exploring their final year’s work on 25th June 2009. Taking place at the V&A lecture theatre, in the 25th year of the History of Design course, the symposium promises to be an inspirational afternoon hosted by the next generation of writers and thinkers in the field.
Illuminating the scope and possibilities of design history today, the varied programme embraces an expansive range of topics including 16th century recusant material culture, postmodern transformations of space, animals in architectural modernism, interwar holiday camps, WWII Hollywood and Vintage Californian play clothes. With students’ ambitions ranging from careers in publishing and journalism, museums and heritage, to academia, the symposium represents not just a fantastic opportunity to meet the graduates, but also other professionals in the cultural sector, including those from the V&A and RCA. A drinks reception will follow the talks.
From Friday 26th June to 3rd July 2009, graduating students from the History of Design MA present The Writers’ Room at the RCA SHOW 2. Populated by an array of objects, papers, images and ephemera relating to students’ research and experiences on the MA course, visitors are encouraged to rifle through and inhabit The Writers’ Room. All five senses are engaged to the fullest extent in order to assert the subjective lived experience of designed space. Likewise, the room is set to change over the duration of the SHOW, expressing the ways in which designed spaces are animated, transformed and subverted through occupancy. A globe of live fish in the corner of The Writers’ Room stands metonymically for the space as a whole, the constant evolution in the life of the aquarium reflecting the life of the room itself.
Interviews will be conducted in the room via Twitter with students from other courses, creating a critical dialogue between practice and writing and extending the discourse beyond an institution, from real space, imagined space, to virtual space. Visitors will be encouraged to Twitter their responses to the SHOW from the room.
Professor Jeremy Aynsley, Head of Research at the RCA, said: “It is exciting that such a strong group of dissertations should appear in this very special year for the Course. This new research prepares a new generation of graduates to extend the boundaries of our evolving discipline and
prepare the foundations for future scholarship. We wish them every success!”
RCA SHOW 2 Private View Thursday 25th June. Open to Public Friday 26th June. Entry is FREE.
History of Design Symposium Thursday 25th June 1.30 – 5 pm at the Lecture Theatre, V&A.
Entry is FREE and open to everyone.
blog http://rcahistoryofdesign.wordpress.com/
Images related to the course are available at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcahistoryofdesign2009/
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/HistoryofDesign
V&A Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL
Nearest Tube: South Kensington
http://www.vam.ac.uk/
RCA Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU
Nearest Tube: Gloucester Road, South Kensington, Kensington High Street
http://www.rca.ac.uk/
About the RCA/V&A History of Design MA Course
The History of Design course is a pioneering development in UK postgraduate education bringing together two important South Kensington institutions – the RCA and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). It offers a unique opportunity to study the world of design and material culture at an advanced level. It benefits from the context of the high level of design practice undertaken by students at the RCA and the huge resources of the V&A, which houses the National Art Library. The course is jointly organised and taught by the RCA School of Humanities and the V&A’s Department of Research. At the RCA there is a Head of Department, supported by three tutors, while at the V&A there is a full-time Head of Course in addition to two tutors. The Asian Design Tutor is a joint RCA/V&A appointment. There is also support from studio staff at the College and members of the curatorial staff at the V&A. The course is largely based in specially designed rooms at the V&A, including seminar rooms, a student workroom and a department library, and it also makes use of all the relevant facilities at the RCA.
0 Responses to “Events”