HART295 - 01 - Contemporary Design History

This course approaches design as a tactile and material encounter where social, cultural, economic, political, technological and aesthetic forces converge. Our job will be to identify where and when coffee cups and forks, lp and cd covers, bicycles and automobiles, lighting and seating, screensavers and shopping bags-things usually considered within the scope of "material culture"-are culturally loaded. When looking at "classic" epicenters of innovation such as the Eames Office, creative consumption such as DIY production, and the global flow of materials and products, our concern will be design in an international contemporary context.(Formerly titled Design History)