Dear Carma,
The proposal you’re thinking of was indeed the University of
California at Irvine.
While the proposal contained only one course labelled “design
history,” my sense is that the field would have grown. This was a
proposal for a design school at one of the world’s leading research
universities, and the structure was designed to bring a great many
goals and objectives together. The proposal had four specializations
for the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs. One of the four
was design studies, a specialization that was to include design
history. The required course was a large lecture course, but the
proposal had enormous scope for electives and specializations – these
were not named, but the proposal offered examples. I understood that
there was room to expand design history at all levels with courses
beyond the one course.
Given the difficulty that our field has in locating design history
within the curriculum, I thought it a good beginning – and it was my
sense that there would be opportunities to approach design history
from multiple perspectives. For many reasons, UCI was never able to
launch the School of Design, so there is no way to know what would
have happened. The proposal is a decade old now, and the fields of
design and design history have both grown and evolved. I think you’d
have seen growth and evolution for design history at UCI as well.
One reason that NASAD accreditation takes the shape it does is that
NASAD is the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Few of
the 322 members are pure design schools. Most locate design within a
college or school of art and design. They may well offer art history
for accreditation without offering design history. There does seem to
be some flexibility in the accreditation standards. According to the
NASAD Handobook, “In certain areas of specialization, it is advisable
to require that students study the historical development of works
within the specialization. … Normally, studies in art and design
history and analysis occupy at least 10% of the total curriculum.”
(National Association of Schools of Art and Design 2012: 103). UCI
would have met those standards.
The UCI program would likely have included courses in design history –
or design history and analysis – taught from such perspectives as
history of technology, culture studies, material culture, or economic
history. All would have had a design focus. The curriculum also
included other courses in such analytical design studies as theory,
criticism, and philosophy.
As it is, UCI would not likely have applied for NASAD accreditation.
No university or program in the University of California system
belongs to NASAD, not for design or design history and not for art or
art history. Neither do Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, or MIT.
As it is, I agree with you and David Raizman on the importance of
teaching design history for design programs as a subject field
distinct from art history. The UC proposal took this position as well.
The proposal described design studies as “analogous to degree-programs
in the history of art or literary and cultural studies” while treating
them as distinct and focused on design (University of California at
Irvine 2002: 30).
Here’s what the UCI proposal had to say about design studies –
including design history:
“All students in the School of Design will be required to take a
course in ‘Design Studies.’ This large lecture course will be a
historical and theoretical introduction to the most important ideas,
movements, and individuals in the history of design.
“Students who wish to continue their study of design from this
perspective will be able to specialize in design studies, a program
leading to the B.A.
“In contrast to the more practice-based tracks, Design Studies will
emphasize a more humanistic, cultural, and theoretical approach to
design analogous to degree-programs in the history of art or literary
and cultural studies. It will also stress facility in the written,
oral, and visual communication of ideas about design. Like all
students in the School of Design, those pursuing a degree in design
studies will be required to take introductory courses in all of the
specializations in the school as well as the usual breadth
requirements for the university. Other courses in design studies will
approach design from the perspective of the social sciences, including
psychology, anthropology, and economics as well as survey techniques,
statistics, and research methodologies characteristic of the social
sciences.
“Students in design studies may elect to complete a senior thesis, or
they may complete a senior project in design similar to that in the
practice-based specializations. However, the project in Design Studies
will include a more substantial written presentation that includes
extensive research and reflection on the conceptual background of the
project.
“This specialization will equip students with the broader and more
sophisticated conceptual framework usually lacking in most design
programs, and it will emphasize the ability to communicate those
concepts clearly and effectively in verbal and visual presentations.
Students from this specialization shall therefore be ideally prepared
for master’s-level work in more narrowly focused professional design
programs or in academic subjects such as material culture or visual
studies, and for immediate entry into careers in advertising,
business, and public relations and project management for design firms
and cultural institutions” (University of California at Irvine 2002:
30-31).
In November 2003, the PhD-Design list hosted an online conference that
lasted nearly a month with organized presentations by the authors of
the proposal from UCI, responses from a wide range of scholars and
researchers, and open discussion.
If you want to review or follow the on-line conference, search the
list archives using the advanced function for “subject contains.”
Search for: Design in the University, click the link to the welcome
statement and follow the threads from there.
The UC Irvine School of Design proposal is available at URL:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~taylor/SoD-proposal.pdf
Yours,
Ken
Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia
| [log in to unmask] | Phone +61 3 9214 6102
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References
National Association of Schools of Art and Design. 2012. NASAD
Handbook. Reston, Virginia: National Association of Schools of Art and
Design.
University of California at Irvine. 2002. Proposal for a School of
Design at the University of California, Irvine. Irvine, California:
University of California.
Copy accessible at URL:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~taylor/SoD-proposal.pdf
--
Carma Gorman wrote:
—snip—
I am familiar with the proposed curriculum that floated around some
years ago as part of the plans to create a design school at UC Irvine
(or was it a different UC?), but I felt that that curriculum was
sorely deficient in coursework in history/theory/criticism (so much so
that I wonder whether it would have been accredited by NASAD without
modifications).
—snip—
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