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Dear Grace, Thanks for sharing. I've seen it on some mailing list, and it surely caught my attention. Unfortunately, CAA 2012 is smack in the middle of my paternity leave, so I can't go this year either. I maintain my ambition to attend the CAA sometime, though - perhaps 2013? Will you be going to LA? Best, Kjetil Kjetil Fallan, PhD Associate Professor Dept. of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas University of Oslo Den 13. mai 2011 kl. 09:16 skrev "Lees-Maffei, Grace" <[log in to unmask]>: > Design, Thing Theory, and the Lives of Objects > > College Art Association Conference, Los Angeles, February 22-25, 2012 > > Panel Convener, Leslie Atzmon, Professor, Graphic Design and Design History, Eastern Michigan University > > > > Literary critic Bill Brown’s groundbreaking special issue of Critical Inquiry (Autumn 2001) spurred a new fascination with objects across the academy. Waggishly dubbed “Thing Theory,” this field has the potential to be an emerging site of interdisciplinary practice for design practice and design scholarship. Thing Theory can be understood as a deeply pragmatic form of material culture studies in which objects are evaluated for more than just their cultural exchange value. Have Brown’s ideas expanded our understanding of the meaning-making capacity of the > > aesthetic and material forms of objects? Has this theoretical approach fundamentally changed > > the types of objects we consider, or make, or what we identify as a thing? Design, with its > > focus on the way objects make meaning in the cultures in which they are created or > > used, is particularly well positioned to play a crucial role in the future development of Thing > > Theory. > > > > In Thing Theory the lives of objects are evaluated according to the varied traditions of many disciplines, and the overlap among disciplines makes room for fruitful interdisciplinary endeavors. The “object” category doesn’t necessarily divide material objects from immaterial objects; objects can be digital or physical (or even imaginary). David Thorburn and Henry Jenkins argue that “medium-specific approaches,” oversimplify the relationship between old and new media. A more inclusive approach, they conclude, would stress the ways that media “interact, shift and collude with one another.” > > > > What is at stake in the productive interplay between Design and Thing Theory? This panel investigates how Thing Theory levels hierarchical or chronological distinctions among media, and in so doing produces a point of view that can foster new directions in design thinking. This panel also considers how we can reframe the interdisciplinary aspects of design in response to ideas about objects from other disciplines. Finally, this panel suggests how design could play a special role in shaping the newly emerging interdisciplinary practice called Thing Theory. This panel welcomes examples from critics, historians, practitioners and theorists. > > > > The College Art Association (CAA) is an international organization that “promotes the visual arts and their understanding through committed practice and intellectual engagement.” The yearly conference features panels on a wide range of topics related to the visual arts, including the history and theory of visual arts. > > > > Paper proposals may be submitted to Leslie Atzmon [log in to unmask] by May 27. Proposals should include speaker's CV, contact information, and a preliminary abstract of 300 words or less. > > > > * > > Dr Grace Lees-Maffei, Reader in Design History > > School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB. > > Direct Line: 01707 285369 * Fax: 01707 285350 * [log in to unmask] > > http://herts.academia.edu/GraceLeesMaffei * UH_GLM_Profile > > http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/tvad/lees-maffei1.html > > Co-Editor, The Design History Reader http://www.bergpublishers.com/?tabid=7813 > > Editor, Writing Design: Words and Objects http://www.bergpublishers.com/?tabid=15047 > >