Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Contributors Preface: Jonathan Woodham, University of Brighton, UK Introduction: Liz Farrelly, University of Brighton and Design Museum, UK and Joanna Weddell, University of Brighton and Research Department, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK Section 1: The Canon and Design in the Museum 1. Exhibiting 'the Taste of Everyday Things': Kenneth Clark and CEMA's Wartime Exhibitions of Design, Sue Breakell, University of Brighton, UK 2. The Ethos of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) Circulation Department 1947-1960, Joanna Weddell, University of Brighton and the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK 3. 'I Would Suggest That You Should Not Think of the Design Centre as a Museum; It Is a Live, Active, Moving Thing': Designs of the Year 1957, Ness Wood, University of Brighton, UK 4. Designing for a New Nigeria: Hayes Textiles Limited and the British Manufacture of Gele in the Post-colonial Period, Nicola Stylianou, Open University, UK 5. Towards an Uncensored History of Design: Ideal Homes and Constance Spry at the Design Museum, London, Deborah Sugg Ryan, University College Falmouth, UK 6. Ghosts and Dancers: Immaterials and the Museum, Jana Scholze, Victoria and Albert Museum, UK Section 2: Positioning Design Within and Beyond the Museum 7. Indian Living Cultures: Collected, Exhibited and Performed, Megha Rajguru and Nicola Ashmore, University of Brighton, UK 8. Triennale Design Museum: An Evolving Curatorial Project, Virginia Lucarelli, Politecnico di Milano, Italy 9. Gallery Envy and Contingent Autonomy: Exhibiting Design Art, Damon Taylor, University of Brighton, UK 10. Contemporary Designers, Cultural Diplomacy and the Museum Without Walls, Gareth Williams, Royal College of Art, UK 11. Curating Critical Design: An Embodied Criticality, Gillian Russell, Royal College of Art, UK Section 3: Interpretation and the Challenge of Design 12. Design, Politics and Museum Presentation, Marianne Lamonaca, Bard Graduate Center, USA 13. You are Here, We are There: Tracing NID's Design Histories, Tom Wilson, University of Brighton, the Design Museum, London and the British Council, UK 14. Just What is it that Makes Curating Design so Different, so Appealing? Helen Charman, Design Museum, UK 15. Design and Museum Interpretation: Contemporary Characterisitcs and Practice, Jason Cleverly, Falmouth University, UK 16. Interactions in the Museum: Design Culture Salons at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Guy Julier and Leah Armstrong, University of Brighton, UK and Victoria and Albert Museum, UK 17. Museums Online and Digital: Some Innovations and Implications, Liz Farrelly, University of Brighton and Design Museum, UK Closing Comments Index

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A consideration of the role of the design object within contemporary museum practice.

About the Author

Liz Farrelly writes and edits books and articles on design and visual culture, with stints on staff at Blueprint and Eye magazines. She teaches at University of Brighton, UK and her current research about museums and design focuses on London's Design Museum. Joanna Weddell has a background in architecture and is currently researching post-war design and museology at the Research Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the University of Brighton, UK; she also teaches History of Art.

Reviews

This book gives a unique insight into the historical perspective of combining design with exhibitions in and outside museums. The case studies give excellent new information on background of politics in design exhibition for example in London Design Museum, but also in Scandinavia and USA. The articles are heavily grounded in relevant literary references of most current academic texts. The book challenges conservative exhibition design thinking and reveals how the many choices of museum exhibition design reflect on our society’s political, aesthetic and economic values. The emphasis in the book is laid on theorethical questions on the problematics of exhibiting design in museums, not only about exhibition design of any kind.
*Outi Turpeinen, artist and designer, Aalto University, Helsinki*

Design Objects and the Museum draws on a wide range of contributors who problematize design and its relation to the cannon, the museum, and the challenges of interpretation. The arguments present new models and debates that broaden disciplinary boundaries and expand our ways of thinking about designed objects, both historical and contemporary, and their displayed status.
*Sarah Lichtman, Parsons, The New School for Design, USA*

Farrelly and Weddell (both, Univ. of Brighton, UK) reveal the impact that design objects had on cultural institutions…This is a valuable resource for those interested in art history, design, and museum studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended.
*CHOICE*

With an array of critical, theoretical and practical approaches to the presentation and curation of design objects, this book is a useful resource for those interested in the evolving nature of curatorial practice and museology.
*Eye Magazine*