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  • Period Styles, Obsolescence and the passage of Things in Time

Curtis, Barry and Trivedi, Nina, 2016, Conference or Workshop, Period Styles, Obsolescence and the passage of Things in Time at Design and Time, Middlesex University, 8-10 Sept 2016.

Abstract or Description:

This paper considers the concepts of ‘zeitgeist’ and periodisation with a particular interest in how metaphors of ‘evolution’ and transformation have been used to describe the trajectory and adaptation of ‘things’ and stylistic categories in history. It considers the vital part played by the literature of ‘period styles’ in the genesis of design history, the importance of the idea of ‘anonymous design’ and the strategies developed for understanding objects and ensembles as mediators of sensibility. Drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Giedion it speculates on the ways in which the insights of more recent theories that conjure with ‘flat ontology’, ‘vibrant matter’ and ‘quasi objects’ were foreshadowed. Speculating on categories of the ‘obsolescent’ and ‘futuristic’, it examines the claims of ‘speculative realism’ and the insights afforded by the appeal of objects that are dislocated in time.

Subjects: Creative Arts and Design > W200 Design studies > W290 Design studies not elsewhere classified
Creative Arts and Design > W900 Others in Creative Arts and Design > W990 Creative Arts and Design not elsewhere classified
School or Centre: Research & Innovation
Date Deposited: 15 Dec 2016 17:59
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2018 15:47
URI: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/id/eprint/2483
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