MA Design History and Material Culture
Course Handbook
2011 / 2012
Table of Contents
1.0
Introduction
2.0
Lecturers contributing to the MA Design History and Material Culture
3.0
MA Design History and Material Culture: Course Documentation
3.1
Course content
3.2
Assessment schedule
3.3
Submission of assignments
3.4
Marking conventions
4.0
Style guide
5.0
Thesis submission guidelines
6.0
Plagiarism
7.0
Illnesses and absences
8.0
College Services
Appendices
App 1: Dates of terms
App 2: Research interests of staff contributing to the MA Design History and Material Culture
App 3: Faculty of Visual Culture Marking Descriptors for Taught MA Programmes
App 4: Course Timetable
2
1.0
Introduction
Welcome to the Faculty of Visual Culture at NCAD. We hope that your period of study in the Faculty will be rewarding,
intellectually stimulating and enjoyable, and we are looking forward to working with you during your programme of study.
The Faculty of Visual Culture provides a lively and friendly environment for postgraduate study. In addition to any formal
programmes you are following, there is an array of lectures and events organised within the college, which we hope you will
attend.
Your most direct contact with the staff is likely to be with your course tutors but please feel free to approach me or any member
of staff who may be able to help you with your work. Please see details of the research interests of those contributing to the MA
Design History and Material Culture at the end of this document (Appendix 2).
This handbook has been compiled to provide you with a range of essential and useful information relating to your studies in the
Faculty of Visual Culture. We welcome comments on the Handbook. Please let us know how useful you find it and pass on any
suggestions for further improvement.
Dr Paul O’Brien, Assistant to the Acting Head of the Faculty of Visual Culture
2.0
MA Design History and Material Culture: Contributing lecturers
Course Coordinator: Dr Anna Moran
Lecturers contributing to the MA Design History and Material Culture 2011/2012
Dr Anna Moran
morana@ncad.ie
Dr Macushla Baudis
baudism@ncad.ie
Dr Lisa Godson
godsonl@ncad.ie
Dr Conor Lucey
mr_ciel@hotmail.com
Emma Mahony
emma.mahony@gmail.com
Hilary O’Kelly
okellyh@ncad.ie
Dr Paul Caffrey
caffreyp@ncad.ie
Dr Sorcha O’Brien
sorchaobrien@gmail.com
Dr Una Walker
walkeru@ncad.ie
Mary Ann Bolger
maryann.bolger@dit.ie
Sarah Foster
sarahgfoster@gmail.com
3
3.0
Course Documentation
3.1
Course content
Semester 1: Mondays
Wks 2-8 [pm] Modernism and Material Culture (Dr Lisa Godson) [delivered in conjunction with GradCam] – This course
focuses on the objects, spaces and systems of modernism, and its philosophical relationship to modernity, including such key
cultural concepts as temporality, currency and agency. Due to the study trip to Berlin, the course will have a particular inflection
towards German design, architectural and material cultures as well as a consideration of modernity and modernism in Irish
material culture.
Wks 2-8 [pm] Approaches to domestic space in the Georgian era ( Dr Conor Lucey, UCD) - This course introduces students
to both the material and ideological aspects of interiors designed during the Georgian period, and aims to foster an appreciation
for the myriad critical approaches to studies concerned with the history of domestic space and the material culture of the home.
Wks 10-15 [am] Design and the Luxury market in Eighteenth-Century Europe ( Dr Macushla Baudis, NCAD) – Focusing
on issues surrounding taste, innovation and imitation, this module examines the design, production and retailing of the luxury
goods of France and England during the second half of the eighteenth century.
Wks 10-15 (pm) An Introduction to the Influence of Neo-Classicism in Art, Architecture and Design (Dr Paul Caffrey,
NCAD) – The aim of this course is to introduce students to the origins and history of the classical tradition in the art, architecture
and design of the eighteenth century. Students will be introduced to the theories of neoclassicism and the literature of
neoclassicism in art, architecture and design with specific reference to European design in the eighteenth century. The objectives
of the course are to place the classical revival in context and to develop students’ skills of historical and critical analysis.
Semester 1: Fridays
Wks 2-7 [am] Research Methods (Chair: Dr Siún Hanrahan, NCAD) - introduces students to key concepts and skills in
academic research in visual and material culture.
Wks 4-9 (am/pm) Uncovering the Everyday: Shopping and Consumption in 18th-century Ireland (Dr Anna Moran, NCAD)
- Focusing on the consumer culture of the eighteenth century, this module uses case studies to explore the ways in which people
accessed, used and valued goods. Theoretical approaches will be used in considering the ways in which objects were not just
commodities with functional or exchange value, but were integral to the shaping of personal, local and national identities.
Wks 2-7 (pm) Archiving Design: archives, libraries and resources for the study of material culture (Chair: Dr Anna Moran,
NCAD): This module will comprise of a number of visits to libraries, archives and museum collections which hold material of
interest to the material culture historian. At each location, librarians and archivists will take out a selection of primary sources
and give a talk on material in their collection which would be relevant to the students’ areas of interest.
Wks 9-14 [am/pm] Themes in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Irish Design – Two guest lecturers, Mary Ann Bolger
(DIT) and Sarah Foster (Crawford College of Art and Design) will present on their own primary research in the areas of interiors,
typography and print culture. Alongside exploring the range of identities – political, social, religious and gender – expressed via
such material, the speakers will pay particular attention to the historiography of their subject, and in doing so reflect on the way
such subjects have been interpreted and approached by other historians.
Semester 2: Mondays
Wks 16-21 [pm] Contextualising Contemporary Craft (Dr Anna Moran, NCAD) This module offers an introduction to the
history and theory of craft. The course will start by exploring the background and discourse surrounding craft in its international
context before going on to focus on the crafts movement in Ireland. The various methodologies which can be used in the study of
craft, particularly oral history, will be considered together with the dominant debates within contemporary literature.
Wks 16-21 [am] Dress, Meaning and Identity (Hilary O’Kelly, NCAD) - this module examines the role of dress in constructing
social and cultural identity. Rather than seeing dress as ‘reflecting’ history, the module explores dress as an agent of history,
embodying new ideas and changing cultural norms.
Wks [17-24] [am] An Introduction to the Material Culture of Ireland (Dr Paul Caffrey, NCAD) The aims of this course are
to introduce students to the design and material culture of Ireland, to discuss theories of material culture and Irish culture
generally with specific reference to design in the twentieth century, and to develop students’ skills of historical and critical
analysis through lectures, seminars, research and writing.
Wks 17-24 [pm] Dress and Irish Material Culture (Hilary O’Kelly, NCAD) Building on visual, material and oral history
sources, this module explores the role of dress in Ireland in negotiating the realms of nationality, gender, religion and status.
Semester 2: Fridays
Wks 15-21 [am] Contemporary Design Cultures (Dr Lisa Godson, NCAD) In this course we will explore different themes in
contemporary design practice and cultures. We will examine in particular the way design is a multivalent activity, increasing in
4
complexity and extending far beyond its original meaning. We will look at the growth in activity of the category of contemporary
practice designated ‘design’ and the social and ethical implications of this in a post-industrial context.
Wks 15-21 [pm] Technology, Design and Society (Dr Sorcha O’Brien) This module considers the material culture of
technology in our everyday world, both digital and analogue, investigating the interaction between man-made
technological/designed artefacts, the systems in which they are embedded and the end user as consumer of these
artefacts. It considers both primary and secondary sources pertaining to the relation ship between design, technology and
society, and introduces students to concepts from the history of technology (e.g. the social construction of technology, actornetwork theory) and post-structuralist theory (e.g. simulacra and simulation, cyborg theory). It considers both the design of
computers and the development of new media technology within this framework, extending the consideration to technologies of
the screen, the home and the body (e.g. online communities, smart homes and mobile computing) as well as interrogating the
possibility of sustainable technologies.
Wks 22-27 [pm] DesignedArt: Converging Fields and Critical Responses in Contemporary Practice (Emma Mahony,
NCAD) The historically complex relationship between design and art is becoming even more problematic as practitioners in both
fields constantly redefine their own programmes. This module will explore how these disparate fields variously enrich and
subvert each other. When artists incorporate the vernacular of design and architecture into their practices (and vice versa), can
the results go beyond a referential endgame to create modes of practice that are critically generative of new ideas?
3.2
Assignment schedule
FT: Full time
PT: Part time
Semester 1: 25% of total mark
2,000 word Research Methods assignment. Due 25 Nov 2011
1,500 (yr1) / 2,500 (yr2) word Research Proposal Due 16 Dec 2011
5-7,000 word essay due 20 January 2012
[FT & Year 1 PT students]
[FT & Year 2 PT students]
[all students]
Semester 2: 25% of total mark
3 - 4,000 Material Culture Essay Due 23 March 2012
2 - 2,500 Extended research proposal. Due 23 April 2012
Presentation on thesis research. Due 25 May 2012
3 - 4,000 draft of a thesis chapter. Due 22 June 2012
1,500 word Research Proposal Due 1 June 2012
[all students]
[FT students]
[FT & Year 2 PT students]
[FT students]
[Year 1 PT students]
Dissertation: 50% of total mark
Full draft of 15-20,000 word dissertation. Due 1 September 2012
15-20,000 word dissertation. Due 28 September 2012
3.3
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–
–
–
3.4
Assignment submission guidelines
All deadlines are at 10am on the day specified.
Please submit two hard copies of your assignment. It is adequate for one to have colour images and the second to be a
photocopy.
Please complete a cover sheet for submissions to the MA Design History and Material Culture and attach to your
submission. Cover sheets can be found in a tray outside the faculty office.
Please put your assignment in the box marked ‘MA Design History’ on the day of your deadline. If you submit it prior to
the deadline, please bring it to the attention of the Faculty administrator.
If you are not scheduled to attend NCAD on the day of the deadline, please email a text only version of your essay to the
course coordinator and Jane Behan (visualculture@ncad.ie) prior to the 10am deadline and submit the hard copies of your
essay on the following Monday / Friday.
No assignments will be accepted after the deadline without a medical certificate.
Use the HARVARD style for referencing. Follow the style guide below regarding how to reference sources and include a
bibliography (not included in word count).
Good illustrations should be provided. Illustrations should be numbered, captioned and referenced.
Marking and examination conventions
The pass mark is 50.
Where assignments have not met the required standard, candidates may be asked by to resubmit within a specified time limit.
For further information, see the Faculty marking descriptors for taught MA programmes in Appendix 3
5
4.0
Style Guide
The Harvard System (Author Date Method)
All statements, opinions, conclusions etc. taken from another writer’s work should be cited, whether the work is directly quoted,
paraphrased or summarised.
In the Harvard System cited publications are referred to in the text by giving the author’s surname and the year of publication
(see section 1, Citation in the Text) and are listed in a bibliography at the end of the text (see section 2, References at the end
of a piece of work).
Originators/authors: the person or organisation shown most prominently in the source as responsible for the content in its
published form should be given. For anonymous works use ‘Anon’ instead of a name. For certain kinds of work, e.g. dictionaries
or encyclopaedias, or if an item is the co-operative work of many individuals, none of whom have a dominant role, e.g. videos or
films, the title may be used instead of an originator or author.
Dates: if an exact year or date is not known, an approximate date preceded by ‘ca.’ may be supplied and given in square
brackets. If no such approximation is possible, that should be stated, e.g. [ca. 1750] or [no date].
1. Citation in the text

Quotations – as a general rule, if the quotation is less than a line it may be included in the body of the text in
quotation marks. Longer quotations are indented and single-spaced, quotation marks are not required. For citations of
particular parts of the document the page numbers should be given after the year in parentheses. (Krauss 2002, p.10).

Summaries or paraphrases – give the citation where it occurs naturally or at the end of the relevant piece of writing.

Diagrams, illustrations – should be referenced as though they were a quotation if they have been taken from a
published work.

Rules for citation in text for printed documents also apply to electronic documents. If an electronic document does not
include pagination or an equivalent internal referencing system, the extent of the item may be indicated in terms such
as the total number of lines, screens, etc., e.g. “[35 lines]” or “[approx. 12 screens]”.
Examples
i)
If the author’s name occurs naturally in the sentence the year is given in
parentheses:
e.g.
In a study of contemporary multi-media practice in fine art Popper (2007, p. 5) argues that the importance
of concept…
e.g.
ii)
e.g.
e.g.
iii)
As Popper (2007, p. 5) said, “This conceptual edge is even more important today” which indicates…
If the name does not occur naturally in the sentence, both name and year are
given in parentheses:
A more recent edition (Wells, 2004, p.2) suggests that recent developments in photography…
Recent developments in photography (Wells, 2004, p.2) indicate that…
When an author has published more than one cited document in the same year,
these are distinguished by adding lower case letters (a,b,c, etc.) after the year within
the parentheses:
e.g.
iv)
Rose (1992a, p.12) discusses the twentieth-century approach to
the picture plane…
If there are two authors the surnames of both should be given:
e.g. Deleuze and Guattari (1984, p.23) propose that…
v)
If there are more than two authors the surname of the first author only should be given, followed by et al.:
e.g. Studies show that “learners prefer to have full control over their instructional options” (Colvin et al. 2003, p.34).
(A full listing of names should appear in the bibliography.)
vi)
If the work is anonymous then “Anon” should be used:
e.g.
In a recent article (Anon 1998, p. 269) it was stated that…
vii)
If it is a reference to a newspaper article with no author the name of the paper
can be used in place of “Anon”:
e.g. More people than ever seem to be using retail home delivery (The times 1996, p.3)
(you should use the same style in the bibliography)
viii)
If you refer to a source quoted in another source you cite both in the text:
e.g.
A study by Smith (1960 cited Jones 1994, p. 24) showed that…
(You should list only the work you have read, i.e. Jones, in the bibliography.)
6
ix)
If you refer to a contributor in a source you cite just the contributor:
e.g.
Software development has been given as the cornerstone in this industry (Bantz 1995, p. 99).
See Section 2 below for an explanation of how to list contributions (chapters in books, articles in journals, papers in
conference proceeding) in the bibliography.
x)
If you refer to a person who has not produced a work, or contributed to one,
but who is quoted in someone else’s work it is suggested that you should mention the person’s name and you must
cite the source author:
e.g.
p.67).
Richard Hammond stressed the part psychology plays in advertising in an interview with Marshall (1999,
e.g.
“Advertising will always play on peoples’ desires”, Richard Hammond said in recent article (Marshall
1999, p.67).
(You should list the work that has been published, i.e. Marshall, in the bibliography.)
xi)
Personal Communications do not provide recoverable data and so are not included in the reference list. Cite personal
communications in the text only. Give initials as well as the surname of the communicator and provide as exact a date
as possible:
e.g.
Many designers do not understand the needs of disabled people according to J. O. Reiss (personal
communication, April 18, 2007).
2. References at the end of a piece of work
At the end of a piece of work list references to documents cited in the text and documents that have made an important
contribution to your work. This list is called a Bibliography.
Please list your references in the following order:
Manuscript Sources (list sources by repository eg National Library of Ireland)
Newspapers and Pamphlets
Published secondary sources
Web based sources
Filmography
Unpublished papers and theses
Interviews
The references under published secondary ‘sources’ should be listed in alphabetical order of authors’ names. If you have cited
more than one item by a specific author they should be listed chronologically (earliest first), and by letter (1993a, 1993b) if more
than one item has been published during a specific year.
Whenever possible, elements of a bibliographic reference should be taken from the title page of the publication.
Each reference should use the elements and punctuation given in the following examples for the different types of published
work you may have cited.
Reference to a book
Author’s SURNAME, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title. Edition (if not the first). Place of publication: Publisher.
e.g.
BOIS, Y. AND KRAUSS, R., 1997. Formless: a user’s guide. 2nd ed. New York: Zone Books.
Reference to a contribution in a book
Contributing author’s SURNAME, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title of contribution. Followed by In: INITIALS.
SURNAME, of author or editor of publication followed by ed. or eds. if relevant. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher,
Page number(s) of contribution.
e.g.
DONALD, J., 1992. Metropolis: The City as Text. In: R. BOCOCK AND K. THOMPSON, eds. Social and Cultural
Forms of Modernity. London: The Open University and Polity Press, 417-470.
Reference to an article in a journal
Author’s SURNAME, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title of article. Title of journal, Volume number and (part number), Page
numbers of contribution.
7
e.g.
MACWILLIAM, S. 1998. Sound, Sense and Sensibilities. Circa 83 (Spring), 30-34.
Reference to a newspaper article
Author’s SURNAME, INITIALS., (or NEWSPAPER TITLE,) Year of publication. Title of article. Title of Newspaper, Day and
month, Page number/s and column number.
e.g.
MARLOW, L., 1997. Sarkozy suffers setback as party loses assembly seats. Irish Times, 18 June, p.1.
e.g.
INDEPENDENT, 1992. Picking up the bills. Independent, 4 June, p.28a.
Reference to a map
Originator’s SURNAME, INITIALS., (may be cartographer, surveyor, compiler, editor, copier, maker, engraver, etc.) year of
publication. Title, Scale. (should be given normally as a ratio) Place of publication: Publisher.
e.g.
MASON, J. 1832. Map of countries lying between Spain and
India, 1:8,000,000. London: Ordnance Survey.
Reference to a conference paper
Contributing author’s SURNAME, INITIALS., Year of publicatin. Title of contribution. Followed by In: INITIALS.
SURNAME, of editor of proceedings (if applicable) followed by ed. Title of conference proceedings including date and place of
conference. Place of publication: Publisher, Page numbers of contribution.
e.g.
KELLY, N.A., AND HANRAHAN, S., 2004. Critical Theory on Practice-based Courses. In A. DAVIES, ed.
Enhancing Curricula: towards the scholarship of teaching in art, design and communication in Higher Education, 15th-16th April
2004, Barcelona. London: Centre of Learning and Teaching in Art and Design, 232-334.
Reference to a publication from a corporate body
(e.g. a government department or other organisation).
NAME OF ISSUING BODY, Year of publication. Title of publication. Place of publication: Publisher, Report Number (where
relevant).
e.g.
UNESCO, 1993. General information programme and UNISIST. Paris: Unesco, PGI93/WS/22.
Reference to a thesis
Author’s SURNAME, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title of thesis. Designation, (and type). Name of institution to which
submitted.
e.g.
HEALY, C., 2007. National Representations of Contemporary Art in Museums: A Critical Analysis of Curatorial
Practice in Ireland. Thesis (MPhil). Dublin Institute of Technology.
Reference to a video, film or broadcast
Title, Year. (For films the preferred date is the year of release in the country of production.) Material designation. Subsidiary
originator. (Optional but director is preferred, SURNAME in capitals) Production details – place: organisation.
e.g.
Macbeth, 1948. Film. Directed by Orson WELLES. USA: Republic Pictures.
e.g.
Birds in the Garden, 1998. Video. London: Harper Videos.
Programmes and series: The number and title of the episode should normally be given, as well as the series title, the transmitting
organisation and channel, the full date and time of transmission.
e.g.
Yes, Prime Minister, Episode 1, The Ministerial Broadcast, 1986. TV, BBC2. 1986 Jan 16.
e.g.
News at Ten, 2001. Jan 27. 2200hrs.
Contributions: individual items within a programme should be cited as contributors.
e.g.
BLAIR, Tony, 1997. Interview. In: Six O’Clock News. TV, BBC1. 1997 Feb 29. 1823 hrs.
Reference to web pages/sites and e-books
Author’s/Editor’s SURNAME, INITIALS., Year. Title [online]. (Edition). Place of publication, Publisher (if ascertainable).
Available from: URL [Accessed Date].
e.g.
HOLLAND, M., 2004. Guide to citing Internet sources [online]. Poole, Bournemouth University. Available from:
http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk.library/using/guide_to_citing_internet_sourc.html [Accessed 4 November 2004].
Reference to e-journals
Author’s SURNAME, INITIALS., Year. Title. Journal Title [online], volume (issue), location within host. Available from: URL
[Accessed Date].
8
e.g.
KORB, K.B., 1995. Persons and things: book review of Bringsjord on Robot-Consciousness. Psycoloquy [online], 6
(15). Available from: http://psycprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000462/ [Accessed 20 May 2004].
Reference to mailbase/listserv e-mail lists
Author’s SURNAME, INITIALS., Day Month Year. Subject of message. Discussion List [online]. Available from: list e-mail
address [Accessed Date].
e.g.
MCKENZIE, J., 25 May 2007. Re: call for artists. The UK drawing research network mailing list [online]. Available
from: DRAWING-RESEARCH@JISCMAIL.AC.UK [27 May 2007].
It should be noted that items may only be kept on discussion group servers fro a short time and hence may not be suitable for
referencing. A local copy could be kept by the author who is giving the citation, with a note to this effect.
Reference to personal electronic communications (e-mail)
Sender’s SURNAME, INITIALS. (Sender’s e-mail address), Day Month Year. Subject of Message. e-Mail to Recipient’s
INITIALS. SURNAME (Recipient’s e-mail address).
e.g.
WILSON, M., (mick.Wilson@dit.ie), 6 April 2007. Photography and Culture. e-Mail to S. Hanrahan
(siun.hanrahan@dit.ie).
Reference to CD-ROMs and DVDs
This section refers to CD-ROMs which are works in their own right and not bibliographic databases. Author’s SURNAME,
INITIALS., Year. Title [type of medium CD-ROM]. (Edition). Place of publication, Publisher (if ascertainable). Available from:
Supplier/Database identifier or number (optional) [Accessed Date] (optional).
e.g.
HAWKINGS, S.W., 1994. A brief history of time: an interactive adventure. [CD-ROM]. Crunch Media.
REFERENCES AND FOOTNOTES, FURTHER GUIDANCE
Quotations:
These should be typed within single quotation marks, and quotations within quotations should use double quotation
marks. Quotations of more than three lines should be set in block form, indented from the margins, and typed single
space, without quotation marks.
Titles:
Italics should follow normal publication usage: titles of books, periodicals and artworks should be italicised (not
underlined).
Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation and Acronyms
All text must be carefully checked for grammar and spelling. When using a spell-check facility, make sure it is
using British/Hibernian spelling. Thus –
colour not color;
behaviour not behavior;
programme not program;
[he] practises not practices;
centre not center;
organisation not organization;
analyse not analyze etc.
Also, be careful with words in capital letters: most spell-checks will skip these.
Dashes should be clearly indicated by way of a clear dash, with a space before and after: ( - ).
However,
a
hyphen
is
neither
preceded
nor
followed
by
a
space:
eg
word-processor.
Apostrophes should be used sparingly. Thus, decades should be referred to as follows: 1990s (not 1990's).
Possessives associated with acronyms (for example, NCAD) should be written as follows: ‘NCAD's findings
suggest that…’. (Note that the term ‘it’s’ means ‘it is’, the apostrophe denoting a missing ‘i’. To indicate
possession, the pronoun ‘it’ uses no apostrophe: ‘every dog has its day’.)
All acronyms for national agencies, examinations etc should be spelled out the first time they are introduced in text
or reference. Thereafter the acronym can be used if appropriate. For example: ‘Students in the National College of
Art and Design (NCAD) have said ...’
9
5.0
Thesis Submission Guidelines
PRESENTATION:
It is expected that postgraduate students will demonstrate a capacity to present written work in an appropriate mode,
manner and register.
As well as the technical skills of writing, students should address the presentation of dissertations as a design
process in itself. The design specifications of academic theses have emerged from the cumulative practice of
scholars in various disciplines over many years. Like all good design, the specifications are directed at clarity and
effectiveness of purpose.
The overall visual impact of academic writing should be characterised by simplicity, consistency and clarity. The
guidelines that follow are aimed at helping all students to achieve these features in their academic writing.
PRE-PUBLICATION:
Theses submitted for higher degrees may be based in part on writings already published by the candidate, subject to the
College approval, if the studies from which they derive have been substantially completed during the period of
registration for the higher degree.
ACCESS TO WORK:
One copy of every thesis approved for a higher degree will be retained in the custody of the Librarian. A thesis so
approved may be consulted or copied in the Library or through an inter-library loan. Users must undertake not to use or
reproduce material so obtained without the consent of the Librarian and must acknowledge duly the source of such
information. Should an author of a thesis wish to withhold permission for the use of his/her work, an application must be
made to the Librarian at the time of submission of the thesis for examination. Such applications must have the written
support of the student's supervisor and Head of Faculty, and must state the reasons for withholding permission to lend or
copy. The maximum length of time for withholding permission shall be three years and may be shortened by notice in
writing at any time by the author. During the period of withheld permission to lend or copy, the thesis may be consulted,
lent or copied only by written permission of the author.
NUMBER OF COPIES:
The candidate must prepare three typed copies of the thesis, bound initially in soft
binding for examination. At least one of these should feature good colour
reproductions of your images. Following examination, the copies must be submitted
in fixed, rigid binding, incorporating any amendments required, before the last day of
term 2.
PRINT, PAGINATION AND ILLUSTRATION:
The thesis shall be in print on one side only of A4-size paper. Photocopies of good quality are acceptable.
The margin at binding edge should be not less than 40mm and other margins not less than 20mm, both for print and
diagrams. Double or one-and-a-half spacing is recommended, except for indented long quotations, where single spacing
should be used.
Times Roman, size twelve font should be used throughout the text.
Photographs or diagrams should be related clearly to the text. Illustrations should be computer-scanned or fixed firmly in
place, and be of good quality. A separate volume for illustrations may be included where appropriate.
Pages should be numbered consecutively (including appendices). Page numbers should be located centrally at the bottom
of the page and about 20mm above the edge of the page. The pages on which illustrations appear should be numbered in
sequence with the rest of the pages of the text.
Appendices should be named alphabetically and should be numbered in sequence with the rest of the pages of the text. A
Glossary may be included.
FRONT BOARD AND SPINE:
The copy of the bound thesis shall be bound with boards. The binding shall be of a fixed kind in which leaves are
permanently secured. The boards shall have a sufficient rigidity to support the weight of the work when standing upon a
shelf. The front board of the thesis shall contain the following information only:

The title of the thesis.

The initials and name of the author.

Where the thesis consists of more than one volume, the volume number and the total number of volumes.
The degree to be awarded and the date of submission.
The initials and name of the candidate, the degree, and the date of submission, shall be printed along the spine in such a
way as to be easily legible when the copy is lying flat with its front cover uppermost. All lettering on the cover and the
spine shall be of plain graphic design.
ORDER OF PRESENTATION:
The thesis must be presented in the following sequence:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Title Page
Blank Page
Declarations
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Text
Appendix (ices)
Bibliography
TITLE PAGE:
The title page of each volume of the thesis shall contain the following information:


The full title of the thesis, and the subtitle, if any.
If there is more than one volume, the total number of volumes, and the number of the particular
volume.

The full name of the author, followed, if desired, by any qualifications and distinctions.

The award for which the thesis is submitted.

The name of the institution to which the thesis is submitted and the faculty to which it is
presented: e.g. The Faculty of Visual Culture, The National College of Art and Design, a
Recognised College of the National University of Ireland.

The name(s) of the supervisor(s) of the research.

The month and year of submission.
DECLARATIONS:
A thesis must contain the following signed and dated declarations immediately after the title page:
I hereby declare that this dissertation is entirely my own work and that it has not been submitted as an exercise for a
diploma or degree in any other college or university.
I agree that the Library may lend or copy the thesis upon request from the date of deposit of the thesis.
Word Count:
Signed:
Dated:
ABSTRACT:
An abstract not exceeding 300 words shall be bound as an integral part of the thesis, and shall precede the main text. The
abstract shall be printed or typed in single spacing and shall indicate the author and title of the thesis in the form of a
heading.
The abstract should consist of a concise summary of the dissertation including its title, aims and objectives,
overview of literature reviewed, key arguments, results and conclusions. The abstract may not exceed one page in
length.
In addition to the abstract bound into each copy of your dissertation, an additional unbound copy of the abstract
must be submitted.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The thesis must include a table of contents.
ILLUSTRATIONS:
A list of illustrations with sources must be included.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
A formal statement of acknowledgements must be included in the thesis.
11
6.0
Plagiarism
When writing essays, always identify your sources for specific information and, where appropriate, the ideas which you use. It is
bad academic practice for a student to fail to do so, just as it would be for an author writing a book or learned article. Copying
without acknowledgement from a printed source is as unacceptable as plagiarising another student's essay. It is equally wrong to
reproduce and present as your own work a passage from another person's writing to which minor changes have been made, e.g.,
random alteration of words or phrases, omission or rearrangement of occasional sentences or phrases within the passage. This
remains plagiarism even if the source is acknowledged in footnotes.
Unacknowledged quotation, disguised borrowing, or near-copying will be treated as plagiarism and penalised according to its
extent and gravity. If you are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, please talk it over with your tutor.
Over the last few years the College has imposed penalties in several cases on students who have been guilty of plagiarism in
assessed work. For further information please ask the Faculty administrators for a copy of the college policy on plagiarism.
7.0
Illness and Absence
If you have to be absent from classes for any length of time, please inform the MA Course Coordinator. It is most convenient for
us if you do this through the Faculty administrators, Jane Behan or Neasa Travers. It is always necessary to notify a member of
staff and to submit a medical note in the case of illness or injury. Medical notes may be taken into account when Boards of
Examiners are considering students’ performance in essays and exams. If you think your absence may be long-term, you might
want to think of suspending your registration for a period.
8.0
College Services
Writing and Research Skills Service: The Writing and Research Skills Service forms a major part of the College’s support
provision for all students who may have difficulties in the core area of writing and research skills. It is a comprehensive service
that provides not only a support service for undergraduates and postgraduates in general writing and research skills, but, in
addition, incorporates a specialist support service for students with Specific Learning Difficulties. The WRSS is located at:
Room G16, Ground Floor of the School of Design.
The Service Co-ordinator is Madeleine O’Rourke and her contact details are as follows: Telephone: 01 636 4314. Email:
orourkem@ncad.ie
College Doctor: Dr Marina Kent attends the College during term time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Please
consult Reception, 01 636 4200 for appointments. Please note that the “Pharmacy” across the road from the main entrance, offers
a 10% discount on prescriptions to all students of the College.
College Counseling Service: You can make an appointment through reception on 01 636 4200 or by emailing:
counsellor@ncad.ie. You can also make an appointment by sending a text to: 087 9519819 or by ringing reception 01 636 4200
for you.
12
APPENDICES
App 1: Dates of Terms
Term 1
Friday 30 September 2011 to Friday 16 September 2011
Term 2
Tuesday 3 January 2012 to Friday 30 March 2012
Term 3
Monday 16 April 2012 to Friday 25 May 2012
App 2: Research Interests of staff contributing to the MA Design History and Material Culture
Dr Macushla Baudis, part-time lecturer in history of art and design, NCAD
baudism@ncad.ie
Macushla worked as an assistant curator in the National Gallery of Ireland and tutored in the History of Art Department at
University College Dublin before joining N.C.A.D. Her research interests particularly lie in the visual culture of the eighteenth
century, and in the history of collecting. She recently completed a Ph.D. in the Department of Visual Culture at N.C.A.D. Her
thesis, 'Embroidery for Male Suiting in Lyon, 1780-1789 : The Designs in the National Museum of Ireland Collection presented
by J.H. Fitzhenry', explores the manufacture and design of embroidery ornamentation for male dress within the eighteenthcentury Lyonnais silk industry.
Dr Paul Caffrey, Lecturer in Design History, NCAD.
caffreyp@ncad.ie
Dr. Paul Caffrey has research interests in Irish design and material culture; interior architecture; miniature painting and the
decorative arts. He is currently researching Scandinavian influence on design and the history of Kilkenny Design Workshops
(1963-88). Selected publications include: Castletown, John Comerford, Treasures to Hold, Kildare Street and University Club, he
has contributed to Encyclopedia of Interior Design, Contemporary Designers, The Encyclopedia of Ireland, Portrait Miniatures in
National Trust Houses, New Dictionary of National Biography, Dictionary of Irish Biography and edited the material culture
issue of CIRCA. He has written articles for Irish Arts Review, Journal of Design History, CIRCA and Scandinavian Journal of
Design History.
Dr Lisa Godson, Lecturer in Design History, NCAD
godsonl@ncad.ie
Lisa is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, the RCA/V&A MA in History of Design and has recently completed her PhD at the
Royal College of Art, London. Prior to her appointment at NCAD, she was lecturer in Critical and Historical studies at the RCA
for 4 years, and held a teaching and learning fellowship there. She was visiting lecturer in History of Art and Architecture at
Trinity College Dublin (2003), and lecturer in History of Art, Design and Visual Culture at Dublin Institute of Technology
(1999-2003). Areas of research expertise include the material culture of ceremony and ritual, gender and material culture,
religion and material culture/design, Irish material culture since 1850, design and the everyday, non-hegemonic constructions of
modernity around design and material culture, contemporary product and interaction design, particularly conceptual design and
the construction of the user/consumer.
Dr Conor Lucey, Lecturer in history of art and architecture, UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy.
conor.lucey@ucd.ie
A graduate of the National College of Art and Design (1992) and University College Dublin (MA, 2003), Conor Lucey has
recently completed his PhD thesis entitled 'Made in the new Taste': domestic neoclassicism and the Dublin building industry,
1765-1801 (2008). He is the author of The Stapleton collection: designs for the Irish neoclassical interior, published in 2007 by
Churchill House Press in association with the National Library of Ireland, and curated the accompanying exhibition, entitled
‘Decorating the Georgian Interior’, at the Irish Architectural Archive. He is currently engaged as post-doctoral research assistant
on a digital content project for the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA), a component of the Humanities Institute
of Ireland (HII) and funded by the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) Phase 3a. He has recently been
selected as incoming editor of Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, an appointment that will commence with vol. XIII
(2010).
Emma Mahony, part-time lecturer in history of art and design, NCAD.
emma.mahony@gmail.com
Emma Mahony is an independent curator and lecturer, currently teaching on graduate and undergraduate programmes at NCAD.
She holds a Joint Degree in Fine Art and the History of Art (first class honours), NCAD (1997) and an MA in Curating
Contemporary Art, RCA (2000). Her research interests include ‘Situated practices and the context specific biennial model’, ‘The
role of national survey exhibition in our increasingly globalized state of culture,’ and ‘How design, architecture and art are
converging to produce interconnected bodies of activity and knowledge.’ From 2004 until 2008 she was exhibitions curator for
Hayward Gallery Touring, where among other exhibitions, she co-curated 'Cult Fiction' (2007-08), and organised 'British Art
Show 6' (2005-06). In 2004 she worked with the American artist Dan Graham on the commission of his 'Waterloo Sunset'
pavilion for the roof of the Hayward Gallery. Previous to this she curated 'Bad Behaviour' from the Arts Council Collection
(2003-05) and organised solo exhibitions by Douglas Gordon and Sam Taylor-Wood. Independent projects include: ‘Today I
joined a gang in the woods’, Triskel, Cork (2009), Clerkenwell Artists Film and Video Festival (2005) and the UK touring
exhibition, 'Air Guitar, Artists Reconsidering Rock Music' (2002-03).
13
Dr Anna Moran, Coordinator, MA Design History and Material Culture, NCAD.
morana@ncad.ie
Anna Moran is a graduate of the V&A/RCA MA course in History of Design and completed her PhD in the History Department
at the University of Warwick. Anna’s research interests include the material culture of dining, the history of retailing and
twentieth-century Irish craft and design history. Her essay on the promotion of goods designed by the Kilkenny Design
Workshops during the 1960s and 1970s is included in the collection of essays edited by Linda King and Elaine Sisson, Ireland,
Design and Visual Culture: Negotiating Modernity, 1922-1992, published in 2011 by Cork University Press. Other recent
publications include her contribution to the recent collection of essays on Irish glass, published by Irish Academic Press in 2011,
Glassmaking in Ireland: from the Medieval to the Contemporary. Alongside giving papers at a number of international
conferences, Anna has also published a number of peer-reviewed journal articles and reviews including contributions to Irish
Architectural and Decorative Studies, Annales of the 16e Congres du l'Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre and
the Journal of the Glass Association. Until 2010, she was a member of the Editorial Committee of Artefact journal and she is
now a member of the Editorial Committee of Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies.
Dr. Sorcha O’Brien, part-time lecturer in history of design, NCAD
sorchaobrien@gmail.com
Sorcha O’Brien has a background in industrial and graphic design practice, and has research interests in the material and visual
culture of technology and design in Ireland. She has degrees from NCAD, University of Middlesex and the University of
Brighton, has taught in NCAD and IADT, and is currently teaching on the MSc Interactive Digital Media in TCD. Her PhD
thesis ‘Representing the Shannon Scheme: electrical technology, modernisation and national identity in the Irish Free State,
1924-32’ looks at the intersection of discourses about Irish identity, progress and new technology in the early years of the State,
and she has published articles such as ‘Technology & Modernity: The Shannon Scheme and Visions of Progress’ in Ireland,
Design and Visual Culture: Negotiating Modernity 1922-92 (Cork University Press, 2011).
Hilary O’Kelly, Lecturer in Design History, NCAD.
okellyh@ncad.ie
Hilary O'Kelly has a B.A. in The History of Art and Archaeology from University College Dublin and an M.A. in Dress History
from The Courtauld Institute of Art. Her research interests relate to two main areas; the role and significance of dress in Art
History, and dress and material culture in 20th century Ireland. These include the relationship between dress and notions of
national identity, gender, status and religion. She is coordinator of the programme of visual culture seminars delivered to second
year students by the Faculty of Visual Culture. Publications include: ‘Parcels from America: American Clothes in Ireland c.
1930-1980’ in Old Clothes, New Looks; Second Hand Fashion, ed.s Alexandra Palmer And Hazel Clark, Berg, 2005. ‘The Pope
and The President’ in From The Edge: Art and Design in 20th Century Ireland A Circa Supplement, 2000. ‘Reconstructing
Irishness, dress in The Celtic Revival c.1880 – 1930’ in Chic Thrills: A fashion Reader ed.s Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson,
Pandora, London, 1992.
14
App 3: Faculty Marking Descriptors for use in assessing submissions to Taught MA Programmes, NCAD.
Mark
Descriptor
Grading Descriptors
0%
Non-submission
or plagiarised
1-30%
Bad fail
A mark signalling either
the failure to submit a
deliverable or a mark
assigned for a plagiarised
assignment.
A submission which does
attempt to address the set
brief.
30-49%
Fail
A submission which does
address the set brief.
50-59%
Good
Good level of achievement.
60-69%
Very good
Very good level of
achievement
70-79%
Excellent
(distinction)
Excellent level of
achievement
80-100%
Exceptional
(distinction)
Exceptional level of
achievement
Specific criteria for taught MA programmes in the Faculty of Visual
Culture
N/A
General comments: While the submission may not be without merit, it is
not of MA standard.
Research: inadequately researched, draws on a very limited range of
sources, little interpretation or analysis; lacking breadth or awareness of
relevant contextual frameworks.
Text based work / individual & group based presentations: unfocused
and disordered material, lacking a coherent argument, lacking references
and poorly presented.
General comments: While the submission may not be without merit, it is
not of MA standard. Level of response to the set brief is not appropriate
or consistent.
Research: Lacks breadth or awareness of relevant issues; draws on a
very limited range of sources, little interpretation or analysis.
Text based work / individual & group based presentations: unclear
argument and poor sructure; lacking references and poorly presented.
General comments: Good level of achievement.
Research: some evidence of identification of relevant issues but limited
range of sources used; evidence of some analytical and critical skills but
these are inconsistently employed.
Text based work / individual & group based presentations: material
reasonably ordered but the argument is not always clear; expression and
presentation sufficient but lacking in synthesis; academic conventions
employed are generally appropriate but inconsistently used.
General comments: A very good response to the set brief showing a
sound grasp of the subject matter. Originality of ideas or sources used.
Research: thorough research drawing on a wide range of sources;
synthesised within a clear argument/structure; clear evidence shown of
contextualising most of the issues raised within appropriate theoretical
frameworks
Text based work / individual & group based presentations: Clear
evidence of analysis and critical thought, ideas are clearly articulated and
situated within a well organised structure.
General comments: An excellent level of response to the brief set;
demonstrating independence of thought; high level of originality of ideas;
underpinned by strong conceptual coherency and situated within a clearly
defined contextual framework.
Research: draws on a wide range of sources; synthesised within a clear
argument/structure; clear evidence shown of contextualising most of the
issues raised within appropriate theoretical frameworks.
Text based work / individual & group based presentations: the
submission is very well structured; ideas are clearly articulated within a
coherent argument; correct academic conventions used throughout.
General comments: An exceptional response to the set brief;
demonstrating high levels of independence of thought; high level of
originality of ideas or sources used; underpinned by very advanced
conceptual coherency and situated within a clearly defined contextual
framework.
Research: draws on a wide range of sources; synthesised within a clear
argument/structure; clear evidence shown of contextualising most of the
issues raised within appropriate theoretical frameworks
Text based work / individual & group based presentations: the
submission is very well structured; ideas are clearly articulated within a
coherent argument; correct academic conventions used throughout.
15
SEMESTER 1: MA COURSE OUTLINES
16
MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Uncovering the Everyday: shopping and consumption, c. 1750 – c. 1850.
Course Tutor: Dr Anna Moran
From the late seventeenth century, the most expensive and ostentatious goods in genteel
houses were no longer found in the bedroom, but in the dining room. How people
purchased, accessed, used and valued these and other goods will form the focus of this
module. What were shops like in the eighteenth century? How were goods advertised?
Was there a market for second hand goods? Were there political connotations attached to
buying Irish-made goods? Issues surrounding the much discussed rising consumerism
witnessed during this period will also be discussed, together with those concerning the
contemporary debates surrounding luxury, the culture of politeness and the fascination
with objects from the East.
There are a number of readings listed under the heading of ‘essential reading’. I
understand that you may not be able to read all of these but you will be required to read at
least one article for each seminar.
Week 1: New commodities and their consumers
What were the new commodities that were introduced and where did they originate?
What objects were developed around the consumption of these new commodities, such as
tea? Using examples of objects manufactured in Ireland during the eighteenth century,
this session will provide an introduction to the luxury and semi-luxury goods trades that
developed.
Essential Reading:
J.A. Styles (1993), ‘Manufacturing, Consumption and Design in Eighteenth-Century
England’, in J. Brewer and R. Porter, eds., Consumption and the World of Goods, London
- New York, pp. 527-554.
If you have time, please also read:
Michael Snodin and John Styles (2001) Design and the decorative arts, Britain 15001900, London. [Chapters 6, 7 & 8] [There are a number of copies of this book in the
library]
Further Reading
M. Berg, (1999) ‘New commodities, luxuries and their consumers in eighteenth-century
England’, in M. Berg and H. Clifford, eds., Consumers and luxury: consumer culture in
Europe, 1650-1850, Manchester, pp. 63-85.
M. Berg (2003) , ‘Asian luxury and the making of the European consumer revolution’, in
in M. Berg and E. Eger, eds., Luxury in the eighteenth century: debates, desires and
delectable goods, Palgrave, pp. 228-243.
17
MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
M. Berg, (2002) ‘From imitation to invention: creating commodities in eighteenthcentury Britain’, Economic History Review, 55, pp. 1-30.
Maxine Berg (2nd revised ed. 1994) The Age of Manufactures: Industry, Innovation and
Work in Britain, 1700-1820, Routledge.
M. Berg, (1994) ‘Factories, workshops and industrial organisation’, in R. Floud and D.
McCloskey, eds., The Economic History of Britain Since 1700 Cambridge, vol i , pp.
123-150.
M. Berg, (1991) ‘Markets, trade and European manufacture’, in M. Berg, ed., Markets
and manufacture in early industrial Europe, pp. 3- 24.
John Brewer (1997), The Pleasures of the Imagination: English culture in the eighteenth
century, London.
T. Clayton (1997) The English print, 1688-1802, London and New Haven, ch. 3: ‘The
case of designers’.
H. Clifford, (1995) ‘‘The King’s Arms and Feathers’. A Case Study exploring the
Networks of Manufacture Operating in the London Goldsmiths’ Trade in the Eighteenth
Century’, in D. Mitchell, ed., Goldsmiths, silversmiths and bankers. Innovation and the
transfer of skill, 1550 to 1750, London, pp. 84-95.
V. Coltman (2001) ‘Sir William Hamilton’s vase publications (1766-1766)’, Journal of
Design History, 14 – 1, pp. 1-16.
M. Craske, (1999)‘Plan and Control: Design and the Competitive Spirit in Early and MidEighteenth Century England’, Journal of Design History, 12 - 3, pp. 187-210.
L. Cullen (1968), Anglo-Irish Trade 1660-1800, Manchester University Press, 1968.
D. Dean (1994), ‘A Slipware Dish by Samuel Malkin’, Journal of Design History, 7, pp.
153-167.
Fitzgerald, A., & O’Brien, C., (2001) ‘The production of silver in late-Georgian Dublin’
Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, Volume 4, pp. 8-47.
A. Forty (1986) Objects of desire. Design and society, 1750-1980 London, chs. 1, 2 and
3.
P. Glennie (1995), ‘Consumption within Historical Studies’ in Acknowledging
Consumption, (ed) D. Miller, Acknowledging Consumption, Routledge.
S. Lambert, ed. (1983) Pattern and design. Designs for the decorative arts, 1480-1980
London.
B. Lemire (2003) ‘Fashioning cottons: Asian trade, domestic industry and consumer
demand, 1660-1780’, in J. Jenkins, ed., The Cambridge history of Western textiles, vol. 1,
pp. 493-512.
N. McKendrick, J. Brewer and J.H. Plumb, The birth of a consumer society: the
commercialisation of Eighteenth Century England (London, 1982), ch. 1.
N. McKendrick (1960), ‘Josiah Wedgwood: an eighteenth-century entrepreneur in
salesmanship and marketing techniques’, Economic History Review, 12 – 3, pp. 408-432.
P. K. O’Brien (1993) ‘Modern conceptions of the industrial revolution’, in P. K.O’Brien
and R. Quinault, eds., The industrial revolution and British society, Cambridge, pp. 1-31.
D.L. Porter, (2002) ‘Monstrous beauty: eighteenth century fashion and the aesthetic of
the Chinese taste’, Eighteenth-Century Studies, 35 – 3, pp. 395-411.
A. Puetz (1999) ‘Design instruction for artisans in eighteenth-century Britain’, Journal of
Design History, 12 – 3, pp. 217-239.
18
MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Michael Snodin and John Styles (2001), Design and the decorative arts, Britain 15001900, London.
C. Sabel and J. Zeitlin (1985) ‘Historical alternatives to mass production. Politics,
markets and technology in nineteenth-century industrialization’, Past and Present, 108,
pp. 133-176.
Charles Saumarez Smith (1993, 2000) The rise of design: design and the domestic
interior in eighteenth-century England, London.
P.S. Stearns, (2001) Consumerism in world history. The global transformation of desire,
London, pp. 83-121.
L. Stewart (1998) "A Meaning for Machines: Modernity, Utility, and the EighteenthCentury British Public," Journal of Modern History, 70
J.A. Styles (1995), ‘The Goldsmiths and the London Luxury Trades, 1550 to 1750’ in D.
Mitchell, ed., Goldsmiths, silversmiths and bankers. Innovation and the transfer of skill,
1550 to 1750, London, pp. 112-120.
J. Styles (2000) ‘Product innovation in early modern London’, Past and Present, 168, pp.
124-169.
Lorna Weatherill (1st ed. 1988, 2nd ed. 1996). Consumer Behaviour and Material
Culture in Britain, 1660-1760 London.
J. Thirsk (1978) Economic policy and projects: the development of a consumer society in
early modern England, Oxford.
J. Turpin, (1995) A School of Art in Dublin since the Eighteenth Century: A History of the
National College of Art and Design, Irish Academic Press.
A. Vickery (2009) Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England, Yale.
J. de Vries (1993) ‘Between purchasing power and the world of goods: understanding the
household economy in early modern Europe’, in J. Brewer and R. Porter, eds.,
Consumption and the World of Goods, New York-London, pp. 85-132.
J. de Vries (1994) ‘The industrial revolution and the industrious revolution’, Journal of
Economic History, LIV – II, pp. 249-267.
H. Young (1999) ‘Manufacturing outside the capital: the British porcelain factories, their
sales networks and their artists, 1745-1795’, Journal of Design History, 12 – 3, pp. 257269.
Young, H. (ed) (1995) The Genius of Wedgwood, V&A, London.
Week 2: Buying and selling goods in Georgian Dublin
How was information about objects communicated during the eighteenth century? How
important was newspaper advertising during this period? Were products branded? Or,
were the shops branded instead? What did shops look like? To what extent were shops
social spaces? What sorts of objects were purchased at markets, fairs or from peddlers?
What sorts of shops would have been found on Sackville Street, or Westmoreland Street
in the early nineteenth century? How did results of changes administered by the Wide
Streets Commissioners alter the experience of shopping for Dublin consumers? How
important was the product’s place of manufacture to Dublin consumers? How did
19
MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
retailers and manufacturers encourage consumers to ‘Buy Irish’? What sources can we
use to find out about shopping in eighteenth century Dublin?
Essential Reading
S. Foster (1996) ‘Going Shopping in Georgian Dublin’ Things, 4, Summer 1996.
C. Walsh, (1995) ‘Shop design and the display of goods in eighteenth-century London’,
Journal of Design History, VIII - 3, pp. 157-176.
M. Berg and H. Clifford (2007) ‘Selling consumption in the eighteenth century:
advertising and the trade card in Britain and France’ Cultural and Social History, Volume
4, issue 2, pp. 145-170.
Further Reading
A Nation of Shopkeepers: Trade Ephemera from 1654 to the 1860s in the John Johnson
Collection, An Exhibition in the Bodleian Library, Autumn 2001.
Barnwell, P.S., Palmer, M., and Airs, M. (eds), The Vernacular Workshop: from Craft to
Industry, 1400-1900 (York, 2004).
Benedict, Barbara, ‘Encounters with the Object: Advertisements, Time, and Literary
Discourse in the Early Eighteenth Century Thing Poem’, Eighteenth-Century Studies,
40:2 (2007), pp. 193-207.
Benson, John and Ugolini, Laura (eds), A Nation of Shopkeepers: Five Centuries of
British Retailing (London and New York, 2003).
Berg, Maxine and Clifford, Helen, ‘Commerce and the Commodity: Graphic Display and
Selling New Consumer Goods in Eighteenth-Century England’, in Michael North and
David Ormond (eds), Art Markets in Europe, 1400-1800 (Aldershot, 1998), pp. 187-200.
Berg, Maxine, ‘French Fancy and Cool Britannia: The Fashion Markets of Early Modern
Europe’ Journal for the Study of British Cultures, 13, No. 1 (2006), 21-46.
Berg, Maxine, ‘From Imitation to Invention: Creating Commodities in EighteenthCentury Britain’, Economic History Review, 55, No. 1 (2002), 1-30.
Berg, Maxine, Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth Century Britain (Oxford, 2005).
Berry, (2002) ‘Polite Consumption Shopping in Eighteenth Century England’ Trans
Royal Historical Society 12,pp375-94,
Berry, Helen, ‘Prudent Luxury: The Metropolitan Tastes of Judith Baker, Durham
Gentlewoman’, in Rosemary Sweet and Penelope Lane (eds), Women and Urban Life in
Eighteenth-Century England: ‘On the Town’ (Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 2003), pp.
131-155.
Black (1987) The English Press in the Eighteenth Century, Aldershot.
Borsay, (1989) The English Urban Renaissance. Culture and Society in the Provincial
Town, 1660-1770, Oxford.
Clifford (2002), Review of ‘A nation of shopkeepers: trade ephemera from 1655 to the
1860s in the John Johnson Collection’, Journal of Design History, 15 – 4 pp. 275-280.
Collins, Dianne, ‘Primitive or Not? Fixed-Shop Retailing Before the Industrial
Revolution’, Journal of Regional and Local Studies, 13:1 (1993), pp. 23-38.
20
MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Coquery, Natacha, ‘The Language of Success: Marketing and Distributing Semi-Luxury
Goods in Eighteenth-Century Paris’ Journal of Design History, 17:1 (2004), pp. 71-90.
Corfield, Patricia, ‘Walking the City Streets: The Urban Odyssey in Eighteenth-Century
England’ Journal of Urban History, No. 16 (1990), 132-174.
Cox, (2000) The complete tradesman. A study of retailing, 1550-1820, Aldershot, ch. 3.
Cox, (2003) ‘“Beggary of the Nation”: moral, economic and political attitudes to the
retail sector in the early modern period’, in J. Benson and L. Ugolini, eds., A nation of
shopkeepers: five centuries of British retailing, London, pp. 26-51.
Cox, Catherine, ‘Women and Business in Eighteenth-Century Dublin: A Case Study’ in
B. Whelan (ed.), Women and Paid Work in Ireland (Dublin, 2000), 30-43.
Cox, Nancy and Dannehl, Karen, Perceptions of Retailing in Early Modern England
(Aldershot, 2007).
Cox, Nancy, The Complete Tradesman: A Study of Retailing, 1550-1820 (Aldershot and
Vermont, 2000).
Davis, (1967) A History of Shopping, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London.
Foster, Sarah, '"An honourable station in respect of commerce, as well as constitutional
liberty": Retailing, Consumption and Economic Nationalism in Dublin, 1720-85', in G.
O'Brien and F. O'Kane (eds), Georgian Dublin (Dublin 2008), 30-44.
Foster, Sarah, ‘Buying Irish Consumer Nationalism in Eighteenth Century Dublin’
History Today, Volume 47 (1997), 44-51.
Foster, Sarah, ‘Going Shopping in Georgian Dublin’ Things, 4 (1996).
Glennie, Paul and Thrift, Nigel, ‘Consumers, Identities and Consumption Spaces’,
Environment and Planning, A, 28 (1996), 25-45.
Higgins, Padhraig, ‘Consumption, Gender and the Politics of Free Trade in EighteenthCentury Ireland’ Eighteenth-Century Studies, 41, No. 1 (2007), 87-105.
Higgins, Padhraig, A Nation of Politicians: Gender, Patriotism, and Political Culture in
Late Eighteenth-Century Ireland (Madison, 2010).
Hunt (1996) The middling sort: commerce, gender and the family in England, 1680-1780
London, ch. 7: ‘Print culture and the middling classes’.
Hussey, B.E. and Ponsonby, Margaret (eds), Buying for the Home: Shopping for the
Domestic from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (Aldershot, 2008).
Jackson, Peter and Thrift, Nigel, ‘Geographies of Consumption’, in Daniel Miller (ed.),
Acknowledging Consumption: A Review of New Studies (London and New York, 1995),
pp. 204-237.
Kowaleski-Wallace, Elizabeth, Consuming Subjects: Women, Shopping and Business in
the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1997).
Lefebvre, Henri, The Production of Space, Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith
(Oxford and Cambridge, MA, 1991).
Lynch, Deidre Shauna, ‘Counter Publics: Shopping and Women’s Sociability’, in Gillian
McKendrick, J. Brewer and J.H. Plumb, The birth of a consumer society: the
commercialisation of eighteenth century England (London, 1982), chs. 3 on Wedgwood
and 4 on Packwood. [E 3.8 b ]
McParland (1972) ‘The Wide Streets Commissioners: their importance for Dublin
architecture in the late 18th and early 19th century’, in Bulletin of the Irish Georgian
Society, XV (Jan-March).
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Miller, Daniel (ed.), Acknowledging Consumption: A Review of New Studies (London and
New York, 1995).
Moran, Anna, ‘Merchants and Material Culture in Early Nineteenth-Century Dublin: a
Consumer Case Study’, in Laffan, William (ed.), Irish Architectural and Decorative
Studies: The Journal of the Irish Georgian Society, XI (Dublin, 2008), 140-166.
Moran, Anna, ‘Selling Waterford glass in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland’ in Figgis,
Nicky (ed.), Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies: The Journal of the Irish
Georgian Society, VI (Dublin, 2003), 56-90.
Morrison, Kathryn A. English Shops and Shopping: An Architectural History (New
Haven and London, 2003).
Mui, Hoh-Cheung and Mui, Lorna H., Shops and Shopkeeping in Eighteenth-Century
England (Kingston, Montreal and London, 1989).
Nenadic, Stana, ‘Middle-Rank Consumers and Domestic Culture in Edinburgh and
Glasgow, 1720-1840’, Past and Present, 145 (1994), pp. 122-145.
Ogborn, Miles Ogborn and Withers, Charles W. J. (eds), Georgian Geographies. Essays
on Space, Place and Landscape in the Eighteenth Century (Manchester, 2004).
Pennell, Sara, ‘Consumption and Consumerism in Early Modern England’, The
Historical Journal, 42:2 (1999), pp. 549-564.
Reynolds, M, (1984) ‘Wedgwood in Dublin, 1772-1777’ Irish Arts Review Volume 1, No
2.
Reynolds, M. (1985) ‘James Donovan ‘The Emperor of China’’ Irish Arts Review
Volume 1, No.3, p.28-36.
Russell and Clara Tuite (eds), Romantic Sociability: Social Newtowrks and Literary
Culture in Britain 1770-1840 (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 211-236.
Sheridan Quantz, (2001) ‘The Multi-Centred Metropolis: The Social Topography of
Eighteenth-Century Dublin’ Proceedings of the British Academy, 107, 265-95.
Stobart, J. (1998) ‘Shopping streets as social space: leisure, consumerism and
improvement in an eighteenth century county town’ Urban History, 25, 1, 5-21.
Stobart, Jon, ‘Leisure and Shopping in the Small Towns of Georgian England: A
Regional Approach’, Journal of Urban history, 31 (2005), 479-503.
Stobart, Jon, ‘Selling (Through) Politeness: Advertising Provincial Shops in EighteenthCentury England’, Cultural and Social History, 5:3 (2008), pp. 309-328.
Stobart, Jon, Hann, Andrew and Morgan, Victoria, Spaces of Consumption: Leisure and
Shopping in the English Town, c. 1680-1830 (London and New York, 2007).
Styles, John, and Vickery, Amanda (eds), Gender, Taste, and Material Culture in Britain
and North America 1700-1800 (London and New Haven, CT, 2006).
Wallis, Patrick, ‘Consumption, Retailing and Medicine in Early-Modern London’
Economic History Review, 61, 1 (2008), 26-53.
Walsh, (2000) ‘The advertising and marketing of consumer goods in eighteenth-century
London’, in C. Wischermann and S. Elliott, eds., Advertising and the European town:
historical perspectives, Aldershot, pp. 79-95.
Walsh, Claire, ‘Shopping at First Hand? Mistresses, Servants and Shopping for the
Household in Early-Modern England’, in B. E. Hussey and Margaret Ponsonby (eds),
Buying for the Home: Shopping for the Domestic from the Seventeenth Century to the
Present (Aldershot, 2008), pp. 13-26.
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Walsh, Claire, ‘Shops, Shopping, and the Art of Decision Making in Eighteenth-Century
England’, in John Styles and Amanda Vickery (eds), Gender, Taste, and Material
Culture in Britain and North America 1700-1800 (London and New Haven, CT, 2006),
pp. 151-177.
Walsh, Claire, ‘Social Meaning and Social Space in the Shopping Galleries of Early
Modern London’, in John Benson and Laura Ugolini (eds), A Nation of Shopkeepers:
Five Centuries of British Retailing (London and New York, 2003), pp. 52-79.
Walsh, Claire, ‘The Advertising and Marketing of Consumer Goods in EighteenthCentury London’, in Clemens Wischermann and Elliott Shore (eds), Advertising and the
European City: Historical Perspectives (Aldershot, 2000), pp. 79-95.
Walsh, Claire, ‘The Design of London Goldsmith’s Shops in the Early Eighteenth
Century’ in D. Mitchell (ed.), Goldsmiths, Silversmiths and Bankers: Innovation and
Transfer of Skill 1550-1750 (London, 1995), 96-111.
Walsh, Claire, ‘The Newness of the Department Store: A View from the Eighteenth
Century’, in Geoffrey Crossick and Serge Jaumain (eds), Cathedrals of Consumption:
The European Department Store, 1850-1939 (Aldershot and Brookfield, 1999), pp. 4671.
Walsh, Claire, ‘Shop Design and the Display of Goods’, Journal of Design History, 8:2
(1995), pp. 157-176.
Weatherill, Lorna, ‘The Business of Middleman in the English Pottery Trade Before
1780’, Business History, 28:2 (1986), pp. 51-76.
Wischermann, Clemens and Shore, Elliott (eds), Advertising and the European City:
Historical Perspectives (Aldershot, 2000).
Wright, Laura, ‘Street Addresses and Directions in Mid-Eighteenth Century London
News paper Advertisements’, in Brownlees (ed.), News Discourses in Early Modern
Britain: Selected Papers of CHINED 2004 (Bern, 2006), pp. 199-219.
Primary sources
Excerpts from Pepys Diary – access at www.pepys.info
The diary of Thomas Turner, ed. by David Vaisey (East Hoathly, 1994).
Daniel Defoe, The Complete tradesman (London [1726] 1987).
Week 3: The Production and Consumption of Silver in Eighteenth Century
Dublin.
Guest Lecturer: Dr Alison Fitzgerald, NUIM.
Essential Reading
Fitzgerald, A., & O’Brien, C., (2001) ‘The production of silver in late-Georgian Dublin’
Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, Volume 4, pp. 8-47.
Further Reading
Barnard, T., Making the grand figure: Lives and possessions in Ireland, 1641-1770, New
Haven and London, 2004
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Barnard, T., ‘Integration or separation? Hospitality and display in Protestant Ireland
1660-1800’, in Brockliss, L. and Eastwood, D., eds., A Union of multiple identities, The
British Isles, c.1750-c.1850, Manchester, 1997, pp. 127-146
Bowen, J. & O’Brien C., A celebration of Limerick’s silver, Cork, 2007
Bowen, J. & O’Brien, C., Cork silver and gold: Four centuries of craftsmanship, Cork,
2005
Bennett, D., Irish Georgian silver, London, 1972
Brewer, J. & Porter, R. (eds.), Consumption and the world of goods, London, 1993
Clifford H., ‘A commerce with things: the value of precious metalwork in early modern
England’, in Berg, M. and Clifford, H., Consumers and luxury, Consumer culture in
Europe 1650-1850, Manchester, 1999 pp. 147-170
Clifford, H., ‘Concepts of Invention, identity and imitation in the London and provincial
metal-working trades, 1750-1850’, Journal of Design History 12, no 3 (1999), pp. 241256
Dickson, D., ed., The gorgeous mask: Dublin 1700-1850, Dublin, 1987
FitzGerald, A, ‘The business of being a goldsmith in eighteenth-century Dublin,’ in
Gillian O’Brien and Finola O’Kane-Crimmins eds., Georgian Dublin, Dublin, 2008
FitzGerald, A., ‘Oliver St. George’s passion for plate,’ in Silver Studies 22 (2007), pp.
51-61
FitzGerald, A.,‘Astonishing automata: Staging spectacle in eighteenth-century Dublin’,
Irish Architectural & Decorative Studies, The Journal of the Irish Georgian Society 10
(2007), pp. 18-34
FitzGerald, A., ‘Cosmopolitan commerce: The Dublin goldsmith Robert Calderwood’,
Apollo (2005), pp. 46-52
Foster, S., ‘Going shopping in 18th century Dublin’, things 4 (Summer 1996), pp. 33-61
Jackson, C.J., English goldsmiths and their marks, 2nd ed., London, 1921
Knight of Glin, ‘Early Irish trade cards and other eighteenth-century ephemera’,
Eighteenth-Century Ireland 2 (1987), pp. 115-132
McDonnell, J., ‘Irish Rococo silver’, Irish Arts Review Yearbook 13 (1997), pp. 78-88
Mitchell, D., ed., Goldsmiths silversmiths and bankers: Innovation and the transfer of
skill 1550-1750, London, 1992
Sinsteden, T., “Surviving Dublin assay records. Part 2 (1708-48)”, The Silver Society
Journal 16 (2004), pp. 87-103
Sinsteden, T., ‘Four selected assay records of the Dublin Goldsmiths’ Company’, The
Silver Society Journal 11 (1999), pp. 143-58
Westropp, M.S.D., General guide to the art collections, National Museum of Ireland,
Dublin, Part 6, Metalwork, Dublin, 1914
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Week 4: Women and material culture in the eighteenth century
How can a more nuanced awareness of the gender complexities inherent within people’s
relationship with their goods help us achieve a better understanding of eighteenth-century
material culture?
Essential Reading
Berg, M. (1993) ‘Women’s Property and the Industrial Revolution’ Journal of
Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 233 – 250.
Finn, M. (2000) ‘Men’s things: masculine possession in the consumer revolution’ Social
History, Vol. 25, No. 2, May, pp. 133-155.
Vickery, A. (1994) "Women and the World of Goods: a Lancashire Consumer and her
Possessions, 1751-81," in J. Brewer and R. Porter (eds.), Consumption and the World of
Goods, pp. 274-305.
Further ReadingL. Cowen Orlin, (2002) ‘Fictions of the early modern English probate inventory’, in H.S.
D. Cruikshank and N. Burton, (1990) Life in the Georgian city, London.
Cooper, ‘Rank, manners and display: the gentlemanly house, 1500-1750’, Transactions of
the Royal Historical Society, 12 (2000), pp. 291-300.
J.E. Crowley, The invention of comfort: sensibilities and design in early modern Britain
and early America (Baltimore and London, 2001).
M. Girouard, (1978) Life in the English country house : a social and architectural history,
chs. 5, 7 and 8.
Hitchcock, T., & Cohen, M., eds., English Masculinities 1660-1800 (Harlow, 1999)
Pardailhe-Galabrun, The birth of intimacy. Private and domestic life in early modern
Paris (Oxford, 1991), chs. 3 and 6.
M. Ponsomby,(2007) Stories from Home English Domestic Interiors, Ashgate.
U. Priestley and P.J. Corfield, ‘Rooms and room use in Norwich housing, 1580-1730’,
Post-Medieval Archaeology, 16 (1982), pp. 93-123.
R. Sarti, Europe at home. Family and material culture, 1500-1800 (New Haven –
London, 2001), pp. 86-147.
John Styles, (2003) ‘Custom or Consumption? Plebeian Fashion in Eighteenth-Century
England,’ in M. Berg and E. Eger (eds.), Luxury in the Eighteenth Century, Debates,
Desires and Delectable Goods, Palgrave.
Sussman, C. (2000)Consuming Anxieties: Consumer Protest, Gender and British Slavery,
1712-1833, Stanford.
L. Weatherill, (1988) Consumer behaviour and material culture in Britain, 1660-1760,
Oxford.
Vickery (1998) The Gentleman’s Daughter, Yale. Read it all if you can but in particular
the intro and chapters 4 & 5.
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Week 5: The Material Culture of Dining: Display, politeness and politics
Essential Reading
A. Smart Martin (2007) ‘Tea tables Overturned: Rituals of Power and Place in Colonial
America’ in Goodman and Norberg Furnishing the Eighteenth Century What furniture
can tell us about the European and American Past, Routledge, pp. 169-183.
S. W. Mintz (1993) ‘The changing roles of food in the study of consumption’ in J.
Brewer and R. Porter (eds.), Consumption and the World of Goods. London.
L. Clarkson, ‘Hospitality, housekeeping and high living in Eighteenth century Ireland’ in
J. Hill & C. Lennon (eds) Luxury and Austerity, (Dublin 1999).
Further Reading
Amanda Vickery (1998) The Gentleman’s Daughter, Yale.
T. Barnard, Making the Grand Figure Lives and Possessions in Ireland 1641 – 1770,
Yale. Chapter 4: Goods.
T. Barnard (1997) ‘Integration or Seperation? Hospitality and display in Protestant
Ireland, 1660-1800’ in Brockliss, L., and Eastwood, D., (eds) A Union of Multiple
Identities: the British Isles c.1750-c.1850, Manchester, 1997.
J. Barry and C. Brooks eds., (1994) The Middling Sort of People, Culture Society and
Politics in England, 1550 – 1800, Basingstoke.
Berg, M. Luxury & Pleasure in Eighteenth Century Britain, (Oxford, 2005) Chapter 4:
Glass and China: The Grammar of the Polite Table
M. Boydell, (1976?) Irish Glass, The Irish Heritage Series, No.5.
M. Boydell, (1974) ‘Made for Convivial Clinking, 19th century Anglo-Irish Glass’
Country Life, 26, September, pp.852-3.
K. Cahill (2005) Mrs Delany’s menus, medicines and manners, Dublin.
H. Clifford (2004) Silver in London, The Parker and Wakelin Partnership, 1760-1776,
Yale, Chapter 9: Conspicuous Consumption: Diplomacy, Dining and the Domestic
Interior.
Dunlevy, M., (1989) Penrose Glass, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.
P. Earle, (1989) The making of the English middle class. Business, society and family in
London, 1660-1730.
B. Fine and E. Leopold (1990) ‘Consumerism and the industrial revolution’, Social
History, 4 pp. 151-179.
Francis, P. (2000) ‘The Development of Lead Glass: The European connections’, Apollo,
February, pp. 47-53.
Francis, P. (2000) Irish Delftware: an illustrated history, Jonathan Horne Publications,
London.
Glanville and Young (ed) (2002) Elegant Eating: Four hundred years of dining in style,
London V&A Press.
Knight of Glin and J. Peil (2007) Irish Furniture, Yale.
P. Langford (2002), ‘The uses of eighteenth-century politeness’, Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society, 12, pp. 311-331.
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R. Liefkes (ed.) (1997) Glass, London V&A Publications.
N. McKendrick, J. Brewer and J.H. Plumb (1982) The birth of a consumer society: the
commercialisation of Eighteenth Century England, London, ch. 1.
Mintz, S., (1993) ‘The Changing Roles of food in the study of consumption’ in
Consumption and the world of Goods, Brewer and Porter (eds).
S. Richards (1999) Eighteenth Century Ceramics: Products for a Civilised Society,
Manchester Uni. Press.
S. Nenadic (1994) ‘Middle-rank consumers and domestic culture in Edinburgh and
Glasgow, 1720-1840’, Past and Present, 145, pp. 122-156.
W.D. Smith (2002) Consumption and the making of respectability, 1600-1800, New York
and London.
P.S. Stearns (2001) Consumerism in world history. The global transformation of desire,
London, pp. 13-35.
Michael Snodin and John Styles (2001) Design and the decorative arts, Britain 15001900, London. [eighteenth century chapters: 8, 9 & 10]
Warren, P. (1970) Irish Glass, Faber & Faber, London.
L. Weatherill (1988), Consumer behaviour and material culture in Britain, 1660-1760,
Oxford.
L. Weatherill (1993) ‘The meaning of consumer behaviour in late seventeenth- and early
eighteenth-century England’, in J. Brewer and R. Porter, eds., Consumption and the
World of Goods, London, New York.
Lorna Weatherill, ed. (1990) The account book of Richard Latham, 1724-1767, Oxford.
J. de Vries (1993) "Between Purchasing Power and the World of Goods: understanding
the Household Economy in Early-Modern Europe" in J. Brewer and R. Porter (eds.),
Consumption and the World of Goods, London-New York, pp. 206-227.
Westropp, M.S.D, (1920) Irish Glass, London (Revised edition by Mary Boydell, Dublin
1978).
Young, H. (1999) English Porcelain, 1745-95: its makers, design, market and
consumption, London V&A Press.
Week 6: ‘Monster Shops’: the development of Dublin’s department stores
The decades between c. 1850 and c. 1900 saw what has frequently been described as a
revolution in retailing. Greater efficiency in the production and circulation of
commodities led to new retailing spaces and practices, presenting consumers with novel
forms of shopping experiences. While many of the characteristics of late nineteenthcentury shopping experiences had their roots in the eighteenth century, it was not until the
1860s that large purpose built emporia, known as ‘Department stores’ boasting every
possible commodity, for sale at prices to suit every pocket, appeared on city streets across
Europe and America. Using the very latest marketing techniques, such ‘cathedrals of
consumption’ brought together an astounding profusion of commodities, from near and
far, in the form of spectacular displays. On site cafes, libraries and art galleries
entertained expectant consumers as they browsed the stores while innovative window
displays tantalized passers by.
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What social, cultural and technological changes made such spectacles possible? What
strategies were used in advertising the many commodities for sale in such shops?
Advances in technology brought elevators and electric lighting within the stores while
developments in transport not only brought consumers to the stores but also facilitated the
introduction of mail order catalogues, giving consumers in the remotest of places access
to the same variety of necessary and unnecessary goods.
To what extent were such emporia present on the streets of Dublin? The second half of
the class will focus on two Dublin department stores: McSwiney’s Palatial Mart (now
known as Clery’s) of Sackville Street and Arnott’s of Henry Street. Referred to as
‘monster shops’ by smaller Dublin shopkeepers, these two stores offered innovative
displays and dazzling arrays of consumer goods comparable to those presented by their
English, American and continental counterparts.
Essential Reading
Rains, Stephanie (2008) ‘Here be monsters: the Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853 and
the growth of Dublin department stores’, Irish Studies Review, vol 16, No. 4, pp. 487 –
506.
Further Reading
Adburgham, Alison. (1989) Shops and shopping 1800-1914 : where, and in what manner
the well-dressed Englishwoman bought her clothes. London: Barrie & Jenkins
Bowlby, Rachel. (2000) Carried away : the invention of modern shopping. London:
Faber and Faber.
Brady & Simms (2001) Dublin through space and time (c.900-1900), Four Courts Press.
Chaney, David (1983) "The Department Store as a Cultural Form." Theory, Culture &
Society 1, no. 3, 22-31.
Costelloe, P. and Farmar, T. (1992) The Very Heart of the City, The Story of Denis
Guiney and Clery’s, Dublin, A & A Farmar.
Crossick, Geoffrey, and Serge Jaumain. (1999) Cathedrals of consumption : the
European department store, 1850-1939, Historical urban studies. Aldershot: Ashgate
Pub..
Fraser, W. Hamish. (1981) The coming of the mass market 1850-1914. London:
Macmillan.
Lancaster, William. (1995) The department store: a social history. London: Leicester
University Press.
Leach, William. (1993) Land of desire: merchants, power, and the rise of a new
American culture. New York: Pantheon Books.
Lomax, S (2006) ‘The view from the shop: Window display, the shopper and the
formulation of theory’ in Benson, J. and Ugolini, L (eds) Cultures of Selling:
Perspectives on Consumption and Society since 1700, University of Wolverhampton,
Ashgate.
Miller, Michael B. (1981) The Bon Marché: Bourgeois Culture and the Department
Store, 1869-1920. London: Allen & Unwin.
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Nesbitt, Ronald, (1993) At Arnotts of Dublin, Dublin, A & A Farmar
Rappaport, Erika Diane.(2000) Shopping for pleasure: women in the making of London's
West End. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Zola, Emile. (2001) Au bonheur des dames: the Ladies' Delight, Penguin classics.
London: Penguin.
Further reading relating to objects and identity
T.H. Breen, (1988) ‘‘Baubles of Britain’: the American and consumer revolutions of the
eighteenth century’, Past and Present, 119, pp. 73-104.
C. Campbell, (1989) The romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism, Oxford,
pp. 36-57. Also published in M.J. Lee, ed., The consumer society reader (Oxford, 2000),
pp. 48-72.
Michel De Certeau (1984, 1998), The Practices of Everyday Life, vol I, Berkeley, (1984)
vol I, Minneapolis (1998).
M. Douglas and B. Isherwood, (1996) The world of goods, London, (first published in
1979). ch. 2: ‘The uses of goods’.
Francis, P., (1994) ‘Franz Tieze (1842-1932) and the re-invention of history on glass’
Burlington Magazine, Volume 136, pp. 291-302.
HIghmore, B (ed) (2001) The Everyday Life Reader, Routledge.
Highmore, B (2001) Everyday life and Cultural Theory, Routledge.
Lowenthal, D., (1992) ‘Authenticity? The dogma of self-delusion’ in Jones, M. (ed) Why
Fakes Matter: Essays on problems of authenticity, British Museum Press
D. Miller, (1995) Acknowledging Consumption: a review of new studies, London,
Routledge, ch. 1.
Nenadic, S. (1994) ‘Middle rank consumers and domestic culture in Edinburgh and
Glasgow, 1720-1840, Past and Present, No 145, Nov, pp 125-156.
M. Ponsomby,(2007) Stories from Home English Domestic Interiors, Ashgate.
Political, economic and social history of Ireland during this period
Brady, J., & Simms, A. (2001) Dublin Through Space and Time, Four Courts Press.
Craig, M. Dublin 1660-1860, A Social and Architectural History (London 1969)
D. Dickson (1987) New Foundations: 1660-1860, Four Courts Press.
Dickson, D (2001) ‘Death of a Capital? Dublin and the Consequences of Union’
Proceedings of the British Academy, 107, pp.111-131.
Dickson, D ‘The place of Dublin in the Eighteenth-Century Irish economy’, Ireland and
Scotland, 1600-1850 (ed) T.M. Devine and David Dickson, (John Donald Publishers Ltd,
Edinburgh,1983)
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Dickson, D. ‘Second City Syndrome: reflections on three Irish cases’ in S. J. Connolly,
ed. Kingdoms United? Great Britain and Ireland since 1500: integration and diversity
(Dublin, 1998).
Barnard, T., A New Anatomy of Ireland, The Irish Protestants, 1649-1770, Yale, 2003.
Foster, History of Ireland
Hill, J., (2007) Patriots to Unionists, Oxford.
Further reading on the social and economic history of England,
Paul Langford, A Polite and commercial people. England 1727-1783 (Oxford, 1989). [E
3 b]
Maxwell, C. Dublin under the Georges 1740-1830 (London, 1936)
Ó Gráda, C., Ireland: A New Economic History, 1780-1939, Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1994.
D. Hay and N. Rogers, Eighteenth-century English society: Shuttles and Swords (Oxford,
1992)
Richard Price, British society, 1660-1880 (Cambridge, 1999), ch. 2, 6, 9.
Online Resources
Use JSTOR to search for specific articles: http://www.jstor.org/
Search eighteenth-century editions of the Freeman’s Journal on the Irish Newspaper
Archive site: http://irishnewspaperarchives.com/ You can access this using a password
obtainable from NIVAL
Access hundreds of images of eighteenth century prints and ephemera on the Collage
website, hosted by the Guildhall Library:
http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app
Access eighteenth century publications on Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Again,
you can access this via the Electronic Resources part of the TCD library catalogue.
Access eighteenth century publications from any computer at www.archive.org
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
MA Design History and Material Culture, 2011–12
Dr Conor Lucey
APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DOMESTIC SPACE
The eighteenth-century domestic interior continues to present fertile avenues for research in the
related disciplines of design history, material culture and the decorative arts.
This course will introduce students to various aspects of the material and ideological aspects of
interiors designed during the Georgian period, and aims to foster an appreciation for the myriad
critical approaches to studies concerned with domestic space.
SEMINAR SCHEDULE
3/10/10 Introduction: the material life of the Georgian town house
10/10/10 Visualizing interior space
17/10/10 Gendered spaces
24/11/10 The business of house-decorating: the interior as commodity
14/11/10 SITE VISIT: Newman House
21/11/10 The domestic interior in fiction
Further detail will follow
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Modernism and material culture Semester 1, Mondays 10 – 12:30
Tutor: Lisa Godson
This course takes as its focus the objects, spaces and systems of modernism, and its
relationship to modernity, addressing such key cultural concepts as temporality, progress
and agency. Due to the study trip to Berlin, the course will have a particular inflection
towards German design, architectural and material cultures as well as a consideration of
modernity and modernism in Irish material culture.
Please note: You should do all the required readings every week. The Journal of Design
History (J Design Hist) is available in NCAD library and online, other readings will be
distributed electronically.
Week 1 03.10.11
Modernity, design and craft before modernism
This week will focus in particular on the historiography of ‘proto-modernism’. As such, it is
largely concerned with the way British industrialization was understood in relation to key
design ‘reformers’ such as Owen Jones, John Ruskin and William Morris. This is particularly
in relation to the publications Das englische Haus ("The English House") by Hermann
Muthesius (1904) and Nikolaus Pevsner’s Pioneers of Modern Design (1949; originally
published in 1936 under the title Pioneers of the Modern Movement)
Readings
Mowl, Timothy (2006) Review: ‘Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter
Gropius’ J Design Hist 19(3): 268-270
Muthesius, Stefan (2005) ‘Communications between Traders, Users and Artists: The Growth
of German Language Serial Publications on Domestic Interior Decoration in the Later
Nineteenth Century’ J Design Hist 18(1): 7-20
Shales, Ezra (2009) ‘Toying with Design Reform: Henry Cole and Instructive Play for Children’
J Design Hist 22(1): 3-26
Week 2 10.10.11
‘Pioneering’ modernism I – the Deutscher Werkbund
This session considers the ‘pioneering’ phase of modernism with a particular focus on the
work of the Deutsche Werkbund (founded 1907). We will examine some key architectural
projects such as structures designed for the Cologne Werkbund exhibition (1914) and the
Weissenhof estate built for the Stuttgart exhibition of 1927 and the work of
designer/architect Peter Behrens, in particular his architectural, graphic and industrial design
for AEG.
Readings
Burke, Chris (1992) ‘Peter Behrens and the German Letter: Type Design and
Architectural Lettering’ J Design Hist 5(1): 19-37
Schwartz, Frederick J. (1996) ‘Commodity Signs: Peter Behrens, the AEG, and the
Trademark’ J Design Hist 9(3): 153-184
Stratigakos, Despina (2003) ‘Women and the Werkbund: Gender Politics and German
Design Reform, 1907-14’Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 62 (4): 490-511
Week 3 17.10.11
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‘Pioneering’ modernism II – the Bauhaus
This seminar will examine the establishment and development of the Staatliches Bauhaus
(‘the Bauhaus), the art and design school that is generally figured as central to the teaching
of a modernist approach to design in a number of fields. Alongside work produced in the
Bauhaus in furniture, graphic design and product design we will examine its influence in the
field of design education and on the later Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung)
(1953-68) and design in the German Democratic Republic.
Readings
Overy, Paul (2004) ‘Visions of the Future and the Immediate Past: The Werkbund Exhibition,
Paris 1930’ J Design Hist 17(4): 337-357
Rubin, Eli (2006) ‘The Form of Socialism without Ornament: Consumption, Ideology, and the
Fall and Rise of Modernist Design in the German Democratic Republic’ J Design Hist 19(2):
155-168
Week 4 24.10.11
The Frankfurt ‘School’s philosophical discourse of modernity
This week we will look at the ideas and writings of key thinkers associated (directly or
loosely) with the ‘Frankfurt School’ centered around the Frankfurt Institute for Social
Research (founded 1923). A primary focus will be on work that directly commented on and
responded to modern culture in Germany in the inter-war period, in particular the writings of
Theodor Adorno, Siegfried Kracauer and Walter Benjamin.
Readings
Benjamin, Walter (2006 ed.) from Berlin Childhood around 1900 trans. Howard Eiland
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Kracauer, Siegfried (1995) from The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays ed. and trans. Thomas
Y. Levin Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Please also listen to ‘The Frankfurt School’ – In Our Time BBC Radio 4, broadcast 14.01.10,
available to listen to here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pr54s
Week 5 14.11.11
The Scandinavian model and Ireland
Described by one design historian as ‘the acceptable face of modernism’, Scandinavian
design, particularly from 1930, promoted a different version of modern design than the
ideology formulated at the Bauhuas and elsewhere. This session will examine such aspects
of Scandinavian design as craft values and the inspiration of nature, and will examine how
certain once-dominant accounts of modernism has treated Scandinavian design. It will
further examine the influence of the ‘Scandinavian model’ on Irish design discourse.
Readings
Goldhagen, Sarah Williams (2005) ‘Something to Talk About: Modernism, Discourse, Style’
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 64, 2: 144- 167
Franck, Kaj et. al. (1961) Design in Ireland: Report of the Scandanavian Design Group in
Ireland Dublin: Córas Tráchtála
Week 6 21.11.11
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‘Tropical’ modernism
This week we will examine the ways a modernist idiom was used outside its Anglo-American
‘centre’, particularly in colonial and post-colonial contexts such as West Africa and India.
The role of Irish architects alongside British designers such as Maxwell Fry will be analysed,
as will the Catholic Church as well as British and French colonial networks.
Readings
Leroux, Hannah (2003) ‘The networks of Tropical Architecture’ The Journal of Architecture
8(3) 337-354
Uduku, Ola (2006) ‘Modernist architecture and 'the tropical' in West Africa: The tropical
architecture movement in West Africa, 1948-1970’ Habitat International 30, 396 - 411
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Course title: An Introduction to Neoclassical Influence in Art, Architecture and Design
Assessment: 1 essay
Lecturer: Dr Paul Caffrey
Aims and objectives of the course:
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the origins and history of the classical tradition
in the art, architecture and design of the eighteenth century. Students will be introduced to
theories of neoclassicism and the literature of neoclassicism in art, architecture and design with
specific reference to European design in the 18th century. The objectives of the course are to place
the classical revival in context, to develop students’ skills of historical and critical analysis. This
will be achieved through seminars, visits, research and writing. On completion of this course
students should be able to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the main historical and
theoretical concepts of neoclassicism in design, design history and material culture.
Course Content:
Seminar 1: An Introduction to the language of Classicism. Students will be introduced to the
language of architectural ornament, decoration and style. The seminar will include the analysis of
plans and sections of classical architecture. Students will have been supplied with the key texts
for the course.
Bibliography:
Recommended course reading:
General background reading: Summerson, John (1963) The Classical Language of Architecture,
London, Thames and Hudson.
Thornton, Peter (1984) Authentic Décor The Domestic Interior 1620-1920, London, Weidenfeld
and Nicolson.
Pevsner, Nikolaus (1943) An Outline of European Architecture, Harmondsworth, Pelican Books
Seminar 2: From Palladianism to Neoclassicism: Castletown House, County Kildare.
Caffrey, Paul (1990) Castletown, Celbridge, Castletown Foundation.
Walsh, Patrick (2007) Castletown, Co. Kildare, Dublin, Office of Public Works.
Seminar 3: The Townhouse in the 18th century. St Stephen’s Green.
Seminar 4: Painting as a source for evidence of display in the 18th century. The focus will be on
examples in the National Gallery of Ireland collection.
Crookshank, Anne & Glin, The Knight of (2002) Ireland’s Painters 1600-1940, New Haven,
Yale University Press.
N.B. chapters 7, 10 & 13.
Seminar 5. The Neoclassical Miniature
Caffrey, Paul (2000) Treasures to Hold: Irish and English Miniatures 1650-1850 from the
National Gallery of Ireland Collection, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland.
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
N.B. “Miniature Painting in Ireland and England 1650-1850: Works on Vellum, Ivory and
Enamel” pp.12-39.
Seminar 6:
Visit to the National Gallery of Ireland: McNeill Bequest.
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
SEMESTER 2: MA COURSE OUTLINES
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
NCAD
MA History of Design and Material Culture 2011-12
Contemporary Design Cultures and Everyday Life
Semester 2, Fridays 10 – 12:30
Tutor: Lisa Godson
Overview
This course takes as its focus the last fifteen years, with a focus on how ‘design’ has been utilised
to encompass a broad range of practices and attitudes. This is based on an examination of the
political economy of design beyond artefacts and towards interactions, services and technologies.
It is conceptually framed within a consideration of different critical readings of everyday life
involving key concepts in material culture studies. Many of the texts we will be reading are drawn
from Ben Highmore (ed.) (2009) The Design Culture Reader (London: Routledge), so it might be
a good idea to purchase this book.
Week 1
Post-war design cultures: an overview
In this initial session we will analyse the conventional historiography of post-war design practice.
We will focus on specific design groups such as the Independent Group, Archigram and Memphis
as a way of considering the way design was an important constituent of post-war mass culture,
and how certain ways of defining popular culture informed the historiography of ‘high’ design.
From Massey, Anne (1995) The Independent Group: Modernism and Mass Culture, 1945-59,
Manchester University Press, Manchester
Meikle, Jeffrey (1998) ‘Material Virtues: On the Ideal and the Real in Design History’
J Design Hist 11(3): 191-199
Week 2
Living in a material world: the political economy of design
At this session, we will consider critical awareness of material culture in terms of us living in an
increasingly designed world, and how the concept of ‘design’ has become expanded to denote not
only the tangible and artefactual but also certain ways of behaving and being in the world. We
will also consider the conditions under which production or consumption of ‘design’ is organized
by different entities from corporations and cities to nation-states.
Flusser, Vilem (1993) ‘About the Word Design’ in Highmore (2009)
Foster, Hal (2002) ‘Design and Crime’ pp.13 – 26 in Design and Crime and Other Diatribes
London: Verso, 2002
Highmore, Ben (2009) The Design Culture Reader Introduction pp. 1-12
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Marx, Karl (1867) ‘The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret’ in Highmore (2009)
Week 3
Users and consumers and everyday life
Design generally assumes a particular end user or consumer, whether very explicitly through
using particular material and visual tropes or more subtly in terms of ease of use and cultural
references. ‘User centered’ design is usually taken to mean design that somehow treats the needs
of the user in a more considered way, whether that is informed by rationalist ergonomic principles
or, more recently, by attempting to charge a product with emotional as well as utilitarian content.
At this session, we will consider the ways users and consumers are constructed, and analyse how
ideas of ‘universal’ and ‘inclusive’ design are configured.
Gijs Mom (2008) ‘Translating Properties into Functions (and Vice Versa): Design, User Culture
and the Creation of an American and a European Car (1930–70)’
J Design Hist 21(2): 171-181
Schivelbusch, Wolfgang (1983) 'Shop Windows' in Highmore (2009)
Week 4
‘Critical’ design
‘Critical’ design denotes a current in recent practice where objects consciously materialise
cultural critique. In parallel with this interest in the everyday and a rejection of utopian
configurations for design, many designers have incorporated banal or found objects into their
work, or used chance such as the actions of the consumer/user to complete the form and meaning
of their products. We will examine how this destabilises ideas of authorship and subverts a
‘closed system’ model of design practice.
From Dunne, Anthony Design Noir: the secret life of electronic objects London: Birkhauser
(Architectural), 2001
Dunne, Anthony and Raby, Fiona (2010) ‘Between Reality and the Impossible’
Essay for the
catalogue of the St Etienne International Design Biennale, France, 2010.
http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/docs/content/betweenrealityo.pdf
‘Crazy ideas or creative probes?: presenting critical artefacts to stakeholders to develop
innovative product ideas’. Proceedings of EAD07: Dancing with Disorder: Design,
Discourse and Disaster. April 2007.
Week 5
Material cultures of technology
This week we will examine in particular technological products and the influence of ‘critical
design’ (cf. week 4). This suggests a new position for product designers as engaging in cultural
speculation about the uses and meaning of technology rather than their traditional role as stylists
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
of the packaging around technology. Design then becomes a form of ‘cultural probe’ into
particular aspects of everyday life and technology is treated less as the promise of a utopian,
‘better’ future but as a constituent and reflection of messy dystopian realities.
From Dunne, Anthony (2005) Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and
Critical Design (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press)
Week 6
Ideation Design, Service Design, Transformation Design – the dissolution of
the artefact in contemporary design culture
When Hilary Cottam was awarded ‘Designer of the Year’ in 2005, controversy ensued. Cottom
was rewarded not for producing artefacts but for her advisory and advocacy role in applying
design principles as a means to improve public services, including prisons and schools. What has
been termed ‘service design’ but also ‘ideation design’ ‘transformation design’ and design
futures’ is on the increase, concomitant with a global expansion in the range of practices
described as design.
At this session, we will consider whether this constitutes a new design discipline, and the veracity
of the Design Council’s claim that ‘this new approach could be key to solving many of society’s
most complex problems.’ We will look at the professional status of designers and analyse the
culture and representation of contemporary design practice.
Burns, C., Cottam, H., Vanstone, C. and Winhall, J. (2006), RED paper 02:
Transformation Design, London: Design Council.
Kimbell, L. (2009) 'The Turn to Service Design' in Julier, G. and Moor, L., (eds) Design and
Creativity: Policy, Management and Practice, Oxford: Berg.
Available here: http://www.lucykimbell.com/stuff/ServiceDesignKimbell_final.pdf
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Course title: An introduction to the Design and Material Culture of Ireland
Assessment: 1 essay
Lecturer: Dr Paul Caffrey
Aims and objectives of the course:
The aims of this course are to introduce students to the design and material culture of Ireland. The
seminars will examine theories of material culture and Irish culture generally with specific
reference to design in the 20th century. The course will develop students’ skills of historical and
critical analysis through lectures, visits, seminars, research and writing. On completion of this
course students should be able to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the main historical and
theoretical concepts of Irish material culture.
Course Content:
Seminar 1: An introduction to the material culture of Ireland. This seminar will define Irish
culture and the parameters of the course.
Bibliography:
Recommended background reading: Miller, Daniel (1987) Material Culture and MassConsumption, Oxford, Blackwell.
Highmore, Ben (ed.) The Design Culture Reader, Oxford, Routledge.
Caffrey, Paul (2003) ‘Material culture and the object’ and ‘Irish material culture: the shape of the
field’ Circa, [Special Theme: Material Culture edited by P. Caffrey] no.103, Spring.
Seminar 2: The Coinage Design Committee (1926-8). This seminar may take place in the
National Museum of Ireland. Students will study the archive and objects relating to the Coinage
Design Commission (1927).
Bibliography:
Caffrey, Paul (2011) ‘Nationality and Representation: the Coinage Design Committee (1926-8)
and the formation of a design identity in the Irish Free State’ in King, Linda and Sisson, Elaine
(eds.) (2011) Ireland, Design and Visual Culture: Negotiating Modernity 1922-1992, Cork, Cork
University Press.
Seminar 3: Sources and resources for the study of Irish design and material culture. This
seminar will be an overview of the main themes and influences on Irish design focusing on the
post-Emergency period. The literature of Irish design will be examined with an emphasis on
documents such as Bodkin’s Report on the Arts in Ireland (1945) and The Scandinavian Report
(1961).
Bibliography:
Bernard, Toby (2005) A Guide to the Sources for the History of Material Culture in Ireland,
1500-2000, Dublin, Four Courts Press. See also review: (2006) Journal of Design History, vol.19,
no.2, Summer, pp.180-3.
Caffrey, Paul (2001) ‘Design History and Material Culture in Ireland: an outline of sources and
resources.’ An Leabharlann The Irish Library, 2nd series, 15, pp119-223.
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Caffrey, Paul (2003) ‘The National Irish Visual Arts Library Design Archive at the National
College of Art and Design, Dublin’ Journal of Design History, vol. 16, pp. 341-8.
Caffrey, Paul (2009) ‘Primary Text Commentary’ and ‘Design in Ireland: report of the
Scandinavian Design Group in Ireland, April 1961’ The Journal of Modern Craft, vol.2, no.3,
November 2009, pp 325-344.
Kennedy, Brian and Gillespie, Raymond (eds) (1994) Ireland: art into history, Dublin and
Colorado.
Seminar 4: Kilkenny Design Workshops. This seminar will focus on the background and
establishment of the Kilkenny Design Workshops. The achievement and legacy of KDW will be
examined in relation to the emergence of consultant design in the 1980s and 1990s.
Bibliography:
Caffrey, Paul (1996) ‘Present’ Design for Innovation in, NCAD 250/ Smurfit Industrial Design
Exhibition, pp. 6-20.
Caffrey, Paul (1997) ‘Sybil Connolly, Couturiere, Designer of Textiles, Ceramics, Glass and
Interiors’, ‘Paul Hogan, Design Management Consultant’, ‘Gearoid O Conchubhair, Furniture
and Industrial Designer’, ‘Arthur Gibney, Architect and Interior Designer’, ‘Denis Handy,
Architect and Designer’ (ed. S. Pendergast) Contemporary Designers, St James Press, Detroit,
Michigan.
Caffrey, Paul (1998) ‘The Scandinavian Ideal: A Model for Design in Ireland’ Scandinavian
Journal of Design History, Vol. 8, pp. 32-43.
Caffrey, Paul (2003) ‘Post War Furniture Design’ (ed. Brian Lalor), The Encyclopedia of Ireland,
Gill and Macmillan, Dublin.
Seminar 5: The emergence of Consultant Design. Critics of design: the Critical Design
movement.
Caffrey, Paul (2000) ‘Design for Industry: the Industrial Design Consultancy and Product Design
in the Republic of Ireland’ Circa, no. 92, Summer, pp. 7-9.
Caffrey, Paul (2004) ‘Irish Design 1994-2004’ Irish Arts Review, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 86-89.
Seminar 6: Visit to a museum or private collection (to be confirmed).
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
DRAFT COPY – WORK IN PROGRESS – MORE DETAIL WILL FOLLOW
Contextualising Contemporary Craft
MA DHMC 2011/12
January – March, 2012.
Dr Anna Moran
This course will introduce students to the themes and issues surrounding contemporary craft,
equipping students with a critical awareness of the aesthetic, cultural, global and technological
issues which influence and shape the nature of contemporary craft practice. Beginning with an
introduction to the issues and debates relating to the status and definition of craft practice, the
course will then proceed to look at the place of skill in contemporary craft, the role of narrative,
its relationship with technology and its place within the gallery context. The course will conclude
with a talk by Dr Audrey Whitty, Curator of Ceramics, Glass and Oriental Material at the
National Museum of Ireland, on their contemporary craft collection.
1. Introduction – definitions, issues, contexts and debates.
This session will introduce twentieth-century craft practice, the important movements and
competing themes. It will question whether the word ‘craft’ still has negative connotations and
address the status of craft within discourse on art, craft and design over the last twenty years.
Finally, issues surrounding writing about craft will be considered, in particular the rise of greater
criticality in contemporary discourse.
Adamson, Glenn, The Craft Reader, Oxford and New York : Berg (2010).
Adamson, Glenn, Thinking Through Craft, Oxford: Berg, (2007).
Bailey, Chris, ‘The Crafts in Britain in the 20th Century’ in Journal of Design History,
Vol.13, No.1 (2000)
Dormer, Peter (ed). The Culture of Craft: Status and Future. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, (1997).
Godson, Lisa, Review of Traditional Crafts of Ireland in Journal of Design History, No. 18
(2005).
Greenhalgh, Paul, ‘Word in the World of the Lesser: Recent Publications on the Crafts’, in
Journal of Design History, Vol.22, No.4, (2009).
Harrod Tanya, ‘Thinking out loud’ in Crafts, No. 210 January/February (2008) p15
Harrod, Tanya, ‘A history that misses out on the messy’, Crafts, No.226, September/October
(2010).
Harrod, Tanya, The Crafts in Britain in the 20th Century, New Haven, CT : Yale University
Press, (1999)
Hill, Rosemary, ‘Writing about the studio crafts,’ in Dormer, Peter ed. The Culture of Craft:
Status and Future. Manchester: Manchester University Press, (1997).
Koplos, Janet and Metcalf, Bruce, Makers: A History of American Studio Craft, China :
University of North Carolina Press, (2010).
Leach, Bernard, A Potters Book, first published 1940, London : Faber and Faber, (1976).
Lucie-Smith, Edward. The Story of Craft: the Craftsman’s Role in Society. Oxford: Phaidon,
(1981).
Maffei, G and Sandino, L. ‘Dangerous Liasons: relationships between design, craft and art’
Special Issue of the Journal of Design History, (2004) vol. 17, No. 3.
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Mathieu, Paul, ‘Object Theory’ in Chambers, R; Gogarty, A; and Perron, M (eds) Utopic
Impulses – Contemporary Ceramics Practice, Ronsdale Press : Vancouver (2008)
Peach, Andrea, ‘Thinking through Craft’ in Journal of Design History Vol.22, No.1 (2009)
Risatti, Howard A Theory of Craft: function and aesthetic expression, Chapel Hill: North
Carolina Press, USA (2007)
Sandino, Linda, Crafts for crafts’ sake, 1973–88 in Aynsley, Jeremy and Forde, Kate (eds):
Design and the modern magazine. University of Manchester Press : Manchester (2007) p189
Sennett, Richard, The Craftsman, Yale University Press, (2008).
2. The place of skill in contemporary craft practice
This session will consider the ways in which craft practice is inextricably linked with notions
of the handmade. The place of skill will be addressed together with the relationship between
craft and technology.
Adamson, Glenn, The Craft Reader, Oxford and New York : Berg 2010
Dormer, Peter (ed). The Culture of Craft: Status and Future. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1997
Levine, Faythe and Heimerl, Cortney, Handmade Nation, The Rise of DIY in Art, Craft and
Design, New York : Princeton Architectural Press 2008
Pye, David. The Nature and Art of Workmanship. Rev. ed. Herbert Press, London, 1995.
Risatti, Howard, A Theory of Craft: function and aesthetic expression, Chapel Hill: North
Carolina Press, USA (2007)
Sennett, Richard, The Craftsman, Yale University Press, 2008
Yanagi, Sōetsu, The Unknown Craftsman: A Japanese Insight into Beauty; adapted by
Bernard Leach; foreword by Shoji Hamada, Tokyo ; London : Kodansha International, 1989
first published 1972
3. Craft and narrative
What role does narrative play in contemporary craft practice? The rise of a critical voice in
contemporary craft will be addressed in this session, together with reoccurring narratives
relating to politics, society, the environment and gender.
Britton Newell, Laurie, Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft, V&A publications (2007).
Buckley, Cheryl, Potters and Paintresses – Women designers in the pottery industry 18701955 London : Women's Press (1990)
Callen, Anthea An Angel in the Studio: Women in the Arts and Crafts Movement 1870-1914,
Astragal Books : London (1979)
Cooper, Emmanuel, Contemporary ceramics, Thames and Hudson (2009)
Elinor, Gillian, et al. Women and Craft. London: Virago Press (1987)
Klein, J., Grayson Perry (2009).
Parker, Rozsika and Pollock Griselda, Old Mistresses : Women, Art and Ideology Rev. ed.
London: Pandora (1987), Chapter 2, ‘Crafty women and the hierarchy of the arts’
Parker, Rozsika. The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine Rev ed.
London: Women’s Press (1996)
Pollock, Griselda, Differencing the Cannon, London and New York : Routledge, 1999
Schwartz, J, Confrontational Ceramics, 2008.
Scott, P. Ceramics and Print, (2002).
Vincentelli, Moira. Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels, Manchester, Manchester
University Press (2000).
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4. Craft and the gallery space
The notion that craft did not belong in the gallery space prevailed until very recently. Taking
the work of Yoshihiro Suda, Lu Shengshong and Susan Collis, among others, this session will
consider the relationship between contemporary craft practice and the gallery space.
Adamson, Glenn, The Craft Reader, Oxford and New York : Berg (2010).
Adamson, Glenn, Thinking Through Craft, Oxford: Berg, (2007).
Britton Newell, Laurie, Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft, V&A publications (2007).
Cooper, Emmanuel, Contemporary ceramics, Thames and Hudson (2009)
5. Craft practice in contemporary Ireland.
What is the nature of craft practice in Ireland? How do the themes emerging in international
craft practice relate to practice here? Is there such a thing as ‘criticality’ in writing about Irish
craft? Is there a forum for discussing Irish craft? After introducing the history and
development of Irish craft over the course of the twentieth century, this session will consider
the state of play in terms of contemporary craft practice in Ireland.
Very little has been published in this area. There are a number of exhibition catalogues,
articles in the Irish Arts Review, and the publication Ceramics Ireland, all of which you’ll
find in either the NCAD library or NIVAL.
For background on Irish craft practice see the following:
Bell, Jonathan, ‘Concepts of Survival and Revival in Irish Culture’ in Ulster Folklife, Vol 44
(1998)
Caffrey, Paul, The Scandinavian Ideal: a model for design in Ireland, in Scandinavian
Journal of Design History, Vol. 8 (1998) p36
Ejlers, Steen ‘The Hunt for Authentic Tradition of How Irish Applied arts were Conceived in
Copenhagen in Scandinavian Journal of Design History, Vol. 10, 2000 p 47
Kinmonth, Claudia, Irish Country Furniture, 1700-1950, Yale University Press (1993) p208
Marchant, Nick and Addis, Jeremy, Kilkenny Design. Twenty-one Years of Design in Ireland,
Kilkenny : London : Kilkenny Design Workshops ; Lund Humphries, (1985)
McBrinn, Joseph, ‘The Crafts in Twentieth Century Ulster: From Partition to the Festival of
Britain, 1922-1951 in Ulster Folklife., Vol. 51 (2005) p54
McBrinn, Joseph, (2009) ‘A quiet renaissance: contemporary Irish craft and design, in The
Irish Arts Review, Vol 26. No 2.
McBrinn, Joseph, Handmade Identity: Crafting Design in Ireland from Partition to the
Troubles, in Alfondy, Sandra ed NeoCraft 2007, p122
Mitchell, Geraldine, Deeds Not Words: Life and Work of Muriel Gahan, Town House (1997)
Shaw-Smith, David, Traditional Crafts of Ireland, Thames & Hudson, London 1984, 2003
Thorpe, Ruth (ed), Designing Ireland: A Retrospective Exhibition of the Kilkenny Design,
Crafts Council of Ireland (2005)
Turpin, John, ‘The Irish Design Reform Movement of the 1960s’ in Design Issues, Vol.3, No.
1, Spring (1986).
6. Talk by Dr Audrey Whitty, Curator of Ceramics, Glass and Oriental Material,
National Museum of Ireland. [This seminar will take place in Collins Barracks, NMI].
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Designed Art: Converging Fields and Critical Responses in Contemporary Practice
Emma Mahony © 2012
Overview
The historically complex relationship between design and art is becoming even more problematic
as practitioners in both fields constantly redefine their own programmes. This module will
explore how these disparate fields variously enrich and subvert each other. When artists
incorporate the vernacular of design and architecture into their practices (and vice versa), can the
results go beyond a referential endgame to create models of practice that are critically generative
of new ideas?
Session 1. Function before Form
Since the early-twentieth century, the traditional boundaries between design and art have
dissolved in critically significant ways. Artists and designers now share common strategies,
methods and aims. This seminar will trace this history and interrogate the concept of DesignArt.
It will also examine unique and limited-edition furniture design, where form appears to be
privileged over function, and where designers are exploring critical territory more common to
fine art.
Practitioners: Ron Arad, Marc Newson, Maarten Baas, Jurgen Bey, Martino Gamper
Readings:
Bloemink, Barbara (2004), ‘Introduction: Sameness and Difference’, in Tom Neville and Simon
Cowell (eds.), Art ≠ Design: Functional Objects from Donald Judd to Rachel Whiteread, New
York: Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Merrell Publishers Limited, pp. 17-34
Dorst, Kees (2003), ‘But is it Art?’, in Alex Coles (ed.), Design and Art, London: Whitechapel
and the MIT Press, pp. 88-99
Flusser, Vilém (1993), ‘About the Word Design,’ in Alex Coles (ed.), Design and Art, London:
Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 55-57
Nelson George (1957), ‘Good Design: What is it for?’, in Alex Coles (ed.), Design and Art,
London: Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 18-22
Poynor, Rick (2005), ‘Art’s Little Brother’, in Alex Coles (ed.), Design and Art, London,
Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 94-99.
Also in, ICON 023, May 2005
http://www.iconeye.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=323&id=2628
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Session 2. Form before Function
Continuing the interrogation of DesignArt, part 2 will consider artists who utilise the vernacular
of furniture design. Some employ design strategies to make socially critical statements, others use
design as a way to explore and question the conventional limits of sculpture. The concept of
DesignArt will be considered in relation to ‘the legacy of minimalism and oppositions to
formalism, ‘the post medium condition’ and ‘relational aesthetics’.
Practitioners: Donald Judd, Scott Burton, John Chamberlain, Franz West, Tobias Rehberger
Readings:
Coles, Alex (2005), ‘Introduction’, in DesignArt, London: Tate, pp. 6-19
Coles, Alex (2005), ‘Furniture’, in DesignArt, London: Tate, pp. 48-71
Foster, Hal (2002), ‘Design and Crime,’ in Alex Coles (ed.), Design and Art, London:
Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 66-73
Graham, Dan 1986, ‘Art as Design/Design as Art’, in Alex Coles (ed.), Design and Art, London:
Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 38-49.
Judd, Donald (1993), ‘It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp’, in Alex Coles (ed.), Design and Art,
London: Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 50-54.
Also available: in Donald Judd: Complete Writings 1959–1975, New York, Halifax: The Press of
the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, in association with New York University Press, pp.
181–89.
McEvilley, Thomas (1991), ‘Heads It’s Form, Tails It’s Not Content,’ in Art and Discontent,
Theory at the Millennium, New York: McPherson and Co., pp. 23-57
Piron, Francois and Joe Scanlan (2004), ‘Commodify your Dissent: A Conversation with Joe
Scanlan, Trouble, issue 4, 2004
http://www.thingsthatfall.com/dissent.php
Session 3. The Pavilion Form: Architecture and Art
This seminar considers the pavilion as a form of enquiry for both architects and artists.
Practitioners: Cedric Price, Zaha Hadid, Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, Dan Graham, Jorge Pardo,
Olafur Eliasson
Readings:
Coles, Alex, (2007), ‘Pavilions: art, design, architecture? Alex Coles proposes a new approach,’
Art Monthly, July-August, 2007
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Haeg Fritz and Jorge Pardo (1999), Jorge Pardo: Interview with Fritz Haeg (1999), in Design and
Art, London, Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 10-15
Kwon, Miwon (2002) ‘Jorge Pardo’s Designs on Design, in Alex Coles (ed.), Design and Art,
London, Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 74-87.
Mahony, Emma (2010), ‘Jorge Pardo, Irish Museum of Modern Art’, Circa, Summer 2010
>http://www.recirca.com//cgibin/mysql/show_item.cgi?post_id=5184&type=reviews&ps=publish
Mahony, Emma (2001), ‘The House on the Hill’, CIRCA, Issue. 97, Autumn 2001, pp. 23-25.
Available: http://www.recirca.com/backissues/c97/pardo.shtml
Rendell, Ruth (2006), ‘Introduction: A Place Between,’ in Art and Architecture, A Place
Between, London: I.B.Tauris, pp.1-12
Jorge Pardo (2010), Virtual Catalogue, IMMA, Available:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxieX2hK2a4&feature=related
Session 4. Living Aids
Ultimately, much of art’s early engagement with design failed to achieve the avant-garde goal of
reconciling itself with social praxis. While the artists in question were engaged in the design of
functional objects, they were never intended as ‘mass produced valuable living aids’. More
recently, artists and collectives working within the rubric of socially-engaged practice have
succeeded in producing democratic and sustainable products that appear to deliver on this
Bauhaus strategy. In a parallel move, high profile designers are turning their backs on the
production of luxury items that privilege form, towards sustainable design that is ethical,
democratic and ecological.
Practitioners: Andrea Zittel, Atelier van Lieshout, N55, Superflex, Phillipe Starck, Jurgen Bey
Allen, Jennifer (2001), ‘Up The Organization - Joep Van Lieshout, Atelier van Lieshout – Interview’
Artforum, April 2001
Available: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_8_39/ai_75830817/
Coles, Alex, (2007) ‘Introduction//Beyond Designart’, in Design and Art, London, Whitechapel
and the MIT Press, pp. 10-15
Cunnick, Elisabeth (2006) ‘Beyond Sculpture: Function, Commodity, and Reinvention in
Contemporary Art’, Artlab 23, no. 1, Vol 2
http://www.artlab23.net/issue1vol2/contents/cunnick.html
Bang Larsen, Lars (2003), ‘SPACE BODY LIFE - BASICS AND MUTATIONS OF N55’,
October 2003
Available:http://www.n55.dk/MANUALS/DISCUSSIONS/OTHER_TEXTS/LB_TEXT.html
Bishop, Claire (2004), ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics’, October 110, Fall 2004
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/0162287042379810
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Kester, Grant H. (2011), The One and The Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global
Context, Durham and London: Duke University Press
Lars Bang Larsen (1999), ‘Social Aesthetics’ in Claire Bishop (ed), Participation, London:
Whitechapel Gallery and MIT Press, 2006
Available: http://www.aleksandramir.info/texts/larsen_afterall.html
Liam Gillick, ‘A Response to Clare Bishops “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics”’, October
115, Winter 2006
Available:http://www.practiceincontext.net/wpcontent/uploads/04_gillick_responds_to_bishop.pd
f
N55 (1996), ‘Art and Reality’, in Design and Art, London: Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp.
124-126
Radical Culture Research Collective (RCRC) (2007), ‘A Very Short Critique of Relational
Aesthetics’, Transform.eipcp.net
Available: http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/1196340894#redir
Jacques Ranciere (2004), ‘Problems and Transformations in Critical Art’, in Claire Bishop (ed),
Participation, London: Whitechapel Gallery and MIT Press, 2006
Weil, Benjamin and Zittel, Andrea (1994), ‘Home is Where the Art is/Andrea Zittel Responds, in
Design and Art, London, Whitechapel and the MIT Press, pp. 117-119
Session 5. Urgent Architecture: Alternatives to Capitalism
Session 7 explores how designers, architects and artists are responding to global economic, social
and ecological crises with the design of relief shelters and other ingenious ‘survival technologies’.
Practitioners: Buckminster Fuller, Shigeru Ban, Michael Rakowitz, Marjetica Portc
Basualdo, Carlos (2003), ‘On the Expression of the Crisis’, in Francesco Bonami (ed.), Dreams
and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer, exh. cat., Venice: Biennale
Davis, Mike (2004), ‘Planet of Slums: Urban Involution and the Informal Proletariat’ in New Left
Review, 26, March-April 2004
Dezeuze, Anna (2010), ‘Thriving On Adversity: The Art of Precariousness’, in Favelas, Learning
from, Lotus International 143, 2010, pp.122-129
Hans-Ulrich Obrist interviews Shigeru Ban, Paris May 1999
Available: http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9908/msg00079.html
Higgie, Jennifer (2006), ‘Form Follows Function,’ Frieze, May 2006, pp. 136-141
Available: http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/form_follows_function
Potrc, Marjetica (2001), ‘Take me to Shantytown’, Flash Art, March-April 2001
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Potrc, Marjetica (2003), 'Five ways to Urban Independence', in Dreams and Conflicts: The
Dictatorship of the Viewer (exh. cat.), Venice: Venice Biennale, 2003
Ranciere, Jacques (2004), ‘Problems and Transformations in Critical Art’, in Claire Bishop (ed),
Participation, London: Whitechapel Gallery and MIT Press, 2006
Zizek, Slavoj, ‘Knee-Deep’, London Review of Books, vol. 26, no. 17, 2 September 2004
Verwoert, Jan (2004), ‘Confessions of a Global Urbanist,’ Afterall, no. 9, pp. 47-54.
Websites of relevance:
www.potrc.org
www.zittel.org
www.ateliervanlieshout.com
www.n55.dk
www.michaelrakowitz.com
www.superflex.dk
Session 6. Student Presentations on DesignArt
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Technology, Design & Society
Dr. Sorcha O’Brien
HC2.03, Friday 2-4pm
This module considers the material culture of technology in our everyday world, both digital and
analogue, investigating the interaction between man-made technological/designed artefacts, the
systems in which they are embedded and the end user as consumer of these artefacts. It considers
both primary and secondary sources pertaining to the relation ship between design, technology
and society, and introduces students to concepts from the history of technology (e.g. the social
construction of technology, actor-network theory) and post-structuralist theory (e.g. simulacra and
simulation, cyborg theory). It considers both the design of computers and the development of new
media technology within this framework, extending the consideration to technologies of the
screen, the home and the body (e.g.
online communities, smart homes and mobile computing) as well interrogating the
possibility of sustainable technologies.
This subject presents the student with an opportunity to
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gain a thorough and advanced understanding of the themes and methods in the study
of technology, its role and influence on design and on society.
develop a thorough knowledge of the key theoretical models and research agendas
employed in the interpretation of technological artefacts and systems
develop competencies in the treatment of primary and secondary sources pertaining to
the relationship between design, technology and society
develop an advanced critical literacy in the interpretation of designed technological
objects, irrespective of technological system employed
acquire experience and competency in the application of interdisciplinary analytic
constructs (derived from the history of technology) to the historical study of design,
production and consumption (achieved through the production of the assessment
deliverable)
Timetable
1
2
3
4
5
6.
Jan 27th
Approaches to design and technology: technological
determinism, social constructivism and actor-network theory
From valves to iPods: Moore’s Law and teleology in the history of
computing
Feb 3rd
Gender and technology: stereotypes, assumptions and resistance
Smart homes: domestic technology of the future?
Feb 10th
Cyborg theory: Donna Haraway
Product design and the body: wearing the computer
Feb 17th Post-structuralism: simulacra and simulation
Museums and interpretative technology
Feb 24th McLuhan, Williams, Manovich: the language of new media
Technology and communities: blogging and social networking
Mar 9th Envisioning technology: science fiction and the future
Sustainable technology: a paradox in terms?
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
1. Approaches to design and technology: technological determinism, social
constructivism and actor-network theory
This seminar will look at current approaches to the history of technology and how they can apply
to the study of designed objects, particularly as part of larger systems, rather than as isolated
objects. The seminar will focus on three main approaches: the opposing stances of technological
determinism and social constructivism, as well as the use of actor-network theory.
Essential Reading:
Bijker, Wiebe, “The Social Construction of Bakelite: Towards a Theory of Invention” in
Bijker, Wiebe, Thomas P. Hughes & Trevor Pinch (1987) The Social Construction of
Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press, pp. 159-187.
Hughes, Thomas, “The Evolution of Large Technical Systems” in Bijker, Wiebe, Thomas P.
Hughes & Trevor Pinch (1987) The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New
Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 5182.
Further Reading:
Bijker, Wiebe E. & John Law (eds.) (1992) Shaping technology/building society: studies in
sociotechnical change, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Bijker, Wiebe, Thomas P. Hughes & Trevor Pinch (1987) The Social Construction of
Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press.
Eglash, Ron (2006) ‘Technology as Material Culture’ in Tilley, Chris et al (eds.), Handbook of
Material Culture, London: SAGE Publications, pp. 329-40.
Hughes, Thomas (2005) Human-built world: how to think about technology and culture, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Kuhn, Thomas (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: Chicago University
Press.
Latour, Bruno (1987) Science in action: how to follow scientists and engineers through society,
Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Law, John (2002) Aircraft stories: decentering the object in Technoscience, Durham NC: Duke
University Press.
MacKenzie, Donald A. & Judy Wajcman (eds.) (1999) The Social Shaping of Technology: How
the Refrigerator Got its Hum, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Marx, Leo (1997) ‘Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept’ in Social Research,
Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 965-988
Pacey, Arnold (1983) The culture of technology, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Postman, Neil (1993) Technopoly: the surrender of culture to technology, New York: Vintage
Books.
Smith, Merritt Roe & Leo Marx (1994) Does technology drive history?: the dilemma of
technological determinism, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
From valves to iPods: Moore’s Law and teleology in the history of computing
This seminar will address the history of computing, addressing the computer as a source of
popular anxiety about technological developments. It looks at the relationship between Moore’s
Law, describing the development of transistors and determinist narratives of the ‘Information
Age’.
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Reading:
Atkinson, Paul (2000) ‘The (In)Difference Engine: Explaining the Disappearance of
Diversity in the Design of the Personal Computer’, Journal of Design History, Vol. 13,
No. 1, pp. 59-72.
Castells, Manuel (2000) The Rise of the Network Society, 2nd Ed., Oxford: Blackwell.
Ceruzzi, Paul (1998) A History of Modern Computing, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Ceruzzi, Paul (2005) ‘Moore’s Law and Technological Determinism: Reflections on the
History of Technology’, Technology and Culture, Vol. 46, No. 3, July, pp. 584-593.
Kurzweil, Ray (2001) ‘The Law of Accelerating Returns’, KurzweilAI.net, Available:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns (21/3/2011)
Moore, Gordon (1965) ‘Cramming more Components Onto Integrated Circuits’, Electronics
Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 8, April 19, pp. 114-117. Available:
ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/ArticlesPress_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf (21/3/2011)
Purbrick, Louise (1993) ‘The Dream Machine: Charles Babbage and His Imaginary
Computers’ in Journal of Design History, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 9-23.
Sturken, Marita, Douglas Thomas & Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach (eds.) (2004) Technological visions:
the hopes and fears that shape new technologies, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
2. Gender and technology: stereotypes, assumptions and resistance
This seminar looks at the intersection of ideas on technology and gender and particularly the
social construction of technology as a masculine domain. It looks at the Victorian
construction of the workplace as a gendered space, particularly in terms of manual or factory
work and traces the influence of gendered machinery and equipment. The development of ideas
about the social shaping of technology are particularly relevant to this discussion, as they look at
how technologies both shape and are shaped by social relations. This analysis can also be applied
to the relationship between technology and gender, as both shape and are shaped by the other.
Essential Reading:
Wajcman, Judy (2004) ‘Chapter 1: Male Designs on Technology’ in Technofeminism, Oxford:
Polity Press, pp. 10-31.
Further Reading:
Attfield Judy & Pat Kirkham (1995) A view from the interior: women & design, London:
Women's Press.
Cockburn, Cynthia (1991) Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change, London: Pluto
Press.
Cockburn, Cynthia & Susan Ormrod (1993) Gender & Technology in the Making, London: Sage.
Dyer, Richard (1997) White, London: Routledge.
Faulkner, Wendy (1985) Smothered by invention : technology in women's lives, London: Pluto
Press.
Khan, B. Zorina (2000) “”Not For Ornament”: Patenting Activity by Nineteenth-Century Women
Inventors” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XXXI: 2, Autumn, pp. 159-95.
Latour, Bruno (1996) Aramis, or the love of technology, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Oldenziel, Ruth (1999) Making Technology Masculine: Men, Women and Modern Machines in
America, 1870-1945, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Plant, Sadie (1997) Zeroes + Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture. New York:
Doubleday.
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Rothschild, Joan (ed.) (1983) Machina Ex Dea: Feminist Perspective on technology, New York:
Pergamon Press.
Sparke, Penny (1995) As long as it’s pink: the sexual politics of taste, London: Pandora.
Stanley, Autumn (1995) Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of
Technology, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Smart homes: domestic technology of the future?
This seminar will look at the idea of the ‘smart home’ that developed in the late 20th
century, where computer technology becomes a pervasive part of the domestic environment. Most
famously typified by Bill Gates’ California mansion, the smart home brings together longstanding debates about the gendering of domestic space and domestic roles with concurrent
debates about 20th century digital technology.
Reading:
Berg, Ann-Jorunn (1999) ‘A gendered socio-technical construction: the smart house’ in
MacKenzie, Donald A. & Judy Wajcman (eds.) The Social Shaping of Technology: How
theRefrigerator Got its Hum, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Cowan, Ruth Schwartz (1983) More work for mother: the ironies of household technology from
the open hearth to the microwave, New York: Basic Books.
Cowan, Ruth Schwartz, “The industrial revolution in the home” in MacKenzie, Donald A. & Judy
Wajcman (eds.) (1999) The Social Shaping of Technology: How the Refrigerator Got its Hum,
Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Faulkner, Wendy (1985) Smothered by invention: technology in women's lives, London: Pluto
Press.
Giedion, Sigfried (1948) Mechanization takes command: a contribution to anonymous history,
New York: Oxford University Press.
Greenfield, Adam (2004) ‘All watched over by machines of loving grace: Some ethical
guidelines for user experience in ubiquitous-computing settings’, Boxes and arrows,
December 1, Available:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/all_watched_over_by_machines_of_loving_g
race_some_ethical_guidelines_for_user_experience_in_ubiquitous_computing_setting
s_1_(21/3/2011)
Hardyment, Christina (1988) From mangle to microwave: the mechanization of household work,
Cambridge: Polity Press.
Lupton, Ellen & J. Abbott Miller (1992) The bathroom, the kitchen, and the aesthetics of waste: a
process of elimination of waste, Cambridge, MA: Princeton Architectural Press.
Lupton, Ellen (1993) Mechanical brides: women and machines from home to office, Cambridge,
MA: Princeton Architectural Press.
Ogg, Erica (2006) ‘Building blocks for the smart home’, C|NET News, June 23, Available:
http://news.com.com/Building+blocks+for+the+smart+home/2100-1041_36087515.html (21/3/2011)
Rogers, Michael (2006) ‘Smart homes go mass market’ MS NBC, Available:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12253119/ (21/3/2011)
Rybczynski, Witold (1988) Home: a short history of an idea, London: Heinemann.
Silverstone, Roger & Eric Hirsch (eds.) (1992) Consuming technologies: media and information
in domestic spaces, London: Routledge.
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
(2005) ‘Flash forward! Fortune magazine's top trends’, CNN, October 5, Available:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/10/05/cnn25.top25.flashforward/index.html
(21/3/2011)
(2007) ‘Virtual Tour of the Gates Estate’, US News & World Report, Available:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/tech/billgate/gates.htm (21/3/2011)
3. Cyborg theory: Donna Haraway
This class looks at the figure of the cyborg in contemporary thought, as a rejection of rigid
boundaries and Cartesian dualities and appropriating the term ‘cyborg organism’ from its military
origins. Looking at the importance of categories such as male/female,
human/animal and human/machine, Donna Haraway posited the cyborg as a liminal
identity, literally neither human nor machine, which allows for a break from Oedipal
narratives and Christian origin myths. The theory incorporates the idea that technology, as a
cultural artefact, forms a material extension of the human body and that the concept of the
unmediated ‘pure human’ is a social fallacy.
Essential Reading:
Haraway, Donna (1991) ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in
the Late Twentieth Century’, in Simians, cyborgs and women: the reinvention of nature, London:
Free Association, pp.149-181. Available:
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html (21/3/2011)
Reading:
Balsamo, Anne Marie (1996) Technologies of the gendered body: reading cyborg women,
Durham: Duke University Press.
Gray, Chris Hables (ed.) (1995) The Cyborg Handbook, London: Routledge.
Haraway, Donna (1997) Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan_Meets_OncoMouse:
feminism and technoscience, London: Routledge.
Kirkup, Gill et al (eds.) (2000) The gendered cyborg: a reader, London: Routledge.
O'Mahony, Marie (2002) Cyborg: the man-machine, London: Thames & Hudson.
Penley, Constance & Andrew Ross (eds.) (1991) Technoculture, Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Rushing, Janice Hocker (1995) Projecting the shadow: the cyborg hero in American film,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Stelarc (2007) ‘Home Page’, Stelarc, Available: http://stelarc.org/ (21/3/2011)
Wajcman, Judy (2004) Technofeminism, Oxford: Polity Press.
Warwick, Kevin (2005) ‘Home Page’, University of Reading, Available:
http://www.kevinwarwick.com/ (21/3/2011)
Zylinska, Joanna (ed.) (2002) The cyborg experiments : the extensions of the body in the media
age, London: Continuum.
(2008) ‘OncoMouse® Transgenic Mice for Cancer and Toxicology Development Work’,
Dupont Technology Bank™, Available:
http://dupont.t2h.yet2.com/t2h/page/techpak?id=26128 (21/3/2011)
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Product design and the body: wearing the computer
This seminar looks at the development of personal computer and mobile technology in the 1990s
and early 21st century. Building on ideas of cyborg theory, it looks at the ways that
communications technology is becoming pervasive and normalised within Western society,
moving from a form factor based on the typewriter and television screen, to portable and
wearable devices, embodying the concept of convergence.
Reading:
Davies, Fred (1992) Fashion, Culture & Identity, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
De Landa, Manuel (1991) War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, New York: Swerve Editions.
Dunne, Anthony (2005) Herzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience and Critical
Design, 2nd Ed., Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Dunne, Lucy (2007) ‘UMN Wearable technology Lab’, University of Minnesota. Available:
http://faculty.design.umn.edu/dunne/ (21/3/2011)
Forty, Adrian (1986) Objects of Desire: design and society 1750-1960, London: Thames &
Hudson.
Foucault, Michel ‘Panopticism’ in Rabinow, Paul (ed.) (1984) The Foucault Reader, London:
Penguin.
Guernsey, Lisa (2002) ‘At Airport Gate, A Cyborg Unplugged’, New York Times, Available:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/14/technology/circuits/14MANN.html?ex=1173
675600&en=74f826d8eb4bec25&ei=5070 (21/3/2011)
Hebdidge, Dick (1979) Subculture: the meaning of style, London: Metheun.
Levidow, Les & Kevin Robins (eds.) (1989) Cyborg Worlds: the military information society,
London: Free Association Books.
Mann, Steve (2007) WearCam, Available: http://wearcam.org/ (21/3/2011)
Negroponte, Nicholas & Neil Gershenfeld (1995) ‘Wearable Computing’ in Wired, Issue
3.12. Available: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.12/negroponte.html
(21/3/2011)
Poster, Mark (1990) The Mode of Information: Poststructuralism and social context, United
Kingdom: Polity Press.
Stone, Allucquére Roseanne (1996) The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the
Machine Age, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Springer, Claudia (1996) Electronic Eros: Bodies and Desire in the Post Industrial Age, London:
The Athlone Press.
Turkle, Sherry (1984) The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, New York: Simon &
Schuster.
Wooley, Benjamin (1992) Virtual Worlds: A Journey in Hype and Hyperreality, London: Penguin
Books.
(2007) ‘Wearables Intro’, MIT Media Lab, Available:
http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/mit-ideo/ (21/3/2011)
4. Post-structuralism: simulacra and simulation
This lecture will discuss the theoretical issues surrounding the idea of the simulacra, as
formulated by Jean Baudrillard.
Essential reading:
Baudrillard, Jean (1998) “Simulacra and Simulations” in Selected Writings, Cambridge: Polity
Press, pp. 166-84.
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Further Reading:
Barthes, Roland (1957) Mythologies, Paris: Editions du Seuil.
Barthes, Roland (1985) The Fashion System, London: Cape.
Baudrillard, Jean (1993) Symbolic Exchange and Death, London: Sage.
Eco, Umberto (1986) Travels in Hyperreality, London: Secker & Warburg.
Hall, Sean (2007) This means this, this means that: a users guide to semiotics, Laurence King:
London.
Jameson, Frederick (1990) Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, London:
Verso.
Museums and interpretative technology
This seminar will look at the impact of digital technology on the museum, considering the
interactive nature of displays, as well as interpretation of exhibits. It will also consider how this
technology into the museum can be used to reproduce or disrupt conventional
perspectives on the relationships between people and things, as well as a hyper-real method of
documenting the real artefact.
Reading:
Bourke, Marie (ed.) (2004) Effective presentation and interpretation in museums: proceedings of
the symposium held on 7 November 2003 at the National Gallery of Ireland, marking the 150th
anniversary of the foundation of the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin: National Gallery of
Ireland.
Caulton, Tim (1998) Hands-On Exhibitions: Managing Interactive Museums and Science
Centres, London: Routledge.
Fahy, Anne. “New technologies for museum communication” in Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean (ed.)
(1998) Museum, Media, Message, London: Routledge.
Henning, Michelle (2005) Museums, Media and Cultural Theory, Milton Keynes: Open
University Press.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean (2000) Museums and the interpretation of visual culture, London,
Routledge.
Walsh, Kevin (1992) The representation of the past: museums and heritage in the post-modern
world, London: Routledge.
5. McLuhan, Williams, Manovich: the language of new media
This lecture will address concepts surrounding the use of new media and their influence on (or
influence by) society. It focuses on technologies of the screen, as they have been analysed by
theorists such as Marshall McLuhan, Raymond Williams and Lev Manovich.
Essential Reading:
Manovich, Lev (2001) ‘Chapter 1: What is New Media?’ in The Language of New Media,
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 18-61.
Reading:
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MA Design History and Material Culture 2011-12
Levinson, Paul, (1999) Digital McLuhan: a guide to the information millennium, London:
Routledge.
McLuhan, Marshall, (1964) Understanding Media: the extensions of man, London: Routledge.
McLuhan, Marshall & Quentin Fiore, (1967) The medium is the massage, London: Random
House.
McLuhan, Marshall, (1989) The Global Village: transformations in world life and media in the
21st century, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meyrowitz, Joshua, (1985) No Sense of Place: the impact of electronic media on social
behaviour, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Williams, Raymond, (1974) Television: Technology and Cultural Form, London: Fontana.
Williams, Raymond, (1976) Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, London: Fontana.
Technology and communities: blogging and social networking
This seminar will look at issues related to developing forms of use of online media, both
from the visual point of view, as well as the social use of technology. It will particularly focus on
blogs and individual pages as a graphic expression of networks of identity and
community, as well as the privacy issues connecting with exposure online.
Reading:
Jenkins, Henry, (2008) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Rev. Ed., New
York, NY: NYU Press.
Kollock, Peter, (1999) ‘The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in
Cyberspace’ in Marc Smith & Peter Kollock, (eds.) Communities in Cyberspace, London:
Routledge. Available:
http://www.freeebay.net/site/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=42
(14/2/2011)
Porter, David (ed.), (1997) Internet Culture, London: Routledge.
Renninger, K. Ann & Wesley Shumar (eds.), (2002) Building Virtual Communities: Learning and
Change in Cyberspace, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rheingold, Howard, (2000) The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier,
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Rheingold, Howard, (2003) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, Cambridge, MA: Perseus
Publishing.
Turkle, Sherry, (1997) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, London: Phoenix.
(2004) Where is Raed?, Available: http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ (14/2/2011)
(2005) ‘The official story, straight from the source’, plaxoed,
http://plaxoed.wordpress.com/2005/02/11/the-official-story-straight-from-thesource/
(14/2/2011)
(2011) Blog na Gaeilge, Available: http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/blog/ (14/2/2011)
(2008) Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant, http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/ (16/2/2009)
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6. Envisioning technology: science fiction and the future
This lecture will consider the idea of long term thinking in the contexts of histories of the
past and future histories. It will consider visions of a technological future popularised during the
twentieth century in the genre of science fiction, particularly the cultural expressions of anxiety
about technology expressed in science fiction films, particularly looking at the built environment
and the idea of a technological utopia.
Essential Reading:
Eno, Brian, (2003) ‘The Long Now’, Seminars About Long Term Thinking, Available:
http://download.fora.tv/rss_media/Long_Now_Podcasts/podcast-2003-11-14eno.mp3 (Accessed April 28 2011)
Reading:
Dixon, Winston W., (2003) Visions of the Apocalypse: spectacles of destruction in American
cinema, London: Wallflower.
Hayward, Philip & Tana Wollen, (1993) Future Visions: New Technologies of the Screen,
London: BFI Publishing.
Neumann, Dietrich, (1996) Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Bladerunner,
Munich: Prestel Verlag.
Sobchack, Vivian, (1993) Screening space: the American science fiction film, New York: Ungar
Publishing.
Sobchack, Vivian, (2004) ‘Cities on the Edge of Time: The Urban Science Fiction Film’ in
Redmond, Sean (ed) Liquid metal: the science fiction film reader, London: Wallflower, pp. 7887.
Sustainable technology: a paradox in terms?
This seminar will focus on the debates surrounding the future of design, particularly within the
areas of product design, furniture design and architecture and will consider current debates about
sustainable or eco-design. It will focus on discourses about technology and the environment, their
historical background and their role in envisaging a ‘bright green’ future.
Reading:
Fuad-Luke, Alast air, (2004) The eco-design handbook: a complete sourcebook for the home and
office, London: Thames & Hudson.
Madge, Pauline, (1993) ‘Design, Ecology, Technology: A Historiographical Review’, Journal of
Design History, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 149-66.
McDonough, William & Michael Braungart, (2002) Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make
things, New York: North Point Press.
Papanek, Victor, (1995) The Green Imperative: ecology and ethics in design and architecture,
London: Thames & Hudson.
Steffen, Alex, (2006) Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century, New York: Harry N.
Abrams.
Sterling, Bruce, (2000) ‘The Manifesto of January 3, 2000’ Viridian Design, Available:
http://www.viridiandesign.org/manifesto.html (28/1/2008)
Thackara, John, (2005) In the bubble: designing in a complex world, Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press.
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