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DESCRIPTION:Alison J. Clarke will present at the Seminar in Modern Design H
 istory on Tuesday\, April 5\, at 6 pm. Her talk is entitled “Design Anthro
 pology: Industrial Design and the Project of Post-War Development.” This t
 alk examines the emergence\, in 1950s Cold War United States\, of a mode o
 f transdisciplinary design that sought to meld anthropological method and 
 aesthetic styling with the overt objective of implementing “design as a po
 litical force” (as one Industrial Design magazine feature aptly described 
 it). Ethnographic fieldnotes in hand\, cameras swinging jauntily around th
 eir necks\, corporate industrial designers were parachuted into incongruou
 sly low-tech environments across a range of recently decolonized ‘developi
 ng’ nations. Prototypical design anthropologists\, they operated as a new 
 breed of diplomats-cum-propogandists\, disseminating what was described as
  a ‘penetrating program’ of American regeneration policies that melded soc
 ial science to a corporatized vision of how local cultures might be stimul
 ated into increased product consumerism and recolonized as part of the pro
 ject of Western expansionism. Rebranded in the twenty-first century as des
 ign anthropology\, this “force\,” or anthropological interpretation applie
 d to designing of human behavior\, has arguably come to operate as the inv
 isible hand behind multiple facets of global life from health care provisi
 on to governance and data harnessing. Clarke focuses on the mid-century or
 igins of this phenomenon\, acknowledging the legacy of early design anthro
 pology as a part of post-war development policy whose legacy resides in as
 pects of design practice today.Professor Alison J. Clarke joined the Unive
 rsity of Applied Arts Vienna from the Royal College of Art\, London. She c
 hairs the Department of Design History and Theory\, is founding director o
 f the Papanek Foundation\, and convenes the biennial Papanek Symposium exp
 loring the ethics and futures of contemporary design. As a design historia
 n (Royal College of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum\, London) and trained s
 ocial anthropologist (University College London)\, her research explores t
 he intersection of design\, material culture\, and anthropology. Recipient
  of major international grants and fellowships (including the Smithsonian\
 ; Arts and Humanities Research Council\; Austrian Science Fund\; Graham Fo
 undation)\, she acts as an expert advisor and jury member for numerous aca
 demic bodies including the Danish Independent Research Council and the Ger
 man Research Foundation (DfG) program\, Clusters of Excellence.Clarke is a
  regular media broadcaster and international speaker in the field of desig
 n\; her monograph Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America was 
 optioned for an Emmy-nominated documentary. Her most recent publications i
 nclude Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design (MIT Press)\, Design Anthrop
 ology: Object Cultures in Transition\, and the co-edited volume Émigré Cul
 tures in Design and Architecture (Bloomsbury). She is co-founder of Home C
 ultures: The Journal of Architecture\, Design\, and Domestic Space and has
  recently curated (with Vitra Design Museum\, Germany) the international t
 raveling exhibition Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design (2017-2020). He
 r latest book project\, for MIT Press\, explores the historical origins an
 d legacies of the intertwining of social science and industrial design.We 
 have opened registration for a limited in-person audience. Bard Graduate C
 enter requires proof of vaccination and photo identification to enter the 
 building. Guests are required to wear masks regardless of vaccination stat
 us.This talk will also be available on Zoom. A link will be circulated to 
 registrants by 4 pm on the day of the event. This event will be live with 
 automatic captions.
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220405T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220405T193000
SUMMARY:Bard Graduate Center: Design Anthropology
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