Issues in Modern Latin American Design

This seminar focuses on six regional centers (Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Caracas, Lima, Havana, and Mexico City) most important for the practice and development of design in Latin America between ca. 1920 and 1980. The course investigates the diverse ways Latin American designers contributed to the processes of modernization by creating novel design repertoires or by adapting and interpreting international trends to the realities of their specific regional and national contexts. The class introduces students to major designers and design movements while investigating key problems that define modern design in Latin America, including state sponsorship of ambitious national development plans (desarrollismo); new trends in technology transfer and manufacturing; changing gender roles, both among consumers and designers themselves; the emergence of class as a key term of political and economic debate; rapid regime change and/or revolution; and shifting/contested concepts of national identity. Historical and theoretical readings, ranging from primary texts to recent critical interpretations, will help us explore how local design avant-gardes throughout Latin America embraced modernism both as a rhetorical strategy and as a distinct and “progressive” visual and material culture. This course allows students to explore their own interests through a variety of short assignments, presentations, and a research project. Classes will be complemented by field trips in NYC. 3 credits.