This lecture explores disabled design as an alternative to canonical aesthetic and political histories of modernism, using a variety of objects (from art history, museum studies, and history of technology) to actively disable conventional modernist aesthetics.

Design for War and Peace: 2014 Annual Design History Society Conference

How Disabled Design Changed the History of Modernism.

2014 was a year of commemoration for the wars and unrest of the twentieth century: the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War; the anniversaries of 1944, final year of the Second World War and the opening battles of the Vietnam War in 1954; the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994. Claire O’Mahony, Course Director of the MSt in the History of Design, convened the 2014 annual Design History Society conference at Oxford's Department for Continuing Education reflecting upon the relationship of design and craft both to conflict and to hopes for peace and justice in our collective memory and our future. Between Thursday 4 and Saturday 6 September 2014, 120 scholars travelled from 19 countries around the globe to meet at Rewley House to share and to discuss their new research about Design for War and Peace. Professors and doctoral candidates; practitioners, museum and heritage professionals and independent scholars presented 65 academic papers, framed by 3 invited keynote lectures generously funded by the Design History Society and the University of Oxford’s John Fell Fund. The keynote lectures were filmed and most of the speakers generously gave permission to podcast their 20-minute papers. These recordings form this digital conference proceeding which was made possible through the generosity of the University of Oxford’s John Fell Fund supporting the administrative work of a 2013-5 MSt in the History of Design student, Vega Bantock, and the technical support the Department for Continuing Education IT team.

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Design for War and Peace: 2014 Annual Design History Society Conference